There are some pages where everything just goes right – all the poses I had in mind turn out even better than expected, I find all kinds of extra poses that work really well during the progress, I tweak some bit of dialogue so it’s even stronger and renders and background match up perfectly, and it’s all bright light and scorching sunshine and I can only gaze in awe at the splendor of all my things bursting into flames. uh.. where was I going with this again..?
Anyhow, after spending some two hours of trying to convince 3ds to import the cathedral square amidst the obj importer complaining about it being too large and complex which finally ended by 3ds eventually desiring to devour all memory whether permitted or not and thus swallowing Windows whole while at it and crashing spectacularely to the point of my needing a reboot.. I promptly took notice that this was destined to be one of those pages where everything goes wrong instead.
As nice as it is to render the background along with the characters.. there’s an amount of trouble where it ceases to be worth it, even when my choices of backdrops is.. limited.
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Beyond the Tree, the Misadventures of Hani and Tiny 
Lucien <3
Really like the way that Tiny sits on Te’lens shoulder :)
Keep up the good work!
Is Lucien a cameo of one of the characters you RP with, Nhani? I think I remember you describing someone in-game who was the inspiration for Areen (your in-game character) to become a paladin, but I don’t recall any name being mentioned.
Well, we have met her before, as you might recall. But yes; she’s not around anymore, but she’s essentially the reason Areen Lightspark exists to begin with, so I felt it wouldn’t be too out of place to see Areen go into her version of fangirl mode.
Cameos are always something I approach with care because Beyond the Tree isn’t intended as a showcase of people who somehow won my favor; on the other hand, I delight in adapting and warping characters I know for a given purpose when there’s no clear choice of NPC to use and there’s a situation they’d directly fit into. A character is more fun to use if I have a personal connection to it, and some things like the NPCs of the Cathedral.. I don’t.
I dunno about not being around anymore. I did nudge her to this comic when I saw her earlier today, and she has been on for the past while. It is only playing through Cataclysm, I think, but she is kind of around. I would like to see her in RP mode sometime though.
Still want to meet her on Enyon or something, but meh.
Be nice, Rei, or Te’len will look sharply to the left. Loooootta cool things to the left, they might need lookin’ at.
Speaking of Rei, am I just crazy, or is she super leggy these days?
All the Luciens in-game are dudes, so ya know. There’s that.
We don’t normally see her lounging like that. She must have an amazing sense of balance, come to think of it.
I don’t know how you have her hands posed behind her head in the renders, but it looks like Rei would have to use one or both hands on Te’len’s ear and/or hair to stabilize herself.
In order to hold that pose, Rei would almost certainly need an additional application of force in the direction of Te’len’s neck. I doubt the friction of her rear on Te’len’s shoulder would provide enough on its own given her low mass, and any weight she rested against the side of Te’len’s head would cause a reactionary force away from the head. The way she’s bracing her feet against Te’len’s arm would also decrease her normal force (and thus, friction) and make it easier for her to slide off the shoulder. And all this is just static equilibrium, without taking into consideration Te’len’s body movements as she’s walking.
And yes, I’m aware I just did a free-body analysis on a magically shrunken elf in a fantasy webcomic…
She’s just That Good(tm).
You spend enough time sitting on shoulders, you start to get good at it. Like surfers or the Blue Man Group.
I won’t pretend I don’t feel an odd mixture of annoyance and jealously of her cavalier attitude to lounging on Perfect Telly, though.
It’s been 254 pages now, and I just started wondering…
Is Tee supposed to have that funny chipmunk-like voice because of her size?
I always pictured her more with a dry and sarcastic voice myself, rather than high-pitched.
Hani has changed so much since the fight with Van Cleef. There where only a slight glimpse of the old Hani after they met the villains outside the mine when Te’len has been confused about her behaviour there.
And it turns stronger after her rest.
She became darker and it seems she lost her sense of humour.
Van Cleef’s words seems to grow inside her.
And the longer it takes until she will turn it out the more grows the tense in this story.
Absolutely great.
This comic is not growing by it’s pages only.
I am curious like hell about Hani.
Thank you again for this great work. Again.