Animation Source Forums

i am desperate to make a comic but have no idea how to set it out and other stuff like that.I need your help to give me tips,tutorials ect.

also could you help me on how to make good back grounds im not so good at themm lol


please leave a tip or a link to any good tutorials to help me.

Comic Life is a goofd program! Here's a sample of a comic I did on it:

Backrounds? WellI'd suggest looking at a photo of something you might like to be your backround. Then look,and I would paint it or airbrush it.

This is a really good site with awesome tutorials on how to start a comic.
Click here for site.

It starts with getting the story written, to formatting it for drawing, to drawing the panels, to creating a website for it and advertising it.

thanks for the advice you two if all goes well i will have the first page of my comic out soon enough

I don't know how to explain making comics, I've done a few and I just went with what felt right. It helps to try and plan everything out first, or at least the parts you're going to work on right away. As for making the story into pictures, reading manga really helped me. If you look at professional comics you can get a basic idea of what you need to do and practice from there.

I'm currently working on making a tutorial for a graphic novel/comic (call it what you will). I will send you a PM with the link(s) to it when it's finished.

I will stress: It is a BAD idea to use line art to create a comic! It's also ILLEGAL to use copyrighted images! (For example, the image posted above with the picture from the Balto film.) This could get you into legal trouble. Though you may have limited resources, it's unoriginal and doesn't look too good. Even if your artwork isn't the "best," keep in mind this -- there's always someone out there who's better. So strive to be the best you can be, not the best in the world.

Also, I will alert you this -- it's a lot more tedious (long; tiresome) and time-taking than you think. You will need a lot of dedication!

thanks for the help

A comic eh? Well I have a few tips. If your going to start a comic be prepared to spend at least 8 hours on pages until you get the hand of things. Comic take a incredible amount of time andn arn't for the faint of heart.

1. The Plot/Story The plot or story is the most important part. Especially for canine comics. There are hundreds of canine comics on Deviant Art alone. And about 70% of them are Black Blood Alliance ripoffs. So many artist appreciate a good plot. With comics, different is usually better. The comic's plot should be easy to follow and keep the readers interested. If your plots weak, you'll loose most of your readers. Also, plan everything out beforehand. I have everything in my head, but typing a script is a really good idea.

2. Characters Characters are probably the second most important thing to a comic. Make them original, also don't make them static characters. Static characters are characters that stay the same from the begining to the end of the story. Characters have to change in a story, or else there wouldn't be a story. Now, if your making a canine comic, please don't make your characters have rainbow colors or super powers. I've gotten praised many times for my 'natural colored dogs'. Bright colors are way overdone, so you should try to avoid them. But of course if you want make them rainbow.

3. Backround Practice, practice, practice. No body wants to see a comic that has a plain backround that looks it was scribbled up on MS Paint. I reccomend going to Deviant Art and looking up tutorials on trees, grass, clouds, sky, rocks and such. It helps a lot.

And thats all I can think of now. Of course there also shading, lighting, coloring and comic layout. But for shading and lighting, look up tutorials on Deviant Art and other sites it helps alot.

For comic layout, look at http://store.comixpress.com/technical/ even though its confusing, it helped me.

Another good site is http://feralcomics.com/

Heres a link to my comic if you want to looks at it http://faithful-friend.deviantart.com/a ... -112281685

And heres Akeron's journal about really good comics on DA. Akeron has a really good and famous comic herself. http://akreon.deviantart.com/journal/24203526/#comments

Also, something I just remembered which would add on nicely to faithful~friend's good tips:
With backgrounds - less is more.
When doing backgrounds you want good detail BUT making them too detailed can also ruin your comic by making the pages look too busy.

To make nice comic backgrounds work more on the foreground to bring the most attention to your characters and less on the further background.

Agreed with faithful. Most DA users like normal, non-superpower comics. So if your'e doing a comic about animals or anything, if you want make it a superpower comic, unless its really good, don't do it. Or else it wil probably look cheesy. (Trust me, i know. My comic used to be a super-y, and iv'e changed it several times to make it more normal.)
-Yes, natural colored animals really are better to use. But maybe give them more of a touch to your likeing if you want to.
-You always need to know whats going to happen in your story before creating it. Or else you get stuck and you don't know what to add to your story.
-Listen, comics take alot of time. Be prepared to work your butt off if you'd like a comic. If you think you might need help, maybe ask for support on certain things from other artists.
-Really don't use lineart. Its really time consuming, thats why most artists either switched to pencil sketched, or have already been doing it. Others may have been traditional comics too.

Faithful, UK, and Kirada covered almost everything, but i hope i helped too.

Also, here's a good tutorial on starting a comic:http://kairiko.deviantart.com/art/Comic-Tutorial-part-1-119465293