How many layers do you usually end up with on a (digital) comic page?

[spadesart]

I'm curious!! I try to keep to about 6-10 in the final versions of pages for SPIRE but overall I tend to use 42-60 just from constantly creating and merging/moving things around. How do you use them too? I separate character flat colors from background colors and keep the latter above characters all the time. I also keep my lineart layer under lighting effects (like overlay and luminosity, i use paint tool sai for reference here) and keep it on multiply at a medium-dark version of my shading color so it blends a little more/sticks out less.

edit: people are putting layers in lists and i wanted to do that too so here's my breakdown from top layer to bottom:

• One for panel borders (speech balloons and text start off above this but get merged onto it when I'm done. probably not the best idea tbh)
• Lighting adjustment (overlay)
• Overall lighting (luminosity)
• Lineart (on multiply and colored in once flat colors are finished)
• Cel shading (multiply)
• 2 flat color layers, one for environments and one for characters
• The starting sketch that gets deleted later

[AnnaLandin]

It depends on how complex the page is, and how many sketch-layers I end up needing.

The average breakdown is thus: 1 layer for panel borders, 1 layer for rough stick-figure sketches, 2 layers for text and word-balloons, 1-2 layers for clean sketches, 2 layers for inking (one for figures, one for environments), 2 layers for flat colours (figures/environments), 1 layer of atmospheric lighting adjustments, 1 layer for shadows. If there are extra lighting elements, an extra layer for those.

So, 12, if it all works out okay. It can go all the way up to 20, if I'm doing crowd-scenes, complex lighting situations or sound-effects. All the adjustment layers - lighting and shadows - go on top of the inking layers, since I colour my lines to make them blend better with the flats, and putting them underneath the adjustment layers helps them blend better.

[TheVoidchildProject]

• One for background
• One for the blueprint
• One for ink
• One for shading
• One for shadows
• One for other effects (not always needed)
• One for borders/panelling

Then I usually take these and merge them, put them into a template where I finsh up with dialogue. I've come to understand that this is sort of a backwards process and many people start with the dialogue.

[UzukiCheverie]

My usual layout ends up like this:

• Starting sketch (usually one that I drew a long time ago in advance; sometimes this layer ends up getting deleted after I redo it)
• New sketch (the sketch I make now returning to the page and ready to prepare it for lineart; any changes I make to the page's layout and panelling and composition happens here).
• Panels
• Lineart
• Speedlines/effects/etc.
• Tones
• Speech bubbles
• Text (speech bubbles and text usually end up merged)

Every other panel I create usually ends up getting merged :U So typically for my pages you're looking between 5 - 10 layers.

[gateofselidor]

I have nine core levels (excluding text and dialogue bubbles), plus any additional ones required for a particular scene, e.g.: snow, smoke.

[Shanny8]

When I first started out coloring I used to try to keep it at a minimum of 6 layers, but as I continued to color more, the layers grew- I average about 15-25 layers per page, depending on various effects. I used to flat everything on one layer, but then I found myself needing to stick layers between the characters and some of the background elements- so now I keep the background stuff separate from the characters. One piece I was working on, got to over 100 layers- mostly small bricks that I kept duplicating & moving to various areas(I eventually merged all the brick layers into one layer).

The layers dont even take into account the pencil layers I do. If I added those layers in, I could probably say average about 20-30 layers per page.

[shazzbaa]

Okay I counted up the layers on a couple of recent pages, including layers that get hidden by the end:

• Not counting lettering at all -- 23 layers and 27 layers
• My word balloons are usually in a group, with each "shape" as a separate layer; same with the guideline text; but if you count each group of balloons or text as a single layer and count up the lettering as well, it's 30 layers and 35 layers
• If you count literally every shape as its own layer it's 77 layers and 73 layers

There aren't any sketch layers because I do everything up through inking traditionally -- this is just colours! I used to do the basic colours, then save, merge, then do the shading and effects, then save as a new file, merge, then do the lettering, and save that as the final file, but right now my computer can handle me not merging anything so, ahaha, I don't!! I still save everything in stages though, just in case.

[heterodont]

Without merging, I average around 8? layers
1 - Frames
2 - Sketch layer that I end up deleting
3 - Lineart + Color + Shading (sometimes 2 layers) that I merge all together once I'm done.
4 - Word bubbles
5 - Text, which depends on how much dialogue is on the page

I merge all of my stuff together at the end except for the frames and speech bubbles to save space :Y

[shatterjure]

Up to 10 if neccesary, sometimes just for individual bits that i want to treat differently xD

[Ghostie]

Sometimes I have less layers than this, this was a more shade/panel heavy page, so this is the max. It fits perfectly in my frame here. XD I always have a "white" layer below everything where I have basic white (or dark grey) behind all the art for the shades, and then on top of everything are my panel borders. I'm also VERY organized what shades go where. So it's easier just to show a printscreen.

[J.Z.Castillo]

I am going down from top-most layer, to bottom-most layer

• Panels
• Text
• Sound effects
• Line art
• Details
• High lights
• Low lights and shadows
• Flats
• Background line art
• Background detail
• Background high lights
• Background low lights and shadows
• Flats

So around 13 layers on average.

[WakaXO]

My pages are usually 12-14 layers are so;

-sound effects
-wordz / word bubbles
-panels
-speed lines
-add on layer (not always though, only is I f*** something up, or forget something)
-effects (sometimes x2)
-shading effects
-Highlights
-lineart
-color
-background lineart
-background color
-rough sketch layers x2

Though technically my word bubble and panels are in multiple layers in a folder, (becuase I use Clip Studio Paint and that's how it sets it up.)

[somvi]

Basically I use one main psd for the layout and a psd for each panel. They're all linked together in the layout so the number of actual layers seem excessively high but it makes reformatting and tweaking the page much easier. Conceptually it's more like 10 - 12 for roughs, lines, shading, effects, etc.

Lettering in illustrator goes into 3 main layers for text, balloon and SFX. More are added in for fancy character dialogue or title blocks, captions, and other special things that need vectors.

[jacintawibowo]

I try to keep it as low as possible X) My comic changes styles a lot so it's hard to measure. I think on average it's 12 layers.
So that's one layer for:
-thumbnail sketch
-color barf (drafts for colors)
-roughs
-inks (two layers for bg and characters/fg)
-background flats
-character flats
-flats for a/b panels
-textures for characters
-shading/lighting for characters
-maybe one or two layers for painting above or underneath characters (painting in general)
-and maybe two layers or more for lettering

[nessiefynn]

I usually got....
-panel layout sketch
-character/background sketch
-panels
-character lineart
-background lineart
-character flats
-character shading
-background colors (2-3 layers)
-text bubbles + text (3 layers)

So I usually have around 13 total, but I merge them down to ~10 by the end.

[CalimonGraal]

I try to keep mine low as possible for better management (if that makes sense lol.)
So usually on a page it'd be like.
*Sketch (usually the thumbnail unless I have to resketch parts of it for better coherency)
*Panel borders
*Speech bubbles + SFX/effect lines
*Flats + shading
*optional additional layer if I need a certain effect
*Background

so about 5-6 give or take lol.

[mintycanoodles]

I do lineless and layer a whole lot, so each page is usually over a hundred.

[atlas]

Between the tones and linework, my pages usually average 5-10 layers. They're usually black and white, so....

[vanillios]

I use a lot of layers (usually around 30)
•I have the sketch on one layer
•Lineart (in a raster layer)
•BG lineart (in a vector layer)
•1~2 perspective ruler layers
•about 5 layers of flats
•3 layers of skin shades
•1 multiply layer for hair and clothes
•2~3 layers of BG flats
•2 multiply layers for shading that background.
•1 frame layer for each panel.
•1 layer for each text bubble + text
•2 add glow layers for lighting effects.
•1 soft glow layer for lighting effects.

In conflusion : my files are huge.

[jennula]

I don't think I use that many layers..? Let's see:

Dialogue/text (I usually put them in a layer folder)
Panels
Sketches
Lineart, characters
Colors, characters
Shadows, characters
Highlights, characters
Lineart, backgrounds
Colors, backgrounds
1-4 extra layers for special effects

so 10-13 layers perhaps..? :B