|
Commentary
for April 4, 2022:
Yes, Eon’s
World Vol. 1 is finally back! I had originally planned to begin
season 3 some time in 2021, but I didn’t manage it. To make sure the
year didn’t go by with no new content at all, I did get Chapter 11
of Vol. 2 done, but that was a real slog and honestly prompted me to
make some choices about the future of Eon’s World. But Vol. 1
is back, baby, and hopefully better than ever!
You may have noticed something different about the character sprites
on this new page, namely that they’re higher resolution and more
detailed than the ones I’d used up to this point. Late in season 2’s
run, I had the idea that, if I’m usually blowing each of the panels
of the comic up to two hundred percent their native resolution, why
not just make my sprites already that size? That way, I can make
them much more detailed and higher quality. That became a real bee
in my bonnet in the summer of 2020 and when I wrapped up season 2, I
began working on this new generation of sprites in earnest. And
there’s the rub, because making all new sprites for every single
character is no small task. I quickly found myself bogged down in
the work and my ambitions to launch season 3 a year ago got pushed
back to the autumn and then ultimately to now. Eventually, I had to
remind myself of something I’ve found to be true time and time
again: No amount of prep is ever going to be enough. At some point,
you just have to bite the bullet and begin. Yes, that means making
sprites on the fly, but what else is new? As long as I have enough
of a foundation to work from, I can do this, and that is why I have
resumed now.
Now I’ll confess that I haven’t given backgrounds the same
treatment; many of them will still be blown up to two hundred
percent, but maybe that’ll change too in time. Hell, already there
are background elements on this first page that I’ve scaled up the
resolution on, so there’s a good chance. But the character sprites
were my number one priority. One thing I do mean to do with
backgrounds beginning this season, however, is a bit more use of 3D
models, and I’ve already done so on this first page with Castle
Gemini as you may be able to see in panels 1 and 2.
Anyway, enough about art and design, let’s talk story. In the
original Eon’s Comic, Eon just had a sword one day and where
it came from was never really addressed. It even got destroyed and
then replaced with no explanation, but I wanted there to
be a reason for Eon having a sword; that’s why Antoine
gave him one in Chapter 4,
which he used from then until Chapter 29, when it was
taken from him by the
Echidna Empire. And now he’s been given a sword as a gift
from Ballista. I originally made this change in the Eon’s Comic
remaster I began in 2018, but it wasn’t tied to any occasion. Since
Eon’s World Vol. 1 is a complete remake, I can do it better
this time. What’s the occasion? Well, dear reader, keep reading and
find out.
Updates will be Monday through Friday for the time being and, as a
heads up, there may be a mid-season hiatus this time for personal
reasons, but we will see how things go. |
