Page layouts in Photoshop?

[Nijyo]

Anyone know of a tutorial or can easily explain how to do layouts similar to that in a manga using scanned pictures and Photoshop or Illustrator? Especially making cell borders and resizing individual cells for placement on the page?

Thanks!

[Magusferox]

well... I havent tried this myself, but you could begin by scanning all you images, then opening a new page in Photoshop for your layout. Make a selection with the polylasso tool, then open your desired images and copy them (under the Edit tab) then go back to the blank page, and again under the edit tab hit Paste into. That should put the image inside whatever selections you make, so you can do overlapping panels and whatnot. Did I confuse you, cause I think I confused myself.

[Nijyo]

That should put the image inside whatever selections you make, so you can do overlapping panels and whatnot. Did I confuse you, cause I think I confused myself.

Hmmm, I did not know about that function. I will try it. I was doing a variation of that, except just pasting and trying to resize, then putting a stroke around that... one problem I wonder about is limiting proportions. Do you know of a technique to make it so that you don't end up squishing/stretching the image you're pasting?

[Magusferox]

Hmm. Are you running a Mac or windows? I'm on WIndows. That may not be important, but when I use the Paste Into it may clip the edges off where the selection is smaller than the original, but it doesn't warp the image.
Another way that is slightly easier to control is the CLone stamp. Open your scanned image, and resize it to approximately the size you want your panel to be. It doesn't have to be perfect. Then, select the entire scanned image. Pick the Clone stamp tool, and make sure the Aligned option is not clicked on up in your Options toolbar. This makes it easier for you to move the image. hold down the ALT key and click the clone stamp in the center of your scanned image to create a clone. Go back to your selection for your panel and then in the center of your selection begin applying the clone stamp. If the image isnt where you want it, just erase it and try again. Unclicking the Aligned option allows you to manipulate the location of the clone instead of it being locked in the same position. The only problem that I've come across is that the image may not be as tall as your selections, but it will usually be as wide.

[LaterJ]

Here's how I do panels. After drawing and scanning my strip I bring it into photoshop (duh). I make another layer and draw lines on it with the line tool. I do straight lines by holding down shift, be sure anti-aliasing is off or you get gray lines ghosting along the sides. I usually just draw the boxes with the line tool, taking the lines beyond the corners and then cutting them off with box selection and clear.
But that's me. What it seems to me that you're doing is assembling pictures from different scans into a sinlge comic. For this, I think you have it backwards. Instead of making your panels and fitting your pictures inside, arrange the pics first and then draw the panels around them on an upper layer. Trim off your overlap by selecting and clear (or use masks, tho I usually don't).
Think of it like you're aranging a bunch of cut-out pictures on a table, gluing them down and drawing lines on top of them. If you have to scale an image, use transform scale but as you pull the corner block of the selection hold shift and it will retain its aspect ratio.
Hope this helps.

[Halflight]

Strips by collage? interesting... i've always found it easiest to do the strip on a single page, and just use photoshop to color and make sure the lines are straight.

Other people i've seen don't combie theyre panels into a single file at all but rather place each panel as a separate image on the page with html.

borders are just straight lines, so, on my comp, i would hold down the shift while using the pencil tool. i don't know what you have, but there's probably an option like that. a straight diagonal line is hold down the shift key and click the mouse at the beginning of the line, continue holding down shift and click the mouse at the end of the line, and then let go of the shift.

for an image outside of a panel that you want to add, make sure the outlines of the image are closed and use either the magic erasor to erase the background (it works like the paint bucket), the magic wand to select the background and then erase it with the background erasor (works like the brush/pencil tool) or color in the entire background (pencil option=darken, or else make the dark lines theyre own layer, layer option=multiply, pencil option=anything) a pure shade (all of one color: red green or blue, though yellow, magenta or cyan would also work-- i think blue works best, though it probably doesn't matter terribly) and go to select>color range, and pick the color you used. Then erase it with the background erasor tool. This last method is longer but makes sense if your outlines aren't completely closed. then select the whole image (make sure you flatten any layers first) copy, and paste on the final page.

resizing... is there a way to resize an individual layer? if so, i haven't found it yet. the only way i know is to have it as its own separate image file and image> image size before you paste it on the final page.

[LaterJ]

In photoshop you can resize individual layers and even selections within layers
Select the layer, and on the menu click Edit>Transform>Scale.
If you've made a selection, do the same thing and you can scale just parts of an image. You can even flip, rotate, skew, distort and all sorts of nifty things. Play with it a little, it's a handy tool.