TWCL

smbhax.com · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:05 am Post subject: Supermassive Black Hole A*

Supermassive Black Hole A* ("A star") is a sci-fi animated webcomic set around the center of our galaxy. New comics daily, animated episodes monthly.

Episodes are in Flash, about seven or eight minutes long, with music and voices, telling a continuous story. Three episodes are out so far, with the fourth arriving later this week.

A few soundless preview clips:

If you survived that blitz of images, come check out the comic! :)
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dpat57 · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:50 pm Post subject:

Futz, those flash images gave me epilepsy.

I watched the first episode, thought it was cleverly executed, lots of smart techniques on show, minimal movement and cut-aways/fades suggest much longer sequences. I might go back and look at the others, once my eyeballs stop spinning.
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smbhax.com · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:36 pm Post subject:

dpat57 wrote:

Futz, those flash images gave me epilepsy.

I watched the first episode, thought it was cleverly executed, lots of smart techniques on show, minimal movement and cut-aways/fades suggest much longer sequences. I might go back and look at the others, once my eyeballs stop spinning.

Ooh, I knew that barrage of samples was gonna be rough. Such is the limitation of animated gifs! Thanks for commenting. :)
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tweetics · Joined: 11 May 2009 Posts: 212 Location: Vancouver, WA

I love your style. This is beautiful work and I will be sure to link to you.
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smbhax.com · Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:07 am Post subject:

Wow, thanks. Glad you like it! :D
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StrokerX · Joined: 31 May 2009 Posts: 20

great idea here, and i'm all about some sci fi...just speed it up a little seemed to be running kinda slow.

smbhax.com · Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:12 am Post subject:

StrokerX wrote:

great idea here, and i'm all about some sci fi...just speed it up a little seemed to be running kinda slow.

The series does start off with more building-up than outright action. Episode 4 (hm and 5 come to think of it) will be getting into more action-oriented stuff. 4 should be done by the end of the week, so check back for that one, it might be more up your alley.
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StrokerX · Joined: 31 May 2009 Posts: 20

I should've specified...I dont mean slow as in...no action...i mean slow as in.....text....wait.....dialogue.....wait.....text.....wait......dialogue...wait....The pauses are too long. I kept saying to myself.."Go!"

smbhax.com · Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:14 am Post subject:

StrokerX wrote:

I should've specified...I dont mean slow as in...no action...i mean slow as in.....text....wait.....dialogue.....wait.....text.....wait......dialogue...wait....The pauses are too long. I kept saying to myself.."Go!"

Yeah, that sort of goes together, though. The first episode in particular had more of a focus on suspense. Also, episodes 1 and 2 were originally made without sound, so they were designed around the time it takes to read subtitles. After I went back and added sound to them, I also removed a good deal of the outright pauses-for-reading, but the fact remains that their scenes were designed for a reading speed rather than a hearing speed, so the pace feels slower when sound is added.

Episode 3 was designed for sound from the start, so hopefully the pace of that one is at least slightly more to your liking. It's still a sort of suspense/building type of pace, though, and I know that won't be everyone's preference.
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StrokerX · Joined: 31 May 2009 Posts: 20

hmm well you could think of it as a subtitled film...they dont slow down the film so people can read the subtitles ya know? you can still have the drama too.

smbhax.com · Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:44 pm Post subject:

StrokerX wrote:

hmm well you could think of it as a subtitled film...they dont slow down the film so people can read the subtitles ya know? you can still have the drama too.

Yeah, I'm not saying I slow it down for the subtitles. I used to, back when the first two episodes were silent, but that was more like...a silent movie, which *does* slow down for subtitles or intertitles or whatever.
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smbhax.com · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:03 am Post subject:

Hrm, and I will admit that episode 4, just released today, has a faster pace than previous episodes. Plot-wise I'd planned for this one to be faster, since it has more action, but I think part of it is also me gradually getting more comfortable with generating the animation.
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smbhax.com · Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:52 am Post subject: A* Goes Daily!

A* has just gone daily: new comics out each day Mon-Fri. There are ten episode 5 comics up so far, and 328 covering episodes 1-4.

The latest is always on the front page of the site, http://smbhax.com .
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smbhax.com · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:37 am Post subject:

A* episode 5 is now available as a movie, with sound and voice work:

http://smbhax.com/ep/0005

I used to have these primarily in Flash, but they've gotten too big for Flash to handle, so now they're embedded YouTube HD videos, with play bars and such.
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dpat57 · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:30 pm Post subject:

Ambitious stuff, but methinks you might need to find a woman to voice the female character, the current voice is unnerving. And that light jazz track threatened to drive me insane. Another thing I wondered was, why HD? That must increase bandwidth, for no real gain. Just my random thoughts, don't feel obliged to agree or anything.
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