FULL SIZE IMAGE
Much to think about.
Talita is preforming a rolling hexapodal gallop here, where only one foot is contact with the ground at a time. It is the fastest gait a centaur can achieve, and if they're workout freaks like Talita, they can reach highway speeds for a minute or two. This kind of sprint is extremely strenuous and rest and recovery is required before pulling it off again.
Someday, god willing, I will have the time to finish animations again, but here's a rough concept of what the gallop looks like in motion and the foot contact sequence (though this depicts the sequence starting with the left forefoot, and the comic depicts it starting with the right... and takes some additional liberties with posing for dynamism.... whatever)
Transcript
The speed of the treadmill surpasses typ human limits, and Talita transitions to a hexapodal gallop, only one foot contacting the ground at a time. She breathes heavily, in through the nostrils on her face and out through the nostrils on her lower torso.
SFX: HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF
50 km/hr
70 km/hr
The sprint rolls down her body, and her muscles work in time with her breathing like the pistons in an engine. Her hooves dig into the surface of the treadmill, the steely elastic tendons of her limbs taking on the weight of her entire body with each stride, wrists practically bending to touch the ground.
SFX: HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF
90 km/hr
120 km/hr
The yard is gone. Talita is alone in her mind while her body works like a machine taken to its physical limit. Memories of the centaur script from the outside of the Runaway and its cluttered interior flash past, simultaneously meaning nothing and too much.
The sprint program begins to wind down.
100 km/hr
80 km/hr
40 km/hr
0 km/hr
She comes back to standstill, all six limbs touching the ground. Then she leans heavily on the tablet stand, panting with her forehead against her arms. The yard begins to fade back into existence. Talita puts her glasses back on and picks up her tablet to make a call.
Talita: Hey, Bip?
102 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 123 and 124”
Boxthing
GOTTA GO FAST
God I love seeing that unique body in motion!
Rex
God I can’t wait to buy a physical copy of this
Elixer
Gods, I love this comic, and all it’s fantastic worldbuilding!
The static running art STILL looks like it’s moving! I am in awe of your craft
Mar
I love the text in the background of the darker panel. I don’t recognize your world’s languages yet, but to me the addition of the text is like a callback to Talita’s ancestry, running as an essential part of being Centaur. Makes sense if she’s self-regulating with exercise. That’s my read, anyway, excited for more as always.
Jay Valenz
i think shes thinking about the centaurs from bip’s old crew! if you look on the left side, youll see a pictograph like this: <:= which was on the walls of the habitat module of the runaway seen in page 105, it was the clan's symbol for bip (cause it looks like their avatar!)
Thomas
I hope they go into more detail about centaur physical stats and how they compare to humans, GMH and other species.
iisaw
The anatomy and biomechanics here are fascinating. I was initially impressed by her definition when she gets pumped up, then I realized that her feather-like fur (is that the right term?) is probably smoothing out the edges quite a lot. That woman really doesn’t have much body fat, does she?
As an animator, I’m really impressed that you put the shoulder height difference into the moving diagram. I love seeing attention to detail like that. I also find myself trying to work out the blur levels and patterns on a “finished” version.
Spectacular work!
Seer
I’m not sure what’s more amusing to me. The idea that Talita purchased some kind of treadmill for horses and somehow had it dropshipped to Dirtball, or that she jailbroke one to reach highway speeds
JoB
Ohwitiil: “Say, Talita, how are those evaluation tests coming along? Can we finally request quotations for some light cycles, or do they still exhibit problems on the test stand?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Cycle
zwol
I suspect it’d be difficult for her to get enough exercise without it. And that could well mean it’s a medical necessity, particularly if Dirtball’s gravity is lighter than the centaur homeworld.
Kat
I’m going to be honest, seeing Talita’s musculature move like it does when she is running made me have a major lesbian moment… unrelated, but I’ve since taken up running as a hobby again. But seriously, the way you’ve thought out and made her speculative biology come to life through this comic makes her feel more real than some real-life people I’ve met.
TotallySomebody
I AM SO GLAD I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE FEELING. ATTRACTED.
Sen
She could run laps inside the dome, but I guess that would scare a lot of people, because she would be the fastest thing there. Would be awesome to see though. I guess I’ll have to wait for the centaur olympic games on TV.
JoB
Let me put it like this, the habitat’s ring road is *not* banked
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banked_turn
and for a *train* going at that speed with no banking, the tracks are required (in Germany) to have a curve *radius* in the order of 2 km …
Athelind Llewellyn Long
I find myself reminded of the Gallloping Thoat animation that Bob Clampett and his crew did back in the ’30s for a John Carter of Mars project that never got off the ground: https://youtu.be/bTAlgZlqwnQ?si=kubGzpSNrfckKBLY&t=86
Clampett’s work is lovely and impressionistic, but it doesn’t have the same weight and realism that Jay’s scrupulous anatomical studies give to her animation.
creetur
Ough.. loving all the details in this. The way the musculature is highlighted, the background with the centaur writing, the feathers on her neck and crest, very good!
Julius
I know this is a serious page but I’m actually crying laughing imagining being on the highway and seeing a centaur run past your car incredibly fast
Paroxysmall
I second that with this being a really impactful page and yet, she’s calling Bip in underwear only (not that they can see)
bitty
this page is so gorgeous, damn ;w; <3333
in the shaded middle panel, she actually does look somewhat relaxed and stress free, for the most part – poor girl always looks so stressed tbh ;; of course, the humans and other species might not necessarily know it from her body language, but as a reader i can compare it to the information…. two times now talita has found escape and release through workout. its a good way to clear the mind.
urlocallesbiab
this page is absolutely GORGEOUS, probably the most beautiful in the comic so far, and the transcript did such a good job portraying it! a fully awesome experience
Harumin
I love reading each page with all the extra details of the making and the way the transcripts have their own life to them as well!
GP
I am looking respectfully
Carmenifold
truly
Carmenifold
and the transcript description is not helping ;w;
Zuorai
She’s so beautiful I will cry
LTP
It becomes harder with every page she’s in 😞
Ruby
Talita is the powerhouse of the comic
evileeyore
Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t outrun your anxieties ma’am!
No matter how you can deal with the fast tiger, the slow tiger will always catch up. It’s best to face that slow tiger head on and face it down.
Athelind Llewellyn Long
But Talita’s a pursuit carnivore. On her species’ homeworld, she IS the tiger.
Tentament
10 years from now when RttS becomes really popular and is adapted into a TV series, this will be one of my most anticipated scenes. I can see it in my head so clearly.
eel
10 years?! That’s optimistic. I’m still waiting for my Animorphs animated TV series 25 years on.
I do love this scene in RttS. I always imagine a rising crescendo and a “scare chord” or some momentous sound for the middle panel.
BullCityFats
So how long would a race have to be before a human could beat a centaur?
Common Handle
I wish I could sprint 120km/hr. It’s probably therapeutic.
Also the transcript for this page… ough. Poetic
Vinemaple
As in, everyone, you GOTTA read the transcript on this one.
Dicemonger
You’re not kidding. That is one great transcript.
eden
my phone won’t let me, what does it say?
evileeyore
They are probably mostly refering to the middle paragraph…
“The sprint rolls down her body, and her muscles work in time with her breathing like the pistons in an engine. Her hooves dig into the surface of the treadmill, the steely elastic tendons of her limbs taking on the weight of her entire body with each stride, wrists practically bending to touch the ground.
SFX: HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF
90 km/hr
120 km/hr
The yard is gone. Talita is alone in her mind while her body works like a machine taken to its physical limit. Memories of the centaur script from the outside of the Runaway and its cluttered interior flash past, simultaneously meaning nothing and too much.
The sprint program begins to wind down.
100 km/hr
80 km/hr
40 km/hr
0 km/hr
She comes back to standstill, all six limbs touching the ground. Then she leans heavily on the tablet stand, panting with her forehead against her arms. The yard begins to fade back into existence. Talita puts her glasses back on and picks up her tablet to make a call.
Talita: Hey, Bip?”
evileeyore
Sorry, I somehow failed to grab the first paragraph as well…
“The speed of the treadmill surpasses typ human limits, and Talita transitions to a hexapodal gallop, only one foot contacting the ground at a time. She breathes heavily, in through the nostrils on her face and out through the nostrils on her lower torso.
SFX: HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF
50 km/hr
70 km/hr
The sprint rolls down her body…”
Dicemonger
See, last page when she reached 40 km/h, I was thinking it would hurt so bad if she took a spill and got rocketed off the treadmill.
Imagine stumbling at 120 km/h. You might straight up murder yourself.
40
Just yesterday I was talking about how impressive it is that you’re able to like perfectly draw a jacked species that does not exist, and then today you drop this image and like what the hell man 😭😭😭
cinna
runaway to the stars (really fast on a treadmill in your underwear)
JoB
… what’s Dirtball’s escape velocity again? Not quite like the Martian moons’, I fear … ?
https://xkcd.com/681_large/
foca
really beautiful page….
Bruce Mickelson
Outstanding art! The detailed musculature and attention to locomotion pattern is amazing! I have witnessed polo horses go charging past me within a few yards and the impression of mass and power will grab your attention – to see an even larger creature moving at freeway speeds that close would be frightening.
Ruby
I’ve had this experience with an orca. The matriarch rammed a tuna right in front of our boat.
It’s hard to believe that such a huge living being can move at that speed until they do it right in front of your face.
zaratustra
VERY fast Talita moving at incredible hihg speed
Trees
Holy shit.
dokki
centaurs are so fuckin cool man
Adrienne
Look at all that awesome musculature… this page is bringing out the geek in me big time, I can’t stop thinking about how you drew it
Montydragon
This might be one of my favorite pages so far. Beautiful illustrations of centaur anatomy, heavy emotional implications, and excellent panel layout. Talita is such a wonderful character. Have a feeling she’s finally taking things into her own hands here.
Phasma Felis
They can do that, too. Different situations. Ready tool or all-out speed. (And toolmakers can make belts and harnesses to hold their tools while they sprint.)
Hosp
I think I hauve covid
TotallySomebody
The words from the ship…
EvilHominede.
It’s worth noting how amazing you’ve drawn how the muscles move. How they contract and unclench. And the whole bio-mechanics of the Kentarves reminds me a lot….Alabaev (Middle Asian avdarki ). Especially the limbs on the ” belly ” . But I have a question: why do they use their hands as an additional pair of legs? Wouldn’t it be better to use them to hold a spear? Yes, to be honest, there are a lot of questions about your setting.
Jay Eaton
Because running on six legs is cool 👍
EvilHominede.
Эээээээ OOK.
Arcstone
Did they ever develop spears actually? I kinda headcanon that they didn’t, because they never really needed them.
This actually makes me quite qurious about how this would affect their tech tree as well, as I’m sure early weapons technology in our case was largly driven by hunting rather than warfare. This leads me to consider if a predator species like this with both super speed and big chompy teeth like the centaurs would probably lag behind quite a bit in that field, not really figuring out weapons until way later than we would, being a species with no natural weapons to speak of at all.
Am I around about-ish right on the money?
JoB
> Did they ever develop spears actually?
You might want to have a look at this image and the text underneath:
https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Centaurs/Planet#DomesticAnimals
Arcstone
Thats a bolt-action rifle.
It’s a bolt-action rifle in a setting where people are traveling around with space ships and wormhole technology.
Literally proving my point.
JoB
> It’s a bolt-action rifle in a setting where people are traveling
> around with space ships and wormhole technology.
> Literally proving my point.
Well, if *that* was your point, OK. Not that it weren’t canon that the centaurs were discovered during their “radio age”, contacted though the BFGC deemed them not ready for that, and often getting exploited as cheap (but uneducated) muscle when they choose to leave their home planet.
I was suggesting that a species that had firearms *before* First Contact would likely have used primitive weapons earlier as well, whether we’d liken them to a spear, lance, halberd, naginata, or whatever.
Arcstone
shit, I forgot about the radio age thing. Youre right then.
Arcstone
Teeth.
Big chompy ones.
Green Heron
*Insert workout montage music here*
Also I gotta say, you don’t really notice how much Talita’s downturned head is a part of her character mannerisms until she’s not doing it, like here.
Vinemaple
It seems to be part of sprinting, to lower the head and facial disc to improve streamlining. At that speed, it’s probably worth it!
chirp
Ooh the transcript for this page is particularly nice
Tumorhead
GIRL RUN
Tyrone the Miner
If that treadmill stops with a “BANG” as in a stuck bearing, it will end badly….inside the wall….Or through!
Phlosioneer
You know what’s missing from that treadmill? A safety cutoff line (a dongle attached to talita that shuts off the treadmill if she starts going too far backwards)
HAL9000
if Talita is a true fitness nut she probably wouldn’t use it anyway… half the runners I run with never use it even at a dead sprint because they’re worried about pulling it out accidentally (which I have also done midsprint lmao it absolutely jars you when the ground stops keeping up with you suddenly). don’t copy us kids! use the safety cord if you like your face to not get sandpapered!
Storm
Also I LOVE the Centaur text from the ship behind her
Storm
Oh excellent addition to send my animal tracking group chat
Amanda/OwlBear
WOOSH she’s fast, and yeah sometimes it’s easier to think about tough things while doing the speedy speedy
Arcstone
Is that her hitting a sort of natural hunter animal meditative zen state once she reaches max speed?