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psychoticBacofoil posted:Someone made a picture of what Act 5 would look like with this way of making books. YOU'RE WELCOME
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May 5, 2012 16:41
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psychoticBacofoil posted:Someone made a picture of what Act 5 would look like with this way of making books. I recognize that book. That's from when somebody had most of the featured articles on Wikipedia bound into a single volume.
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May 5, 2012 16:55
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I don't get it. I just finished burning through Homestuck a few weeks back (have since almost re-read the whole thing too) and thought I would check out some of the previous stuff on the site, figure out how he got to where he is now. I don't get it at all. The gulf between black-and white stick figures pissing on each other and the multi-dimensional time-hopping character ensemble of technicolour, surround sound Homestuck is something you'd expect someone to need years of dedicated practise to cross. What happened? Did he sell his soul to the god of internet success? How are these created by the same guy?
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May 5, 2012 17:15
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You need to look at his other, older work, such as Whistles or And It Don't Stop. Andrew Hussie is a talented artist who's been creating things for quite a long time now. Problem Sleuth and even Homestuck are deliberately simplified artistically to enable his rapid update speed, which he decided was more valuable.
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May 5, 2012 17:28
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Fargo Fukes posted:I don't get it. You should look at his even older comics. The long and short of it is that he was a talented artist even before he started MS Paint Adventures. MS Paint Adventures was just a little screw-around project at the start, but now it's a lot closer to him working at full capacity. e: ^^ mmm yep
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May 5, 2012 17:30
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Fargo Fukes posted:I don't get it. Check out some of his pre-MSPA comics. In particular, check out And It Don't Stop and Neon Ice Cream Headache, which were in some ways antecedents to what's going on in Homestuck. For non-comics work, there's his less-old blog; sadly, I can't find his older one, but a few of the highlights are preserved there. He's been doing internet entertainment for quite a long time, and it's just with Homestuck that it's gone from "successful enough to engage in a protracted prank war with Ryan North" to "successful enough to crash Newgrounds on a whim."
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May 5, 2012 17:33
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Regy Rusty posted:You need to look at his other, older work, such as Whistles or And It Don't Stop. Andrew Hussie is a talented artist who's been creating things for quite a long time now. Problem Sleuth and even Homestuck are deliberately simplified artistically to enable his rapid update speed, which he decided was more valuable.
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May 5, 2012 17:35
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AIDS and the Riddler's Gammon shorts really show off how much skill he has with wordplay.
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May 5, 2012 17:37
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Okay, let's just NOT abbreviate And It Don't Stop in the future. 
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May 5, 2012 18:56
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Fargo Fukes posted:I don't get it. Hussie was already talented as hell before he started MSPA, Homestuck is just the first comic on the site (maybe the first comic he's ever done) in which he employs every single one of his skills to their fullest and picks up some new ones (like figuring out Flash) on the way. It's like looking at Lord Byron and saying "How could this guy have written Don Juan? None of his other poems are that great!" (Or the Shakespeare debacle) His talent was already here.
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May 5, 2012 19:13
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SHAOLIN FUCKFIEND posted:Okay, let's just NOT abbreviate And It Don't Stop in the future. But that's the best part
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May 5, 2012 19:47
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Today I went on an adventure to TCAF to buy Homestuck Vol. 2. I actually followed a trail of people wearing Homestuck shirts on Bloor Street toward the public library it was held at. The contrast between the old people with children having a fun day at the library and greasy dudes wearing the pink Roxy t-shirt made for a fun time looking at the massive crowds at least. I slept through Hussie's signing times today so I guess I'll go back tomorrow and do that. Hopefully with fewer people talking about painting their hypothetical children grey to dress them up like trolls.
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May 5, 2012 20:20
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Fargo Fukes posted:I don't get it. The main point, that a lot of people here skipped while rushing to show off his previous stuff, is that previous MSPA comics progressed entirely by fan commands, which is a huge handicap towards making a compelling piece of work, which is why Jailbreak and Bards Quest are such huge piles of wank. Problem Sleuth is I think when Hussie decided that maybe taking the first command no matter what wasn't such a good idea and he started picking and choosing which commands he would draw next. Then around the end of the first year of Homestuck he realized that ditching fan commands entirely would be better for the work itself. What I'm saying is that Hussie wrote early MSPA comics with his creativity metaphorically one handed as the other was tied behind his back. Once he cut loose of those constraints he really started working some magic.
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May 5, 2012 21:00
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The thing with Homestuck was more that he was getting so many suggestions towards the middle of Act 2, 3 that he was basically just capable of choosing what he wanted to do originally from the million of entries, so he just went with whatever he wanted anyway. It made the same difference, really. Once you have millions of people putting in commands, the point of commands is diminished since you're going to get a full spectrum thing. Maybe the next adventure will go back to commands via some kind of vote-based CYOA format, who knows. Maybe he'll abandon the "conceit" of it being a game with commands and move to a slightly different approach altogether. We'll see!
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May 5, 2012 21:08
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I'm hoping the next MSPA is an ARG. The Homestuck fandom already has a comparable level of collective problem-solving.
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May 5, 2012 21:33
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Zorak posted:The thing with Homestuck was more that he was getting so many suggestions towards the middle of Act 2, 3 that he was basically just capable of choosing what he wanted to do originally from the million of entries, so he just went with whatever he wanted anyway. It made the same difference, really. Once you have millions of people putting in commands, the point of commands is diminished since you're going to get a full spectrum thing. Well he's stated before in some formspring somewhere god knows where that Homestuck would be the last MSPA type thing.
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May 5, 2012 21:47
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CidGregor posted:Book two is TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PAGES, goddamn. Book one was a mere 156. Hussie you may want to consider splitting act three into more than one book at this rate. As it stands, Act 3 + the MC intermission's still one volume, and longer than Book 2. I haven't started on 4 yet, though, so we'll see whether that ends up being the first to split into multiple books. Hopefully folks like Book 2, now that it's finally out there. Andrew and I tried a few new things in this one.
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May 5, 2012 22:13
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That sounds interesting. It'll be ages before my copy actually reaches me (customs really likes to sit on stuff for weeks on end) but I expect I'll hear a thing or two about it here. vvvv Two or three weeks? It's always six to eight here. 
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May 5, 2012 22:24
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Any hints you can drop on the new things, Mortal Sword? I know people already bought copies at TCAF, right? Between buying the embossed copy and delivery services never getting the delivery right to my address, it'll be at least two or three weeks until I have the book in my hands.
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May 5, 2012 22:36
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Bobulus posted:Any hints you can drop on the new things, Mortal Sword? I know people already bought copies at TCAF, right? Between buying the embossed copy and delivery services never getting the delivery right to my address, it'll be at least two or three weeks until I have the book in my hands. Now that it's been released, I can talk about whatever, yeah. The new stuff was mostly in the realm of experimenting with page layouts, backgrounds, and the like, especially when it came to the more action-oriented animations. There were far more opportunities to mess around with stuff like that in Book 2, with the increasing use of flash in the comic itself, and I expect Book 3 will probably have even more in that regard, what with all the Strifes. The initial draft of Book 3 alone took over 10 hours longer to assemble than Book 2's. Here's a couple screenshots directly from my InDesign doc for Book 2, just to illustrate some examples:   It's always hard to gauge book length for these Acts before they're actually laid out, since you have some spots where 8 pages of the comic will take up only 2 book pages, and situations where one comic page will take up 20 book pages (like the walkaround flash at the beginning of Act 2).
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May 5, 2012 23:19
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pandaK posted:Well he's stated before in some formspring somewhere god knows where that Homestuck would be the last MSPA type thing. Didn't he also say that about PS, though?
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May 6, 2012 00:32
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Zorak posted:The thing with Homestuck was more that he was getting so many suggestions towards the middle of Act 2, 3 that he was basically just capable of choosing what he wanted to do originally from the million of entries, so he just went with whatever he wanted anyway. I coulda sworn this happened in Problem Sleuth first, and with Homestuck he just outright shut down the suggestion box. Can't remember where he said as much, though, probably in the old Formspring or maybe the forums somewhere.
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May 6, 2012 00:45
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Mortal Sword posted:Now that it's been released, I can talk about whatever, yeah. The new stuff was mostly in the realm of experimenting with page layouts, backgrounds, and the like, especially when it came to the more action-oriented animations. There were far more opportunities to mess around with stuff like that in Book 2, with the increasing use of flash in the comic itself, and I expect Book 3 will probably have even more in that regard, what with all the Strifes. The initial draft of Book 3 alone took over 10 hours longer to assemble than Book 2's. I just got my copy at TCAF and I have to say you did a really great job on the flash pages and the SBaHJ pages. (Is that something that needs to be spoiled?) Plus this page. It's just... majestic.
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May 6, 2012 01:01
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Regy Rusty, Rasamune, Bongo Bill, Well Manicured Man, SatansBestBuddy, Zorak posted:A whole lot of important stuff. Thanks guys, I had no idea he'd been such a prolific artist before Homestuck. The thing that really got me I think was the gulf in imagination and storytelling, which could go to show how much he was hamstrung by the audience participation aspect. Looking over the first couple of hundred pages with what I know now, it's incredible the amount of forethought and planning that's gone into Homestuck. It's difficult to imagine creating such a complex storyline, even if you had a future Trollian-self giving advice where the plot was going!
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May 6, 2012 01:26
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SatansBestBuddy posted:I coulda sworn this happened in Problem Sleuth first, and with Homestuck he just outright shut down the suggestion box. Can't remember where he said as much, though, probably in the old Formspring or maybe the forums somewhere. He kept the suggestion box open until early in Act 4 (precisely, around Jade and Dave connected, which was not very far in). I keep all the suggestions I made that were used saved in a notepad file for posterity, because I am horrible.
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May 6, 2012 01:31
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Fargo Fukes posted:Thanks guys, I had no idea he'd been such a prolific artist before Homestuck. The thing that really got me I think was the gulf in imagination and storytelling, which could go to show how much he was hamstrung by the audience participation aspect. Looking over the first couple of hundred pages with what I know now, it's incredible the amount of forethought and planning that's gone into Homestuck. It's difficult to imagine creating such a complex storyline, even if you had a future Trollian-self giving advice where the plot was going!
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May 6, 2012 01:54
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Fargo Fukes posted:Thanks guys, I had no idea he'd been such a prolific artist before Homestuck. The thing that really got me I think was the gulf in imagination and storytelling, which could go to show how much he was hamstrung by the audience participation aspect. Looking over the first couple of hundred pages with what I know now, it's incredible the amount of forethought and planning that's gone into Homestuck. It's difficult to imagine creating such a complex storyline, even if you had a future Trollian-self giving advice where the plot was going! If I recall correctly, Hussie still flies by the seat of his pants narratively. He'll set up Chekhov's Guns and dangling plotlines without any idea when he's going to get back to it and only a vague outline as to "how". I believe he's even claimed that, despite what many people may assume, he doesn't even have some kind of massive outline planned out in advance, just general ideas. That he can actually produce a viable and intelligible plot out of all this timey-wimey bullshit is a miracle and proof of his amazing skill. That, and him being able to make up to 12 trolls based on awful archetypes, with off-putting character traits and insufferable typing quirks, likeable or endearing at all, is another.
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May 6, 2012 01:55
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I just finished reading through all of Homestuck yesterday, for my first time, and to my great joy, I find we have a thread! Also, I magically finish on the week he decides to take a break. As much as I love Jack, I really want the plot to swing back to whatever might happen with Gamzee. He's been my favorite character for such a long while. Going through Problem Sleuth while I wait, though!
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May 6, 2012 02:06
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Dark Grapefruit posted:I just got my copy at TCAF and I have to say you did a really great job on the flash pages and the SBaHJ pages. (Is that something that needs to be spoiled?) Plus this page. It's just... majestic. Thanks!
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May 6, 2012 02:09
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Well Manicured Man posted:He'll set up Chekhov's Guns and dangling plotlines without any idea when he's going to get back to it and only a vague outline as to "how". I believe he's even claimed that, despite what many people may assume, he doesn't even have some kind of massive outline planned out in advance, just general ideas. I've always assumed that's just a mark of good writing. I mean, think about it. You can't have everything planned from the start when writing a book. You get you ideas together, get the basic outlines for where the plot is heading and who the characters are and poo poo like that, and start writing from there. Fleshing out the plot and the setting, side characters and backstory, they're all just "general ideas" until you put them to paper and expand them.
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May 6, 2012 02:22
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SatansBestBuddy posted:I've always assumed that's just a mark of good writing. That's true, but when you're writing a book, you can go back and edit things that end up not working out. Hussie doesn't have that luxury, and that's why what he's done so far has been so impressive.
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May 6, 2012 02:35
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ShardPhoenix posted:The interesting thing is that a lot of it *wasn't* planned. For example, the trolls didn't even exist until around the time they actually entered the story (IIRC). Hussie planned the existence of the trolls and their role as the creators of the kids' universe from very early on, but had originally intended for them to be much more malevolent and antagonistic. Slowly but surely they became major characters, in no part due to their early popularity. But even around Act 4 when the trolls were first being shown off, Hussie had stated on Formspring that he didn't expect all the trolls to become major characters with speaking roles, and said at best he'd just show what they all look like. I gotta dig through an archive of his Formsprings or something so I can dig that quote up because I refer to it a lot and people always think I'm BSing.
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May 6, 2012 02:48
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nerdbot posted:Hussie had stated on Formspring that he didn't expect all the trolls to become major characters with speaking roles, and said at best he'd just show what they all look like. Haha, didn't he say that about the ancestors too?
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May 6, 2012 02:59
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nerdbot posted:I gotta dig through an archive of his Formsprings or something so I can dig that quote up because I refer to it a lot and people always think I'm BSing. eg: quote:I don't know, honestly a lot of these trolltags were just silly throwaway phrases to match up all the leftover ACGT initials. I never thought I'd introduce most of them. But it's been one of the fun things about it, taking that initial phrase and building something around it to make it logical.
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May 6, 2012 03:13
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Mortal Sword posted:Now that it's been released, I can talk about whatever, yeah. The new stuff was mostly in the realm of experimenting with page layouts, backgrounds, and the like, especially when it came to the more action-oriented animations. There were far more opportunities to mess around with stuff like that in Book 2, with the increasing use of flash in the comic itself, and I expect Book 3 will probably have even more in that regard, what with all the Strifes. The initial draft of Book 3 alone took over 10 hours longer to assemble than Book 2's. I just want to say that's the neatest thing and you're a cool dude for talking about it with us. 
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May 6, 2012 06:48
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I think Hussie has always had the beginning, critical events, and conclusion (or goal) to the story all planned out. It's just the more intricate parts of the journey that are conceived as he goes. Most authors would go through this same process— you don't just invent 6000 pages of story in your head and unload it in one shot, you just start writing and fill in the gaps as you go. Every fiction writer is making stuff up as they think of it, it's just that with a webcomic, we get to see it live as it updates here. That's why it doesn't really make much sense to call it "retroactive foreshadowing" whenever Hussie references earlier parts of the story on a whim, as it is no more retroactive than a book author who is filling their own gaps as they go, whether it's in their head or on paper. Spellman fucked around with this message at 07:45 on May 6, 2012 |
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May 6, 2012 07:42
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loquacius posted:I bet we're going to see an update called "[S]Page: Turn." before this is all over. A few pages late, but I guess our first clue should have been back when Vriska was chewing out Tavros and we got the command 'Thief: Tear into Page.' Seriously though, between Pre-Scratch Grandpa having imaginary tea parties as an adult and Tavros spouting lines like this... quote:AT: i'M PRETENDING THAT AS HARD AS i CAN, iN THE MOST CONFIDENT WAY, I'm growing more and more convinced that Page powers have to do with creation. Hell, you could basically make them a Summoner class and it would tie in perfectly with Tavros's beast control mind powers and love of that Alternian version of Pokemon. Picture if he'd gone God Tier and was able to Imagine up gigantic beasts to control. Bobulus fucked around with this message at 11:21 on May 6, 2012 |
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May 6, 2012 11:18
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Bobulus posted:Hell, you could basically make them a Summoner class and it would tie in perfectly with Tavros's beast control mind powers and love of that Alternian version of Pokemon. Picture if he'd gone God Tier and was able to Imagine up gigantic beasts to control. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't The Summoner the only name we have for Tavros's winged ancestor? I think we might have hit the nail on the head here.
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May 6, 2012 11:54
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Speaking of theorycrafting, I've been reading a bit of ahpoordogsbody. He's got this, like, schizophrenic level of attempting to connect things between various elements in Homestuck. He's Homestuck's version of The Question; wrong a lot, but sometimes predicts something big, like Dirk and Roxy being in the future. Anyway, I thought this one was pretty neat:     Note the light colors and, more specifically, which one is not 'lit'.
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May 6, 2012 21:27
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Uuuuughh I never got the mother=mummy connection until I saw it spelled out by this guy. so terrible  e/ This blog is hilarious.   UNCANNY Renaissance Robot fucked around with this message at 21:36 on May 6, 2012 |
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May 6, 2012 21:32
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