Hi folks,
I’m a big fan of the lore of Overwatch, and previously toyed with making my own series of OW animated shorts called Overwatch: Zero Hour using Source Filmmaker. The initial results were promising, but sadly it is a very long, time-consuming process to make decent animation. So instead I thought I would reshape the series into a comic series, in a similar vein to those released by Blizzard but made using real game assets and models (and some Photoshop magic).
If there’s any other lore-hungry fans out there, I hope you’ll get a kick out of this too. Here it is, hope you like it:
Issue One - Rogue Variables feat. Moira & Zenyatta
https://imgur.com/gallery/oZ2Kdg0
The aim of Zero Hour as a whole is to expand the story of Overwatch and offer up some more content for people like me who really love the lore and world-building of the game. Future issues will focus on different characters - initially leaning towards those who have yet to be shown a lot of love in the official lore releases (Zenyatta animated short when?). Issue Two will feature a certain justice-delivering rocket-jumper…
Would be great to hear your thoughts/feedback below!
I’d love to see it, but unfortunately Imgur isn’t available in my country… D:
Oh, sorry to hear that Adelite. Can you suggest an alternative, I’d be happy to upload elsewhere too.
I believe TinyPic is free too?
1 Like
I like the idea but i hate the format its executed on.
I have much more respect for hand/drawn comics then 3d once.
Here you go, unfortunately TinyPic automatically limits the resolution but it’s still high enough to read clearly: http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=5zeR%2FeOxIJdmfNN%2BrxI30oh4l5k2TGxc&page=1&sort=oldest
There’s some very skilled hand-drawn artists out there, unfortunately I can’t count myself amongst them.
I’ve read it now, and yes I enjoy the storyline, but as Wickedlike said I dislike the format too. It just feels- cheesy, to say the least. Maybe this would be better suited as a fan fiction? Now, the story is good, yes, but it feels kind of off. First, I still don’t understand why Talon would try to contact the Shambali of all people. Half of their members are either in unethical practices or just simply use a lot of violence, which is completely what the Shambali are against. But even if I forget that point, I still don’t understand why they took the soldier out. They didn’t chase down Moira, so why did they leave that dude unconscious? Anyway, while the story’s idea is a good one (Plot progression is all we want tbh.) I feel like you were trying to please the fans a bit here and there too. I felt like that Tracer scene was unnecessary at least. Tracer has nothing to do with Moira or Talon mostly, other than trying to stop Widowmaker, but I doubt Genji and Tracer even know each other at most… The Genji references were on point though, as they actually made sense (Him being formerly in Blackwatch etc…) but I really disliked the Tracer scene, it felt like what they call ‘‘cringy’’. (Sorry!)
TL;DR: Great idea, needs improvement with the execution (Maybe you could find somebody to help with the comic or switch to fanfic?)
Another idea I just got is you could maybe make the models look cartoonier (like have cell shading) It’s something I believe you could experiment on (I’m assuming you used some sort of animation program to pose the characters here)
1 Like
“Visitors must come by the mountain path”
Overwatch uses a drop ship
Shambali: TRIGGERED
1 Like
As far as REAL feedback goes, I like it.
The way you used in-game assets + photoshops shows ingenuity, and I can respect that. Not only did you pull it off well, but the writing is outstanding. Some lines are a little off, but that’s because the actual writers didn’t write them, so it sounds awkward because I’m not used to hearing Zenyatta speak sentences longer than a voice line. On top of that, characters like Zen and Moira who have unique speaking mannerisms are hard to do well, so I’m going to have to give you an A+ for pulling it off so well.
There’s not much I don’t like about this, other than my disappointment that it is unlikely any of it could be canon. Then again, the Torbs arm incident does kinda show that the writers are enormous trolls, and I wouldn’t put it past them to be like “Yup, this is canon now, whatever.”
If you keep up good writing like this and put out notices for an artist to help out, this could become popular. Actually, I have an idea…
If we spread comics and update the wiki with info from fan comics like these, the writers will then have no choice but to tell us it’s not canon, therefore giving us lore reveals!
#ReversePsychologyTheOverwatchWriters
SPREAD THE WORD
1 Like
Thank you both for your feedback, it’s very helpful.
Regarding the art style, it is something I plan to polish and perfect but I like the idea of keeping to the in-game models. I did do some test panels with cel shading and poster edge filters, etc, but tbh in my opinion they brought the quality down as you can lose a lot of detail.
To address Adelite’s plot questions - I deliberately did not want to have the Shambali spell out their actions in a clunky exposition, but maybe they weren’t clear enough. They took out the soldier since they planned to confront Moira with the fact that they knew the truth about Mondatta, and didn’t want the guy with the gun getting trigger-happy. As for why Talon is interested in the Shambali, the last page shows that Moira never was interested in recruiting them (and Doomfist never approved to begin with) but it was all a cover for her to steal one of their orbs. Hope that helps clarify.
Here’s a little preview of the cover for the next issue - No Quarter, starring Pharah: https://imgur.com/gallery/wjue25k