need help with speech baloons in photoshop7

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 5:37 am

YarpsDat wrote:What's there not to get? o.O
I mean seriously. I cannot comprehend someone could be unable to comprehend that. Especially if the person in question does know how to use the computer, and is relatively famous webcomic artist know for her awesome computer colouring and stuff.

Ha! If only I were THAT good.

I understand vectors theoretically. But I can't figure out how they work in photoshop. I suppose I could try using illustrator but it seems silly to do that why I know perfectly well I can achieve the same things on a raster layer with stroke on photoshop in less time that in takes to start up the other application.

I'd love to learn how to draw with vector programs, but I've been doing everything in raster so much that it's hard to change and go back to sqaure one.

But nice, tutorial, Yarps. I'll steal it for Gear when I get aroudn to updating it.

Sopheia · Post by **Sopheia** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:24 am

Yay! Thanks EHM/YarpsDat (<---

)! I'll go and try it out most enthusiastically when I finish colouring my next page!

Ok. Bye... *poof*

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:12 am

Sopheia wrote:EHM/YarpsDat (<--- )

YarpsDat.
I use EMH when I want to post something, but don't have enough time to read all the stuff (and I don't like to lose the orange "new posts" markers, and the handy "view newest posts" links.)

(Oh, and for moderating- editing, moving and locking stuff. But I tend to avoid that.)

War · Post by **War** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:58 pm

Phalanx wrote:
Joel Fagin wrote:You know, guys, if you really want to spread the good word about vectors to knowlessmen and newbies, then you need a better tutorial. They're not intuitive things for your average amature.
Agreed.

I'd try them out, except that I don't get them, even from that tutorial.

I'd do a tutorial, but I use PS6 and it looks like the interface has changed a bit over the intervening couple of versions.

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:08 pm

Still War, there's enough similarity that I think we could figure it out on later versions. It'd sure be darn useful.

I give vector shapes a try yesterday. I shaped everything in vector, rasterised them and applied a layer stroke for the new speech bubs. Not a bad in-between, and it makes for easier curves. It's close enough to your method War, but I'm still getting the hang of those anchor points.

(BTW, Joel, thanks for that tip about ensuring stroke was set on 'inside'. I learnt something new)

EMH · Post by **EMH** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:00 am

Okay, I went and checked out Photoshop.

I didn't yet achieve the mastery in using it, but I'll share what I think is the Photoshop equivalent of my method:

1. Select elipse tool.

2. Set it to create vector shapes (for some reason called "Shape Layers"):

3. Draw the first elipse.
4. After you draw the first one, set the tool to ADD to the shape, instead of creating new ones:

5.After you're done with the elipses, select the draw tool.

And draw the pointy thingies.

If you want the regular ones, just click at the corners/points
If you want the curvy ones, click and drag at the corners/points, and then holding alt drag the "curve control points"

6. After you've drawn everything, add stroke to the layer.

7. The wordbubbles stay vector shapes so they remain editable.

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:54 am

I use photoshop 7, when I do my lettering I have to remember to put down my method.

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 8:57 pm

Dare I throw another tutorial into the mix? Yes I will.

http://waterguy.keenspace.com/sbtutorial.html

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 9:47 pm

Way to go, Toxic, but none of the images work.

EMH · Post by **EMH** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 12:39 am

TOXIC AVENGER! wrote:Dare I throw another tutorial into the mix? Yes I will.

http://waterguy.keenspace.com/sbtutorial.html

1. No images are allowed in the main directory. Images should go into /images/ !

2. Eh. Marquees/ Selections. Don't listen to him, use vectors!

3. "Step 4: Create a new layer under the text and white portion. Repeat steps 2 and 3, but make the selected area larger and equally surround the white portion. Fill with black."
>_>

Eh. Never occured to you to fill the area with black, then contract selection by a couple of pixels, and then fill it with white?
Or just use photoshop's "stroke" effect. Huh?
You save one layer, and you don't have to "repeat steps 2 and 3"

4. and finally you say "Now you can copy the finished bubble to your comic!". So... why isn't it already in the comic??
I'm just wondering why you aren't adding the wordbubbles in the same file, using layers. And I wonder how can you get the "pointy thingies" right without seeing the comic while you're making bubbles.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 11:57 am

EMH wrote:
TOXIC AVENGER! wrote:Dare I throw another tutorial into the mix? Yes I will.

3. "Step 4: Create a new layer under the text and white portion. Repeat steps 2 and 3, but make the selected area larger and equally surround the white portion. Fill with black."
>_>
Eh. Never occured to you to fill the area with black, then contract selection by a couple of pixels, and then fill it with white?
Or just use photoshop's "stroke" effect. Huh?
You save one layer, and you don't have to "repeat steps 2 and 3"

Not to mention Photoshop's Select>modify>Border option makes better-looking outlines than either contracting or expanding? You can get it really thin, really thick, and if you fill it using a brush instead of the paint bucket, you don't get a blurry outline.

CW