My ultimate aim is to illustrate children’s books with images like the ones on this site. To this end, I am trying to find ways to make good-looking 3D images quickly–images that have all the magic of the illustrations I loved as a child. —Nick Towers
—Children’s Book Illustration by Nick Towers
For a year I have been working on and off with Hammer, the Half-Life 2 world builder, with the idea of making an educational game mod. My idea involved creating a photorealistic downtown setting that journalism students could explore.
However, after picking up a copy of Scott McCloud’s Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
I’m still dreaming about an immersive photorealistic world, full of enough detail that it could be used as a resource for practicing travel writing or investigative reporting. But that level of detail would be overkill for entry-level students who simply need practice using “on the record” and “off the record” to get sources to be more forthcoming, or figuring out what part of a source’s answer is most quoteworthy.
Disney cartoons from 50 years ago are still watchable today, but what counted as eye-poppingly realistic graphics 5 years ago is painful to look at now.
I’m thinking… thinking… thinking.
Creating textures for background buildings in a medieval theater simulation project. I can always improve…
Nothing in this stack is pressing, but they do include rough drafts of final papers,…
Here’s the underlying problem. We have an operating image of thought, an understanding of what…
Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.
The daughter opens another show. This weekend only.
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McCloud's first book, _Understanding Comics_, is another one building off of Will Eisner's _Comics and Sequential Art_ separated in time by almost a decade. McCloud's second book titled _Reinventing Comics_ looks closely at webcomics and McCloud theorizes that electronic publishing will be the future of the comic industry. That one resulted in McCloud being called "dangerous" for suggesting such a possibility.
Chris, yes I read that one years ago, but I guess it didn't hit me at the right time.
Bobby, thanks for the tip.
Dennis, McCloud's _Making Comics_ is awesome, but I have issues with his comparison of comics and film. Nevertheless, I believe that book reveals a poetics of comics storytelling. McCloud builds off of Will Eisner, so Eisner's _Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative_ may also be helpful. Excelsior!
I recommend picking up a copy of McCloud's "Understanding Comics," too. It really opens your eyes to the unique strengths of the comics medium and demonstrates some awesome techniques.