Completely digital?

Lana · Post by **Lana** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:06 am

In my endless search for the optimal comic medium for me I gave my graphic tablet another go. I tried pre-drawing most parts in Flash and then finish the shading, text and backgrounds in Photoshop. This was my first completely digital attempt (and the first time I used FlashMX ) and it took me less time to create that than if I drew per hand first.

What do you think? Would that work out?

my current comic style (6 panels): http://lana.keenspace.com/d/20040117.html

the part that I made in Flash: http://home.arcor.de/speciallana/misc/flash-predraw.swf

Finished in Photoshop: http://home.arcor.de/speciallana/misc/flash-finish.jpg

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:34 am

If you haven't seen them, check out http://www.alpha-shade.com/. They are 100% CG comic and have several tutorials online for doing this type of thing. They produce some really awesome comics too.

Personally, I prefer the pencil to paper approach because you scan it in much larger than you drew it then reduce the image so it keeps its quality. Notice in your flash version that you can see the strokes clearly. For good or bad it just doesn't have the same quality as the pencil drawing.

Lana · Post by **Lana** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:56 am

The strokes are visible because I used a too large brush *is a nub*

What I like about flash is that you can scale parts of the picture like you want and it won't lose the quality or go pixelerated because it is vector based graphics.

Will try to use a smaller brush and put up another test page.

Project74 · Post by **Project74** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 3:11 pm

not too shabby...looks like someone been playing too much Ultima Online.

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 3:42 pm

Mine isn't 100% digital, but a majority of the backgrounds are.

One technique I like is slapping a large block of black in the general shape you want and slowly chisel out the areas you don't want in white.

It's a lot harder to 'draw' with a tablet, but it is possible

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 7:00 pm

I used to draw, but now I do everything digitally. I do all the drawing in Illustrator or Freehand, then do filling in photoshop. My comic has various stages in which the way I produced it:

Completely done in MS Paint (shittiest comics ever)
Drawn, scanned, filled in Arc Photostudio 2000 (still shitty quality)
Drawn, scanned, filled in Photoshop. (slightly decent quality)
Illustrator, filled in photoshop. (Good quality).

Some of my most recent ones I did entirely in Illustrator and and displayed as vector swfs.

Lana · Post by **Lana** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:14 am

project74 wrote:not too shabby...looks like someone been playing too much Ultima Online.

How did you guess!

Here is a more recent page - starting to look better already.
http://lana.keenspace.com/d/20040202.html

Taiwanimation · Post by **Taiwanimation** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:36 pm

Now that ya mention it, it does have the feel of an fantasy based video game.

Krytos55 · Post by **Krytos55** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 6:58 pm

wow, what an eye opener...

to think ive been hand drawing then, inking, then coloring by hand, then scanning, the running the scan through numerous filters on mgi photosuite only to get mediocore quality. *shudder*

thank you all, now to find me a copy of adobe illustrator.

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:19 am

faub wrote:Personally, I prefer the pencil to paper approach because you scan it in much larger than you drew it then reduce the image so it keeps its quality. Notice in your flash version that you can see the strokes clearly. For good or bad it just doesn't have the same quality as the pencil drawing.

I do my strip entirely on the computer, and I've found one way to make the result look less "computery" is to draw the panels at (give or take) 200% size, fill in the colors (or shades of gray in my case), and then shrink it all down.

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:58 am

Yeah, working in bigger size is a must. I'd even suggest 300% or 400%.

Cheebs · Post by **Cheebs** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 9:09 am

krytos55 wrote:wow, what an eye opener...

to think ive been hand drawing then, inking, then coloring by hand, then scanning, the running the scan through numerous filters on mgi photosuite only to get mediocore quality. *shudder*

thank you all, now to find me a copy of adobe illustrator.

You have to run it through a lot of filters? What do you use to color? Sometimes the quality of what you're using makes all the difference. I did this picture with Prismacolor markers, and all I had to do was adjust for my stupid scanner that makes everything slightly yellow. If I tried it with, say, Crayola markers, I couldn't get the same results. And some things just don't scan well if you're not careful. Colored pencil, I hear, for example.

[minor edit for typos]

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:08 pm

100% digital here too. and like everyone else I draw a lot bigger about 75% bigger than the actual panels. My proccess is somthing i've been working with trying to get a cleaner style and also get quicker. SO incase anyone is interested this my current proccess.

Black and whites:

I start in photoshop and draw out the blocking, then draw the characters in. followed by a third layer for the background (or use stock background/ or if it applies) I finish it with the balloons effects in the last layer. then I save it and bring it into illustrator. in illustrator I path all my lines cleaning up the originals then brining it back into photoshop for any last minute editing.

Colors
The above proccess is the same as the black and white but in illustrator I do all my original fills and gradients. then in the coming back to photoshop I fix any lighting issues and shrink down for the finals.

anyone else have a good proccess? I know I for one am new to the digitial medium for comics and its still a work in progress.

Krytos55 · Post by **Krytos55** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:32 pm

You have to run it through a lot of filters? What do you use to color? Sometimes the quality of what you're using makes all the difference. I did this picture with Prismacolor markers, and all I had to do was adjust for my stupid scanner that makes everything slightly yellow. If I tried it with, say, Crayola markers, I couldn't get the same results. And some things just don't scan well if you're not careful. Colored pencil, I hear, for example.

Ive been using prismacolor colered pencils and a shading stick to even out the grainyness. they still look terrible scanned though, that why i use the soften details and flatten filters multiple times.

I'm going to start using adobe illustrator and photoshop though when i have enough $ to get copies of em.