Have you ever had a pet theory, but you never wanted to tell anyone because they'd think you were the biggest fool on the planet? I have a couple and every time I've mentioned them, that's pretty close to the reaction I get.

    Cue the accusations and finger-pointing. Just human (or Frith) nature - like everyone else, when something goes wrong, we think of who else is to blame.

    I was really pleased with how panel 5 came out, but it was really awkward getting the right camera angle, as Gina is really short and Pete is way tall, but it worked out great.

    A few months ago, I used this particular page as a poll to determine if I should (a) render backgrounds and draw characters or (b) just render everything. I decided on option A, for various reasons, one of which included the poll.

    Contrary to popular opinion, even though the drawn product looks a good deal like the rendered version, I don't just 'touch up' the renderings. I render the background only, with the characters invisible, but casting shadows. Then I draw each character completely from scratch - although I freely admit that I use the fully rendered scene as an aid. Still, it takes over an hour or two to draw and shade each character, and that's if everything works perfectly.

    The problem with rendering the characters in CGI is that I can't get quite as much detail, especially on their faces and they have to be painstakingly posed - with a capital 'pain'. One little error and you have to render again and that takes several hours.

    For this page (and this page only) I have included the rendered versions, complete and raw.

Drawing completed - 01 APR 2009
Drawing posted - 29 JUL 2009