How do you add animation to a comic strip?

PixyByte 2016-03-01 21:02:13 UTC #1

I've seen it in a few comics, where they have a comic strip and they don't animate the entire thing, but just little things/actions, and I think it looks so cool. I'd like to try it with my comic Pixy Byte but I'm not sure how to go about doing it. They all just list photoshop as their program, so do they animate it in photoshop?
I have photoshop, flash, and manga studio debut. How would I animate only bits of my comic in those?

starsyscomics 2016-03-01 21:44:01 UTC #2

All I know is when my artist was working on this page, she cried, like...a lot.

Essentially, you're just making a big animated gif, but only a little part of the full image moves. So we imported the animation of the portrait, and set up an animated gif in Photoshop using the Timeline window. The newspaper text stays static while the portrait moves. So think in terms of frames: in every frame, the text isn't moving, so it stays still. But each frame has a different portrait image, so when you save it as an animated gif, the portrait is moving.

It's kind of tricky, and the file sizes are masssive, so you have to sacrifice quality. It was fun to mess around with, but also exceedingly tedious, especially when we found a typo the night before we had to post the page.

PixyByte 2016-03-01 22:18:08 UTC #3

I was trying more for what Deslim does with her "The Little Things" comic, here. So I wouldn't have to worry so much about details or massive file sizes.
I guess I'll poke around in Photoshop and try to figure it out. I didn't even know Photoshop had a timeline feature lol

Kayke 2016-03-01 22:18:56 UTC #4

I do some simple animations in my comics and basically do the same thing @starsyscomics said. Using the timeline window in photoshop. It's good for little animations but if you're doing anything super complex, the file is gonna be huge. Each frame of animation makes the file bigger.

Here are some samples of the little illustrations I've added to pages in photoshop.

In that one the backgrounds are diff in each frame, done on a layer behind the figures.

In this one the background is on is one layer and the slime guys are each on their own layers which I turn on and off for each frame of animation.

Tell Andy that page looks amazing!! I'm sorry it stressed her out but it was worth it!

phen 2016-03-01 23:07:57 UTC #5

Yes! It took me a little bit of fiddling around to find (I use CS5, 64-bit) and it's under Window>Animations. Once you click that, you can get right to work on simple animating frames! I used this tutorial to create a little thank-you note for one of my comics. It also gives handy tips on how to avoid massive file sizes when exporting!

PixyByte 2016-03-01 23:19:16 UTC #6

Thanks! I'll check out that tutorial
How would you save it and upload it to places like Tapastic, Deviantart, and FaceBook? Would it stay animated on different sites?
I currently save to .png.

thomassayle 2016-03-02 01:59:33 UTC #7

to export in photoshop- go to 'save for web device"
change the file type to an animated gif (here you can resize or whatever) then save to your folder.
then uploaded like any other image

jessiepolfliet 2016-03-02 18:20:21 UTC #8

I use Photoshop as well. It's not that difficult of you know how.
Making it look good is another story. (cries)
But your animation looks so nice.
I always look forward to pages of the Creep with animation in it.

PixyByte 2016-03-02 18:49:08 UTC #9

Oh cool, I didn't know that. Thanks, that makes everything easier!