Welp, guess I better say the thing that is the reason for my not being here lately, besides RL.

I have been experimenting with new software for my Surface Pro 3 to make production of art and comics a lot easier and quicker, and so far so good. I have a solution that could allow me to create a single comic in only a day (if I'm not lazy, a few days otherwise).

The paint software I used previously, Krita, started to suffer major performance issues and serious crashes under Windows, and the KDE support team behind Krita decided they didn't care about fixing the Windows version (not explicitly said, but implied by their attitude to windows users), so I have abandoned it.

Enter the first piece of software I have discovered: Clip Studio Paint (formerly known as Manga Studio).
This thing costs money, but it's worth every cent! It performs beautifully and contains literally EVERY feature a digital artist could ask for, like Pressure Sensitivity and Palm Rejection on tablet displays, it supports both raster (pixel-based) and vector layers, and EVEN does frame-by-frame animations using timelines (limited to 24 keyframes in Pro version, EX version removes this cap). A complete art and animation suite on one relatively lightweight app, I have only used it for a few days now and it blows Krita AND Paint Tool SAI out of the water.

But, the most important aspect of these experiments is background creation. Backgrounds take me far longer to draw then the characters and other foreground objects, and it is safe to bet that it is almost 75% of the entire effort put into art and comics. To remedy this, I've decided to start pre-rendering my backgrounds.

I've decided to reboot the Draggyn Comic series (yes, again!) under the name "Draggyn & Vixx". It will be based around Draggyn's upbringing by Vixx, and will start having more serious plot points in addition to skits and humor. These comics will be the first to utilize the new background style.

The majority of Draggyn comic skits are set in Vixx's own house, where she and Draggyn live with their friends/adoptive family. For these comics, backgrounds will be rendered using a little program called Sweet Home 3D, a very lightweight home design app FULL of decorating options and the ability to render high quality images. For comics set outside of Vixx's house, I will be using custom maps and objects in Garry's Mod.

Filters will be used on the rendered images to help them match the style of the characters, and to avoid as many copyright issues with any screenshots as possible.

Hopefully this will speed things up and I can start producing higher quality stuff in much less time.

Thank you all for your patience, Draggyn fans.
I look forward to your comments and feedback regarding this and all future work, so please don't be afraid to leave a comment!

Ta!~

• Teh Hatch