How would you describe comic sound fx for these panels?

modrawmanga 2017-09-13 22:42:30 UTC #1

I've been working on my adventure romance series for a while and
I'm stuck on putting on the sound effects of these two panels here,
I tried googling it up and I couldnt find anything that match.

So I wonder if anyone in this forum would be so kind to offer some suggestion

First panel, something burst into flame, but not exploded.

This entire sequence has a quiet funeral-ish tone,
so things like 'kaboom!' doesn't seem to fit in the tone

Second panel, this character fell out of a flying spaceship into the water

Her leg is tied into a deadweight that drag her even further down
since the shot is seen from underwater, I feel that 'splash' isn't an appropriate sound?

Next panel after that she's struggling underwater
would 'blep blep blep' sound appropriate?
Does blup blup or Blub blub sound better for the bubbles?

How would you do sound effects for panels like this?

Since my art style is manga, I wonder if I should go find an english translated manga with similar scene and look up how they describe the sound effects?
I can't think of any on top of my head right now, any suggestion would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance

joe_galindez 2017-09-13 22:46:59 UTC #2

I personally don't think they need sound effects.

zigmenthotep 2017-09-13 22:50:08 UTC #3

For the fire maybe "fwoosh," for the water "blub" and "blurp" a probably good. just try saying the SFX out lond and trying to transcribe them.
And I don't know about translated manga, but I'm pretty sure standard Japanese SFX wouldn't make sense to a non-Japanese audience. i.e. fire goes "meramera."

dawgofdawgness 2017-09-13 22:57:00 UTC #4

I agree, the panels themselves are gorgeous. Putting awkward SFX stuff like "BWOOSH" kind of ruins the mood in my opinion.

natchevil 2017-09-13 23:01:16 UTC #5

Whatever.
AWKWARD SOUND EFFECTS!

modrawmanga 2017-09-13 23:02:33 UTC #6

Fwoosh and blub sounds better eh

@joe_galindez @dawgofdawgness
Hmmm... I never thought about it that way
I guess I don't need to put words into every image?

revisionstudios 2017-09-13 23:03:14 UTC #7

I forgot where I got these, but here's a pretty big listing of common sfx:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B8Pt2-yoHiw-d0c0bTEweHRaWEU?resourcekey=0-rv-u_FpEBEb2EfkWc8Dhsg&usp=sharing

You can either look them up by letter or go to the file "word list" to find them sorted by kind of sound.

As for whether you need one or not, I think it'll really depend how you style it. If you can use a font that better corresponds to the sound and make it blend in like part of the piece (but still be readable), I think it'll add to the atmosphere. (e.g. maybe only use the outline of the font with little or no fill so it reads less like a word and more like a shape)

modrawmanga 2017-09-13 23:06:14 UTC #8

A small crackle might work

@revisionstudios I'm gonna look that up
Yeah it seems like I have to blend the sfx more with color instead of white comic texts

These are great suggestions, everyone!
Thank you!

revisionstudios 2017-09-13 23:18:02 UTC #9

Just a quick sample of what I would do with it!

The bubbles may be small enough that they don't really warrant sfx? up to you though. I would make them small if you do include them.

modrawmanga 2017-09-13 23:32:46 UTC #10

Holy moly, blending these in totally changed it!
I just downloaded those library and holy cow, what a lifesaver that is!
My vocabulary of sfx prior to looking into that folder was "woosh" and "bam"

The bubbles was for subsequent panels, theres alot of bubbles
I definitely see this in different way now, thanks a bunch!!!!

Michelle 2017-09-13 23:42:49 UTC #11

I really like this approach-- it goes to show that SFX lettering doesn't have to be awkward and clunky! You can get a really awesome effect if you compose the lettering as part of the image. You can even take it a step further by making the fire SFX resemble flames, or the splash SFX look bubbly.

punkarsenic 2017-09-14 17:19:37 UTC #12

i dunno if its the phonetics that are holding them back, but more the text itself? its font and colour and that.

sound effects should be incorporate into the image, and youre probably best off drawing them by hand. for example, you could do smth like this:

edit: read through the thread, seconding @revisionstudios !!

modrawmanga 2017-09-15 04:24:11 UTC #13

@punkarsenic
Yeah, it never crossed my mind prior to this that sfx should be blended, but now I start paying attention to how sound fx look like when reading