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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
        
(Message started by: leo on May 15th, 2010, 11:52am)
Title: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by leo on May 15th, 2010, 11:52am
Since I've discovered Arimaa (is it already a decade ago? hew...) I've been imagining funny scenes of a mischievous rabbit devising all kinds of methods to reach the goal ignoring the rules of the game. The recent thread (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/forum/cgi/YaBB.cgi?board=talk;action=display;num=1273854806) about a stacking variant of Arimaa reminded me of one of these scenes and I thought it might be time I started to actually make some pictures. Here it one :)

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9800/piecestacking.jpg
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Eltripas on May 15th, 2010, 12:40pm
Nice drawing, I always liked arimaa because its basically about an elephant who kills cats by throwing them into holes.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Arimabuff on May 15th, 2010, 1:37pm
You're very good at this!  :)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by chessandgo on May 15th, 2010, 4:08pm
awesome :)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by ocmiente on May 15th, 2010, 5:03pm
Great picture!

If I had known that this is the kind of reaction that Arimaa variant suggestions would get, I would have done a lot more, a lot sooner :)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by omar on May 15th, 2010, 6:42pm
I didn't know you were also an artist. Very nice; and funny too :-)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Fritzlein on May 15th, 2010, 8:19pm
Sweet.  Thanks for the picture.  Omar, maybe (with leo's permission) you could include this at the bottom of the arimaa.com home page.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 15th, 2010, 10:40pm
Thank you guys for the boost. I didn't expect it.

@Eltripas: But there's a tunnel at the bottom of the traps for the pieces to escape :)

@Arimabuff: Thankz! I'll try to make some more.

@chessandgo: When I first saw your gameplay years ago I was seeing an army of bold Rimbits (but playing by the rules).

@ocmiente: It's not too late to bring new ones!

@omar: I'm not really ;) Just trying to become one.

@Fritzlein: I'm not sure it would be a good image for a home page. It's hard to understand for those who don't know the game rules yet. But we can brainstorm another picture, something more welcoming?
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by megajester on May 16th, 2010, 2:00am
How about one with Noah trying to get the animals to walk up the ramp to go on the ark, so he pushes an elephant which pushes a camel which pushes a horse which pushes a dog which pushes a cat which pushes a rabbit, who trips over and falls in the door saying "AAAAaaaaaa....!" :D

Unless people think that might be a bit irreverent...
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Arimabuff on May 16th, 2010, 2:24am

on 05/16/10 at 02:00:01, megajester wrote:
How about one with Noah trying to get the animals to walk up the ramp to go on the ark, so he pushes an elephant which pushes a camel which pushes a horse which pushes a dog which pushes a cat which pushes a rabbit, who trips over and falls in the door saying "AAAAaaaaaa....!" :D

Unless people think that might be a bit irreverent...

Several themes seem appropriate: Noah's Ark is a good one but there's also the circus, the jungle book, Soccer (a frazzled elephant in soccer attire trying to keep several rabbits shaped like soccer balls from reaching the goal)...
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 16th, 2010, 7:32am
All good ideas, let's keep brainstorming until we reach a consensus. We can also go without a well known theme, considering the newcomers are discovering Arimaa. And we should first decide whether a home page picture is a good idea. Some might disagree, if only because they wouldn't like my style. My goal with the adventures of Rimbit is to bring some fun but it's a play on the game's culture, private joking, probably totally hermetic to the exterior.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by RonWeasley on May 16th, 2010, 9:37am
The art and idea are very good.  At Hogwarts, the game spell is plenty strong to keep the animals from breaking the rules.  And we use only animals that can't talk.  So we don't have Rimbit issues.

One big problem we have that this site doesn't have is keeping the squares clean.  Try to move a cat onto a square on which a camel has left a steaming pile.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by omar on May 18th, 2010, 1:45pm

on 05/15/10 at 22:40:51, leo wrote:
@Fritzlein: I'm not sure it would be a good image for a home page. It's hard to understand for those who don't know the game rules yet. But we can brainstorm another picture, something more welcoming?


Maybe on the gameroom login page. Hopefully everyone who gets to that page, has learned the rules enough to see the humor.

Let me know if it's OK with you.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 19th, 2010, 3:11am
@Ron: LOL. Rimbit has an even stronger fire spell to thaw out of freezing (I should make a picture of that).

@Omar: It could be funny on the gameroom login indeed. If you want it in a smaller size let me know, I'll downsize it from the original size (2000 pixels) which will be more readable than downsizing the 500px version.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by omar on May 19th, 2010, 6:27am
Thanks Leo. I've added Rimbit image to the gameroom login page. Just used the width attribute of the image to reduced the size.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by megajester on May 19th, 2010, 11:41am

on 05/19/10 at 06:27:22, omar wrote:
I've added Rimbit image to the gameroom login page.

Where?
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Nombril on May 19th, 2010, 4:14pm
http://arimaa.com/arimaa/gameroom/

I had to refresh the page, my browser had been using a cached version.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Fritzlein on May 19th, 2010, 7:42pm
I refreshed it and I still don't see it.  Or does F5 not clear the cache in Chrome?
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by ChrisB on May 19th, 2010, 10:12pm
The image appears when I use Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera, but I haven't been able to see it using Chrome.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by rbarreira on May 19th, 2010, 10:33pm
Try using CTRL+F5. I had to do it a few times, some browsers/proxies are really sticky with their caches.

Funny pic btw :)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by omar on May 20th, 2010, 5:31am
If you don't see it yet, it is due to the browser cache.

In Chrome I view the source and do a refresh on the source page; then go back to the web page and refresh it.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Fritzlein on May 20th, 2010, 7:00am

on 05/20/10 at 05:31:16, omar wrote:
In Chrome I view the source and do a refresh on the source page; then go back to the web page and refresh it.

Thanks, Omar; that worked.  Weird.

I love the cartoon; I hope it isn't the only one in the series!
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by rbarreira on May 20th, 2010, 7:21am
In another computer I actually had to press "reload" with the mouse, F5 or CTRL+F5 wouldn't display the image.

Browsers can have some really strange behavior...
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 21st, 2010, 7:32am
Oops, the reply notifier didn't work this time. I'm discovering all the messages.
I had to refresh the gameroom page too to see the picture.

@Fritzlein: I have many more cartoon ideas lurking in my head, and people are suggesting more, but from the idea to the picture there is a long way. I'll sure make some more but probably only once or twice a month.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Fritzlein on May 21st, 2010, 2:07pm

on 05/21/10 at 07:32:02, leo wrote:
@Fritzlein: I have many more cartoon ideas lurking in my head, and people are suggesting more, but from the idea to the picture there is a long way. I'll sure make some more but probably only once or twice a month.

Once a month would be fantastic!
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Arimabuff on May 22nd, 2010, 2:49am

on 05/21/10 at 14:07:31, Fritzlein wrote:
Once a month would be fantastic!

I agree and the more of them the better!
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by starjots on May 22nd, 2010, 12:28pm
The artwork and execution are very good indeed!
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Emaad on May 29th, 2010, 7:37am
well I was just thinking if you make one every month
omar should make a page where you can view all of the prieviously made images and I was also thinking that you could turn them into a comic
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 29th, 2010, 8:01am
@starjots: Thank you!

@Emaad: I'd like to make little comic strips of Rimbit's adventures.
Do you have short stories in mind, that could fit into 3 or 4 panels?
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Emaad on May 29th, 2010, 9:14am
not yet but I will let you know when I come across one! ;)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Emaad on May 29th, 2010, 9:48am
I tought of a single panel picture like the one you did for the gameroom, you could show rimbit getting pushed into a trap square by a silver elephant while rimbit is saying "um, could some one help me". it might work your choice just a suggestion
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Arimabuff on May 29th, 2010, 10:05am

on 05/29/10 at 08:01:04, leo wrote:
@starjots: Thank you!

@Emaad: I'd like to make little comic strips of Rimbit's adventures.
Do you have short stories in mind, that could fit into 3 or 4 panels?

I think you should give a nickname to each piece that is a reminder of what they are.

You could have the elephant hanging over a trap with Rimbit the only one to hold him saying something like "Don't worry Elphie (or some other name) I won't let you down!"
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Emaad on May 29th, 2010, 10:24am
good idea that would be cool and I was also wandering
how you quote someones comment I've been trying to figure it out if you could post a comment telling me how to that would be great!
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Fritzlein on May 29th, 2010, 10:33am

on 05/29/10 at 10:24:36, Emaad wrote:
good idea that would be cool and I was also wandering
how you quote someones comment I've been trying to figure it out if you could post a comment telling me how to that would be great!

On the right side of the header of each post there is a link that says, "Quote".


on 05/29/10 at 10:05:54, Arimabuff wrote:
You could have the elephant hanging over a trap with Rimbit the only one to hold him saying something like "Don't worry Elphie (or some other name) I won't let you down!"

That's a great image idea.  The punchline might be the elephant (Elsie?) thinking, "Why am I still worried?" or some such.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 29th, 2010, 10:55am
Hehe, we're all thinking along. I had a few around-the-trap ideas similar to these. Such as a gold dog being pushed to the trap by silver phant, and Rimbit telling the dog: 'Will you stop calling me a mouthfull if I step north?' North being where Rimbit would protext the dog from falling.

Trap mechanism will be a challenge to draw. I was imagining complicated systems of levers making it look funny to have a rabbit protecting a phant.

Text and punchlines are of utmost importance (such as Fritzlein's 'Why am I still worried?').

About names, indeed it would give more life to the piece characters if they all had a name. English not being my native language my mind remained blank except for the name 'Rimbit' which I'm not quite sure it's adequate.

The personality of each piece will be a good thing to develop too. Rimbit should be the intrepid little guy, the camel might be some kind of philosopher (don't know why) that swings funny remarks into the dialogs.

There is much much to do with Arimaa and its pieces :)
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Fritzlein on May 29th, 2010, 12:21pm

on 05/29/10 at 10:55:09, leo wrote:
Trap mechanism will be a challenge to draw.

One idea: steadying the ends of planks that are laid across a pit.


Quote:
except for the name 'Rimbit' which I'm not quite sure it's adequate.

Rimbit is great.


Quote:
the camel might be some kind of philosopher (don't know why) that swings funny remarks into the dialogs.

Cornelius?  I say that because I grew up next to a wise and witty old man named Cornelius Krahn.  But maybe in keeping with the one-letter abbreviations it should be Cornelius "Corny" the cat and something "M" for camel.  Melchizedek?
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by Arimabuff on May 29th, 2010, 9:33pm

on 05/29/10 at 12:21:46, Fritzlein wrote:
One idea: steadying the ends of planks that are laid across a pit.

Rimbit is great.the camel might be some kind of philosopher (don't know why) that swings funny remarks into the dialogs.Cornelius?  I say that because I grew up next to a wise and witty old man named Cornelius Krahn.  But maybe in keeping with the one-letter abbreviations it should be Cornelius "Corny" the cat and something "M" for camel.  Melchizedek?


How about Mel for the camel as in Mel Gibson?

Rimbit is perfect.

I was thinking maybe Chet or Chas for the cat, Doug for the dog, Harry or for the horse.

Elmer for the elephant?

Camels look like they are deep in thought so that could be our "wise man" indeed. A cat is a little too jumpy to be perceived as a wise man IMHO.
Title: Re: The Adventures of Rimbit the Arimaa Rabbit :)
Post by leo on May 30th, 2010, 2:04pm
Fritzlein, you mean the planks are just an inch longer than the traps are wide so they would slip if the supporting piece didn't fasten them? Or the planks are stored near the traps and laid across by the supporting pieces when the need arises?

Each trap system has its possibilities in jokes. In a cartoon idea I see Rimbit and other rabbits digging an extra trap just in front of where silver phant uses to start (rabbits are naturally good at digging). But that would require that all traps be somehow hidden so that they don't look like cheating too much.

The possibilities are endless. I remember a chat room conversation with Froody two years ago about a live human Arimaa board and how the traps should be devised to make the spectacle most funny.

Regarding the names I trust you guys. Melchizedek, or Mel for short, to merge the ideas of both your posts, sounds like an awsome name for a grumpy-witty camel. :D

I'll try to make character design sheets this week, to put a face on the characters. Meanwhile I highly recommend the excellent webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher (http://www.abominable.cc/) by Karl Kerschl (click on First and read it chronologically, the back story is thrilling). There are all kinds of animals including rabbits, all drawn in a very special blend of realism and cartooniness.
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by leo on Feb 2nd, 2011, 3:07am
Months have passed.

Rimbit occasionally popped his head into various threads, letting his home thread take heavy dust.

But the World Championship and its turmoils and discussions have revived the jumping rabbit.

The drawings are very rough as you can see but some of them might turn into more polished drawings later on.

This one doesn't need explanations, does it? I beg the champions not to get angry at my picturing them soaring like that into the air:

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/7642/rabbitswc.jpg

Next one is Megajester's former forum signature which he suggested would make a funny cartoon last year. Sorry for the delay making it, Joel:
(For the non-English speakers: this is a pun on "This is madness" - "This is... Sparta" in the movie 300)

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/752/madchess2.jpg

This one is a very old idea that got revived by a chatroom discussion in which 99of9 explained he had to drive miles through dodging kangaroos to reach an internet connexion for his WC game:

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9324/rimbitkangaroo.jpg

This one is self-explanatory I hope. Maybe I should say that the "rom" in Rombot is the acronym ROM, which stands for Read-Only Memory:

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/679/rimbitversusrombot.jpg

There are so many cartoons I'd like to draw, including the suggestions made earlier last year in this thread, but I'm not always in the right "Rimbit mindset".

I'd like to make a 10 or 20 page comic teaching to play Arimaa using the characters discussed in the thread. It would take a long time to make something clean and clear but it could be good to discuss it in advance in order to get the best scenario that mixes fun and pedagogy.
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by megajester on Feb 2nd, 2011, 3:47am
Wow! You give the Arimaa community a whole new dimension...

Nice one on the 300 joke btw ;)

Also Rombots made me chuckle. That is genius!
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by clojure on Feb 2nd, 2011, 4:29am
Leo, once again, what an interesting style.

That comic idea sounds great. Maybe it could be expanded to bonus version with some dynamism as a webapp (+ maybe some voice over by megajester?!). Needless to say, I would collaborate.
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by woh on Feb 2nd, 2011, 5:58am
Great stuff, Leo!

Thanks for sharing this.

I specifically like the characters' facial expressions.
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 2nd, 2011, 9:00am
:D  How did you know how I feel about the charge of the rabbits?  :D
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by RonWeasley on Feb 2nd, 2011, 11:17am
Did Rimbit see his shadow today?
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by leo on Feb 3rd, 2011, 2:03am
Rimbit is happy to make you smile or laugh ^_^
He'll try to clown more often :D

@megajester: Thank you for the 300 idea. It might be better as a strip, as you suggested if I remember correctly.

@clojure: I've been looking into digital comics lately and there sure is lots of things to invent. Maybe it's possible to make the introductory comic in both formats at the same time. Thank you for offering your help, I'm not sure if Flash is best or other systems are.

@woh: Faces are what I have most fun making (oh, there's an unintended pun here in).

@Fritzlein: Nah, you're going to fight back. Didn't you say you found a counter-strategy? (was it in the chat room last week?)

@Ron: His own shadow? or that of some HP character I should know but don't?
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by clojure on Feb 3rd, 2011, 2:15am
Cool, no experience on Flash but that would work as a nice rehearsal project as a bonus. But it's hard to say on what time schedule I can participate... depends on how much there's to do. Anyway, good to see Rimbit is back :)
Title: Re: Rimbit is back (on page 3)
Post by leo on Feb 3rd, 2011, 5:40am
It's a long term project anyway, Clojure, it's going to be hard whatever tools and schedule we have ;)
(If somebody wonders what we're talking about, you missed the last post on the previous page)

So, to not just speak of it but show what it might look like, here is a rough trial of page 1 on A5 format:

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/382/aatut01.jpg

A digital version would totally blast that layout of course.

Most of the pages would feature the Arimaa pieces in their natural environment, the board, and Rimbit would explain why he's the coolest piece around because you can't win without a rabbit. And he would explain all the game rules with spectacular demonstrations of his agility ^_^

It might be useful to read famous comic artist Scott McCloud's digital comic about his obsession with chess: http://www.scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/chess/index.html (Click the weird-looking picture to start reading) as well as his page about the Infinite Canvas (digital comics): http://scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/canvas/index.html


EDIT: Imageshack had resized the picture without asking, putting back the real one so the text is readable.
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by chessandgo on Feb 3rd, 2011, 6:05am
Oh Man. Oh. Oh. That's so ***cking awesome, if you allow me to say so :)
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 3rd, 2011, 9:13am
Wow, Deep Blue is evil incarnate in the first frame.
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 3rd, 2011, 9:14am

on 02/03/11 at 09:13:26, Fritzlein wrote:
Wow, Deep Blue is evil incarnate in the first frame.  I think Omar should grab those and put them on the login page in place of the piece-stacking cartoon, not just because it is fresher but because it is more generally appropriate.
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by Eltripas on Feb 3rd, 2011, 9:51pm

on 02/03/11 at 09:13:26, Fritzlein wrote:
Wow, Deep Blue is evil incarnate in the first frame.


incarnate? more like insiliconate?, anyways the drawings is awesome.
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by leo on Feb 4th, 2011, 5:05am
@chessandgo: Thank you! ^_^
@Fritzlein: Hehe, it might scare people away :P
@Eltripas: "insiliconate", LOL, that's right :D

Here's the top of page 2 (under construction):

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/125/aatut02.jpg
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by omar on Feb 4th, 2011, 4:37pm
Wow, Leo nice to see your back in the Rimit mood :-) Awesome comics. I really like the 'it pays to be called rabbits' one.

Your drawing for the GK vs DB reminds me of a painting that Frank Heinemann (Belbo) (first Arimaa World Champion) had made. It was a bit of a self-portrait with himself playing against the machine. I'll see if I can dig up the pic he had sent me.
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by omar on Feb 4th, 2011, 4:47pm
Here it is:

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/images/e/e2/ArimaaFH.jpg
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by leo on Feb 6th, 2011, 3:35am
Haha, thanks Omar. That's a cool picture, with the animals around, and the cyclopean red eye of HAL.
I'll have to train to draw you more accurately in the comic ;)
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by rabbits on Jul 7th, 2011, 8:19pm
Leo, you should consider making some of your sketches into t-shirts.
Title: Re: [Rimbit] Tutorial comic project (on page 4)
Post by leo on Aug 22nd, 2011, 5:08am
Good idea for the Arimaa store, rabbits! We could make mugs and more things as well?
Only problem is T-shirt printers want vector files. If someone has good software for converting raster to vector we could have a try.


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