Quarto anniversario - i vostri desideri sono ordini

Ciao,
si avvicina il quarto anniversario - il 19 gennaio - e lo so che siete impegnati ma avevo pensato ad animare un pochino i festeggiamenti con il minimo sforzo da parte vostra.

1) Create un personaggio: La gemma del mediterraneo avra' dei nuovi personaggi - per la maggior parte gente che abita nel palazzo di Circe: create un personaggio - scritto o disegnato - e i metteremo i piu' votati nel cast della storia. (Nicoli e' nata cosi', infatti atteso da tempo fa parte del Progetto Baldassarre)

2) La migliore fan fiction: nel corso degli anni abbiamo ricevuto tante belle storie: votate per la migliore e la trsformero' in un fumetto (e siete ancora in tempo a scrivere una storia per partecipare a questa competizione)

3) Quello che non vi ho detto: ci sono stati momenti nel corso di questa storia dove invece di approfondire e mostrarvi cose sono passata ad altro (per esempio il matrimonio di Kes e del dottore faceva parte di questa categoria e poi e' stato approfondito in seguit). Volete sapere cosa Kane ha detto a Castalia dopo l'ottavo capitolo, mentre i ragazzi li spiavano? Voleve sapere come il dottore ha trovato Priscilla? Oppure vi piacerebbe scorprire cos'e' successo a Rose la notte in cui si e' persa e ha incontrato Jack? Fate vobis~! Insomma questo va nella categoria del "ho sempre voluto sapere cos'e' accaduto quella volta", praticamente il Pirata Baldassarre uncut!

4) Richieste strambe: dal primo di Gennaio comincero' il mio "1schizzoalgiorno"... iniziate a richiedere.
Sto ancora lentamente lavorando su richieste precedenti:  steampunk (rock-o-co Lio) fatto,  character as badass pirates (emoking, fatto ma mancano gli altri) il resto lo sto inserendo nel fumetto stesso....
Quindi pensate a schizzi ma siate specifici, fantasiosi e assurdi hahahaha.

che ne dite, allora?
Ci state?

Deda

4th anniversary - the stuff I haven't shown you

Hi guys,

The fourth anniversary is approaching - January 19th is around the corner - and I know you guys are busy but here are a set of activities I had in mind to have fun together with the minimum effort.

1) Create a Character: The Gem of the Mediterranean Sea will have some new characters - mostly people living in Circe's palace: create a character -drawn or in written form - and we'll put the most voted ones into the story. (just so you know this is how Nicoli was born too - in fact Long Overdue is part of the Project Balthasar)

2) The best Fan Fiction: over the year we've received and read many sweet stories related to the pirate balthasar: vote for the best one and I will turn it into a comic. (btw you are still on time to enter a brand new idea into this competition)

3) The stuff I haven't shown you: there were moments in the story whereby instead of showing you everything I jumped somewhere else (Kes and Wes' wedding was one of them). Do you want to know what Kane told Castalia at the end of chapter 8 when the boys were spying on them? Do you want to know how the doctor found Priscilla? Did you ever wonder what happened the night Rose wandered off and found Jack? You name it! this is a "I always wanted to know what happened... then!" - basically a pirate Balthasar uncut :D

4) The funky request: this will begin on January first and will be part of my "1doodleaday" exercise... so you have to put up your request in fast. 

I am still working on some of the stuff from the to do list:  steampunk (rock-o-co Lio),  character as badass pirates (emoking) were completed and am slowly writing in the rest in the comic. So think Doodle and you can go really really specific and very crazy with your request.

alright,

so what do you say?

Are you game?

Deda

Happy Holidays!!!

Guys, I do not know what happened to the Secret Santas... I never received email back so... I guess it kinda all burst like a bubble... ehm.... So Happy Holiday for now!

Circes from sketch to Fanart

 I doodle this really quick study of Circes and her tattoo in the library - some 7 minutes doodle really cuz I got kicked out (you can read the whole story here) LOL...

... and apparently it inspired this awesome fanart by BlackBirdINK.

Circes is coming along just fine hahaha I think you are going to enjoy her presence immensely in the future.

Style tests and color tests for "The Gem of the Mediterranean Sea"

To figure out what kind of style and colors to use for the next special I am doing lots of test.
I will post them here so you guys can kind see what I am currently working one - while I release the Slave ship.

I am definitely aiming for clean lines but I want a very magical feeling to the whole thing so... I am still torn between digital and watercolor... or both.

Cruciverba alla maniera dei pirati

Sorry guys there is no English version for this. It was created by one of the Italian readers.

Questo è un dono da parte di Annacquata!

Gemma hairdo and color test

I was trying to figure out Gemma a bit more... next might be Kane's turn... let's see will he go there as the kid who got away, as the emoking, as the guy Castalia met or as somebody completely new?

Gemma and the ambassador

Extra characters fan art

Since the last time I posted some fan art... I received three more pieces. I want to share them with you because I really like to see how much you guys like secondary characters or little details.

This is Ahr, well he is not really a secondary character but he is quite new.
This drawing is by PapillonsPede you can visit this piece on deviant art and leave some nice feedback.

This is a picture of Penelope whose terrible singing abilities shone at the end of Daddy Home for Christmas.
This drawing is by koorihimesama who sent me this picture for my birthday.

The last drawing sees Andromeda with Lorenzo - I kinda miss Lorenzo - and Lorenzo's wife.
If you click on Myridd's name - the author of this drawing - you can also read the delightful fan fiction she wrote about this picture.

Secret Santa Rules

I begin by saying that I am opened to suggestions.

 Last year we played it like this:

1.  You enroll a Secret Santa. 
2.  You make a wish and take a wish into your hands. 
3.  You make that wish come true and somebody else will grant yours in return. 

 So let's say: Jane enrolls and says: I can draw! And I want a Quoque/Rose fanfiction. Another person would enroll and say: I can write that fan fiction but I want a poetry in return. Another person would go: I can write poetry and I want a drawing of Kane. The first person will say: cool I draw Kane for you.


 Tadaaaaa. Secret Santa set in place. Everybody gets a gift. So the first thing you do is you enroll, state your skill and make a request.

How do we keep this secret? 

It might be troublesome but we have to go through email only: tynstudios(at)gmail.com

p.s. please if you do enroll keep your Secret Santa promise

Witches Bookmarks

Hi guys,
Here are the first two of a set of six bookmarks having for theme the Beneventan witches.
It's my... err... Christmas present to you.
You can print and laminate them (I intend to do so :D)
I hope you like them.
(btw you can see how I've created Gemma's bookmark by visiting the livestream channel).

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween guys, I will make individual cards of these drawings... like tarots card hehehe.
Tomorrow we start with the new special
I hope you will like it.

Btw if you want to see how I drew this you can go and check the video here

The Results of the Polls are as follow:

Hi guys, we have to close the poll now.
The results are as follow:

Lio and the Stork 119 votes
Circes 108 votes
Zizack and Pearlie 105 votes
While you were away 68 votes
Abduction from the Serraglio 43 votes
The Gem of the Mediterranean sea 39 votes
The Slave ship 38 votes
Family Traditions 26
Murder in Bologna 24 votes
Our Little Brother 22 votes
Badia 12 votes
How Durians arrived in Italy 7 votes

I think the Durian story is mainly voted by Singaporeans hahaha.

So I guess we'll go ahead, set up the Christmas mood with a nice little story focusing on our beloved Lio (I can see you guys miss her as much as I do)... then we finally see the Christmas special.

I am unsure but I think I can sneak in Circes - I will be storyboarding like crazy for the next two days to figure out how long these specials are... so for a bit you guys might have to enjoy illustrations.

On November 1st we begin with Lio and the Stork.

I have a feeling that after the latest cliffhanger we should have to redo our polls in January as The Gem might get higher votes, since we need to rescue Castalia, somehow... unless you really want to read about Zizack and Pearlie, but it would be nice to alternate cute/sweet, with funny and dramatic stories.

Cosa leggiamo dopo?

Traduco questo post anche in Italiano,

Lo speciale corrente se tutto va bene e non ci sono interruzioni (ma anche se ci sono interruzioni) dovrebbe finire tra il 24 e il 26 di ottobre.

Adesso dobbiamo decidere lo speciale da far partire a Novembre.

Considerato che lo speciale di Natale parte a Dicebre e sarà The slave ship (Cat x Callista) - La nave degli schiavi - potete scegliere una storia brve o una lunga che dovrà però essere interrotta nel momento in cui lo speciale dovrà iniziare (com'è successo l'anno scorso con Tutto quel che ho).
Potete scegliere una storia che completi un ciclo, così finisco il volume e lo posto in pdf.
O scegliere di far partire un nuovo volume!

Potete anche proporre idee per una storia.

Le scelta è vostra: potete anche votare più di una volta (nel senso, titoli diversi).

Questo è un piccolo riassunto delle storie con indicazione della loro lunghezza:

- Circes (questa è la storia di come Castalia ha incontrato Circe in passato - e quindi vedremmo come è perché è affetta e spaventata da questa donna) Breve
- Murder in Bologna (Assassinio a Bologna è la penultima storia delle Origini - Martin, Kane e Wes si incontrano all'Università, diventano amici e risolvono un omicidio) Lunga
- How durians arrived in Italy (Come i durians giunsero in Italia è una storia ideata per farvi vedere la parte di mondo dove vivo io - il Sud Est Asiatico - quindi ci sarebbero pirati malesi, i bugis, le pontianaks, gli zombi e i guerrieri silat) Media
- Badia (Dopo una naufragio Castalia e Kane finiscono in Sicilia e Castalia finisce col vedere Kane in una luce diversa - putroppo le cose peggiorano quando si trovano invischiati con la mafia locale). Media

- While you were away (Mentre eri via ci spiega cos'è successo al povero Josh. Sarebbe la storia che Nicoli ha letto durante Atteso da Tempo, quella scritta da Pifo... chissà se Pifo scrive bene!) Breve
- Abduction to the serraglio (Kes viene rapita dai Turchi e finisce in uno stranissimo serraglio. Wes parte alla riscossa per riprendersela.) Media
- Animal talk (Alcuni degli episodi vissuti dai protagonisti umani rivissuti e narrati dai loro animali domestici, tipo Fickle) Breve
- Lio and the stork (questa è la storia di come Lio cerca di fare un patto con la cignogna che le ha fatto il nido sul camino, nella speranza di avere un bimbo) Breve
- Zizack and Pearlie (questa non c'è bisogno che ve la spieghi). Media

 - The slave ship (Conclude il dilemma di Cat e Calli sull'avere un bimbo e porta anche a degna conclusione la storia di Lio e la cicogna) Speciale di Natale
- Family Traditions (una famiglia ebrea si trasferisce sull'isola di Amado e potra alla mentre tristi ricordi per Wes. Il vero propblema è però un altro: la loro presenza complica estremamente i rapporti tra Itzak, Cosimo e gli altri bambini presenti sull'isola).  (Speciale di Natale dell'anno prossimo... se tutto va bene...)
- Our Little Brother (Questa è l'ultima storia delle Origini, precisamente è la storia di come Kane e Josh hanno scoperto dell'esistenza di Amil e vengono a contatto con lui per la prima volta). Breve


L'ultima storia vorrei conservarla per un po' più in là perché ci sto ancora lavorando su, è la continuazione di Atteso da Tempo, come Kane recupera Castalia - vorrei un po' di leggerezza per qualche tempo perché le streghe sono difficili da gestire hahaha:

 - The Gem of the Mediterranean Sea.

Votate:

What would I like to see next:

Hi guys,

The current special (if no further delays interrupt us) will end between october 24th to October 26th (considering delays). 

So let's pick November 1st as the date for the release of the next special.

Considering that this year's Christmas special will begin on December 1st and it will be The slave ship (Cat x Callista) you could either pick a short story or a very long one that would be interrupted halfway to let the Special begin (kinda like what happened last year).
You could decide to pick a story that completes a cicle that I could put together a volume and release the pdf.
Or decide to start a brand new volume too! XDD
You can even propose stories for the next round.

It's up to you: you have multiple choices available. As in... you can give more than one vote.

Here are the specials available next - you can read the Summary first:

- Circes (this is the story of how Castalia got to meet Circes and so we get to know why she is also affected by her spells and is so scared of this woman) SHORT
- Murder in Bologna (this story covers the second to last one of the Origins cicle - here we see how Kane and Wes met Martin during their University years and also got to solve a murder) LONG
- How durians arrived in Italy (this is a story set on my side of the World - South East Asia, where I currently live - so you get to see malay pirates, bugis pirates and tonchin pirates and pontianaks and zombies hahaha) MEDIUM
- Badia (in this story you see Kane and Castalia going back to Sicily and Castalia gets to see her Kane in a different light - they also stumble upon the local mafia boss and life becomes less easy). MEDIUM

 But here are some of the other stories I have planned:
- While you were away (this is the story Nicoli read in Long Overdue when Pifo explained her what happened to Josh) SHORT
- Abduction to the serraglio (Kes gets kidnapped by Turkish pirates and ends up in a very odd serraglio) MEDIUM
- Animal talk (I think this is the story where we get to see all the animals in the story, tell the story from their point of view) SHORT
- Lio and the stork (this is a short short story about Lio trying to bargain with a stork to get a baby) SHORT
- Zizack and Pearlie (clearly we know what this is about). MEDIUM

Along the way I also came up with these ideas:
 - The slave ship (concludes the dilemma of Cat and Feetsie having babies and it also gives an ending to Lio and the stork) CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
- Family Traditions (a Jewish family moves on the island of Amado and Wes feels odd about it, especially since their presence creates problem between Itzak, Cosimo and their friends).  (I would live this as the Christmas Special next year)
- Our Little Brother (is the last story belonging to the Origins cicle and tells us about the meeting between Kane, Josh and their little brother Amil). SHORT


One more story, I suspect many of you will ask for it right away because it's the continuation to Long Overdue:

 - The Gem of the Mediterranean Sea.

I actually need some more time to flash this one out as I only have in mind the overall spine.

So here is the poll:

The Pirate Balthasar on Instagram.

Hi guys, If you want to check the work in progress of the page, you can follow Dedasaur on Instagram. If you don't want spoilers but are still interested in the process you can check it out after the page is done :D

Special Pages First Entry

Here is our first entry to the Special Pages game.
It's by Alessia Vivenzio who has a Facebook page as well as a Deviant art account.

This is quite the start, isn't it?

Sailing away!

Holoooo!
Lorenzo and I are going on vacation from the 27th to the 6th.

The comic will be released today and tomorrow - we need to finish Nicoli's dream - but I won't be able to inform you here, probably. 
So you know the drill: smackjeeves, Deviant art and Shockdom will update.

From the 27th onward we take a break. I believe I will be able to upload my travel sketches on instagram, you can follow Dedasaur there, because I plan to sketch a lot! (it's what this vacation is all about).

See you soon.

-----------------------

Ahooooy,
ragazzi io e Lorenzo andiamo in vacanza dal 27 al 6.
Il fumetto aggiorna oggi e domani - per cui controllate Shockdomperché non credo che potrò informarvi qui.

Credo che riuscirò a disegnare parecchio, del resto il viaggio serve anche a quello, per cui se volte vedere il mio diario di viaggio con tutti i disegnini seguitemi su instagram mentre sono via, sono Dedasaur.
Ci vediamo presto!

Thank you :D

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.
I received so many messages it was hard to keep up and reply to all of them.

I had a very nice birthday (received 3 cakes already and am waiting for a 4th one hahaha and a lot of books as presents)... and here is the best cake I could ever get - although it got into an accident in the car, they told me, it tipped over, the decoration got destroyed and only a few flowers and the image were spared... apparently the writing was not just my name hahaha.

Anyways... I will be going on vacation from the 27th to the 4th and during those 8 days the comic will be taking a break as well... because, even though I might have a wifi, I cannot guarantee it.

I am going on a cruise - it's a present to myself.

If you wish I will be uploading the sketches I will draw during the trip :D
I will make sure to finish Nicoli's Dream before I sail away, and when I return we'll continue with Colapesce's Reality.

Features :D like presents

 Tumblr gave me a blue tag as Artist on Tumblr for this sketch I did of Fondi's castle. Someone once told me it's a difficult thing to get so I am quite happy someone lines my little sketches.

Tapastic gave a feature to The Flower and the Nose this week too. I am glad for the comic and am preparing a series of pages during this vacation to be released little by little after I am back in Singapore too.

The extra pages game

Ahoy ye scurvy dogs!
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Since today is a special day, better than any birthday, I wanted to start a new game with you: the extra pages game.

Here's my premises: Volume 6 of The Pirate Balthasar will be taken entirely by Long Overdue and its little specials.
Overall the story and its specials occupy 160 pages.

I might be able to slip in "Circes" which is the following special then again... maybe not hahaha because I haven't counted the pages yet but I have a feeling it won't go over 20 pages.

So here's where the game comes in: I would like to make this volume 190 pages. 

How about we make a game where we pick the best fan arts to be put at the end of the volume (with links to the original author's page)? 

If you are game say "aye"!

Fan arts galore

I have some fanart overdue for posting on this blog so I thought I'd post a few all together.

The first one is by Sharaiza, please visit her Deviant Art account and leave a message.
She made a nice fan art of Balthasar and Andromeda.

The next two are both by bubbledriver. She likes Circes very much...

...and she also did a fanart of Nicoli and Ahr.  Same here. Please visit her Deviant Art account. She organizes a lot of giveways and is working on some awesome projects and is an awesome comic artist.

The last one is by koorihimesama - who usually delights us with her graphics. Please visit her as well and leave a nice comment under her drawing.

pagina 136

Coming up Next!

I will be travelling tonight but before I go I thought about leaving you with something to think about: What's coming up next?

Long overdue will be followed by two little specials:
- Nicoli's dream 
- Colapesce's reality 

 Which will basically conclude this volume - because this story is one volume in length (dear God).

Afterwards according to polls we have:

- Circes (this is the story of how Castalia got to meet Circes and so we get to know why she is also affected by her spells and is so scared of this woman)
- Murder in Bologna (this story covers the second to last one of the Origins cicle - here we see how Kane and Wes met Martin during their University years and also got to solve a murder)
- How durians arrived in Italy (this is a story set on my side of the World - South East Asia, where I currently live - so you get to see malay pirates, bugis pirates and tonchin pirates and pontianaks and zombies hahaha)
- Badia (in this story you see Kane and Castalia going back to Sicily and Castalia gets to see her Kane in a different light - they also stumble upon the local mafia boss and life becomes less easy).

 But here are some of the other stories I have planned:
- While you were away (this is the story Nicoli read in Long Overdue when Pifo explained her what happened to Josh)
- Abduction to the serraglio (Kes gets kidnapped by Turkish pirates and ends up in a very odd serraglio)
- Animal talk (I think this is the story where we get to see all the animals in the story, tell the story from their point of view)
- Lio and the stork (this is a short short story about Lio trying to bargain with a stork to get a baby)
- Zizack and Pearlie (clearly we know what this is about).

Along the way I also came up with these ideas:
 - The slave ship (concludes the dilemma of Cat and Feetsie having babies and it also gives an ending to Lio and the stork)
- Family Traditions (a Jewish family moves on the island of Amado and Wes feels odd about it, especially since their presence creates problem between Itzak and his friends). This might be our Christmas special.
- Our Little Brother (is the last story belonging to the Origins cicle and tells us about the meeting between Kane, Josh and their little brother Amil).


One more story, I suspect many of you will ask for it right away because it's the continuation to Long Overdue:

 - The Gem of the Mediterranean Sea.

 So from sunday onward the releases will come out at a different time - and during my journey, time might disappear or overlap hahah I am travelling back in time after all, going back to Europe. So I'm not quite sure if that will make two pages in one day or one less page cuz one day is gone since I'm travelling backward... Ye be warned!

Sketches from real life

 Universal Studios Singapore.

New York and Hollywood... and the second sketch is clearly Egypt.

 So in Singapore there's this thing called SEA Aquarium which has one of the biggest Oceanarium in the world.

The Oceanarium is a huge tank full of huge fishes and you can sit on the floor and stare at them for ever and after a while you have a feeling they are flying.

The Manta is very big and she swims around followed by other little fishes who never leave him alone (the female manta has only 3 or 4).... they are like groupies: we love youuuuu, always with youuuuu, to the eeeend! yolo yolo.

Singapore Zoo and River Safari.

The panda is Jia Jia.

Here are some more sketches I did on the train while I was coming back from my voice training class.

I drew these from Raffles place to Bishan... I don't know how long that takes though.


More and more people addicted to phones make for very good, still models.


I noticed that people around me, especially kid, like to play a game while staring at my sketch which is: guess who am I going to draw next.
They look around and go: that one!
hahahaha so cute.

Drunk Duck is drunk.

Drunk Duck has been down since last friday.
I went to check and this is what I receive. I have no idea if it's coming back online - I suggest moving to the other hosts for now as I am still releasing one page per day.

Today's page will be released in about 8 hours.

Spread Asian Comics Collection's

Hi guys I was asked to join this project to help the local comic community expand (I like the fact that I finally get to be part of the Singaporean market <3)

2 days sketching

I bet you guys are all on vacation.
I had 4 days off too so I went outdoor sketching a bit, but just a bit, at the Botanical garden and the Peranakan Museum.

What are you up to?

Botanical Garden  - by the Swan lake

Botanical Garden - by the water lily pond.

Peranakan Museum - the wedding room.

Circes

Hi guys,
so I had designed this pretty picture of Circes and wanted to make a tshirt out of it.
Again I chose a color for the bg that is too weird so I might do a cut out later on.
For now I put the white version/no BG version of the design for sale in the zazzle store. (I still do want to see this printed on white so I will try society 6 next)

Crazy compression problems

I have these crazy compression problems on Deviant Art... if I do traiditional stuff my colors come out bleak and I keep receiving comments that my scans are not cleaned properly.

The thing is that I told someone that and their reply was simply that my monitor was not calibrated (as if) and then honestly if that were true everything should look as dull and dirty as the picture to the right.
Instead the pictures look perfect on other places like Smack Jeeves or tumblr or Drunk Duck.

I will have to color correct until there's no tomorrow just because DA is not compatible with me T_T

The Pirate Balthasar T-shirt

So Society6 is the only one that would actually print white before printing the image. therefore I will place the t-shirt for sale here. Now, nevermind what the previews looks like, you can actually buy a brown tshirt (which is the most appealing to me and I might get one too :D) I will place some of the other product that I usually keep on zazzle in here too as I've heard that the print quality is far superior. -->

Da pagina 60 a pagina 62

Avrete notato che Shockdom sta avendo problemi. Posto qui le ultime tre pagine uscite per facilitare la continuità della lettura. :D

 

Piko the toad headed agama

Some people have been asking about Piko.
He is a toad headed (or toad head) agama probably the Arabian kind... haven't drawn him with a black tail so he might not be a black tail agama hahaha.

Anyway we don't have these kinds of babies here in Singapore (nor in Italy) but there are plenty of agamids on school grounds and just today I dropped my lunch and conversation halfway (leaving my poor friend hanging) because I spotted one by the pond.

I love running after lizards. As soon as it saw me it curled its tail and became very territorial and then smiled.
I always tell my students: when they smile, run!

Agamas are like the reptile version of grumpy cat, particularly this kind.
When upset it kinds frills up a bit and so it looks like it's smiling or laughing, then suddenly has this serious expression on its face.

You should look for videos on youtube. They are funny!

Initially I was thinking of a gecko... because I have 4 in my house (wild ones) but these are more fun.

Cat fanart

Everybody loves Cat... including her, whaleseeker.

Click on her name to follow her work on Deviant Art and leave a nice comment under her drawings :D

The Three Acts Structure

A story is something with a beginning, a middle and an end.
As simple as that.

Now every writer has a different approach to this but let's face it: we all need to begin somewhere, explain something and then wrap it up... timing and delivery of the story are a personal choice.

The most common structure used in Hollywood movies is called: the three acts structure.

Consider your horizontal line to be the plot (or the line along which you assemble all the actions that take place during the story)... some people like to call this line: "story spine".

We said before that a story is something that needs: a dude, with a dilemma and how he deals with it.
We saw that we need a character, an environment a need/drive/dream for the main character and some form of conflict otherwise we won't have a story.

How do we use them and how do we create a plot from this?

I previously introduced the Hero's Journey as a quick way to list the events that need to be in your plot... take it as a shopping list of sort: do I have the ordinary world? Check. Do I have the supreme ordeal? Check.

But overall how do I know when things are supposed to happen and how? I mean the entire portion of the Hero's Journey called "test, enemies and allies" could be short or incredibly long, where do I place my supreme ordeal?

So many questions.

Let's use a simple metaphor to find the answers.
Let's pretend our story is like a train.

A train is made of many little "parts"... the front part - the head of the train - is the engine or locomotive.

In the middle we find passenger cars, wagon-lit, toilets, restaurant car and/or bar.
At the end comes the cargo.

Now let's pretend that this train has very little storage space in the cars and all the passengers are moving, not commuting, to a new town. All the things that are located in the cargo are determined by the presence of the passenger on board, their gender, nationality, age and so forth.

The Engine car needs a few things - fuel, fire a train operator - to move forwards.
In the middle section of the trains you see the passengers occupied in different activities.
In the cargo area you find their luggage and maybe their pets.

A story is no different than an imaginary train.

You need the engine, our act I or set up.
In your set up you have mainly exposition: you introduce the character (the train operator), his dream (the fuel) and the conflict (the fire, the spark that sets the engine in motion).

When you hook the cars tot he engine they move (if you don't they stay stationary): the act of hooking the cars to the engine is called Inciting Accident. 
The inciting accident will lead us to our first major plot point. Thanks to this accident the story is set in motion. 
In our hero's journey Goldie the goldfish dies and Pretty Boy's life cannot continue the way it used to.
He has to leave the ordinary world and enter a world of adventures.

This is where act I ends and act II begins.

Now we need to encounter the passengers and witness all their activities... the ticket-man could be our ally or our enemy and a lot of little things are bound to happen.
This part is called Rising Action, it is also referred to as Confrontation.
Here is where the dude deals with the dilemma.
It's where he meets enemies and allies and go through tests.
This is where the character arc takes place and through the confrontations - and with the help of the tests, the allies and the mentor - the character changes and proves the stuff he is made of.

Now imagine you ask a little kid to tell you a story.
The little kid would go something like: I went to school and then Joe came to me and then he took my ball and then I pushed him and then I pushed him back and then we fought and then the teacher came and then she punished us....

From the kid's point of view the story gets worse and worse and increases in drama as every and then is used to connect one action to the next one.
Those and then correspond to the those red spiking lines I called rising complications in the graph below.

Wait to hear how he describes his meeting with the principal or his being scolded by his mom. That would be a climax.

Definitely he comes out of this story with a lesson, every character learns one, that would be the elixir part in our hero's journey... and has he acquires new knowledge he is ready to go back to his everyday life, a changed person.

Act III is also known as resolution.
It is usually the result of the climax - the supreme ordeal - and usually dims little by little the tone of the story (the climax being the point where the story is most intense) bringing it to its natural ending.

Now, some people argue that the climax should end act II and not be in act III.
Other say it should be right before the final plot point and hence act III becomes very short.
You would find these solutions particularly in Asian and European storytelling.

I personally am of the church that believes that the climax concludes ACT II, is at the peak of rising complications and almost coincides with Plot Point two - as I like to match Plot point II with the "reaching the inmost cave" and sometimes it's not a little spark, for me, but something that is building up and not necessarily something negative (one could be more afraid at the peak of his/her happiness).

That's why structure are useful, their are great help as a guideline but one can always learn the rules and then break them to help storytelling evolve... as storytelling should always reflect the times and not stay stagnant for more than a decade!