Creative Director Luna Cruz and Art Director Chester Ocampo walk us through the creative process of making the opening comics for Run Run Super V.
The Script
Luna: We wanted to tell the story of Run Run Super V without interrupting the gameplay. The basic premise (an evil villain out to conquer the world, with your squad of sentai heroes set to stop him) could be told in a few panels with no text:
- Negatron and his three kaiju are destroying the city
- People are fleeing down the city streets as buildings around them are destroyed
- A civilian (option: can be a kid?) looks up to see a towering robot silhouette over her
- The robot picks up the civilian in his giant hand and safely puts her out of harm’s way (peg: Bioman first episode; Pacific Rim)
- Robo-V faces squarely up against Negatron
Chester: I took the liberty of merging some panels together and inserting new panels in between, to show the clearest flow of the story in limited screen space. We’re also using a 4:3 aspect ratio so that the comics display properly for our future iPad version.
Thumbnails and Pencils
Chester: After simplifying the panels, I drew thumbnail sketches on low resolution, using Adobe Photoshop, for quick and light communication of story flow. Once Luna approved those, I proceeded to the pencils stage (I say ‘pencil’, but what I really mean is drawing a clean digital sketch on high resolution). I paid close attention to character design, expressions, proportions, and cartoony perspective, drawing the page in clear detail so that it would be easy to digitally ink.
It starts with a simple sketch…
..then Chester adds little details here and there.
Digital Ink
Chester: Digital inking was done by Robot With A Smile’s Shelly Soneja and Marvin del Mundo.They cleaned up the lines to give the comics a slick cartoony feel, and added thickness on the lines to create a sense of depth, even on black and white.
Fantastic work by Shelly and Marvin. They are actual robots that smile while they work such magic.
The Final Product
Chester: The final step was coloring the inks. The whole look and feel of RRSV is cartoony, so we opted for a cartoon-shaded coloring style for the comics. Once the basic cartoon-shading was colored in, it was time to put enhancements on each panel. Where necessary, I added speed lines, lettered the sound effects, separated foreground elements from the background, and color grading. These enhancements were meant to give each panel the visual impact they needed in the context of the story.
First come the flats…
…then add more emphasis on lights and shadows…
…then polish up all the details. So shiiiiiiny~~
Luna: We hope you like the comics so far! We’re planning for more screens in the future, as well as a way to view them again in the game. Thanks for reading!
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If you haven’t already, you can download Run Run Super V alpha at the Philippine Google play store:
Let us know what you think and if you like the game, please rate us!