How do you structure your work?

[shazzbaa]

It's always evolving, but here's how I'm workin' now!

The first step for me is the script, which usually also has a bunch of little thumbnails scribbled in the margins so I have an idea of the panel layout I'm imagining (and make sure I'm not putting too much on one page).

In between writing it on paper, I type up the "final version" (over on the right), and I use both of these scripts to make my actual thumbnails:

These get scanned in and turned into my "visual script" of each page

There's not a lot of shot calls in these or varied angles in these -- I decide most of that when I start doing the rough sketch -- but it does give me a good idea of if I'm hitting the beats/timing I want with the expressions and dialogue laid out.

So when I start on a page, I open up that file and start the rough sketch of the page from there!

[MrKyleRose]

It depends on what I am working on. For most things I write the script or outline in google docs, so I can access and work on them anywhere.

For my webcomic, The Working Stiff, I have a running slides doc where each slide is a strip. I break down the panels with boxes and write the corresponding direction and dialogue in each panel. I'm usually about 10 strips ahead in the writing stage. I draw one a week so, I'll sit down open a blank template (I've created my own for the series in photoshop) and then just draw the next strip. I will usually reference the past strips for consistency, colors ect...

For long form work, once I have a script or outline in place, I create one psd for each page. I try to work them at the same level so I will flip back and forth as I transition from thumb-nailing to penciling, inking and coloring. This way I can "read" my story as I am creating it.

Hope that helps.

[Shiori_Saku]

I dont really know how may pages I'll end up with per chapter just from my story outline but each chapter is kept in its own folder inside which I save the working versions of each page, the completed pages (pre text), and the finalized pages with text saved at the TAP publishing size. I try to complete one page a week, two if I can help it, so that I stay ahead of what is actually published on the web. When I am working on a chapter I will go through and create a number of identical files named "SWCH?PG00?" for the first 10 pages or so. These .sai files are just two layers with the basic page frame and a sketch layers. I will then go through and sketch out the outline. If I hit 9 pages I will make 5 more duplicates of the blank pg10 file and repeat the process until I feel the chapter has reached a good stopping point. Afterwards I delete any extra flies and go back to start inking, shading, and finalizing each page in turn. I dont save sketch/storyboard versions of pages unless I plan to be using them as examples for a class that I will be teaching or post online as a step by step guide sort of thing.

[Varethane]

I thumbnail an entire chapter in one go: it gives me a better overview of the pacing, and it's nice to have a plan.

GOSH I wish I was prepared/organized enough to do this! :'D I consider it awesome if I can script an entire chapter at once (though I do have a pretty detailed note-form outline to work from)

I usually thumbnail between 2 and 10 pages ahead of wherever I am; it's a pretty focus-demanding part of my process, but I rarely have more than a couple of hours at a time to spare on it per week so it crawls ahead slowly. (I keep up with my update schedule by being fast with other parts of the process, haha).

All of my thumbnails are.... actually drawn pretty large. I have a small 4x6 notebook that I keep on me all the time, and I draw each thumbnail so that it takes up basically an entire page. Despite the size, they tend to stay pretty loose (I mostly do them that big because I also transcribe the dialogue into them so that I don't need a computer nearby when I sketch out the page itself later).

Here's a pic of one of my thumbnails, alongside of the full page it belongs to:

Since they're in a bound book and I draw them in order, organization kinda takes care of itself (same with the book itself). I keep all of my scans and finished (digitized) pages together in folders depending on what stage of the process they're at; one folder for layered PSDs with the text on its own layer, one folder for flattened pages, and one folder for the web-sized files.

[AnnaLandin]

GOSH I wish I was prepared/organized enough to do this! :'D I consider it awesome if I can script an entire chapter at once (though I do have a pretty detailed note-form outline to work from)

Wise from experience (I made my first attempt at a webcomic 10 years ago - let's not speak of it, it is a travesty), I knew when I started my current ongoing comic that if I didn't a.) know where I was going next, and b.) had a big buffer, I would probably panic and burn out and quit altogether, and I didn't want to do that.

So I sat down and I outlined the entire plot (in pretty vague terms, but still!), and then I finished 52 pages before I even started posting chapter 1. I still, after over a year of posting, have somewhere between 48-50 pages of buffer. It's what allows me to post twice a week, and it is also what allows me the space to sit down and plan an entire chapter in one go.

[sauropasquini]

Mine is not exactly a method, but my way to proceed is the following:
1. I write a description of each page, box after box, as a text in a Word document. In this phase I'm imagining already the composition and panels distribution, based on a 3x3 grid (I like square formats), together with the text.
2. Using Medibang Paint I sketch my pencils on a level, using a light grey. Adjustment on layout can take place here.
3. In a new layer I ink the panels.
4. In a new layer, I add the shadows.
5. I export on Photoshop and create the flat colors, the background and special effects.
6. I open InDesign, where I create the layout, add balloons, text and sound effects.

[quakeulf]

From start to finish:

1. Research into things I like and that are cool
2. Develop idea based on research
3. Spend 10+ years to improve art because I was 15 years old when I got the idea
4. Begin basic story structure
5. Add characters to fit the tale
6. Do page layouts on paper
7. Despair that I want to do so much more but don't have the money for it
8. Narrow down the length
9. Do whatever I can to make a style that suits the length without sacrificing too much
10. Finish the pages based on the layouts