06-2024 Artist Commentary (Patreon)

Chumi, the killer: Greetings and salutations everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the update, we finally got to see 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽! Vriska gets whisked away into 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽! Davepeta and all the sprites are in 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽!!! Exciting things are moving forward! Anyway, I handled a majority of the panels, while our lovely art director and my eternal nakama, Kim, drew 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽 and the animated sequences! Thank you Kim!!! I love you!!

Kim, Chumi’s eternal nakama: I remember as soon as Miles handed us the script for this update, I could envision it SO clearly. I wanted it to be especially memorable too since we’ve been building up to see this dang thing! Chumi made the first draft of boards and I swooped in next with some revisions to amp up parts for drama or comedy.

Since this overall update was an especially chunky one, we had to be smart about it and split up the work between multiple artists. Chumi is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to the panels, so she handled a good sum of the standard panels. Meanwhile, I volunteered to handle the more intense parts like 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽’s reveal and the two animation sequences. One could say I was being a little extra for these parts, but I can’t help myself…. I love me some good showmanship LOL.

James, Director: Fuck yeah wooo yeahhhhhhhhh.

Chumi: Behold, the boards! Our entire plan laid bare..

Kim: Look at how dang long this is!!! Two whole ass animation sequences AND a painted panel. As you can see, all of this was initially going to be one update, but once we changed to the smaller but more frequent updates per month model we chopped up this particular update into three parts.

Also, funny thing to note about these initial boards versus the final output, we actually added a couple extra pages at the last minute because he wanted to hit the funny number for the next update… “Why?” you ask? You’ll see soon enough! 👁🔍

Another curious point of interest in these boards is that you can see Fefetasprite was originally in place of where Gcatavrosprite was going to be, but we were at a back and forth whether or not to depict her in the panel LOL. Instead, we wanted to save her for something a bit later…

Alright, enough about the boards– let’s talk about the panels!

Chumi: The soldier guy is just some rando. I was afraid people would think he’s Dave so I put a ponytail on him. He’s just a random guy!!

Kim: We gotta stop putting sunglasses on these guys LOL.

Chumi: Also, the thing behind him… It’s a crab-tank! Just like in Splatoon 3!! Holy shit!!

Haven: I love the clouds circling overhead like an eye above the meteor, or maybe a shooting target.

Chumi: Originally, the tank looked like this! It’s supposed to be the Resistance’s melding of human and troll technology, so it’s a tank with… bug legs sticking out the side. And a honeycomb pattern. My first pass at a tank design LOL… I did not try at all.... Thank you to the other artists for dedicating a day to hash out tank designs!

James: I like how little of it is a crab. It's like a regular tank and someone glued crab legs on it

Andi: Tbf it was more like, we thought we didn’t need assets like this until other visuals of the meteor were showing up and it became a bit of an afterthought when we realized a lot of artillery would be missing. The good news is, we hashed out the tank designs in one day on voice call! Hooray.

Kim: There’s a lot about Earth C that has yet to be explored before our current team took over. So, there’s always a huge question we have to ask ourselves, “how much of this planet is going to be expanded upon?” We have to consider if we would be coming back to/reusing something enough that they’d be important recurring props or places. Since we’re a small team, there’s only so much time we can spend doing explorations for a random prop/location that might only show up for a single panel and probably never again. A lot of base Homestuck was loosely made, so it was probably a lot easier for Andrew to get by with just that– but as a collaborative team now, it’s a lot more challenging going “on the fly” when we need to know we’re all on the same page!

And trust me, our current team has spent a lot of time thinking about Earth C! It’s especially important since, well, the entirety of our Candy cast grew up/lived here for a good chunk of their lives now! The world they live in is gonna inform how they are as people now, don’t you think?

Chumi: Very important questions I sent to Kim. The tummy stayed but unfortunately, we gave John ass-reduction surgery. 

Kim: LMFAO Sorry fellas. I strongly stand by the fact that Homestuck characters should remain as funny cartoons at base.

James: Me waking up on the surgery table, cheeked the fuck up: who do you think took all the ass.

Chumi: Aah, Sollux. I hated drawing this hair.

Kim: I like to imagine Sollux’s hair like an overgrown buzzcut, and that makes it a lot easier for me to understand tbh LOL.

Chumi: And then Roxy! She started out with a bit of different proportions, but she ended up looking too tall when compared to Sollux. 

Chumi: My original storyboard had John and Roxy in the background, while Vriska looks back at them with a judgemental smile. I was envisioning that “car crash seat belt statistics” meme kind of smile.

Chumi: Yeah, that’s the one. Thank you iFunny.co. 

Chumi: This panel used to have John looking a bit more shocked, with arms intact. Two more things that had to go! We just keep taking and taking.

Kim: In the initial boards, the original subtle joke was that John would be the only person jawdropped seeing the singularity revealed while everyone else was a lot more level about it. Though, if history shows, John is kind of a hard person to surprise… so we had to subdue his reaction instead. Him just standing there kind of stupid like :0 is probably more in character for him anyway LOL.

Chumi: Oh my god, it’s 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽. My sketch really depicts what it looks like now! Kim is here to talk about this part! Take it away!

James: Put this thumbnail in the art book.

Kim: BIG REVEAL TIME!!! The art team worked hard to bring this machine to life. The singularity was yet to be fully designed by the previous team, so we took the mantle of figuring it out! The only base we had to work off of was the silhouette of the machine draped over by the tarp.

Page 404 in Homestuck: Beyond Canon

Kim: We went through several iterations exploring what the machine containing The Point would look like. The only other basis we had to work off of was that, in Andrew’s original outline, it was mentioned this machine was specifically made of cherub technology, similar to the one famously seen in Hiveswap. Not the same machine, but it had to be built in a way that these portals were inspired in the same vein of each other. Have a look at the other concept designs we explored for it!

Rough Concept by Andi R.

Rough Concepts by Kim Quach

Kim: As you can see, over the iterations we were slowly approaching closer to the final design that you are all now familiar with! We had to make sure the cherub imagery was clear. The big serpents were a no-brainer to include one way or another, for sure. We also had to functionally consider this machine was specifically built not only to contain The Point, but also to serve as a gateway.

Final Concept by Kim Quach

Kim: Finally… 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽. Or rather, the thing containing it LOL. Now, you may be looking at this and thinking, “huh! There are quite some specific design choices here!” There were a handful of essential key elements and notes passed down along to us that we had to include for this particular machine.

It was noted this contraption had to appear like it was a collaboration between Roxy and Calliope–a solid cross between Lalondian SBURB tech and cherub technology. The cherub influences are quite obvious with the giant serpent and all LOL. Roxy’s influence brought the sci-fi element to it, with the more computer hardware and gamer lights inspired look. It’s quite interesting when you compare this one to the Hiveswap portal, which is notably a lot more steampunk in design while this one is more “modern” and futuristic!

Last two points (hah) of interest that you may have noticed are the inclusion of fire and the timer. I can’t exactly elaborate what the fire relates to just yet, but I wanted to note their details here as deliberate design choices that you’ll see why soon enough…! Perhaps that timer will count down to what that is… 🤫

Chumi: Aww, a lil Callie for size!

Panel 650 Sketch by Kim Quach

Kim: Here’s the initial sketch of the singularity! I wanted the portal to look IMPOSING. A literal BIG reveal that we’ve been waiting for–what all the hubbub everyone in the Candy timeline has gotten so stirred up about! So imposing that it’s literally BREAKING out of the screen. Angled in a way that even you feel small looking up at it, but the stairs extend towards you… inviting you in.

I love the way in Beyond Canon we’ve been getting more experimental with our page layouts as I’ve always thought was the most fun part about the original Homestuck. I hope that we get more opportunities to play around with it and more wacky ways to provide an even more immersive experience for you guys!

Callie was initially going to be a part of this panel too, pulling off the tarp, but I was worried her inclusion would be making the page too wide and wouldn’t look good on most screens. 😭 Sorry, Callie…

Kim: Ze final render… In fact, I believe this is the first painted panel within Beyond Canon too! I did consider rendering it in the usual pixel style instead, but I wanted to recall those Le Epic Moments when things got serious and suddenly things were ~painted~ like seeing the Ancestors or Yaldabaoth. I’m making whole ass paintings for Homestuck now… the things I do for you guys.

Anyway, onto part TWO of the update!!!

Chumi: Vriska looks a bit different in the sketch. I fixed up her face a bit in the final!

Kim: The last thing we see of her until we see her get zucked into The Point…. R.I.P. Vriska you will be missed….. jk she’s fine (probably), but let’s get to talking about the animation!

As some of you may have already heard, this particular page wasn’t initially going to be a whole sound page. Actually, the writer of this particular update, Miles, said he originally envisioned this would be a short gif LOL. But the more I worked on boarding this particular sequence, the fancier it got. It felt appropriate that it’d be a little Epic and Mysterious. “What does this machine do?! What happened to Vriska?! What’s happening?!?!?” Need to build up that tension!

Kim: I approached boarding this sequence like I would with any traditional storyboard for animation! Noting all the actions, the number of shots, the camera movements, etc. Usually I would make a rough animatic before I’d start animating, but considering this sequence utilized a mix of both After Effects and traditional hand-drawn animation– I put this together a bit more unorthodox.

I did consider for a hot second hand animating the first four shots (like the sliding assets and the warping), because AE can kind of be hell to fiddle around with. But y’know what I realized. It was more hell to hand animate it LOL.

What I HAD to hand-animate, though, was the actual Vriska warp as she’s flying into the portal, the sand in the timer, and the fire. If I hadn’t, any preset I could find only seemed odd looking…

Kim: If it’s of any interest to y’all, fun fact, most of the assets and hand-animated sequences were done in Clip Studio Paint. Here’s a peek of how it looks behind the curtain! While I can’t speak for Andrew’s animation process– I think what may be an interesting tidbit for people outside of the animation field, usually in animation there’s a lot of extra bleed room outside of the camera! Some secret little things and details you don’t see in the final animation itself… 👁

Just kidding, there’s usually nothing exciting in there, (cos it’s always meant to be cut out anyway) but the extra bleed serves as fail-safe in case things need to be adjusted around or resized. Cool to know there’s a little more to it though, right?

Looking at this screencap, not gonna lie, my file organization for this sequence is a little insane but I Made It Work LOL.

Chumi: AHHH

Kim: Here’s the Vriska warp isolated without all the crazy camera transitions and whatnot. It happens a little fast though, doesn’t it? It’s okay, it’s supposed to happen very quickly, but you may have missed the funny little warped Vriska faces that briefly show just before she disappears LOL. Here’s the warp slowed down for your convenient observation. :-)

Kim:  “Wait a minute, wasn’t it a wider shot when Vriska was warped into the Point?” Good observation theoretical asker! I did a sneaky little camera trick actually! When the camera zooms outward, it happens very quickly that I swap the background out for the wide shot.

Kim: It happens so seamlessly you don’t even notice it, right? Here it is again at 20% speed. 👀

Kim: Call that Movie Magic, babey….!!!!

Kim: This is the only rough animation I still have for this whole sequence LOL. I’m still pretty proud of this shot tbh! The camera working upwards revealing the activating flame, the hourglass clicking into place, the focus shift onto “what will this timer do?” then the PSYCHE! mwah love it.

Also, this entire shot was animated in CSP! When I first started animating in CSP, I always figured the animation function was pretty rudimentary, but when I found out you could do camera movements and sliding assets WITHIN the program….. It was a game changer.

Making animations for Homestuck really is a dream come true! I’ll be getting back to you guys more on the next animation in the next part of this update, heheh.

Chumi: Kim is the goat. Kim is the goat!!!

Chumi: 4 little things…

Kim: Returning to their cellular form…

Chumi: I was hoping for more opportunities to depict the characters in the… super-fucked-up-armless style? The Pantskat style? Whatever it is, I wanted to see it again and I’m happy I got to make it happen! They just look so silly. Dot eyes and stick legs. They look like little bugs.

Andi: I missed pantskat style. They’re so easy to draw from far away.

Chumi: I originally imagined Jade-Callie’s face mirroring Gamzee as she peeks into the Candy timeline at a critical moment.

Kim: We had to change this up a bit because I believe the last we saw of that particular Jade-Callie was just lookin’ fucked up LOL. Impact-wise, it’s definitely much stronger to see it from Alt-Calliope herself’s point of view.

Chumi: Everyone, especially Haven, helped me workshop the panel into what it looks like now! It really bangs! Thank you!!

Haven: Of course! I'm always chomping at the bit for a chance to draw more cherubs.

Kim: AND NOW… It is onto the next flash animation! This one’s actually pretty short since there’s not as many moving parts compared to the last one. Since this one’s a bit more standard, I was able to put together a rough animatic for this one. That way, I can pass the rough animatic down to James, our musician, so he could figure out the audio timing.

Kim: Ya like seeing the temporary assets I used for this? LOL

Kim: I don’t usually do this kind of animation that often where it requires a lot more puppeteering, and splitting up parts to animate as separate assets.. Puppeteering I still consider a new type of animation (even though it’s not by now; I know, I know–!) I was trained in traditional paper animation and hand-drawn digital animation, but I’m fascinated by getting to know how new animation methods work (like Live2D, After Effects, and Adobe Animate) and using this as an opportunity to train myself in them!

Kim: This shot of Vriska actually has a whole fullbody hiding in the bleed–! I wanted to lowkey reference this panel and type of Hero Mode style below for this shot in particular, since the poses were quite similar, hehe.

Kim: After watching the final version of the flash, does looking behind the curtains of it feel like forbidden information to you guys?

Also, what’s particularly interesting about this shot is that we’ve never actually seen the surrounding area around Vriska’s hive depicted before. 🤔 It almost feels cursed seeing it from this view… Something else seems to be missing too, hmmmm…!!!

Bonus: If you stayed and watched ‘til the end of the flash…….. I applaud you. That’s it. LOL

Last but not least, HUGE props and thanks to our technical staff, Kohi, for helping composite and put together these multimedia panels on the website. These animated sound pages wouldn’t be possible without Kohi’s help and expertise!

Kim: Aaaand this is the last panel I contributed for this update! Originally, this panel was the default standard size, but I decided to stretch this out even taller. The writers emphasized that we wanted Vriska’s hive to feel far in this panel.

Kim: This is a never before seen angle we’ve ever seen of Vriska’s hive, it took me a second to even figure out what the fuck was the geometry of the cliff faces below her hive. I am especially a stickler for trying to be accurate to canon, so I meticulously tried to match the cliff sides and even every spot to the original panel…

Chumi: Kim is the goat!!!!!

Chumi: Animating this was a………….. learning experience. Also as I was working on this, I realized Vriska’s desk is a fucking BLOCK!!!!

Kim: It’s funny how simple gif animations like this can be quite tricky to make look just right. I had to help guide Chumi a little bit on this one. It reminds me I read somewhere (correct me if I’m wrong) that Andrew literally learned how to animate while he was making Homestuck, and it still impresses me to this very day that he did.

Andi: No worries, Chumi, you absolutely NAILED these isometrics. You really matched the pacing of how these sprite gifs tend to look like. It has an old classic feel to it that I really missed! I am also very sorry that you had to probably manually strobe Davepeta frame by painful frame…. 

James: someone get this mf’er a gamer desk.

Kim: I think more Homestuck furniture should be fucked up blocks to make our lives easier.

Chumi: Who are these douchebags? Just kidding, I could never forget you, Davepeta and Nannas. I was really happy to see the excited reception to Davepeta's return! But, some sprites are missing though…? Also those scary-ass ghosts in the background… They look familiar…

Andi: They’re saying damn bitch you live like this??

Chumi: In this panel, I wanted to call back to the… colored-silhoutte style?

Chumi: Whatever the hell this is. Homestuck has so many styles, I wanted to bring some back! Calling back to previously-seen things is something I really loved and thought was an important part of the reading experience, so I love doing this stuff.

Andi:  I REALLY LIKE IT!! It’s got a good charm. Once in a while you can get away with not fully rendering out every detail on these kids, they are so memorable by design, it lends itself to these types of panels very easily!!

James: hell yeah you are really good at callback panels. 

Chumi: Actually, this was the first panel I finalized. Barely made any edits on this thing. Once I added some cute sparkles and put it through a jpeg-ifier, it was complete. 

Andi: People underestimate how very particular sbahj shittiness is to replicate and Chumi nailed this like INSTANTLY. It was so good I laughed so hard.

Kim: The tiny Vriska and Erisolsprite bit at the end is especially my favorite part of this image. Truly, Welcome to Hell, Everybody.