How good are gifs in comics?

moradjis 2017-03-14 09:43:18 UTC #1

Hi, I'm a very recent creator but I have some experience with animation, the thing is I really want to make as many gifs as possible in my comics, but I don`t know if it is very appealing a little of motion in a comic, what are your thoughts? I want to listen! My 2º comic literally is full gifs tho...

isabelleArne 2017-03-14 10:56:42 UTC #2

I'm curious too, even if I don't really want to insert it in my comic right now I can see how it could be interesting in some parts.
Are some of you using it ?
how does it work on Tapas ?
What size are you using if you do ?
How heavy does it get ?
Is it a problem when it loads ?
Do you have examples ?
lots of questions I know lol

moradjis 2017-03-14 13:46:18 UTC #3

Hi Isabell, for your question I can answer some, the size that I use for the Gifs are 940 x 570 pixels the maximum size that tapas accept, the weight of the file depends on how long the animation is, mines are between 3 and 4 seconds and they are between 500 kb and 800 kb each one, as far as I know the run perfectly, the workflow on tapas is very easy, you upload them like they were jpegs or pngs, yes I do have an example I posted some minutes ago, you can check it out to see what I am talking about and you can take it as an example, if you could tell me your opinions about it I'd really appreciate it <3, the comic is called " Framed comics " https://tapastic.com/episode/630264 And thanks for replying to my question !

OH yeah, I detected a problem, aparrently when you see the comic in the phone the Gifs are not very smooth, so yeah that sucks.

isabelleArne 2017-03-14 14:26:32 UTC #4

So I went to see both on computer and phone and I found that it worked pretty well !
Great job btw, your style is very nice and the animation cute and efficient ! are you doing this on flash/ainmate or photoshop ? or something else ?

moradjis 2017-03-14 18:04:37 UTC #5

Indeed, I saw the comic in some friends phone and the animation wasn`t lagged, I assume it depends on the internet you have and the phone you have.

For your question, I use both of the programs and MediBangpaint pro...

Animate to do the animation and create the .swf file, I don`t export the animation directly from animate because of animate sucks at exporting, I put the SWF. file into other software called Swivel that converts SWF. into video perfectly, then I put the video in photoshop where I convert it into the final gif.

I don`t like photoshop to do my comics, I prefer Medibang because is really similar to SAI and it gives nice and sexy lines for the background and static scenes.

I hope this helps you and I cannot wait to see your content! :3

Ps: If you need help with anything in animation or something else just let me know! Rookies are meant to help each other. :3

LuuPetitek 2017-03-14 18:15:24 UTC #6

I'm sometimes using gifs in my Vicious Vasdorl comic too It works fine and I've never had problems with that. The size is the same as my other comics and it never has more then 1 MB (but the gifs are really simple, just few frames)

Here is an example:

moradjis 2017-03-14 18:29:30 UTC #7

Cool stuff mate!

The thing is that in my comic I use a LOT of frames, each gif has at least 100 frames because I like really smooth animation and simple shapes to have dynamic movement so it haves sometimes problems to play it without lag, but your use of gifs are as well pretty nice! short and simple, keep going fam!

The page doesn't allow me to upload one of the gifs but if you want you can check my comic " Framed comics " :

LuuPetitek 2017-03-14 18:47:15 UTC #8

Aww, that comic with a cat is really cute Yeah, that could be a problem, because Tapastic doesn't allow anything more then 2MB but your gifs are really cool! You just need to be careful and make them shorter or split them into two if they're too heavy. I like animations in comics, so keep up the good work and I hope you will find the way to upload your comic without any problems!

isabelleArne 2017-03-14 19:41:51 UTC #9

I do not know medibangpaint ( I use sai on occasion though ) but your exportation process seems highly complicated, especially all the exports and the part were you reimport in photoshop to convert in a gif file ... especially when animate has an option to make a GIF directly. Have you tried that ? it would be wayyyyy faster.
When doing an animation I usually do my landscapes/bg in photoshop that I import in animate, then if the bg is animated/I have a lot of characters layers/I need to have effects I go to after effects to assemble the animations I had exported as PNG sequences.
But if the Bg doesn't move and the animation is only of 1 or two character I do everything on animate, and export ast a .mov ( cuz I don't often do gifs )
There isn't one way to do it but efficiency is rather nice at the end of the day ! lol

And you're totally right ! We must help each others !

moradjis 2017-03-14 20:22:55 UTC #10

Yeah I tried to do it directly from animate but for some reason the background was with a LOT of noise, I know it's very fast with animate, but the way I did the cat one wasn´t that complicated, there are only 2 steps more haha, but yeah efficiency and saving time is priceless doing this thing, for the next one ill try to do it directly from animate.

Btw, I saw your comic background in Radiant and a drawing you posted gosh I wish I could paint the way you do it giiiirl ! ;D Awesome stuff

isabelleArne 2017-03-14 20:37:39 UTC #11

aw thanks a lot, actually the comic won't be at all in the style of this illustration but it was a concept I did a long time ago when the idea of this story first came to me so it's related lol.
Also I wouldn't be able to do a page a week with that kind of painting ( efficiency efficiency friend ! )!The comic will be in the style of the background and should be out on Thursday, actually everything is ready I have 3 pages that will go out that day and I am currently working on the 4th one. I'm pretty eggcited I haven't done a comic in a very very long time ! A little stressed too but it's all good !

So it's also my first experience in webcomics in a way but not in comics.

nolongerusetheforum 2017-03-15 02:58:57 UTC #12

...Ok, this is weird, weird as in weird kind of freaking me out right now lol.

You see, I am recently make a sort of comic(?) but they all GIF. And I started at March 01 just like you, and I only have 2 episode just like you too and my 2nd comic is about cat too...

... Here is the link to my comic GIF... https://tapastic.com/episode/627960

I am doing all GIF because I animated them on Flash first though then I convert them and animated them again on Photoshop. But it's really time consuming which is why I was planning to make it into a panel but still GIF ...just like you...
...ugh, now it seems like I am the one copying you...

Edit : Ok, I don't mind any harm, I just shocked here since well, we both using GIF, we both started at same date [March 01], we both only have 2 episode so far [although I may not make any episode until next month, again it's hard to animated and then convert it into a GIF] and both the second episode is about CAT ROFL.

So yeah, ahem, sorry if my post seems to be weird? English isn't my first language and I just really surprised at this ...event 0.0

Second and hopefully last edit :

Ugh so I just realized I just rambling about myself and not answering any OP question. ._.
So, GIF on comic is totally ok, I mean I have see some comic here that is all GIF which is why I make them all GIF on first place. Mine is small btw, never exceed 1 MB.

moradjis 2017-03-15 03:40:33 UTC #13

Wow, what a coincidence! It's destiny! hahaha no friend, its totally cool, I'm so glad to find people that like gifs and cats so fast :,D .

You are now entering the zone where you realize that animation takes too freaking long to do and its difficult as f***, WELLCOME <3.

Just as a tip I really recommend you to see "DRAW WITH JAZZA" I learn all I know from animate and flash from him, his videos will help a lot to improve!

Here's my comic if you want to check out my cat animation: Framed comics

Don`t stop creating stuff and drawing, those are the paths to success pal!

Thanks for the response.

PS: Inglish is not my first language too, I actually talk Spanish

sistalsartworkshop 2017-03-15 09:13:19 UTC #14

I have tryed to do a animated comic, it is really fun but the hard part is the size of the file, 2mo is some time juste not enough, but I manage.
You can see here : https://tapastic.com/series/The-Pirates-Paradise

moradjis 2017-03-15 13:19:10 UTC #15

Did you do all the animations in one file? , if you did that`s why the file is so heavy, if not, try to separate the gifs to each other, that helps them to play smoother. Either way, great job :D.

You can see mine here: Framed comics

sistalsartworkshop 2017-03-15 15:28:56 UTC #16

Each image is seperate ^^. It would be impossible to do double images in one gif. XD.
Thanks :D. I love doing animated gif comic, more than normal one.

I think your comic is small in size because you have frames that are individually smaller. By the way, really nice, will be waiting to see more episode.

moradjis 2017-03-15 16:06:15 UTC #17

Thanks fam, I love this community, everyone is so nice and supportive! <3