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scullpanda
Dec '16

So one of the things I struggle most with is the creation of thumbnails
Im terrible at it and assume other people might struggle with it too So heres what I want to know --------

What are some of your processes that work for you making thumbnails , advice and or how do you make them interesting?

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    Dec '16

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    Dec '16
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Shanny8
Dec '16

Thumbnails are basically simplistic layouts of how you want your page to flow. I usually with do quick sketch roughs of how I want a particular panel or series of panels to flow, then incorporate those onto a thumbnail layout page. I try to work my page from diff angles and try out diff shots to mix things up & keep my pages interesting.

shazzbaa
Dec '16

My thumbnails are pretty illegible!

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These are literally an inch wide, and that's the big version! Before I make these nice ""neat"" ones, I've usually worked out a lot of timing in the margins of my script--

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--where there's a lot of trial and error and reworking.

My main goal with the thumnbails is to figure out how all the panels are going to be laid out and how much space I want them to take up, that sort of thing. Those little scribbled figures are just my first instinct when it comes to how the characters are gonna be in the frame -- a lot of times that changes later, and I don't worry too much about it at this point.

The step after that, which I call "roughs" is where I start paying attention to my camera angles and shot calls, and making sure everything still flows well:

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I draw the rough sketch at about half the size of the finished page, since working small keeps me from making everything too tiny. In terms of keeping things varied, one trick someone told me was to look at all the entire page and see if all the figures on the page are roughly the same size -- because that means it's the same type of camera shot over and over. If I see I've got that going on, I'll look for places to kinda mix it up a little bit, but otherwise I try not to swing the camera around too much just to do it.

I..... don't know if this actually answers your question!! But this is sorta how I approach the process; if there's something I can go into a little more, by all means feel free to ask x3

ChipGod
Dec '16

i just do the same picture every comic. My old Profile Pic

mariusthered
Dec '16

i dont' i write a script and then make every scene using a 3d program called poser 10. i then use them to lay out my pages instead of thumbs and draw over everything.

CaptainUfo
Dec '16

My thumbnails are post stamp-sized sketches to choose the layout of the panels. After that, since when I started working 100% digitally, I just have several layers of sketches on the same file that will later become the final page.
Then I skip the cleanup and go straight to inks (don't do that if you are working on paper, it's a bad idea: digitally, you can delete your inks as easily as you can erase pencil; in traditional art, it would be a mess).

Silerna
Dec '16

When I'm done with a comic. I cut out one of the panels out with Photoshop. Resize them to 200x200 to 300x300 , add new lines to the edges and then save them.

jasperlizard
Dec '16

My thumbnails are small, often not very legible quick sketches I draw in a sketchbook , although I mostly work digitally. I tend to do them when I'm away from home for the most part, so that even if I can't work directly on my comic, I can still get something done.
An important thing to remember about thumbnailing is that they don't need to be pretty, you just need to be able to understand them so you can work from them, so try not to get too stressed about them.