I just realized I have not done a Rickety Rat update in awhile! I've actually been busy what with ComicCon and all. But I did get a chance to playtest the boardgame, and I even got to have the animatic critiqued! Here are some pictures of us playing the boardgame:
So what needs to happen now is that I need to tweek the boardgame(I'm leaning towards making it less boardy and more tabletop roleplayingy) and I need to rewrite, redraw and rerecord parts of the animatic until I'm sure it's amazing.
Greetings Ricketeers! I've finished a beta version of my new boardgame, A Rickety Road to the Top! And now you can play it by downloading and printing it out!
I set up a nifty link to the right of the blog right below the followers. Just click it and it'll bring you to a rapidshare download(7 megs) that will download a zip file of the instructions, the printables, and the card backs(optional for cards). It's a little rough and I'm definitely going to get more detailed and fancy later, but for now I'm glad to just have the bones all set out.
I haven't tried it out yet as I have no friends out here cool enough to play boardgames, but I'll be trying it out for the first time this weekend!
I didn't include a picture or drawing on how to put the player pieces together, but I'm sure you guys are smart enough to figure it out. Also, I feel I should note that even though this is a boardgame, there's a pg-13 rating on it, as it does contain drugs, alcohol, murder and the occasional hooker(I'm appealing to that huge 18-24 yr old who enjoys playing boardgames demographic).
If you do decide to try it out(and please do) please message me or email me(insidejoshuashead@gmail.com) about what you liked, what you didn't like, what you felt worked, what you thought should be added or taken out, any input would be greatly appreciated.
Hey there Ricketeers! I was really hoping to have a complete albeit beta version of my game done already, but I still need to finish a number of pieces. But I do have some stuff done already that you can even print out!
Here's a sheet containing the Rickety Rat, Rascals Rabbit, Digby Duck, and Dolly Duck game pieces. You can print out the sheet, cut them out and you'll have your own little Rickety game characters! You can even make them stand on their own if you: 1. Cut on all the dotted lines 2. Fold in the creases on the bottom front 3. Fold the front bottom segment and stick it through the slit in the back bottom segment 4. unfold the front bottom creases It works, but it may be a bit confusing. I should probably take a picture or draw a diagram.
Also here are some sample game cards: Skeleton cards are what makes the game interesting. If you get a skeleton card, and then get an action card or land on an action space in which you get outed, then you have to go all the way back to the start. I really want to beta-test this out.
Also, here are some board pieces of the interchangable board: I'm hoping in a couple of weeks I can have all the assets completed and I can make it available for beta-testing. Until next time Ricketeers!
Hey there faithful Ricketeers! Still making assets for the boardgame and working on Character sheets. Here are some card backs I'm playing with: Also, I made my first cut-out game piece!
I even figured out a way to make him stand pretty nicely on his own without the use of glue, tape, or a plastic stand, but it's a bit confusing to explain without instructions. Perhaps next week I'll have the whole sheet of characters done!
Next week I should have a mock game board, cards, and pieces all ready to play. Then, Beta-testing!
Good news Ricketeers! I'm in the process of making my new Boardgame! I give you: It's about the perilous road to stardom and the objective is to take your character all the way from the Rock Bottom Bar to the Tippity Top Theatre before anyone else does! Some things will help you on your way like getting sponsorship and or having a "private meeting" with a director, while other things will impede your path, such as acquiring skeletons in the closet. And if your skeletons get found out, it's back to Rock Bottom, or worse!
The game features the main characters of the Animation as playable pieces: Rickety, Roofie, Dolly, Digby, Rascals, and Stumbles, plus the inclusion of Blusto the Bull and Donna Daisy the waitress making it up to 8 players. The game board comes in multiple pieces that can be switched around to make any number of customizable board combinations. Here are a couple of sample pieces I sketched up: One possibly Combination: The game idea has gotten fairly good reception since I've pitched it to multiple people, so I'm pretty excited. I'm going to make the entire game a free downloadable PDF that people can print out and play, similar to tabletop roleplaying games. I also plan on making a deluxe version which has more game pieces, more board pieces, different versions of the playable characters, and even new game mechanics that aren't necesarily needed for the game, but make it slightly more interesting to play. I'll probably sell it for like five bucksish.
And if you think I'm not working on the animation anymore, you sir are wrong! I'm in the middle of doing character sheets. I did naked versions of the characters first(which was slightly odd) so I could place multiple clothing pieces over them easily. Check out a few: I'm having an interesting time providing textures for al of the characters' clothing. I should have more character sheets next week along with some player pieces and card examples.
Keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the floor Ricketeers!
Hmmm, not for you this week Ricketeers, I had my priorities wrestled elsewhere. Although I did recently think about creating a Rickety Rat papercraft print-out board game in the vein those fancy tabletop games that's all the craze with kids these days. I think it would be significantly easier to design and simpler to make a PDF game doc than creating one of the computer game ideas I wanted(not that you'll never see one of those). Also it would give me a chance to stretch my game design muscles which have been getting pretty soft these days let me tell you. And if I was really crafty, I'd make a simple version that's free and then a super fancier version with more stuff for a small price. How does that all sound?
Hey there Ricketeers! I've finished the animatic! Now I just have to watch it several times and see what needs to be cut or changed. I can't upload the whole thing because a) It's way too big, and b) I really don't want to spoil anything. BUT I can give you a taste of it! Here's a scene at the Rodential Bar and Jazz Club:
And also, here's an alternate version:
I'm still experimenting with camera angles and such. I like the shot of the messenger running up, but I feel it may be unneeded. Thoughts? Thoughts on the story/characters/pace/voices so far?
Also, the music and lounge singer voice was Richard Cheese, who is awesome, and who you can check out here.
Credits: Rickety/Announcer: Lucas Ciarlante Rascals/Stumbles: Sean Faye Digby: Joshua Daniel Donna: Alanna Dukes
Hey there Ricketeers! It's been awhile since I've had a post, but I return bearing progress! I finally finished the animatic of the opening title sequence. Check it out!
This is only a preliminary animatic. I like where it's going, but I already feel it's going too fast. It should probably be at least another minute longer, but for that I'm having my sound guy do it. There's only so many different punches and "ahs" I can take. Although, I do like adding different cartoony sound effects to it and making the audience go, "Pop? What the hell went pop? What are they doing to this poor guy? Was that a frying pan I heard?"
Also, the music is Big Shell West Bristol from the amazing BenCousins at OCremic.org. It's just a placeholder for now until my sound guy comes up with a killer theme, but this is one of my all time favorite Trip Hop songs. Actually, it's the song that turned me on to Trip Hop and bands like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Hooverphonic. Ahhh memories.
I think I'll ace the posters. Not that I won't do them, but maybe one a week. There's too many to catch up on.
So finally I'm bringing back Noir Review! This week, a double helping of Ernest Hemingway's The Killers!
I got a chance to look at both the 1946 and 1964 versions of The Killers and I'm REALLY leading towards the 1946 version. Two hired killers come to town and off some guy, but the guy doesn't run, almost like he's expecting it. The whole movie is the mystery behind why this man was killed and why he was so accepting of it.
In the 1946 version, it opens with a great dramatic score and introduces us to the actual killers as they talk about who they're going to kill in a quaint little diner. These are my two favorite characters in the entire movie, and I was really hoping the entire movie was going to revolve around them planning and murdering the guy. They're menacing and psychotic, the kind of unique characters you don't see in normal life. "What're we gonna do? I'll tell ya. We're gonna kill the Sweed." Sadly, they kill the guy and go off screen after twenty minutes, only to return an hour later for a short (though easily the most dramatic)scene near the end.
The rest of the movie involves an insurance agent tracking down people connected with "The Sweed" and piecing together a tale of a robbery gone wrong. Each character he meets has a little flashback of what happened. They handle this in a great way, not making the flashbacks too long and are careful to make sure the audience only sees what the person flashbacking(is that a word?) sees. It's a nice little noir story with a couple of great characters, a good twisting story, and some nice camera work. I would wholly recommend checking it out. I think I'd give it a solid 32 out of 39.
Then I started to watch the 1964 version. I say started because I honestly couldn't get through the first hour. And no, not because it's in color. Similar to the first movie, the killers off their target, but almost as reluctant heroes they go, "Hmmm, he didn't run. How odd. Perhaps we should investigate this mystery." which seems rather strange to me. What kind of hired killers are these? They do the job, it's an easy job, and they want to find out more? If they were so curious, why didn't they do this before?
So they find a mechanic that's connected to the guy they just offed and ask him what happened. And so begins the real movie, a love story involving race cars. What? Didn't I sign up for a noir? Why is everyone so bright and lovy dovy? The flashback goes on for way too long and the mechanic suffers from "And this part I wasn't there for but I remember it perfectly" syndrome, which I can't stand.
It seems like the noir mystery was just a framing device for the movie they really wanted to make(or the movie they though audiences would really want to see). I just stopped caring. I can't really recommend it for hardcore noir fans.
Hmm. Would anyone want to become an actual Ricketeer if I made an official fan page? I think it would be an interesting promotional idea. Now, how could I make it viral?
Hey Ricketeers! Sorry for the late post, but I'm considering moving Rickety Rat Update day to Fridays. Also, I don't really have anything this week. I haven't had much time to work on any more posters or concept art, but I have scanned in all my storyboards and am in the process of making an animatic. Actually, several animatics. Since it's such a big one, I figure I'll break it into scenes (also some scenes have alternates), then splice it together in one huge monstrous animatic.
And then I have to remember how After effects works. Yay.
Hey there Ricketeers! I'm sorry to say, I don't have much for you this week. I haven't had much time to work on any of the promotional materials, animation, concept art, or barely even the storyboards! I've been wrapped up in my other endeavors, the barber comics and other projects with Rocket Powered Dragon. But, Lucas was able to finish sorting through the Rickety Rat audio, so I'm at least hoping to get the opening sequence mock up done by next week!
I do have a little something for you, some outtakes from the recording sessions! I should warn you though, as we're all professionals here, there is some coarse language used when we trip over our lines. Enjoy!
I've also been doing some costume design for our heroines, look at this smart but cute attire for Dolly and Roofie:
That might be fur on her coat, not because she's an extravagant duck, but it's something Rascals would buy for her.
Don't have much else for you this week, Ricketeers. I've been working on the storyboards, and I might be at the half way point. I should really be doing set and environmental design, and I've scoured art deco books for reference, but it's probably going to be put off until I absolutely have to. I much prefer drawing characters than buildings. Who doesn't? YOU'RE HIRED!
For this week on Noir Review, I want to talk about something you're probably all familiar with and it may even be one of your old favorites as it is mine, Batman The Animated Series!
I think this old 90's cartoon is one of the best examples about how to do great noir (especially the first three seasons before the style changed). It's got a perfect 1930's-1940's feel from the buildings to the attire, it's filled with dark shadows and alleyways, and the music is some of the best scoring I've ever heard (when are they going to release a soundtrack?!) And the voices they got to play such iconic characters, Mark Hamil will always be the best Joker
What gave the show it's biggest noir feel is he stories. Many times they'd focus an episode around a normal person who spirals psychotically into the criminal trenches, or an already down and out criminal who's just trying to get back on his feet but society or his own urges won't let him. Many an episode ended on a sad note, or at the least a feeling of, "sure, the batman stopped him this time, but it doesn't matter much because he'll be back", that continuous downward spiral.
I could talk all day about my favorite episodes, but 'll only name a few:
Feat of Clay parts 1 & 2: voiced by the amazing Ron Pealman, a failed actor with a horrible facial disfigurement gets turned into the horrible monster Clayface and tries to get his revenge on the man who changed him.
The Gray Ghost: Voiced by Adam West, A washed-up TV star helps Batman stop a mad-bomber somehow connected to his old TV show.
A Bullet for Bullock: A whole episode revolving around Harvey Bullock, played out like a jazzy detective drama, as he figures out who's trying to kill him.
Almost Got 'im: I think this is one of everybody's favorite episodes. Siting around a poker table, the Joker, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and the Penguin share stories about how they all almost killed the Batman.
Two of my favorite scores:
Trial: Batman and Prosecutor get trapped at Arkham where all the villains put Batman on Trial for turning them into monsters. Let's face it, this should be the next Batman-Phoenix Wright crossover videogame. Objection!
But what's your favorite episode? See you next time Ricketeers!
So this week I'm still working on the Storyboards and the title sequence animatic. I was hoping to have the title sequence done this week, but some problems arose and it will have to wait until next week (hopefully). Buuuuuut I do have stuff to show this week!
First, if you look to the right, you'll notice I've added an "about" page describing the basic plot of the animation for anyone who started checking out this blog and has no idea what it's for. Plus I added a characters page to tell give you a little insight and backstory on the cast. With pictures!
Second, I did I semi-final version of Wally the Willow! At first I wanted him without a mouth because it made it seem like he was just part of the background rather than a real character(how would you feel if you were just a tree in the background?). But the more I think about it, the more I think a mouth and nose look better on him. What do you think?
I like that he has branches sticking up in the middle as if he were balding.
Third, I'm starting a test animation with Rascals. Rather than start an 11 sec animation with all the other stuff I have to do, then not make the deadline, then not caring about finishing it, again, I'm doing a multiple line animation.
This is what I'm talking about: If anyone saw my Dirk Headstrong animation I was working on last year, you may have caught my video of Squidula saying the same line but having the action being interpreted different ways. If you didn't, you can watch it here!
So there's one line from Rascals that the actor said it multiple times and can be interpreted multiple ways. I love animating these because it shows the different ways someone can act out such a simple line and the range of different emotions one can exude from a reading. Yay acting!
Also, this doesn't have anything to do with the animation, but for those of you know about it, the everyday detective is coming! We did an old fashioned radio play about a detective doing mundane things in dramatic ways. It's been a blast working on it. Right now I'm waiting on my sound guy Lucas to add music and sound. I think anyone interested in noir is really going to enjoy it. And if it gets a good enough reception, I'll have to make more!
So for this week, on Noir Review, I'm going to talk about Roman Polanski's Chinatown with Jack Nicholson. There's two reasons to see it right there! It's a real classic neo-noir. It's about a detective, Jack Nicholson, who gets involved with a big conspiracy with the water system. The cinematography is some of the best you'll see anywhere. If you're an animator, filmmaker, or comic book artist wondering how to make your shots interesting, this is the movie you should see.
Storywise, it starts off slow, and it's a long haul, but the climactic ending is well worth it. Jack nicholson does a great job as a sleazy with a heart of gold detective and pulls off some great tricks every good noir detective in the 1940's without a computer and gps tracking system should know. Overall I'd give it a 19 out of a 21.
Greetings! So I changed the page a little and added a cool new banner up top! Huzzah! Although I may change it when I finally vectorize all the main characters.
I finished Storyboarding up to the title sequence, and that part is going to be a little tricky to storyboard, so I'm going to have to plan it out very carefully. But the animatic should be fun. I'm not sure if I should storyboard the entire thing, then make an animatic of the entire thing, or make animatics of parts as I go along. Hmmmm.
Here's my favorite storyboard so far:
The dialogue sounds great! There was a possibility that the digby dialogue was lost forever, but then we found it! Hooray! I wanted to upload some outtakes, but I may have to convert it into a movie first so I can upload it. Hmmmm again.
I may use the characters again for another 11 sec club animation. But only if I can make it work in a funny way. But this one has Bogey in it! How can I resist?!
For this week's film noir movie, I bring you...Film Noir! No really, that's the name of the movie(making it incredible annoying when you have to find it). It's a recent 3d animation from 2007. It's about a guy who wakes up with Amnesia(Obviously) and finds out he may be one of two people, but he doesn't quite know which one he is.
I really like it. From an animation standpoint, It's not all that great. The animations are kind of stilted, the facial expressions aren't the greatest, and all their pieces of paper have "this is a single polygon" syndrome. But the story is twisting and suspenseful and filled with interesting characters, the music is spot on and the voice actors are amazing. In the end, I'd prefer watching a semi-good animation with a great story verses an amazing animation with a sub-par story. This is the website: http://www.filmnoirthemovie.com/ and you can watch it here: http://www.movies-links.tv/movies/film_noir/ honestly, it's the only place I could find it.
Well first of all, I think that these Rickety Rat updates are a little too sporadic. So I've decided that Thursday is now Rickety Rat Update day! Every Thursday a new Update on your favorite noir vermin! So now fans (all two of you) will know when to look for new sketches, animations, sound samples, and general updates! Hooray!
Next, I'm designing a new banner for the blog to make it look prettier and draw in more followers. Take a look so far!
I have to figure out how else I can mess with the graphics of this blog. Maybe make a cool background texture. Who knows! I'm also working on a Rickety Rat poster idea, like those cool classic noir posters they used to have. I have a number of ideas, including an "everyone has a gun" poster, which I thought was kinda funny. Take a look at one of the designs:
Other than that, going through the dialogue and storyboarding. There's some great dialogue here, but it looks like because of interference, we may have to rerecord some lines. Bleah. The Storyboards are coming along nicely, here's one of them:
Roofie and Dolly in Dolly's dressing room
I just wanted to show off the nice design of Roofie's dress. So onward storyboarding!
The title sequence is gonna be tough to storyboard, so I may do something different and just put together something in After Effects, now that I've just learned some AWESOME After Effects tricks from http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/. Yay me.
Alllso, I just watched Born to Kill. It was a pretty cool old noir movie with great acting, alot of suspense, and some interesting characters. The bad guy was a hard headed tough guy and the good guy is a fat kooky detective. I highly recommend watching it for anyone interested in old Noir films. Check out the cool poster!
Hey! That's a cool idea! Since this is a Blog about a Noir animation, maybe I'll recommend a different Noir movie every time also! How does that sound? Does anyone know of some cool old or new Noir movies I should watch?
So I did a little sketch of a few of the main characters to figure out the heights of all of them. Rascals is about the normal height of an average person/character. Rickety's a small little chump, Dolly's a little too tall and thin, and Stumble's is freakishly tall, so much so they don't make pants for him. I would think that Roofie is just slightly taller than the norm,a nd Digby just a tad shorter, so I didn't include them.
Also, if you look closely, you'll see I changed Rascals' face a bit. I think the previous version is too detailed, not cartoony enough, so I made his face rounder like before, but still kept some of the detail around the cheeks. Still can't figure out the profile view though.
Also, here's a sketch of Wally the Willow. Originally, I thought of him as just a big tree with eyes, but I'm considering putting a mouth on him. I liked the idea of him not having a mouth because it gives him more of a feeling of just sitting there and not really being able to do anything, just tuck in one place. It means he's not really a character, he's just an animated part of scenery, which is pretty depressing and what I'm going for. But if I don't give him a mouth, I'm missing some opportunities of making him look like an old man with altimeters and depriving an animator of a key lipsyncing tool. Soo I'm not sure yet.
So here's a pic of what Blusto would look like in my 11 second animation that I haven't finished yet and have put at the tail end of a very long to-do list. The Gag was that Rickety was a judge for the "little miss Adorable"contest and Blusto wanted to enter, and of course he didn't win. Hence the dialogue.
I thought it was funny and I really wish I had finished it by the deadline, just so I could be done with it. Now, not only do I not have a deadline to finish by, I have little motivation to finish an animation that would take time away from my big huge animation I'm supposed to spend time on, especially with a character that won't even be in it.
Oh well. Perhaps I'll finish it. I'm still working on the look and effects of the animation. I want to mimic some sort of shading effect you'd see in a pencil drawing but with animation, and also get that "cut-out" look without the "cut-out" animation.
Hoooooooly crap that took so long. And I'm not even done. Caarap. But how does it look so far? Still think it needs some polish. Ugh. So. Many. Flash layers.
So I'm still working on the character concepts with Stumbles. He's Rickety's right hand man, tall and lanky with a heart of gold. Originally he was based on Goofy, and he was just going to be a dumb lovable dog character as you can see in his previous group shot, and from sketches here:
But I didn't like the idea of him simply being a Goofy clone, I thought I could do better than that. So I pulled from many tall lanky and stupid sidekicks. Bullwinkle, and the WB vulture come to mind. At first I thought I might make him some exotic bird or turtle, setting him apart from the rest. Maybe a flamingo? But I couldn't get over the idea of him with feathers and a beak, and he'd have a surname of "The Bird" or whatnot.
I wanted to take advantage of the fact that he's one of the few characters who doesn't have a surname like Rickety Rat or Dolly Duck. He's just Stumbles. Is he such an outcast even his own kind don't want him? The how could he be so lovable? The I played with the idea that he may not be an animal at all, but some sort of amorphous creature. I came up with this design that he was literally so dumb he had a foot for a head.
But I'm not in love with the design and I don't see that being acceptable in this universe. Then I had the idea of him being an amalgamation of different animals. Maybe part moose, part dog, part fox, part bird, part pig, etc. I really like this solution because it explains why he's so dumb (he's the result of species outbreeding), why he's an outcast(very similar to the children of mixed parents in the 20's through 60's), and why he's so loving and care free(I'd assume two people from two entirely different species that loved each other enough to get married and have a child together would be very loving and accepting to their child). Here are some concepts:
I'm still playing with different species. I thought it might be cool if instead of antlers he had hands on the side of his head, which would be very emotive and funny at times, but it might be too strange for this specific universe. I also like the idea of the square nose and glasses, as if saying he's a straight arrow AND he's square.
But I have to make it apparent enough that he's multiple species without putting any one emphasis on particular species. Which is hard cause antlers + long nose = moose but atlers +long nose + dog ears still looks too moosy. And also I have to make hm ugly enough to be interesting and a social outcast, but still lovable enough to want to be seen as a performer. Ugh. Beautifully designed ugliness. The curse of being a conformist artist.
Any thoughts on designs or particular animal species?
I just finished a vectorized version of Rickety, still using the ink and pencil textures. His shoes still need work and his nose needs to be darker, but other than that how does it look? Better or worse than the traditionally drawn ink outline?
This is the same ink walk cycle, but over the gray background you can see more clearly the "cutout" look of Rickety. Not sure if it works, if it should be smooth, or if it should be more rough.
Skeleton cards are what makes the game interesting. If you get a skeleton card, and then get an action card or land on an action space in which you get outed, then you have to go all the way back to the start. I really want to beta-test this out.
Also, I made my first cut-out game piece!
I even figured out a way to make him stand pretty nicely on his own without the use of glue, tape, or a plastic stand, but it's a bit confusing to explain without instructions. Perhaps next week I'll have the whole sheet of characters done!
It's about the perilous road to stardom and the objective is to take your character all the way from the Rock Bottom Bar to the Tippity Top Theatre before anyone else does! Some things will help you on your way like getting sponsorship and or having a "private meeting" with a director, while other things will impede your path, such as acquiring skeletons in the closet. And if your skeletons get found out, it's back to Rock Bottom, or worse!
One possibly Combination:
The game idea has gotten fairly good reception since I've pitched it to multiple people, so I'm pretty excited. I'm going to make the entire game a free downloadable PDF that people can print out and play, similar to tabletop roleplaying games. I also plan on making a deluxe version which has more game pieces, more board pieces, different versions of the playable characters, and even new game mechanics that aren't necesarily needed for the game, but make it slightly more interesting to play. I'll probably sell it for like five bucksish.
I'm having an interesting time providing textures for al of the characters' clothing. I should have more character sheets next week along with some player pieces and card examples.
I't's pretty good, but I'm gonna work on it some more, add some shading, maybe a bit of texture, we'll see what I can do with it.
That might be fur on her coat, not because she's an extravagant duck, but it's something Rascals would buy for her. 
I have to figure out how else I can mess with the graphics of this blog. Maybe make a cool background texture. Who knows! I'm also working on a Rickety Rat poster idea, like those cool classic noir posters they used to have. I have a number of ideas, including an "everyone has a gun" poster, which I thought was kinda funny. Take a look at one of the designs:
Other than that, going through the dialogue and storyboarding. There's some great dialogue here, but it looks like because of interference, we may have to rerecord some lines. Bleah. The Storyboards are coming along nicely, here's one of them:
Hey! That's a cool idea! Since this is a Blog about a Noir animation, maybe I'll recommend a different Noir movie every time also! How does that sound? Does anyone know of some cool old or new Noir movies I should watch? 
So I did a little sketch of a few of the main characters to figure out the heights of all of them. Rascals is about the normal height of an average person/character. Rickety's a small little chump, Dolly's a little too tall and thin, and Stumble's is freakishly tall, so much so they don't make pants for him. I would think that Roofie is just slightly taller than the norm,a nd Digby just a tad shorter, so I didn't include them. 
So here's a pic of what Blusto would look like in my 11 second animation that I haven't finished yet and have put at the tail end of a very long to-do list. The Gag was that Rickety was a judge for the "little miss Adorable"contest and Blusto wanted to enter, and of course he didn't win. Hence the dialogue. 
I just finished a vectorized version of Rickety, still using the ink and pencil textures. His shoes still need work and his nose needs to be darker, but other than that how does it look? Better or worse than the traditionally drawn ink outline?