August 2020 update - The Con of Continuity!

[Abductorenmadrid]

### This thread has been repurposed on the 21st of November 2018 and will be showing up and coming screencap work - previews - works in progress - abandoned projects etc etc. Images may be switched in and out as time goes or when works move from being in progress and go for final release ###

============== CURRENT STORY!! HOPE YOU LIKE IT ==============



============== BEHIND THE SCENES - DON'T FORCE IT ==============

Sometimes people comment on my shot selection (usually nicely). Making the scene work is about having dialogue and expression match up and if they don't then some immersion is lost. If I am lucky I can get exactly what I want out of a scene BUT every now and then a little bit of luck happens which makes things better than planned. Take this scene for example which I then converted into a comic -



MB's expressiveness is priceless throughout and I mischievously alter the scene for the comic dominatrix to have wicked fun with Kara. Cat is all overpowering as usual, Kara submissive as hell, and eventually she ends up in the chair. It's meant to be all forced and dark and ... well dammit, in the chair Kara is like .... 1)Ummm...thinking ... 2)"Told you so" .... 3)"Well actually...!" ... 4) But, ok, this look is something I can work with but it doesn't last for long.



And it is at that moment that I realise something. I thought "Hey, I dont have to be mean to Kara all the time - she can actually enjoy what Cat does, kinky as it is." And so, having boxed my self in not having any stressed-out forced-orgasm looking looks from Kara in the scene I find an escape route; pleasure, fun, and a joke ending ... and I felt human again. By not forcing a meaner ending on Kara's uncooperative expressions and going with the softer ending it is much more immersive I think but ... what do you guys say? The full mini episode can be found here - https://www.superheroineforum.com/forum ... 25&t=26463





============== BEHIND THE SCENES - HOW DOES (S)HE DO IT? ==============

Every now 'n' then someone says "I don't know how you do it..." regarding the comics. I guess they know I use a paint program so they are probably referring more to how I make the story flow with the images. So, here is a little about that, hopefully I won't ruin anything by showing you what goes on behind the curtains.

Firstly - I scout for a situation that could be useful at screencapped.net or from memory of a scene in the show. My comics are currently in three branches. I have the SG V Luthor (dark laboratory experimentation on Supergirl), Kara and Cat (a gentler mistress/slave affair with mainly Cat and Kara Danvers at Catco), and I am also playing with "What If...?", one off peril scenarios which may feature random foes. So, knowing I have maybe 3 ways to use anything I find, I can find a home for any useful situations.

My very first stab at things was during season 1 after seeing a pretty tense scene between Max Lord and Supergirl. The scene, for reference is here;



In the scene there were a few key elements I felt I could turn into a more ... sexually perilous moment. But, it all happens out of order! The scene runs in red number order (image below).

Red
1) SGs Confident Arrival - Max, jacket on.
2) SG Power Pose - Max, jacket on.
3) SG - Angry Accusations
4) ML rebuttal and then jacket comes off.
5) ML circles SG - great "worried" expressions by MB - ML jacket off.
6) ML/SG great personal space invasion by ML.
7) SG lashes out after some great and nerve touching insight by ML
8) SG essentially flees.





I knew in my own mind that the KEY THING to not breaking the immersion of the scene was to not have images of Max in his jacket one moment, then only in his shirt the next. That would drive me MAD if I was reading the comic and perhaps it would distract you guys too. So, what can I do? Well, LUCKILY the moment he puts down his jacket is done on screen. Using that I can create the illusion he is picking it up instead. Now that I have that division established I can re-work the scene. The circling moment seems to be key to making a story and MBs expressive performance helps show the change from SG thinking she is in control one moment, to not being in control the next and so I build off of that.


Blue
1) SG Angry demand for information.
2) ML's denial and explanation of what he knows about SG.
3) Personal space invasion - blackmail. ML knows he is on top. SGs expressions easily match against the plot.
4) Jacket picked up - I show this so later the later jacket-on images make sense.
5) MBs expressions match the idea of her resistance to blackmail but not having any choice.
6) MB follows orders to go stand in the window. Her mild expression of distress easily works here.
7) A jacket-on ML goes to get a victory drink, SGs shadow confirming she is obeying him, standing in the window.
8) That once confident arrival pose now becomes something more sexual.

Sure there was more to it than just this, but, basically the whole story idea was built around Max's jacket. If he had not taken it off when he did I might never have had the inspiration to make the comic version work! The comic can be found here - https://www.superheroineforum.com/forum ... 25&t=26176





============== PREVIEWS OF STUFF TO COME ==============

This is a shot from a future Kara & Cat episode. God I've missed doing these but I have to finish SG V Luthor first! There will be other little Kara and Cat episodes to come before this one but when I found source material for this I just had to do it out of order! Here is part of the opening scene and Kara seems to be getting some ultrasound interference at work ... but who is responsible? This episode has 73 frames!




============== FOR CONSIDERATION ==============

This was the opening phase of a scene. The latter parts are not shown here - but were deemed TOO HARSH for your sensitive eyes by my moral compass and proof reader, DrDominator9 !! I have this on the back burner but may well think of a way to expand it - but for now it does not fit in my plans ...












============== DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT! ==============

When I was sounding out the idea of doing Supergirl V Luthor I played with a few visuals to see how I could make a reasonable sized story out of them. Also I was trying to find a sustainable severity of torment. It's all well being super evil for one or two frames but man - it becomes wearing when it is over and over and over again! Anyway - long story short - A-there was not enough to make this breathplay scene work as well as the one that is now in Supergirl V Luthor - and B - this was just too personal and too cruel to be part of something bigger. Enjoy the mini moment if you wish but don't stay a monster too long or you may get stuck like it!

[ksire_99]

[Abductorenmadrid]

Hi all - as some of you may know I use this thread to outline some of the thinking I put into my screencap-comic work to try and give the illusion of everything fitting together, rather than being the butchered mess it really is. Of course you may know of better ways, or perhaps this will inspire you to do your own thing. I am not an expert, had no training and have been learning as I have been going along.

Now, one of the things I try and focus on is continuity. You know, that everything flows with no jarring changes between frames, you don't have your actors in one outfit in one moment then in something else the next, just because they had the right expressions in each when you needed them to be. But sometimes, continuity to the story can be more subtle than that. Take this next frame from the comic which I posted weeks ago ...



It's a fairly familiar scene from the Monster Battle in the Supergirl (1984) movie.... isn't it? Well, mostly it is, but you can see it looks a little off. It's because I couldn't just lift the frame from the movie and stick dialogue on it... but why not?

Well, below is the main element of the composite image but untouched from the movie. See the differences? So, my problem was that in the movie there is a scene where Selena summons the monster which trashes her place, scattering paper everywhere. In my story the monster (her pet) is at peace, out in the wild consuming all the bad feelings and ill will that it can eat in Midvale. It never trashes her place. So, why would her place be trashed in my story? Would you have noticed, or cared if I had left the frame alone? I don't know. But, it was getting on my nerves, so I tried my best to tidy her place up, forgetting to try and upright her table lamp in the right of the shot.



I then used that "tidied up" shot as the background for all of the Selena/Bianca shots in this scene, inserting the ladies onto the new background. As the background shot had been quite badly shopped, especially what looks like a threadbare carpet I unfocus it a little to take the edge off of it. As Bianca barely moves in the scene I leave her in the backgound scene and just put the various expressions of Bianca on top as the scene moves on. Selena was easy to extract from the shot because she moved a lot in the scene and it appears the camera that took the shots was locked off (thank god!)

As you can imagine then, although it was a minor, annoying continuity problem, it added some time to the project creating the background shot (I think it's called a clean plate in the FX industry) and then putting Selena and Bianca on top each time. Especially as I could have used the shots straight off with the messed up background and no one caring about the continuity error.



=========================

Another minor example was here ... below my Daxamite spy / landscape gardener, Ethan arrives into Selena's trap, dressed in jeans and blue T shirt. Selena springs her trap and Ethan is captured and ends up chained to the bed.





Except - unfortunately in the movie his bed scene comes much later on and he's had a costume change. I try and create the illusion he's in his blue T-shirt again for just two shots, and hopefully it was over so quickly you just accepted I hadn't messed with it.



And so that is the double edged con of continuity - it helps make you think things are better linked together, but, it adds to the workload, often meaning shots where you could just have left the error in and slapped dialogue on it become another frame where you have to mess with it instead ... and there is a chance the audience wouldn't have cared either way.

(2259)

[DrDominator9]

This is not only enlightening but a measure of your devotion to your art, good sir. Thanks for pulling the curtain back to give us a wee look at the pulleys and lights and stagecraft behind the wonder of your work. And on top of that it's the matching of the expressions to your created dialogue that brings the whole work to life. Kudos galore!

[Abductorenmadrid]

Here is a couple more continuity fixes I had to do for the Fugitive Witch story over at the dungeon.

First up is a scene from the locker room. In one version of the movie (Directors Cut I think) the scene we see is after the hockey game and prior to the shower scene. Linda Lee returns relatively clean but Lucy Lane has mud spots on her everywhere.



In my story I use the scene to show the wedge forming in the friendship between Linda and Lucy but it is meant to be as they prepare for the game, not after it. And so their kit should be clean, not dirty ... so, to sell that this is before the game I have to wash their kit. Well ... I had to tidy up Selena's living room so what is doing a little laundry on top?!




Next is this scene from my story when Selena steals Kara's mind while she is in the shower. Selena uses a mirror (which seemed to get moved around a LOT during the course of the movie) to do her magic. Here is the view towards the mirror as we build to the action. Note the scenery in the reflection !!



And so, it's no surprise in a reverse shot of Selena who is looking in the mirror you see this ...



EXCEPT ... well ... the first and second image are not related. The first image in the movie is building up to the monster tractor scene. The second image of Selena from the movie is when she is trying to teleport Ethan from the sunny beach scene much, much later, and by then the mirror had been moved and the scenery no longer matched. In the image above I needed to find a way to get a background that went with the reflection in the first image. Then I lifted Selena from the image below and added her in.



It's a subtle change but hopefully one that sold the idea that the scene was one thing and not cobbled from different ones.

[DrDominator9]

And here i thought you were just a pretty-faced script revisionist but it turns out you're also an intelligent artist with a mouse. Is there no end to your talents,, damn you?