How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? Alt Q: When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it?
Don't just post an image, let us know what your comic's called, and link us to it!
alright well last thread my post got deleted, presumably because this is a blue board, but I seriously need help coming up with story ideas for this comic
the main character (pictured here) is a big fat bara gay dude who lures vulnerable men into unhealthy relationships with him in order to satisfy his lust for control over other people. but I need the comic to VERY SPECIFICALLY not be sexual in nature, and merely allude to the horrible things he does in an oblique way
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? Style is just as important as the story, changing to a different style would certainly ruin the feel of the characters.
>Alt Q: When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it? I did my own art style I'm familiar with, I also don't plan to change it because it's the style I like the most. Writing could be better, my comic is my first writing project ever.
Landon Rodriguez
This picture and this question Nicely done. Style and I have had a pretty complicated relationship over the years. Gotten a loottta shit for that choice, and for sticking with it. No matter how many reasons I give to justify it, and how good it looks in my head. I feel like the most important thing about a comic's style is can you maintain it, and maintain a decent pace with it. At the same time though, it can be really hard to see your own comic through any eyes but your own, and that can really distort your idea of how you're doing. I tripled down on effort after joining these threads and realizing how positively crummy my shit looked, but I still can't imagine doing a comic in the fully-realized style i typically do standalone drawings in. Not only would it take forever, but the flaws inherent in trying to keep up any kind of pace would be magnified considerably. And that's not even getting into consistency.
But you know what sucks about a simplified style? You have nowhere to go up or down with it. Like you zoom in on a face close-up, and... there's no details to add. You do a zoom-out, and it feels like a normal drawing but with more work. In a proper, normal comic, you vary up your close and far shots and the level of detail accordingly, and it looks like you put thought into the direction. I think if I could go back and change it, I would have picked something more akin to Dragon Ball than Earthbound. And it still would have sucked for the first 7 years or so.
Henry Smith
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? I think that the style is important to help set the tone of the comic as well as give it an identity. You can make fun of Dewd or Coldfusion or whoever for their artstyle, but when they post, you certainly know who it is and what comic it is. The style in which a comic is drawn certainly lends to making it memorable and changing the style will not only be distracting, but also take me out of whatever story I was reading. I might still enjoy the comic, but it just wouldn't be the same as when I started.
its a gay version of rick and morty where the bara guy forces his boyfriend of the week to go on incedibly dangerous gay adventures. >come on brian, we're going to go rob Elton John's summer chateau. >i dont know that sounds really dangerous. he is the leader of the gay mafia. >GET IN THE FUCKING PRIUS BRIAN!
Matthew Jackson
In Yea Forums webcomic related news, LMAC ended.
Jack Murphy
Well said, it's pretty jarring when some comics just up and change dramatically. Though for every example I can think of, I can think of a very similar style change in another comic that happened super gradually over like a decade. That makes it far more palatable. I recently discovered a comic recently who announced they were changing the style and redoing all the old comics, and I had juuust binged it.. but then it turned out what I read WAS the new style, the old comic looked way different and had much clunkier writing. Nonetheless, the way the style changed from new page 1 to new current page was somewhat unwelcome, it did something similar to Ctrl-Alt-Del where it has this pretty middling nice-looking style and then starts exaggerating everything and elongating everyone's head...
Jeremiah Hill
Why do I love this pangolin guy so much? What if there was a videogame like that, where you guide people who go into dungeons? There was kind of a reverse of that in Recettear, where you hire adventurers to escort YOU around so you can pick up phat lewt
Levi Sanders
didn't that thing just start? or am I getting old again
Carson Cook
I think a comic style changing gradually over time is just a result of an author either improving or finding a new way to draw what they want. It definitely happened to me. My god, I think I'm the worst offender when it comes to style in my comics. Witch's Hill has gone through many style changes and I don't even do it gradually. :^)
Nolan Gomez
When you reworked that WH chapter and said the art you left in was going to look weird compared to the new art, I sure didn't notice a difference. But everything you do just amazes me, so maybe there's a fog of amazement clouding my particular judgment. I have no idea if I even have a good eye for that, I used to notice the most subtle changes or off-model stuff in cartoons, but wasn't conscious of different studios and the drastically different way they drew things.
Jacob Taylor
It started in January, the OP drew 11 issues and an annual.
John Ross
Haven't contributed to these threads in forever, so thought I'd jump in for a bit in this one.
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment?
I think style is important to give your comic a visual identity that separates them from others, specially in this day when there's so many of them out there. Something unique in webcomics though is that the style also has to be practical enough for the artist to draw frequently and efficiently, specially if they do it on a schedule.
Not sure about the enjoyment part. Is it my own enjoyment of drawing my comic or the enjoyment of its readers? I'm a bit confused on the question.
>When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it?
A little of both. I have a more "normal" drawing style that I use for personal drawings, but I altered it quite a bit specifically for my comic for several reasons. The most important one was so I could create a style that looked good enough while being practical at the same time, which took quite some time of experimenting before I nailed it down. That said, I'm very open about changing the art style a bit in the long run.
Rococo Chapter 2 wrapping up, starting on chapter 3 now. This page is mix media, I am using marker now, they seen to scan a bit darker than color pencils...
How do you come up with a good title for your comic? Are named chapters still a thing? Would it be worth it to have named chapters over generic numbered chapters?
Carter Diaz
Naming chapters its my favorite thing ever. I already decided all the names I think. Numbers are boring.
Thank you! Cant believe Rococo is a mother now?
Nicholas Powell
Ill share my names since thread is slow.
PART 1 >1. Unforgivable Sin Starts the comic with an unforgivable sin. The murder of the family motivates both the three main characters (Rau, Azu, Priest) in different ways and kicks the story into action. >2. Massacre Like, a village gets massacred. Thats it. >3. Crossroads This is when other sides of the story appear, the paths characters take start interacting: we get to know Sutak, Bazak and Tamamo who are dealing with Shuten and his clan, and the oni girls activity is noticed by the Priest. >4. The Priest Introduces him. Duh. >5. The Curse Of Douma A backstory chapter. The curse that turns humans into onis is obviously a huge plot factor so my intention was that readers wouldnt forget the witch´s name. >6. Assault At Fort Lumen Its right there. I did fuck up with whether its Fort Lumen or Lumen´s Fort or whatever. Lumen is an ancient hero from that world. Absolutely irrelevant so I didnt bother explaining it. >7. Shuten Shuten is a key piece in the entire thing. I feel like there is some sort of calm dignity to a chapter that just uses the short name of a character. >8. Revelation Cause we get a lot of revelations here. Tamamo gets one, Sutak hears his sisters are probably alive, Ibara gets another one, and the oni girls remember their past. Plus Shuten remembered his past too in his flashback. >9. The Battle Initially named "Confession" but I changed it because I thought it was too obvious. Inspired in the idea that love is a battle. Its kind of played in a sexual way, despite how wrong it sounds. >10. Separation Rau and Azu separate after this chapter, in more ways than one. It also divides the course of the story and it ends part one.
PART 2 1. A Story Of Fire 2. Hunger 3. An Alliance 4. The Horde 5. Attacking The Capital 6. The Weeping Prince 7. Forgiveness 8. The Devourer Queen 9. Poison 10. Redemption
If it was a hetero guy luring women in such relationships you would consider it a regular porn comic
Adrian Morales
Its nothing brilliant at all, but I enjoy naming chapters. I went overboard with it with my novels.
I think there are far too many manga-like comics for it to work anymore.
On another note, reccomend me a comic to read if you wanna. Otherwise im gonna read the next on my list which is either Boysland Jack or Mad Magic.
Adrian Gutierrez
>How important do you think style is for any comic? A LOT Could you imagine all the webcomics being the same? it would be B O R I N G ! Page 23 is out! >ghadar.smackjeeves.com/comics/2821990/page-23/
>How important do you think style is for any comic? It's the main selling point. >Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? Yup. >Alt Q: When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it? I changed it to be more animation-firndly, because I would like to make a cartoon out of it at some point. >Don't just post an image, let us know what your comic's called, and link us to it! Ibrahim Coyle is just your regular con-man and a self-proclaimed PI, secret agent or whatever the client needs, as long as there's some cash on him . These are some of his wackiest adventures, so mostly all of them. webtoons.com/en/challenge/ibrahim-coyle/list?title_no=270091 tapas.io/series/Ibrahim-Coyle
Just named your chapters after your favorite song, lyrics, books or something you liked. I mostly listened to Heavy Metal so never run out of ideas for named my comics
Ethan Morris
IMO Style isn't that important. A good style will come naturally to you, depending on your influences and prefereces. If you pick or modify a style for webcomics, here are some personal opinions: 1. Choose a simple design. Not only will this make it easier for people to "get" your comic, but also save time for you to draw it. Add details with purpose and impact. Be efficient. 2. Use basic design language (shape, color) to get your ideas across and create visual contrast between your characters. Communicate ideas by incorporating the characters personality and occupation into the design.
Benjamin Collins
Adding to that. Like I also chose to go for a more cartoony look that would be suitable for animation, mainly because it allows me to communicate scenes better by exaggerating expressions/poses and makes the drawing process faster. (Like I mentioned in my OP)
Speaking of which... I think the main selling point of a comic is the quality of visual storytelling, not the style. Of course style is part of presenting your story and therefore the storytelling itself, but I believe a story can work and be successful without a super original or cool style.
Most styles I've seen on the internet are falling in a range of similar styles. There are very few webcomics that have style that's completely outside the ordinary.
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment
Considering the fact Tom N Artie Tales has a different style each story while the main one keeps a consistent one. It's been fun seeing the duo in different art styles as I haven't found one yet they don't work in. Some of the readers enjoy it too, some were confused at first but figured out how it works.
>When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it?
I changed up my writing throughout Tom N Artie and I'm still changing it up. If a day comes along in the future where it gains more success then I'll most likely rewrite all of Issue 1.
Could I get some help? I asked yesterday for tips on drawing faces, and someone showed me this thing where you draw circles within circles to shape the face. I tried following that, but I always get these weird oblong faces that look horrible. I've tried for half an hour now to fix this and I can't figure out how I'm fucking it up.
don't use circles as the entire heads shape. use a circle as a base for the skull, then add more shapes to sculp the head. like trianlges for the jaw.
also don't just use perfect circles for everyone. vary up characters by using different circles and ovals for skull shapes. like have fatter characters have more round wide shapes, or use taller oval heads for others. just don't go over board and make them look cartoonish.
to add onto this, don't just reference drawn material, or stylized material. drawings are an interpretation of real life, reference real things.
also, go read books on anatomy. most people point toward Loomis, which is a big one. but the ones I own are these George Bridgman books. I reference these often, along with my manga and comics.
>I enjoy weeb shit which means I don't participate in American culture. >your definition of culture probably just meaning pop culture & entertainment.
In my honest opinion, I think you need to sit down and actually study from art books and videos. /ic/ has you set on books if you check out the sticky, but new masters has a video on face construction you can start with: youtube.com/watch?v=2T7cDY7YDsg
And we got a preview of the next Power of Stardust page on patreon. See it and previews of future pages for just one dollar! patreon.com/CapeworldComics
Also here's Page 1 of the ashcan copy for my next comic project BITE. A few weeks for me and my team to get this ready and shipped for SVCC next month (hopefully the place isn't torn a geographical asshole before the con rolls around)
>these George Bridgman books Nice tip, will have to look into those
William Roberts
Working on mote sentai-style designs and I would like some opinions or criticisms. I liked it when I was drawing it, but as I finished, it just doesn't seem very uniform+too much black. How could I improve this design? Also sorry for file size.
aw naw user i need a longer break than this. Over the last 17 years I've only spent 3.5 years not making a comic.
Matthew Sanchez
True, but I was thinking more in a marketing sense. It's like seeing a movie poster or a comic cover, and, even though I myself am against it, they do sell the product more than the quality itself.
Liam Gonzalez
initialization* (except maybe in the UK?) turned* out really good* (most people make the opposite mistake and say good when it should be well. Well is an adverb, but in this case the word describes them, not their action. it's not the turning-out that was done well, good is what they turned out to be) I'd* hate to have to put* them down again (she is saying she WOULD have to, IF they had defects, right? not that she DOES have to)
Aaron Gonzalez
justice for ms. trunkers
Adrian Roberts
dat skinny anatomy. You're doing things to me, user I like this a lot. I assume the demarcated area on the shoulders will be its own color? I don't really love the little ballet-toe slipper booties, part of what makes a hero heroic is having cool tall boots, but you do seem to have a thigh-high shape going so that might do the job on its own. If you need something more busy down below but don't want a really obvious shape, maybe the toe could lead into a vertical stripe up the shin? as for 'not seeming uniform' that depends on how the others on the team look. I don't think there's too much black, most sentai costumes have a much larger amount of either black or white, this is a strangely middlin' amount of black.
Camden Morales
Thanks greatly
Wyatt Powell
Hey what's a good term for "I am very engaged with the story. I understand what all the plot elements do. I understand who all the characters are"? Best I can think of is "establishment". Writing a critique for someone.
well the regular thread guy's thread got deleted and someone else stepped in to remake it, so they probably just copypasted and got confused about what goes where
in fact you can see the john cleese creativity video just had its embedded description copied, not the URL.
Lincoln Price
Im jelly of people who can write good critique. All I can come up with is "your comic is amazing" if I liked it.
Hudson Cruz
it helps (and i mean it helps you with making your comic too) to think about what makes it unique and different from others.
Brandon Wright
Tried to redo this. Does the head above the eyes look too big? It looks too big to me.
The character is also supposed to be female, but sort of tomboyish, so I don't think I get that across.
the top of the head seems a little high yeah, depending how poofy the hair is, but this is the best you've shown so far, you're definitely getting it. I think this would look better if the eyes, bangs, and ear were all raised up (feel on your face where your ear is compared to your nose. it's basically level, right?). If you did that, and maybe raised the bangs a touch more (always consider where the hairline is and where the hair's growing out of) then you might not need to mess with the top of the head at all. Or not as much. You're really making some progress now. It won't be long before we're helping you learn how to 'wrap' the features around the three-dimensional roundness of the head!
Adrian Lopez
>dat skinny anatomy. You're doing things to me, user Yeah, it's me mostly aping Yoshiyuki Sadamoto style. I plan on the comic being black and so I don't know if the suits should be optimized to fit that because right now they're base color+black+white as opposed to just base color+black or white.
Daniel Wood
What's the context? Like in a sentence, how would you use the word you're looking for?
A good idea of how story structure works, pointing out where there's failings in the writing, having a handle on blocking out shots, etc. Giving someone insight into their own story that they might not have considered before. Going: "Yeah, it's good but maybe it'd be better if you did X."
Caleb Walker
Art of the third character from the Sci-Fi story I'm writing for. You can see how their physique compares to the other two main characters in the top left corner.
No fucking clue, in the current writeup its just a header for a paragraph. The concepts do feel related so I was hoping there was an overarching word I was overlooking. The comic is The Green Knight, which I swear has problems explaining its plot elements before using them. Why I went with "establishment" over "engagement"
Captivated? I dunno, there's probably some archaic word that fits what you're looking for but I don't know it.
Robert Reed
it sounds like familiarity or just understanding
Lincoln Sullivan
I read once that good critique could be summerised as "here's what you did right, here's what you did wrong, and here is how you can make it better". Seems accurate from where I stand, as long as the person doesn't take it to allow backseating
I think you can be invested in something without fully knowing all the info what he's basically describing is someone getting up to speed
Henry Gray
If howsyer webcomics had porn parodies, what would the titles be? I'll start >Moans of Anarchy >Merkin and Dyke >Clasper Gold (they are also all sharks now)
Okay, so here's the thing you seem to have missed a reflection isn't the same image repeated... it's the opposite. Sorry, I should have said that last time in more detail, but I was hoping you understood.
wwwow. Looney tunes show is even worse than I thought. Chuck Jones and/or Friz Freling or any of those other names I used to read as a kid.. must all be just spinning in their graves.
Thomas King
so the ref was wrong
Connor Ortiz
Yeah dude. Look at a photo of anyone by a mirror, or just put your hand next to a mirror. You're gonna feel really dumb when this clicks, but I've had worse blind spots.
Ian Ross
I'll try to find a better irl photo for a reference next time
Wyatt Edwards
>but I've had worse blind spots. what do you mean
Thomas Williams
We truly were the Dr. Goodlove all along.
Oliver Young
There are things that, once you get them, are so patently obvious you feel like you (and everyone else) have known them since toddlerhood.. But you can realize you don't actually have a handle on those things. It's an experience I've had before. I think the real epiphany was getting a major grasp on how additive vs subtractive colors work. It's not just random, it's the same color mixing you learned as a kid but now paying attention to brightening vs darkening. the 'brown' you get from mixing red and green paint is just a dark version of the yellow you get from mixing red and green light.
Asher Cook
I guess SD does look like one of those little dudes.
Pretty good, actually So you're just gonna go ahead with this page...
Ryder Bailey
Ringo the pornstar.
Dylan Young
I dunno, that's not a very good pun. Surely you could do something with the 'ass' in assassin or like 'cunnilingo the assassin'
Elijah Morgan
I wanted to get a color scheme in down.
Alexander Roberts
>color scheme down
Eli Wood
okay cool. Yeah that's a fine color scheme. I like lightly-toasted redheads.
Thomas Nguyen
>100 patreons for this How.
Lincoln Flores
shit you are good
John Johnson
yeah I'd expect a lot more than that. This would work in a dang newspaper, if newspapers were cool.
Blake Taylor
>How important do you think style is for any comic? almost as important as the writing itself >Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? meh, depends on which comic it is. some can work in different styles, others can't. at least not as well.
> When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it? I started with my own art style and plan on keeping it that way. If I do work to change it, it'll be to make it look more unique and stylized. I wouldn't consider my writing "style" special or unique in any way so whatever.
Leo Carter
no.
Kevin Green
Sorry you don't like it, but I do. Maybe you just don't like gag comics?
Cooper Martin
oh. Should I change this title design or does it look good enough?
Caleb Roberts
The design is fine, but you should make nice even letters that look deliberately done, and have better shapes.
Luke Clark
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? I think style is very important for a comic. I know i wont read something if I just find the artwork unappealing. Sometimes I'll tolerate unappealing artwork if the story is good. As for my style, i dont think it would affect it much. I always intended to make it cartoony, but if I had the skill, i would go full anime with it. >Alt Q: When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it? My style of drawing had to go through a lot just to get to this level of barely presentable. I spent about 3 months just practicing before even starting on it. I have no formal art training and never even did it as a hobby until now. This is literally the apex of my current skill level. So roughly 3rd grader tier. As for my writing, I had been doing that forever. I think the biggest change in that regard is shifting towards less meta, and less horror stories. In my innumerable unfinished short stories, I typically write first person horror stories or bizarre 4th wall breaking mind bending 2deep4u bullshit. Despite that I would still infuse a lot of my humor in them. I have difficulty taking things seriously. This comic thing has been really fun for me, because its out of my element. Its rather 'wholesome' i guess. Not sure if that is the right word since its full of cussing and dirty jokes, but I made sure to avoid any 4th wall breaking meta humor, avoid any 2deep4u plot twists, and keep out any and all existential horror nonsense that i love. I just wanted to do a silly super hero story, and its honestly been the most engaging project i have worked on.
The series where the OP makes a thread and draws a comic based on it.
Christopher Murphy
wtf, bump
Michael Brooks
Never heard of it
Anthony Hughes
looks like shit as always
Mason Evans
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? Very important. Depends of the change of art style. >Alt Q: When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it? I used my own style. At first I was not sure of the pixelated style, thinking it wouldn't look well if I end up printing it. But fuck it, it looks more unique that way.
I like everything about this except that I don't know what the hell's going on.
Your art style keeps getting better every page.
---
No update for Predatheosis today. I'm away from home and I forgot to bring the files with me so I'll be updating later this week. Not like it matters much cause I'm working on the reboot, which is coming along nicely. Already finished writing the second chapter. I don't think I'll manage to keep it under 40 pages. Hell, even 50 or 60 seem unlikely. I'm really trying to be disciplined about the lenght of the chapters so I don't waste time and end up making chapters longer than they should be.
I'm unironically thinking about learning SketchUp so i can create houses, rooms etc as a reference for consistency sake. Not copy pasting them like homos from marvel do it.
Sebastian Jackson
but you updated not that much long ago
Jose Allen
jesus, who the hell needs to map out a house? Nobody in the industry does this shit.
Robert Sanders
It's a Yea Forumsllaboration thing, check the archives if you're curious.
Colton Peterson
For the reference?
Isaac Baker
It'll be good if you need to draw the rooms in different angles, and it seems like it'd be faster than learning blender. Though really, the fastest way is to model it and try to pick angles and build scenes that are the easiest to draw. It's a bit sitcom-y, but with your paneled shots you can avoid that look.
Jackson Parker
Hey, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I actually got some notes on the dialogues on page 40, but I lost track of it. I really need to get to those corrections faster.
Most fight scenes are a mess and don't include detailed bgs. I won't stop you if it's what you want to do, but it's a time saver if you don't have to design the background over and over again.
The action lines help portray motion and weight. And in a fight scene, that's what I'm looking for. The best fight scenes don't drag on too long, but aren't just symbols for a fight.
I meant that they don't include backgrounds, but just the action lines
Xavier Reed
The body behind the hair won't be shown when inked, but would this be correct? It looks like a mirror?
I didn't flip the drawing yet, but the neck placement seems off in the first panel. I guess I'll just move the head more left and it'll be fine. The hands also look weird.
For those who have not yet had the joy of knowing the comic, you're in luck:
In 30 words or less: Young, troubled king tries to stop decline of Early Modern Empire with state sponsored, propagandized spec ops team. He pulls talent from lawmen and criminals. The situation degenerates.
Was thinking to either try and do the supermoms comic or my oc I’ve had an idea of doing awhile back. My art currently sucks but I want to at least see something built in regards to both ideas. Currently working on my art and scripting out the 1st issue. On a side note, would not linkara be out of place as a supermoms villain?
Ryan Sanchez
I swear to god these weeks are going by faster and faster
It’s one of the few ideas this board had that stuck with me. I always thought it had potential but it just faded away it seems. Probably not using everything but I at least want to try and see it at least get something more than a few random pages.
Bentley Stewart
>I always thought it had a lot of potential >But if just faded away it seems user, lets use some critical thinking skills. Why do you think it faded away in the first place?
Supermoms is just a team of thinly characterized fetish objects, and most of them aren't even hot unless you're some kind of degenerate that likes fat, out of shape women in their forties. There's no lore, no setting, nothing interesting.
The problem is that you're just not understanding the underlying shapes, guides, and lines on anything but a superfluous level. You're not giving any thought to the shape of the features, the size of the features, where they lie in relation to each other, where they lie in relation to the shape and size of the head.
You're just ramming your head against the wall drawing a circle with two lines through it every time while not understanding at all what they're for.
Kevin Allen
unironically read Loomis man
Jaxson Richardson
You have a long way to go is all, and you aren't really grasping what you're doing yet. But you'll get there. It'll eventually click. we all learned by just watching other people and it took us a while to grasp how the stuff actually works.
I have no idea what this is even referencing, and I love it anyway
Dominic Hall
Image editing/production contest elsewhere, where I used these characters last year and was told I was cheating kinda. One of last year's comics attached
>see comic that started earlier this year >has already over 1 million likes Some people just seem to have a natural feeling for what people want to see.
Hudson Gutierrez
ironically, style is important to my comic but not important to my enjoyment in reading other people's comics. my art is experimental, so the style i use for my comic is something i can quickly replicate.
I've read a few things in the past similar premises as the one you've got going on here. Not that that's a bad thing. I am sure you won't have any difficulties finding a readership.
My only real criticisms lie with the dialogue. There's some repetition with the two characters effectively saying the same thing a few times. I also think you could work on Sally's dialogue when you get to the mental state. Judy should probably explain exactly why it's important to be able to change what their thought-form looks like. I was able to infer why, but I'm not sure if everyone else would.
So yeah:
- Check for repetition and rework the dialogue to get away from it. - Adjust Sally's dialogue a bit in the latter half of the story. - Have Judy explain why being able to change what their thought-form looks like is important.
Nathan Lewis
What series did you find similar?
Luke Gonzalez
Peripherally? Anything where the main character has some sort of avatar, or something that's effectively soulbound to them in some way. Lots of these exist. I've read plenty of YA novels where this is the basic premise. What you've got here is a perfectly serviceable bit of YA fiction, and I wouldn't spoil it by trying to differentiate it too much from what has worked for other successful properties.
Nathan Garcia
Got a new cover for Tom N Artie Tales done by Jamil (creator of Jasper Gold). That's gonna look good in the print book for next month!
Success is just random anyway you see it. There's plenty of good webcomics that barely get any attention and others that just blow up as soon as they start. You can never really guess it, just right time and place or they had a previous following. All you can do is just keep creating and try to not think about the numbers.
It was never a popularity contest for me, the measurement of success for me is just having fun while making it, it's almost addictive. It was simply fascinating how fast some of the webcomics can blow up.
Charles Sanders
ok im gonna tell you a secret to learn to draw immediately without hitting the books
>where are you seeing bad values? Panel 1 the guy blends into the wolf, the only thing that shows up well is the wolf's head, and the guy's head and hands. The tail would disappear into the sky if it weren't for the outline. The wolf's back leg contrasts nicely with the grass, but it's hindquarters disappear into the mountainside.
Panel 2 (?) Is just a fist in darkness. Cloak detail is lost into the mountainside.
*Neither of these panels work well into leading the eye into the latter part of the page. The contrast differences mean that the wolf is the most striking thing, everything else feels more background-like.
Panel 3, again only head and hand are visible, everything from hair to cloak to background blends into one dark blob.
If you look at the thumbnails it's more obvious
Daniel Lewis
>the guy blends into the wolf I mean, a little. Sometimes two things are dark. and I'm pretty sure fist in the darkness was intentional. You can see the starry cloak thing. as for panel 3, do you maybe have a miscalibrated monitor, or similar vision problems to those I used to have? Also what does it matter, if the colored version is bright and easy to read?
>do you maybe have a miscalibrated monitor Both my monitors show the same thing, I even changed it between my settings for when I do bw and color. They are as calibrated as they can be, given my current setup.
> or similar vision problems to those I used to have? My eyesight is shit anyways and I'm stressed out and exhausted, totally a possibility lol Damn good reason to take anything some user says with a grain of salt
>and I'm pretty sure fist in the darkness was intentional Gus'd have to comment on that. I can only speak in terms of what I would do, but visually I find it out of place. Something like that done in a close up tends to designate something of significance. Having it lost visually seems counterproductive.
>Also what does it matter, if the colored version is bright and easy to read? I'm not going to be the best person to explain this, so sorry if this gets worded weirdly (but I am arguing against the "easy to read" part)
There are a few reasons why you want to have something with good contrast/values. The major thing is visual appeal. When something has limited contrast, either leaning too far to the dark or light side, it means that there is very little of interest to look at. Humans are weird and enjoy looking at things that have a good contrast, it's something to focus on and breaks elements apart so that they don't blend into each other. It doesn't matter if something is "bright" or of different hues, if there isn't a good balance then visually it becomes bland and uninteresting. Good contrast can also catch someone's attention quickly You also kind of touched on it already, but good contrast allows for differences of visibility between monitors or people with visual impairments (even colorblindness). If someone with visual impairments or faulty monitor depends on value to distinguish elements in an image, by ignoring contrast you just fucked them over.
oh, patreon. You're asking if you can make a flash game a patreon reward ... that's a damn good question. I know I'd appreciate something like that. I mean, realistically, anyone can share anything you release on patreon, right? You can save a .swf easily. the lock is basically just so you look like you tried, yeah? so why not just code it to require a password, and give that out on the patreon
Julian Allen
What is the optimal amount of WORDS and panels on one page? I'm pre planning panels and dialogue and so far i think there will be around 8 pages of back and forth, some introduction, minimum exposition etc. Do you think it is too long? How long should one chapter be in general?
>What is the optimal amount of WORDS and panels on one page? Short lines for every bubble. Never write more than one long sentence, or two short sentences in a single bubble. Make your dialogue snappy. If the reader can read the text in his cellphone screen with ease you've done good.
Logan Bailey
Shit dude. What are some good patreon rewards that don't require that much extra work? I've seen patreons without an incentive to get bigger rewards do poorly unless the creator is really popular. But I barely have time to do the main activity for the patreon to promise sketches or something
oof im not gonna lie, your comic is really fucking difficult to read the arts great but it's over-rendered for one the main problem is that it's blatantly obvious how much exposition you are blobbing in and the dialogue is just falling apart because of it
Landon Green
Bump
Nathaniel Wood
Like I said last time, you learn to storyboard by doing a storyboard. And I know you got that term off me because the real word is 'thumbnailing' youtu.be/n0BrCv2Kz2Q?t=139
No. I maintain that the Orlan/Amara conversation is clunky as shit but otherwise none of this is true. The problem with the art is that it doesn't convey color or texture, pic related. The only ambiguous worldbuilding is the apana/nuni thing, everything else is standard fantasy. Comprehensible.
No, but I do have a character that explains most stuff.
Mason Perry
Any tips on staging group shots or a cast picture?
Christopher Thompson
Anyone need their script read?
Carter Price
Great to see more Witchways!
Isaiah Cook
>What is the optimal amount of WORDS and panels on one page? A while back I read something on comics that advised around 150-300 words per page, which varies depending on text and page size. Numbers might be off, but that's about a paragraph's worth of text which seems about right. Panels average 5-7, again depending on size and panel contents.
>8 pages of dialogue, intro, and exposition It's hard to gauge that without seeing it first hand. If you're starting a series out by trying to dump as much info as possible it might be too much. Your webcomic has the entire series to introduce elements and characters with their backgrounds, don't dump it all at once. Also "show, don't tell" might be in play here. Does everything you have planned NEED to be SAID?
>Chapter length As long as you need it to be. I've read series where each chapter was as short as 10 pages, and as long as 50 (or more). It worked for each story because they were paced in such a way that those page number worked for them. Just be wary of dragging things on for too long. If you want a rough number that comics like manga use, 25-30 pages is a decent sized chapter to aim for.
Everything is going to require extra work to some degree. Minimal work, though- -early access: pages/art 1-2 days before anyone else -hi res: full images not resized for web -psd: access to the full psd file for your work -sketches/notebook pdfs -stream access: host private streams of you working, patreons only -requests: Mary Cagle/cubewatermelon does something like this, she does a request stream once a month and only her patreons are allowed to suggest things (through patreon). It's usually a 2-3 hour stream with 4-5 quickish drawings.
Jose Garcia
You keep offering that, but have you ever let anyone else read your script?
Henry Adams
How many thumbnails attempts should someone make during there storyboarding process? I'm sketching out some pages for fun to try stuff out and I've written some stuff I really enjoy. But sometimes I just don't like how a page looks when I sketch it out. Sometimes I think I hsould rewrite certain scenes a bit before attempting a thumbnail page. What are your guys thoughts on things liek thumbnailing and story boarding?
Julian Mitchell
Immersed is the term you're looking for.
Cameron Baker
A few until you get the desired effect. Once you have a couple you can ask for some feedback from people, and ask which one best suits the effect you're going for. Ideally, I won't change much from thumbs to pages other than actually drawing the scene. Designs, compositions, where speech bubbles go, and sometimes even shading are things I include in my thumbs, so when I get to sketching it's all ready to go. I'd maybe add/remove some lines of dialogue at most. From script to thumbs, I don't change much from my original idea, although I do make changes to my script if I realize that my pacing is slow, or that I find a scene drags on too long.
Thumbnailing is more for comics, storyboards refer to animation, but they do the same thing essentially, which is plan out your story in more realized manner. I think the terms are interchangeable. Thumbs should be quick, stick-figure figures, and from a completed script should take about a week to do (assuming you're going by a chapter format of about 30 pages, and you have other full-time responsibilities).
Evan Gray
>-early access: pages/art 1-2 days before anyone else >-hi res: full images not resized for web >-psd: access to the full psd file for your work >-sketches/notebook pdfs >-stream access: host private streams of you working, patreons only >-requests: Mary Cagle/cubewatermelon does something like this, she does a request stream once a month and only her patreons are allowed to suggest things (through patreon). It's usually a 2-3 hour stream with 4-5 quickish drawings. doesn't sound so bad
Hunter Miller
here’s a pic of a quick doodle I did of my main character, BRAAAP joe. he’s just a regular joe on a quest to find the biggest, smelliest BRAAAPer he can sniff out.
All people do because everything creative has already been done, nothing is truly unique.
Isaac Scott
What does this even mean? You be creative by replicating stuff.
Blake Powell
i dont think any comic artist is just trying to replicate a show. Maybe they take inspiration in some designs or ideas but its never an exact imitation or even a complete nor general imitation attempt.
Owen Flores
Yeah, last thread and plenty of times in the Discord.
>doesn't sound so bad Yeah, it's almost all things that you could do within 5-10 minutes or require a minor adjustment to your work schedule. If you make your own assets/tools/patterns, you could also offer those for patreon rewards. If you have a discord it's also possible to set up your own server and have access as your reward. You could do Q&A sessions, too.
I know there are more easy rewards I've seen, but those are the only ones I can think of right now.
William Williams
Na na, it's mainly about how plot elements are pointed out and established. If I couldn't figure what was going on because I got bored and stopped paying attention that'd be purely on me and useless as criticism. The problem is I keep getting to panels where I don't know why something's happened and have to either think on it or recheck pages, which bombs the flow. Best I can think of is either "establishment" or "comprehension".
Hey. the reason I keep blowing you off on the thumbnails is I feel like you're asking questions you don't need to out of uncertainty. Most of these are questions that don't have answers because you just do what you need to for your circumstances. >How many thumbnails attempts should someone make during there storyboarding process? However many you need to I'd assume. There's no way the number's getting past 9, it shouldn't take too much time >Sometimes I think I hkatrad rewrite certain scenes a bit before attempting a thumbnail page Technically that's also thumbnailing >What are your guys thoughts on things like thumbnailing and story boarding? Useful! >But sometimes I just don't like how a page looks when I sketch it out. Legit, if you want help with your comic's layout draw it on a computer program and post it here and I'll try to help out. This wasn't meant as a challenge
Whenever something doesn't get any responses it feels like soft condemnation, I wanted to say this is legit impressive. Don't like the mute guy doing the multihead reaction though, it genuinely seems like it would be less cartoony to have him just be overly expressive
This is a good question, because I can't tell you how many people I've seen who neglect the shit out of their main product due to focusing on patron rewards nonstop
Samuel Gonzalez
Dude I'm usually the one defending against posts like that. I'm on your side. Then again my comic is unbelievably wordy because I have this fantasy that I'm some kind of sitcom or sketch writer, so I'd be a pretty big hypocrite if I did try to criticize wordiness.
Parker Rivera
thank you!
Liam Allen
tenouttaten character
Nathaniel Rodriguez
How do you know when you're ready to do your webcomic?
this desu id go back and redo it but there's too much sentimental value in the first chapters id fix up some dialogue problems, move sequences around to be more consistent, more dynamic panels, and layout improvements
William Moore
So you should do all work before you start "publishing" the webcomic, or is it okay to progress as you go. I mean, my hero, Jeph Jacques, wasn't nearly as good an artist when he started his series.
Ryder Baker
s-sure
Evan Gonzalez
Boy, I need to learn this kind of thing. It's been an ever present issue on almost every page. Fist in the darkness was not intentional. The third panel blob is real, and I can't unsee it. Thank you!
Hudson Hughes
I have to fight this so hard, my first chapters look like utter shit because I had initially only intended for this to be a proof of concept sort of thing, but then I realized I spent so much time making it 'low effort' that it wasn't worth it.
I'm trying to remedy this by just redoing the first few pages, like to show that the art does get a lot better but later.
Sebastian Watson
i think i actually left the "this is a proof of concept" statement in my comic lmfao
Caleb Allen
Here's a page I just finished, and then I'll post one of the very first pages. Keep in mind these are only like five chapters apart.
Thanks. I hope you liked the other works I posted.
Nolan Bell
I always intended on coming back to it. I just needed to take care of some other things first. Like I said I want to improve my paneling and background before I really get into it.
Cat I just posted isn’t in it. That was someone else’s character. But basically three dumb kids play an MMO in the early 2000’s. It’s mostly episodic and humor based so nothing that deep really.
David Long
Look up mouth charts for animation and lip syncing. If you want something more hands on, go watch a video you like and pause at random intervals and sketch what you see putting emphasis on the face and mouth
Cooper Torres
I mean it's right there in the title, oni slash fox
Gavin Gray
Another rough i am working on. This is where Tad starts turning the battle around by wrestling control away from the team and slowly destroying the Justisaurus for improvised weapons.
In this scene he is supposed to be punching Drak through a building. I tried some weird angles on a lot of the frames like the running one and the punch. Does it look right to you guys? I have a lot of trouble with perspective and I am trying to keep it dynamic. I think the windup on the fist in particular looks off. Any tips would be appreciated.
Read some books from your country. Attempting to replicate another countries culture is pathetic.
Easton Ortiz
On one hand I have no interest in replicating “anime” style and prefer old western cartoon aesthetics. But I will say that there is a lot to be learned from how the Japanese handle line weight and motion.
Camden Baker
Please, please resize
John Martin
>not stealing another country's culture and westernizing it. Do you even colonize?
Ayden Myers
Do you mean to just make sure all of the heads are the same size?
Landon Morris
no I mean like don't post 7000 pixel images here. please shrink it down
Why would I read a history book? I want to write good stories, not basic slop
Grayson Nguyen
Why do some characters have only four fingers instead of five? What’s the point of drawing one less finger
Henry Ramirez
No, I just suck. I do have a tablet.
James Wright
Fingers are expensive! Shop around and try to buy one.
Tyler Ross
start drawing hands in different art styles you'll quickly realize that too many fingers will make them look unnaturally thin in order to fit on the hand, in a 'chubbier' style. or else they just fucking squish together whereas the more realistic and/or elongated you go, the weirder fewer-fingers look, you almost have to start leaving spaces in between them. That alienness actually helps if it's supposed to be a nonhuman hand
Grayson Myers
They cost an arm and a leg
Luke Russell
traditionally it was easier and more natural looking in cartoons with big round hands like mickey mouse or simpsons. i always do five fingers due to OCD, hence why they look like shit.
Brandon Garcia
I don’t get this post. Are you saying that fewer fingers make caricatured characters more realistic and appealing? What do you mean by “chubbier” style?
What I'm saying is that the style you're using is going to inform your proportions overall, and the fingers are no exception you draw heads, torsos, limbs, hands, all at different sizes depending on your style, right? So in some styles, if you try putting five fingers on, they won't seem to "fit" on the hand. You won't have room for them, unless you shrink them to make them fit, and then they will look disproportionate. And in other styles, if you try leaving it at 4 fingers, they'll either have spaces in between, or they'll look too big if you stretch them to fit. In essence, number-of-fingers is more of an issue of thickness than any other measurement
Jack King
I do like slashers! The more fun and creative, they are, the better. I keep a framed photo taken of myself with the real Freddy Krueger next to my bed
Close enough, haha!
Wyatt Hall
Otto calm down.
William Peterson
so never
Jaxson Murphy
Ah well, I don't really use these guides properly either. I usually makes corrections after I have done the basic drawings on top of the guides. These are generally what my internalized idea of what is considered "correct" looks based on my experience. I do have a bit of experience doing life drawing studying real people so I would suggest you do that when you get a chance.
The immediate issue I see in your construction is that those feature while following that horizontal line in the middle doesn't really line up because that line is following a curvature of the skull but it isn't lining up with other feature of the face in my opinion. just keep it leveled. Another issue is I think you are not familiar with how the spacing between each features of the face works. Things like the button of the nose line up with ear lopes, and the top of the eyes line up with the top of the ears, spacing between the two eyes is one eye length and so on. There are a lot to cover I don't think its something I can convey with just a post and a picture unfortunately. If you have access I would recommend "drawing the head" by William L. Maugham for the faces specifically.
How often should a webcomic update? Is it reasonable to do a chapter a week, like 12 pages?
Joseph Campbell
I highly doubt you can do that much, but go ahead and try! Most professionals barely manage one page a week, like 30 weeks out of the year.
Oliver Adams
If I can get a patreon going and quit my job someday I’d like to do a 25 page chapter a month.
Jaxson Rogers
ganbare, user
Benjamin Adams
>mfw slav and 500 bucks is more than enough to quit my job
Lincoln Davis
25 pages is possible. Although, I'd rather do one page every weekday and build a buffer with the extra pages.Either way you should build a buffer and check yourself how long you need to deliver. Nothing worse than burning through your pages in the first few weeks and then going on hiatus.
You will also probably not be able to make any money from your comic for a long time, so I'd definitley consider the amount of time you have to work on the comic.
Grayson Roberts
I recently wrote a tentative script for the first chapter of a future comic. I plan on make a lot of revisions in the future, so feedback would be appreciated at this stage
Wing it. Questionable Content hasn't been working towards an endpoint of any kind!
Owen Gutierrez
ew
Jordan Wilson
y u ewing at her
Christopher Price
badly drawn picture of a baby murderer
Luis Robinson
Around oni never relax.
Carson Rivera
pepperoni pepperoni Rau is a cute oni
Jose Rogers
>badly drawn That was honestly the best I could do currently. That said its only my second attempt at digital art Rau. I think the shading looks better than the usual.
>of a baby murderer I think you;re forgetting one part of that sentence
Parker Hall
Oh well, I can comment on my attempts at art but I cant talk for her there. You smash one baby and then suddenly you are whoaaa, pure evil. Let it go. She said she was sorry.
>Alt Q: When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it? I just went with my own style and gradually altered work patterns as I got the hang of certain things. tapas.io/episode/1454442
Josiah Martinez
I need to move somewhere cheaper. The problem is most cities are expensive but I can’t live in rural areas. I’m like an ant, I need to live in a crowded hive.
If I have an Asian inspired “land”, no direct culture just a mishmash of things, am I going to get hounded by tumblr for cultural appropriation? The webcomic takes place in a videogame so it’s what the devs thought of but I’d rather not have teenage girls trying to dox me if I can avoid it.
Christian Wood
I'm having trouble fitting my ideas on an a4 size piece of paper. Is it okay to draw on a bigger piece of paper and resize things later? Or is it good to learn how to draw small things?
Evan Murphy
I don't think you should worry about or consider the crazies if you want to make something anyone will be mad at anything at any given time, but listening to people like that won't help you or your art improve. plus I mean Avatar already did the same thing.
Camden Lopez
It's what made Avatar so terrible.
Hunter Parker
you think Avatar is terrible because it's fake asia instead of real asia? i don't see how that makes a difference
Jonathan Hernandez
just use your best judgment and draw whatever looks right!
Kevin Cruz
The eternal struggle. I'm also like an ant, I can't drive. So things need to be within a short distance. Things like emergency services to call. Otherwise I'd be happy to live in the middle of nowhere.
In the olden days, comic books were drawn on larger sheets (10" x 15"?) and the images shrunk down for publishing.
Noah Clark
Reading now-immediate impressions is that you're only doing one panel a page and that's a bad thing because a.) nothing's happening and b.) nothing's happening for a long time You're also opening your story with a board meeting
Julian Miller
I think nowadays they'd call it pro-choice.
Leo Wood
What is the best size for digital page?
Logan Green
Copy weeb artists you like. No, really. Manga faces are a collection of symbols - symbols for eyes, symbols for mouth, symbols for nose, to a varying degrees also symbols for hair, as well as additional, optional symbols for other facial features. Steal what you like, make it yours, improve from there. It's literally how you learn to draw appealing animu faces, no amount of Loomis, Bridgeman or Vilppu will help you with that. They will help you with understand the shape of the skull though, so you may want to take a look or two there, eventually.
Angel Martinez
But they're still drawn on larger sheets. 11x17, to be exact.
Jordan Reyes
I just figured it was all done digitally these days.
Elijah Barnes
Probably more still work traditionally than digitially, whether out of habit, preference, or its just what they're comfortable with. On top of that, on thing people don't really take into consideration is that there is a lot of money in traditionally done pages, because they can be resold to collectors. Even modest names in the industry can pull in hundreds of dollars per page selling.
Why would someone skip out on all the money in selling each page of a 24 page comic at a couple hundred bucks each?
Blake Cruz
>one panel a page Nah, I just don't like to write out panels in my scripting phase. I do agree that not a lot happens in the first half of the chapter, that is something I've been concerned about since I need it to set up the rest of the story. The pacing is something I've been struggling with. >board room meeting Yeah, I originally was going to have a slightly more actiony prologue but I couldn't get it to work so I cut it all out, and decided to see if how well the story functioned without it. I think I'll add it back it and try to work on it some more, since the first pages are rather unexciting.
Christian Green
How important is it to make your comic diverse? If I do, should I pass it through sensitivity readers? If so, should I limit the diversity so I don't need to go through an Indian, black, LGBT, etc. reader for each case?
so it's a big investment on the front end, but if you end up popular, you make a lot back later.
Christopher Rodriguez
If you want easy recruitment for subscribers you should have all the "progressive" elements in the comic to appeal to the mainstream.
Parker Robinson
How much does it cost to do a webcomic, excluding the price of your own time to write/draw it? Is website registration and hosting prohibitively expensive? What other costs would there be?
Stop caring about this stupid shit, seriously. Make what YOU want to make, the rest comes later.
Tyler James
Hosting and a site cost about $50 dollars annually, other than that, unless you plan to print or are paying someone to make you a site, or draw your comic, you really don't have any other expenses
Joshua Smith
It's all potentially free.
Henry Reed
Stop falling for this stupid shit.
Andrew Hall
I don't have a nice enough ass for a sugar-daddy.
Logan Cooper
graphic design is my passion
Henry Parker
Okay?
Leo Davis
no I mean there are free hosting sites with infinite storage You just have to either be on a dying site intended for the old internet with little support (but still works because they built it to work), or a shitty, awful, uncustomizable site intended for the new phonernet and have triggers screamed at you all day.
Dominic Murphy
80 bucks for a tablet. 30 bucks for clip studio. no life, friends, or other hobbies: priceless.
Sebastian Ross
I'm on page 60. I've officially passed the page number of Chapter 1.
What would you recommend for improving the dialogue? I’m aware it’s one my comic’s biggest faults, and while there’s nothing I can’t do about the ones already written, I’d like to do my best at making any future ones better, specially the plot-turning kind.
As for the art, I’ll look into turning the rendering down a notch if it becomes a problem for other readers, but so far most of them (the ones who comment anyway) seem to have no issues with that.
The Orlan/Amara exchange I struggled a lot with and end even I wasn’t happy with it in the end. I guess you could say I have trouble writing conversations that deliver exposition without getting clunky? One of my earlier critiques was that the much of the plot (not worldbuilding) wasn’t very clear so trying to clear story elements through dialogue has been a challenge for sure.
As for the art not conveying color or texture, I’m well aware of it. Color is not something I plan on changing anytime soon, so what I can try is working on conveying visual in monochrome more clearly. Texture I’ll try to pay more attention to. Maybe figure out tricks ro convey it without over-rendering the art even further.
I appreciate the feedback a lot! While I can’t guarantee any quick improvement, it always helps to be given pointers on what to look out for in my work.
Thanks. Also, you don't have to try so hard to fit in here, it only makes you stand out more. Just lurk at a leisurely pace and choose quality over quantity while posting.
Parker Sanders
You might be one of the wisest people here, SmackJack.
Jaxon Gray
Don’t be such a faggot.
Joseph James
Mel Gibson pls...
Leo Martinez
Not him, but...
Try to be succinct. If I have to make a large blurb, I'll attempt to keep that as the only piece of dialogue in the entire panel. Also, dialogue bubbles (IMO) start to detract from the art when you use more than three or four per panel, regardless of their length. You're already fighting for real estate with your panels on the page, and dialogue can be thought of as smaller panels. Eventually your idea becomes incomprehensible.
You can of course violate this (I do), but it helps if you think of dialogue like you would a film. Shot-Reverse-Shot/Statement-Response-Statement. Also, conversation flows naturally when you build rapport through the dialogue. So you can have longer/more bubbles if you're masking exposition as a conversation.
What I meant with the panel/page thing was that its very uncondensed, the information on 1-4 looks like it could be done in 1 page.
>more actiony prologue Technically the story could start immediately after the meeting in the hallway, with the king and Set setting up that he's inexperienced about to go on a mission, if just abridging. The only information that cannot be inferred is that there is a dragon terrorizing the capital. Otherwise... >scene involves more than Set, the king and advisor. Dialogue made more fun somehow or story relevant. When Set gets brought up it's revealed his chair is empty and he slipped out for Arisani's scene >The prologue or an abstraction of what everyone is talking about is revealed to be Set doodling in the council
>so what I can try is working on conveying visual in monochrome more clearly Not for the current scene, but try different armor types. Gambesons and lamellar both look light and the sort of thing you could picture a bird wearing. I still maintain the silhouettes need work. The main characters are distinct from each other but Amara is shaped like any other soldier bird. Everyone is built slight
Rikomenci. I haven't posted it online yet since I'm actually going to print it as a book first.
Though would any anons want to see this released as a webcomic as well? I'm planning on having this whole thing be more of a bunch of disconnected stories in a shared universe. Posting the first complete story over time might be a good way to ease into the whole business, and to put it somewhere for posterity besides a physical book.
Matthew Jones
There are people who actually think too much like this though, but you know what dude? I've had this exact fucking conversation before in these threads, maybe you're even the same guy I had it with, so you're probably 100% right about this being shitty bait.
Hudson Gonzalez
I learned it from watching you.
Kayden Cruz
Oh fuck, I forgot I read this Nothing to say at current but is peeped
My comic takes place in vidya with only animal characters and you never see their human players so racial diversity is sort of irrelevant within it. Don’t think in quotas just create characters that come naturally. The girl characters I have didn’t come from a need to fit a requirement but rather to contribute through a storyline whether episodic or overall.
Kevin Taylor
composition good flow good page layout eh, okay bubbles eh, okay
Not too sure about the 2nd panel. It's alright, I guess, but having the first bubble further up or the tail on the other bubble would make things more clear. Your bubbles look a bit unnatural. Maybe make them less circular and the lines less thick.
I like how you framed the scene itself, good composition, really. Everything is shot with purpose and flows decently. Bonus points for keeping the robot right and the girl left, adds to the clarity. The reverse birdseye view in the next panel works well with the panel layout. Good job!
Speaking of the panel layout. Quick reminder that the space in between panels equals time. personally I feel like the distances are pretty random and a tad too far apart, but it's hard to tell because I can't see the page as a whole. Next time pls no Spoiler so we can analyze the thumbnail.
Overall good job! I like it quite well. Link to comic?
Blake Bell
How do I get better at staging?
Carter Morgan
>Though would any anons want to see this released as a webcomic as well? I'd think of it as a seperate market, really. If it's an ongoing series, you could put a link into your physical copies, where people can read the new page updates online. Posting a huge chunk of story at once can be good to get attention, but if nothing new comes along, ppl will forget about it fast.
Adrian Gomez
Thanks for the input! Nice to know I'm not completely shitting the bed with the bubbles. >personally I feel like the distances are pretty random and a tad too far apart, but it's hard to tell because I can't see the page as a whole. They're all equally distant, but the panel borders intentionally are a bit rough, as are the bubbles. >Link to comic? See I was thinking of reposting it page by page, like a couple per week. I don't really have a way to keep selling the books since it was through Kickstarter.
Charles Collins
Are these just roughs?
Jace Cruz
No. What you're seeing is ink on bristol board.
Kayden Anderson
YIKES
Christian Phillips
Your angles and shots are pretty nice like the other guy mentioned, but honestly I feel like you should refine backgrounds and stuff a bit more.
Its kind of hard to tell things apart, because, well, you have a tendency to just scribble things in, which doesn't really define much of anything. You can get away with this a little bit in some cases, but since you're doing it on the backgrounds AND the characters in most cases, and with almost no line weight variation, things tend to just kind of blend together with no real definition.
Luis Hall
Watch movies and TV shows. They are all based off of storyboards (for the most part) and they have decades of practice between everyone working in the writer's room and storyboarding. You'll quickly pick up on what works and what doesn't. I'd also suggest reading books on cinematography, or at the very least watch some YouTube videos.
Parker Russell
You'd better have at least one zebra for every ten horses, user
Wyatt Watson
I already do that though and I don't anything about staging
Josiah Phillips
Then I suggest reading books on cinematography as I already mentioned. They'll teach you the different rules and show examples of proper technique.
David Jones
what good would reading do
Austin Hernandez
I updated my comic today/yesterday (man time is fucked). I forgot about Yea Forums for a bit, reminded that posting her got more eyes on my comic so here we go again. Check out nagasakecomics.weebly.com/ for more.
Just make your characters however you imagine them. If race isn't important to the story feel free to design them however you want. It might be good to throw in a few characters of a different race if you're using too much of one, but ultimately don't sacrifice your vision. Personally I tend towards white characters just cause I AM white, but I generally try to have visual variety in my character design just cause that's more fun.
this art reminds me of adventure time in a good way. Will read.
Zachary Adams
>How important do you think style is for any comic? Would changing the style impact your enjoyment? Depends on the comic itself honestly. For the most part no, but some comics exist on spectacle alone.
>When starting your webcomic, did you just use your own style of writing or drawing, or did you work to change it?
I used my own but mostly because I'm not skilled enough to copy the art I like. I've more and more been trying to move towards the angular street art style of gorillaz and panty and stocking, but I honestly for the life of me cant keep it up. I start drawing a bit like it and then slowly gravitate back to my 13-year-old-girl quality art.
Owen Taylor
>the information on 1-4 looks like it could be done in 1 page. It could be, but I honestly don't like the look of comics where everything is hyper-condensed. In my experience that usually leads to pages feeling less impactful and the pacing feeling odd. I have about the same average amount of stuff happening per page here as my other comic, which my readers usually seem to be content with. It's a method that works for me. Thank you for your insight, I will take your suggestions into consideration.
If you guys are up for it tell me your favorite animal. I need more character ideas.
Thomas Rodriguez
Lion! Especially if it has wings and its feet are bird feet but the hands are still lion hands. what kind of characters are you making? Because good animal characters are not usually people's-favorite-animals
Nolan Bennett
T-rex!
Tyler Peterson
meiolania megalania manul mammoth mapinguari
Easton Ortiz
Brutal
Jeremiah Howard
oh, and bassariscus. Esecially the smaller, cuddlier north american variety. apparently prospectors and miners used to just pick them up from the wild and they would instantly be tame and happily live in a box in your house and pop out to eat mice periodically. Like they'd still randomly decide to leave, but such an unusual case of instant-pet is refreshing
Matthew Long
i feel like you arent trying at all none of page gives me an impression that there is genuine effort in your comic
Hunter Reed
I literally put more effort into that page than anything in the series so far. Low quality sure,but low effort not so much.
Xavier Sanchez
>I literally put more effort into that page than anything in the series so far. Oof
Andrew Bennett
Compare it to my first ever, chris-chan level strip,and it's a huge boost in quality.
it's literally the same it's just not done in goddamn fucking crayon
Christian Fisher
18 now, like 16 when I started making these. I know my art is shit, and my jokes are unfunny, the 'action' hardly even has continuity between frames. I know it's bad but like, it's what I want to make. I have fun doing it.
damn, your right and that makes me sad.
a fight between an old man and a bird
Samuel Jackson
if its fun for you then ok, that's fine keep doing it just don't expect an audience for this
Joshua Gray
Pikachu
Xavier Moore
Owl ripped out. His entrails.
Joshua Jones
I’m gonna give the three-bubble rule a shot. I feel imposing some limits (like the ammount panels per page, of pages per chapter, chapters per story arc, etc) has been helping the comic’s pacing, so doing this might help me write more concise dialogue.
Tho I’ve already made attempts to hide exposition as dialogue before, the main problem comes from making both the conversation flow naturally and the exposition be delivered clearly. Most of the time it feels like either one or neither seem end up working well. Seeing that I want my comic to be character-driven first and most, should I prioritize the former over the later?
>Gambesons and lamellar Are these materials or armor types? If the later then I dunno if I can do much about it without outright changing their designs in middle of the comic. If it comes between continuity or plausability then I’m afraid I’m a bit biased toward the former.
>Silhouettes need work This I can blame on the fact that during much of the comic you will only see the main five characters by themselves, so you won’t see a whole lot of crowd shots later on. Good to know the main characters are distinct enough from each other, that’ll definitely be helpful during the middle parts of the comic.
I definitely didn’t put a whole lot of work in the designs of the background characters, many of which are made on the spot (following some loose guidelines), so it’s no wonder they end up blending a lot. Doesn’t help these first chapters are so heavy with crowd shots. That might have been poor planning from my end.
I feel bad I haven’t had any actual comic pages to post in awhile, I’ve just been wanting to get some character designs down, get the world figured out a little better.
Tavern owner woman, doesn’t have a name yet, but meant to be a kind of mother figure to Urchin. Lost her hand while protecting her family, uses a hook but can replace it with various different tools for keeping her tavern well kept or weapons for dealing with pirates and other ne’er-do-wells. Wanted her to be living and motherly but touch as nails.
Imagined her with the voice of Roz Ryan but maybe I just defaulted to that since Bubbie from Flapjack was a big influence.
Better explanation of what I meant by nothing happening for a long time- reread the script but mentally replace every instance of the word "page" with "week". It's 9 months to finish the prologue if you do one page a week, 6 months if you can do 1.5. And the prologue is almost self contained: The only plot points brought up that aren't resolved is that Aman knows/is probably pissed about the snake thing, and Setya and co. are probably on the run. Most of it has no bearing on the larger story
>gambeson A thick, puffy jacket made out of cloth. Surprisingly hard to cut through. Honestly kind of ugly but they look okay on extras. Weird word but not actually that rare- it's that long sleeved tunic that's in in every dark fantasy story ever >lamellar Roman and samurai armor. Flexible metal plates. And yeah, I said that. I'm mainly talking about armor for extras- Giran and Kreeg suits look the same, because they're both metal plates held by straps
Raven or atlantic puffin. Look at this stupid thing
>Better explanation of what I meant by nothing happening for a long time- reread the script but mentally replace every instance of the word "page" with "week". It's 9 months to finish the prologue if you do one page a week, 6 months if you can do 1.5. I intend to release the first chapter all at once.
Justin Jones
Well there’s a couple of things I tried to distinguish Girans between Kreeg, even with their armor designs being similar. For instance, different helmets, different shields, Kreeg armor being slightly darker, Girans facing right while Kreeg facing left.
If that’s not enough, however, I’ll look into giving either of their armors a subtle redesign. Something that resembles the original while still standing apart.
That said, your armor suggestions are giving me ideas for other war factions in future story arcs. I’ll make sure to keep them noted for once the time comes to design them. Won’t happen any time soon, but it’s always good to have a bank of references for the long run. So thanks!
HOLY FUCK Clip Studio is updating in a week and they're adding more text features like rotatable and skewing text >twitter.com/clipstudiopaint/status/1148863755863805952 ( ᗜ ) One of the features they have desperately needed for comics is finally happening. Also, if you have csp and twitter, you should try out the comic share thing. Only the japanese users seem to use it and it seems like a great way to do preview chapters
is the cloth around the hook so it can get a little more grip on things? This has to be the least important color-scheme decision yet. she's just changing her pants. Might as well just have her change her pants with each new appearance, like she's done laundry
Colton Walker
couldnt you apply rotation and skew to text already?
I like the smart smoothing idea, if it can be done after the fact, so you can work aliased and have that extra control, then smooth it all out at the end.
Samuel Turner
>couldnt you apply rotation and skew to text already? No, not as text layers. You could after you rasterized the layer, but not before. I'd have to see when the update comes out, but it seems like you can still edit your text after skewing.
The other updates, I like the idea of having a favorite folder for materials. I'm not sure how much I'd use it, but given that I want to create 3d props and scenes just for my comic I might wind up getting some use out of it.
>Note: The tone pattern distortion function that was included in Manga Studio is currently under development to more accurately reflect opinions and comments from the creative community. I guess they are starting to re-add older features? I'm cool with that, and to be honest the tone transform tool was easily one of the things that made me fall in love with manga studio and it disappointed me to find out it wasn't in the newest version. I wonder what's next?
The bubble is fine. The text is too thin and faint. I'd bold that shit.
Samuel Jenkins
It's honestly the rest of the page that needs work
Eli Long
What is the best size for a comic page?
Jonathan King
Thanks.
I'm not about to redo 62 pages I drew physically, dude. Sorry.
Asher Nguyen
Please don't ever draw again then
Logan Morris
Where are you hosting it?
Michael Jenkins
This is terrible news Absolute cheaters and lazy people only like this.
Kevin Campbell
I'm just starting drawing and i need to figure out the size.
Josiah Torres
>I'm not about to redo 62 pages I drew physically, dude. Sorry. Learn to take criticism, dude. Sorry.
James Wood
Your originals should be of a size suitable for printing. Even if you have no intention of printing it immediately, you never know what may happen in the future.
I'm better than anyone else in this thread. I don't need to redo 62 pages, just because I'm the only that works in traditional.
Juan Moore
This is bad meme information, I'm a professional and I know for a fact that high dpi destroys printers. Go to any printer and they'll tell you the same thing. How the 300 and 600 dpi meme became so widespread is beyond me, but it needs to stop being spread around.
Joseph James
Just because you're 20 years old doesn't mean you've been dedicating 20+ years of practice. I think it's pretty clear from your art alone that you haven't.
Asher Sanchez
>Well there’s a couple of things I tried to distinguish Girans between Kreeg, even with their armor designs being similar. For instance, different helmets, different shields, Kreeg armor being slightly darker, Girans facing right while Kreeg facing left. Well, yeah, I knew that. You left out that Kreeg armor has an almost insectile look that's really visible with the shields, it has a crotch plate where Giran armor just has a skirt and Rugyam's armor specifically has wraps or banding on the limbs.
What I was getting at is why they're texturally? similar- they're both based on large metal plates held by straps.
>Something that resembles the original while still standing apart. Greek helmets? the brow ridge they have gives them a very vertical look, contrasts well against the low/swept back style Kreeg ones have
Do a search for comic size templates. There are many that will fit on standard A/B paper sizes; A5 is a common size for small press comics in the UK.
Please share your knowledge. How does having a high dpi damage a printer?
What would you recommend instead of 300dpi? I've always been told that 300dpi is industry standard for print publications, and it's better to have larger sizes that scale down. 72/96dpi is only for monitors and will look terrible when scaled up for print.
Nolan Bell
Doing a basic google for "300 dpi" and I'm seeing a lot of references to 300 dpi being standard for print quality*, but nothing to say not to use it. I've printed several of my comics for selling at conventions, and the printers I've used have had no problems with the files being 300 dpi; none of them have told me to use a different resolution for whatever reason.
If you can provide something to back up your assertion that "high dpi destroys printers" and that "any printer [will] tell you the same thing", then I'd be interested in seeing it.
*You can go as low as 150 dpi, but it's not recommended.
Luke Long
youd expected 20 years would be enough to know how to do basic lineweight really makes you think huh
Brody Howard
3000x4000
Blake Williams
Ahh, ok, so it’s the texture that is too similar. That I have no real justification for. I originally imagined a rougher texture for their plating (in contrast to the more “polished” Giran armor) but once I started out I gave them all the same metallic look without realizing. That’s completely on me.
So what I’m gonna do is make sure to experiment a little with the material of their armor, and gradually improve my texture work overall for the next chapters. Many thanks again for the tips, user.
Late to the thread, but I think good writing ultimately matters most for the long term. An eye-catching style certainly has benefits though. It isn't usually a deal-breaker for me, but I have my aesthetic preferences, so style does impact my overall enjoyment of a comic.
When I started my comic I pretty much just used my general style and existing character designs. Those developed pretty rapidly though, and I felt like having to draw page after page of scenes rather than just pinups here and there really accelerated the improvement of my digital inking skills and familiarity with my designs. Since I developed my comic for years before I started putting it online, I focused on pushing my quality over speed, but now that it's online and I feel I've reached a good level of detail and polish for my pages, I am working toward making production faster without sacrificing overall quality.
My comic is called Avania, by the way, and you can read it at worldofavania.com
Heh, fancy meeting you here. I just got caught up again on Windborn--and wew, things are goin' down!
no! they are family! But in the next few pages there are cute girls(1)
Jordan Cruz
Looking pretty good.
In the third panel of the Suite D side where it says "proy", did you mean "proj"? I'm guessing the word was proyecto, but in English it would be project. My guess could be totally wrong, though.
Connor Rodriguez
This, plus "you're doing great tomorrow" makes less sense in this context than "Great! You're going tomorrow!"
Chase Price
Or it could be "You're going to do great tomorrow!"?
Charles White
I figured it should have probably meant "You'll do great tomorrow!" As if indirectly, forcefully saying "You're going, whether you like it or not."
John Diaz
Can they fuck?
Luke Parker
user I like wincest as much as the next guy, but is this really the comic you want it to happen in?
Gabriel Robinson
I already fixed the page! Thank you for your help! I'm gonna have to start paying you! haha No,but he's gonna adjust his game in the future (maybe)
Nice seeing Beatrice's weaknesses. They have a fun dynamic, and it's going to get even more fun when main cutie is like "you think goblins care about that stuff?"
Cameron Sanders
WIP Thumbs for the first five pages of Transients Issue #2. Page one needs to have some adjustments done (panels are using the wrong perspective), but otherwise these are ready for production. However before we get that far, we need to do the remaining 19 pages. This issue is willed with action to the brim and I really hope you guys enjoy reading it when it's done.
The third panel looks great. I would think about working on your action lines though. They don’t blend well and lead to the idea of motion.
James James
Yeah, Im going to keep tweaking those. They only look passable on panel three. I might nix them altogether on panel two and completely rework the last panel. Kinda looks like he is pawing at him instead of punching doesnt it?
Carter Peterson
I think the punch looks alright. I would just look to other comics or even manga on how they use lines to emphasize action and learn from that.
> You can halve your DPI if you double the size of your pages. But the pixel dimensions (and hence file size) would pretty much remain the same, so it's not that much of a trade off. You might as well work at actual print size, at a higher dpi (600), then export the finished page at a lower one (300).
> Giving out DPI without giving out page size to go with it is pretty irresponsible. How big is a page? A4, A5? US Standard Comic? UK Standard Comic? Bande Dessineé album? Tankobon?
Research typical printed comic sizes for your country/region, and select one to use as the basis for your comic. That way you can avoid headaches caused by trying to print a non-standard comic size.
Angel Ortiz
what could i add to this panel? i'm going to do heavy rain after i figure out whats missing, so i could also use some tips for that
