Zombie Cliche Lookout: Playing Nice is Nice and All, but Stealing is Cool Too
As you might recall, beating up the store owner and looting the place wasn’t exactly Plan A here. In point of fact, this is the very thing Murphy didn’t want to happen; he is, after all, a peace officer. But in the zombie apocalypse, you’re often not even remotely in control of the situation. Murphy might have a pie in the sky way of approaching a problem, but underestimating the aggressiveness of others almost cost him his life. Inez, on the other hand, appears to have fewer issues with using violence if it means the survival of her group. Of course, Lou was also saying some pretty creepy stuff before he got hammered, which is something else to consider.
About this Episode:
I tried something a little bit different for the exterior lighting this time around. I don’t think it works as well as what I’ve been using, but I’m curious what you guys think. This time around, I put some blue construction paper in the background with a light hitting it at an angle to try to cut down on the blue color cast. I don’t know that I like it.
Discussion Question: Targeted Looting
This is a really cool one from BrickVoid, so I’ll just quote him directly:
You and your group have been in a zombie apocalypse for some time now, you’ve figured out how to keep zombies off your back, and you’ve settled into a secure area that is safe and you’re now planning to try and bring back some of the luxuries you were used to in a modern high-tech civilized society.
You also know that since a large part of the population was zombified or eaten by zombies, that there’s a lot of modern high-tech gear out there just waiting to be taken by someone who’s got the opportunity and transport to pull it off.
So, which do you choose? Would you try to recreate the high-tech you’re used to from scratch, or would you try to simply raid the existing tech stock, knowing that the tech support for such is probably also a zombie by now?
I wonder if Myrphy is going to give Inez too much trouble? Especially while she’s still holding the gun? 😀
*Murphy – typo city today! 😀
She is passing it back in the last panel, so maybe that’ll encourage him.
As for the exterior lighting effect, I think it sort of works. But it could definitely use tweaking. Try something as simple as a diffusion filter over the lighting and see if you get anywhere with that.
I’m no photographer although I’m sure many people could see what I’m trying to say or what you need, and point you in the right direction. 😀
The light is diffused, but I’m not sure it’s working as well as it could. I need to start saving for some better lighting, I think.
I face the same problem… do you think that something like this is worth something?
Yes indeed, I’m looking for something like this, only in a three-light setup.
Maybe I wasn’t listening so good, but in my opinion Lou didn’t say things that were THAT creepy. I kinda liked the guy, to me he was just being careful (and not without reason I guess) and very lonely. Ah well… All is fair in a ZA 😛
Concerning the light, besides the blue in there I don’t see much difference.
What I would do is the following (I don’t know if you use photoshop but here goes)
Take two photo’s right after each other on a tripod! In the first one you just make the photo like you would like it (or just like you have been in your comic) so the exterior part is overexposed. For second photo you let the camera calculate his exposure based on the outside part (and let the camera only adjust the shutter speed, and not the aperture). You’ll end up with a second photo where the inside is underexposed (probably black), but the exterior is well lit (and because you left the aperture alone it won’t be in focus).
Then you put the two photo’s together in layers, and use a mask to use the exterior of photo 2 and the interior of photo one. (this sounds like a lot of work maybe, but is very easily done)
An other option is to work with 1 RAW-photo, duplicating it and then you can achieve (close to) the same by working in camera RAW on booth photo’s and afterwards putting the two photo’s in two layers and working with masks.
You could also use HDR (and play with the settings a little), or use a combination of 1-2 and 3…
I think in the current way you are setting up things the outside will always be overexposed, or the inside will always be underexposed.
Sorry for the lengthy comment… hope you can find something of use in it 😉
I don’t think Lou said anything too bad, but there’s a negative implication that.
Some good ideas here, especially HDR. I’ll try that out.
It’s SO close to episode 400 ain’t it? 🙂
We’re getting there.
For the question, I’d rather rebuild them with my own hands, giving me times and mind to be occupy without risking any lives. Except a gaming console or a dvd player, they would be great 😛
That’s a really cool way of looking at things. Not only are you entertaining and occupying yourself, you’re also contributing back to civilization and building your own skills.
I like how Brent is dragging Lou, nice posing there Dave!
Thank you, sir!
Techwise…
I think part of the problem today is that things have become so interconnected, it’s not just getting piece of tech A, you also need B, C, D, and E for them to function.
Just consider this post. I’ve got a laptop which needs to be hooked to a power grid. If I want to use it to communicate, I need a wifi hotspot, which needs to be connected to a provider, which needs servers and possibly another power grid. Not to mention whoever I’m communicating with will need their computer, wifi, power, and so on.
The few things that might work well on their own (microwaves, hairdryers, Blu-Ray players) are the things you need the least. 🙁
Personally, the dim lighting works for me. It gives the feeling that the wheels have already started to come off and that certain parts of the city are beginning to lose power.
If you don’t have power, luxuries are going to be things like instant coffee, stuff that can be used without electricity but isn’t an absolute neccessity. Forget taking anything that needs power.
As an aside, do you play Dawn of War, Dave? Somehow the title of this episode reminds me of the game.