Just a few thoughts...
Unavoidably, there should be more people going for online publishing. But once
you go for free and just depending on donation, it's hard to change back to
charging in the future when your stuff get popular. (Go around the web and you
will find a lot of such examples)
E-publications save physical spaces and use less papers, but it's not convenient to
access without some proper electronic devices. Papers at least could be recycled
but electronic equipment... very hard to recycle and take extra cautions on
disposal.
Besides, not everyone loves to face a LCD monitor for a prolonged time. It's
easier to get tired than reading a print-out. So comic books are still worthy of
existing.
Ideally, we should use web as a promotion medium and make printing depending
on the number of demands/orders. Not dreaming but there's such
print-on-demand
service existing. However, who dared to do such risky business in HK?
Comic for hand-held devices... maybe feasible in Japan but not globally. Because
you have to make sure everyone's mobile has the latest colour displays for best
resolution. However, even different brands have different display dimensions -
you will be driven crazy. Besides, there're companies developing flexible paper-like
monitor like
this one. With such things become feasible in application, the whole comic
publication will go back to normal without display issues.
Therefore, comic for hand-held devices is just a transitional production - won't
last long. Why not spending more times to enhance the comic content and quality?
Animation is a team production, regardless 3D or 2D. Just like other said, it alone
impossible to replace comic, especially when the comic and the animation versions
have totally different storylines. (Well, this is a tactic widely used to create more
profits). However, it may introduce some interactive factors for online comics.
(e.g. some dynamic scenes are animated instead of still images)
Comic going 3D is OK, but there are limitations in 3D.
If you are dealing with background and mechanical stuffs, 3D is a wonderful
choice. However, when you are dealing with organic stuff, especially human
characters, you need to take extra cares. For examples, you have to prepare
several different versions of 3D models for one character if he need to change
from normal proportion to cartoon, sd forms, etc. in certain scenes, not to
mention facial expressions.
What I want to point out is that you need to a flexible approaches. After all,
3D is just a tool to assist comic production. Knowing how to and when to use
them with 2D stuffs are more important. Nevertheless, you open doors for more
possibilities when going 3D: You could go to Animation and game sides later on.
Lastly, with an artistic background (e.g. know how to draw, taking photos, etc.)
will be helpful to animation production. Observation is another key factor.
