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FAQ Q: Just who are you, anyway? A: I'm Erich Arendall, a 30-something web architect and developer with twin black-belts in pop-culture and geekdom. Do you really need any more than that? Q: How often does the comic get updated? A: Attercap.Net is updated with a new strip every week day. Yes. One small escape from the doldrums of every day work life from me to you. Q: What do you use to make the strips? A: Toys, and lots of them. The main cast is built from pieces of the now defunct Palisades Toys PALz line. The primary background sets are from a line called The Cubes. I use a Microsoft LiveCam NX-6000 to take the pictures. Once captured, I make any special effects and enter text with Adobe Photoshop CS. Q: About how long does it take you to create a strip? A: It's hard to quantify a single strip as I tend to work on a week's worth plus at a time. In a conversation with a friend, we worked out that the mean time for a single strip originally took about two hours. These days, the average strip takes about 30-45 minutes. Q: What all goes into script creation? A: It all starts out in TextPad, where I jot down various ideas and puns that I want to eventually include. Then, I write an overall script for the week, split it apart into for-panel strips and massage the jokes for each strip. Once I'm satisfied with the week, I'll take photos using my webcam. (Why a webcam? It allows me to keep one hand free for any special toy manipulation.) After all the photos are captured, I take them into Photoshop, do any needed cleaning or editing. Finally, I add in the text and speech balloons--at this point, I also re-read over the script and adjust it to (hopefully) increase the humor as well as look better in word bubbles (this is also where any spelling/grammar mistakes occur, since Photoshop lacks spellcheck). The entire process typically occurs multiple days; scripting one day, photographing the next, etc. Q: What happened to that neat single-panel scrolling mechanic? A: The original design for the site featured a javascript/php device that displayed only one panel of a strip at a time, forcing the user to click to view the next (or previous) panel. While I liked the idea of the mechanic (especially as an idea of forced pacing for "beat" gags), I had reports of confusion from some users as well as reported issues from readers with RSI or disabled javascript. Since the goal is to entertain people and not confuse, annoy or aggravate injury, I decided to launch a full site redesign and, with it, broke the comic down to a more common webcomic 4-panel format. Q: That "Graham" character kind of resembles you. Coincidence? A: Yes, and at the same time, no. Like many events of the strips (but certainly not all) the cast is based off of people I've worked with in my life--while not exactly being a direct representative of me or anyone I've worked with. Graham looks like me (as much a pre-manufactured toy can), but I'm not the only person I know who sports the bald-with-beard look and there are many facets of his character that do not represent me. Q: I see some neat images used for cubical decorations, where are they from? A: If it's not a movie poster, then it either came from The Cubes (generally the more office-y ones are from there) or The Poster List (the cool posters come from there). The posters are real posters you can order for your own cube (or wall) and I highly suggest checking them out. Q: Wha-what's taters, precious? A: You know, po-ta-toes! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew... Q: Can I link to you and will you reciprocate? A: Hey, I won't stop you from linking to my site any more than I'd stop you from giving me money: in fact, I'd like either (or both) very much. If you link me and tell me about it, I'll check out your site and if I like it and feel it appropriate, I'll link back—but I make no promises. Q: I like your design, what other work have you done? A: I'm actually more of a programmer than a designer, though I do dabble. However, some of my now defunct sites (which you may find via (The Internet Archive) include impudite.com (a site dedicated to In Nomine), egrigor.com and eyecant.com (weblog sites, primarily) and porkfactor9.com (a Pigs In Space webcomic, the archives of which are posted here). |
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