April 17, 2005

The comic is online, with certain quandries restricting it to having 10 pages up and running. You can access it here.

Promotional web banners for Dangerous Days are available here:

• Banner 1 - Wide
• Banner 2 - Tall

Promotional Posters for Dangerous Days are available here:

• Poster 1 - Dangerous Days *
• Poster 2 - Spent Casings (Constructing the World of Dangerous Days) *
• Live shot of Printed posters.

Both posters are 1' x 3', mounted on a foamcore backing.

Jan 22, 2005

A brand new XML Optimized version of the comic is now online. This adheres to the stringent filesize guidelines the original design document outlined.

Take a look at the first draft here.

Two things have happened with this. One, as mentioned above, is the filesize. Reduced from a fat 1.4 Mb to just 4kb. The comic images themselves are grabbed from a folder using XML as a reference.

Two, the 'motion' of the comic has changed. I could not maintain the slide without preloading the images, and I am just not technically skilled to manage that, at this point. The previous version of the Interface will remain online in a demonstrative capacity, to offer the sliding comic as an alternative that could flourish, given time and money.

The images now 'fade' from one to another, and are dynamically loaded through xml with each fade. Once an image is loaded, it is cached, so there's no wait time if the user decides to go back to it. Again, until I learn how to preload/precache images, this will be the best physical incarnation of the comic.

Please refer to the rationale section of this site to access a few more updates that've been made here.

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Dec 12 , 2004

It occurs to me that Im handling the technical aspect of this project like a buffoon. I want to switch to a database driven XML jibbly jub blablah whatever, for the images. The whole thing is just way too clunky.

Effectively, instead of having one big flash file with all the comic images within, I'd drop said images in an external folder, and tell flash to dynamically import them as the user moves through pages. This saves on frigging load time , which was the entire point to this project to begin with.

Still, this is simply a prototype. What is there now does the job satisfactorily enough to get the idea across.

Kat's been sending me oodles of comic-related material for the past while. Inspiration galore!

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Nov 17 , 2004

Interface draft complete. [click to view]

This is a sample draft of the interface [with 4 completed pages] for your perusal. Visual aesthetic will probably undergo a number of further revisions, but the basic function is there. Now, I just have to find some way to tell a first time user that you're supposed to use your arrow keys to navigate the thing.

That, or put in actual buttons that let them go left and right. Why in the hell did I work to make it keyboard oriented in the first place, then!

Blah.

Either way, some visual/aural(?) cue indicating what a users supposed to do will have to be added in. It'll be pretty unintuitive, otherwise.

Funny thing about the way this interface has worked out. There is a pronounced sense of motion when you move from frame to frame. Maybe I can use that to my advantage...

Yep, so Kat graciously provided the written goodness, and I worked on the visuals. The compression on the images is making my life a teeny bit melancholy - look at the full color version of the plates here, and compare it to what you see in the actual draft.

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Nov 15 , 2004

Nathon Gunn Bio . [click to view]
Dangerous Days - Worldset Brief [click to view]

Thanks to Kat Richardson, we now have a semblance of the ideas being carved for this project in an online record. Both the main character and actual worldset have undergone lengthy design debates, and most of what is there now is a relatively solid base from which we're constructing visual and written material. [top]

Nov 14 , 2004

Completed Interface draft uploaded. [click to view]

I'm debating the inclusion of an introductory movie that preceeds each chapter. Right now, I'm merely considering a small quicktime, under a meg, that introduces the scene for the chapter. Trouble is, this sort of thing only adds to filesize, and thats something I'm constantly looking to avoid.

Either way, I cooked up a sample movie for the intro. Watch it here.

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Nov 12, 2004

Interface draft complete. [click to view]

A lot of changes were made, after conducting various interviews with a sample audience over the initial draft, which can be found here in pdf form.

As is evident, a lot of the original ideas were scrapped after discovering that people didn't want a navigation system any more complicated than 'left' and 'right', which is pretty much all an actual comic really is, in terms of tactile interaction. You flip the goddamn pages left and right. In some rebellious cases, it's up and down, but said cases are too few and far between to make it into the mainstream psyche, so that option was scratched out. Angela Norwood was kind enough to provide me with a copy of Scott Mcclouds 'Understanding Comics', which was a fucking terrific read. The ideas presented within are fundamentals I'm glad I enlightened myself with. They've helped tremendously through the creative process.

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Nov 3, 2004

This site is a WIP until the Dangerous Days project is complete. Work is currently underway on the DDays Online Graphic Novel. Mostly research, interviews, and whatnot. These will be posted in due course.

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Oct 25, 2004

Temporary dev site established.