How Do You Get This Shape of Word Bubble?

[VermillionWorks]

While I won't be putting it into my current comic as it's too far along to consider changing all the lettering, I was wondering how people went about getting this 'classic' comic book bubble/balloon shape -

It's more between a squareish shape and a circle, and I think it looks better than the perfect ellipse. Last time I tried to create the shape in Photoshop, it kept looking wonky...though I also use MangaStudio 5 now and haven't tried it in there.

I can't seem to find a tutorial on this either and I feel like I'm missing some simple way of doing this...do you just mess with the pen tool? I would really like to have this shape of word bubble for my future comics, it's so...tidy and pro looking. XP Maybe I'm just overthinking the use of the pen tool or something.

[imagni]

its super easy (WAY EASIER) to do in MS5. In just 4 clicks.
(type your text into a decent well spaced block with no major air)
-select the Curve Balloon
- Click an imaginary perfect rectangle around the text you just wrote.
- When you join up the last click with the first one it'll turn into an instant bubble.
- then either use the balloon tail tool or the baloon pen tool..

It's how i do all the bubbles in my comic ^^
example of how i use them:

alssooo if its helpful here's my settings (obs change your colors):

[VermillionWorks]

O__o
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I'm an idiot.

Well, I was aware of MangaStudio's balloon tools but they confused me. While it's a little tricky to get right, I assume since I'm not used to it yet, this is still extremely helpful. Thank you very much! XD

[imagni]

no problem, honestly! I spent like TWO YEARS doing them manually in PS CS2 T^^^^T over 3 full comic books. Then i bought MS5 and wanted to shoot myself because of how much easier it was and how many hours i wasted :< lol. Anything to help lol
(I'm not a huge fan of perfect ellipses either)(or circles)(Unless it suits a quirky art style of course)
The amazing thing about using MS5 to do speech bubbles is that they auto resize when you drag them and every part of each bubble (including text) is a resizable movable object. Just click on this tool thingy here and it's like magical

[VermillionWorks]

o____o

Photoshop, you're looking more and more obsolete old friend...
And thanks again for the tips!

[imagni]

XD seriously yeah i barely use it anymore other than to do color tweaking.

Also you can do batshit crazy balloons like this in 3 seconds:

[DeadAccount]

Oh man, that's awesome, thanks for the tip!
The only reason I still do my balloons in Photoshop is because I find lettering in MS5 to be awkward, but I'm definitely thinking of switching :/

[carloswebcomic]

Yeah, at first Manga Studio feels really restrictive compared with Photoshop's million-and-one options, but once you get into it and learn a few tricks here and there, you'll neve go back to Photoshop.
In fact, I tried making a page in Photoshop for shits and giggles and it felt so cumbersome and awkward compared to MS5.

[Strontium]

Hey @imagni I'm also new to MS also, is a way when I create a box to format the shape of the text? Like in Photoshop, you drag out a square text box and the font fills in the text to the parameters of the box. In MS all I can do is make a line of text and format it into a square by hand, which is kind of difficult.

[Kayke]

I make mine in illustrator by making an ellipse and then dragging the points out to give it that rectangleish feel.

[UzukiCheverie]

I've just recently made the switch to Clip Studio Paint (Manga Studio) for real, and damn do I love those speech bubble tools. I still do all my drawing in SAI (cause I just like drawing more in SAI, plus it runs smoother) but I do all my panelling (PANELLING IS A DREAM IN CSP) and speech bubbles and print formatting in CSP now. I'm really wishing I started using it sooner xD <3

[AnnaLandin]

I'm not 100% comfortable with Manga Studio 5's balloon tools yet (though the Curve Balloon-thing is pretty dang neat!) but I do use Manga Studio 4EX's balloon tools, and they are a dream. They can generate an adjustable speech balloon for you by pushing a few buttons!

You write your dialogue, which automatically opens up the text-editor panel, which has the Dialogue Balloon Settings-tab:

Click the "Generate Dialog Balloon"-option, and you it automatically generates this:

You can then use the drop-down menus and the sliders to make pretty much anthing you want!

... This is why I haven't fully made the switch to using MS5 for lettering yet; the MS4EX tools are just so good. I can click on a few buttons and sliders to get a basic balloon, and then I can drag on the anchor-points to adjust it, and it just works SO WELL. It makes lettering so much faster.

[dylangandune]

in manga studio you can use the balloon pen and draw it as close as possible to what you want, then get the vector tools and simplify the line and you can move the nodes to make the shape nice...you can remove nodes to smooth it out and adjust thickness....it's a great way to work with balloons...
hope that helps...I use manga studio a bit...if I don't know how to do something, I can usually either figure it out or look up how to do it...I'm willing to share whatever I can learn...

cheers,
dylpdx

tapastic.com/dylpdx

[imagni]

hmmmm you mean like to auto format it into a certain space (within the shape of a bubble)? I've not found it so far (i format all mine manually line by line). The text selection box being dragged changes the size of the font... but maybe there's something in options? digs about

• I should mention i type my text first THEN create a bubble for it, not the other way around. So maybe if you do it bubble first theres a way to auto format the dialogue ontop of a existing balloon.

---

edit: Tried and failed :< theres no option to set the balloon as like a confine for the text to auto wrap to unfortunately. Gonna have to do it the text nerd way XD

[imagni]

wait they removed that???? whyyyyy D: I have to use the balloon pen to draw all my action/shouty/lumpy balloons ;_;

[Strontium]

Oh well, thanks for giving it a try!

[AnnaLandin]

Yep, it looks like they removed it - I have NO IDEA why, because it's super-convenient and makes creating balloons approximately 1000x faster. It's one of the main reasons why I still have MS4EX installed, even though I've also got the basic MS5 version - the lettering+balloon-tools, and the I find the panelling tool in 4EX easier to use.

And, of course, the EX-versions have the multi-page document function, which makes it SO much easier to plan an entire chapter. The 5EX-version still has that, but since I've already got 4EX and am using it for lettering/panelling, I don't feel the need to upgrade my basic MS5 to 5EX.

[nocuddletime]

Hey this is super helpful. I've been a long hold out on using Illustrator for speech bubble but MAN am I sick of those lame rounded rectangles and having to pen tool everything. I'm going to give this a try try!

[VermillionWorks]

MangaStudio 5 has both added good things and removed things they shouldn't have from previous versions. The curve balloon is a good addition, but they should've at least left that old option, too.

I think I recall when I got MS5, an update had come out that completely changed how creating panels worked. I didn't get to try the old way, but it looked WAY more simple and I wondered why they changed it...

[phen]

Another reason to get Manga Studio, ooo! I have Illustrator but I've yet to play with the balloon/bubble tools. Gotta get in there.

Now, in Photoshop, since it's habitual at this point, I use the transform/warp tool to pull the nodes and get the shape I want. It's... much faster and cleaner than trying to eyeball it but still not as efficient as MS. I'll share what I do just in case anyone's interested.

First: some simple marquee fill balloons and text.

Second: Select the balloon to "warm" with rounded corners and Edit>Transform>Warp

Third: Grab the innermost nodes (they'll be little black bullets) and pull directly up, keeping the guideline as straight as possible (really helps to zoom in!)

And viola! It's nice, much more pleasing to look at than before and it only takes 3 or 4 seconds per balloon.

It's really up to how square-ish you want the balloons to look, too. It's exaggerated with these but it's super easy to just slide the nodes up and down to get just the right look you want.