Looking for help with motion comic creation

[torque3656]

I see a lot of impressive pro's at work here where I am just a mere beginner with beginner Q's. Just am looking for a simple comic creator program like 'comic life 3' which I have which is perfect for what I am doing but the only problem with it is I want to add simple quick Gif animations (or whatever format that can be used for adding animations) but it will not allow for this its solely only still images that can only be used.

Can anyone suggest something? I have been looking high and low for a reasonably simply comic creator program that simply allows for importing animation formats but with no such luck I am not after some super duper ultra expensive thing I just want a basic comic creator like 'comic life' which merely allows you to use animation formats like gifs in panels.

Anyone have any suggestions here? thankyou

[paperwren]

Not sure if it's quite what you're looking for but both clip studio paint and photoshop can be used to add animations. With clip studio if you don't get the top version there is a limit to the number of frames you can export.

[torque3656]

is clip studio something you can easily use to create basic comics lilke 'comic life' type stuff? I am really after something as basic as possible. I already have the images and animation gifs pre-made of what I want to put into the comic panels so would a program like clip studio have basic comic panel formats maybe presets of them to put images into?

[paperwren]

It has a shape tool for drawing the panels with and a tool for drawing speech bubbles.

[torque3656]

do you know for a fact you could add gifs in these panels? sorry to keep on i just have to be sure lol.

[SleepingPoppy]

Here's a tutorial on making gifs in clip studio paint.

4 Steps to Animating in CLIP STUDIO PAINT with Liz Staley

You might want to research how to integrate gifs with your comic, just to be sure you understand how that works. I know tapas has a tutorial for that somewhere..

[torque3656]

I'm just not entirely sure if you can incorperate them in cartoon panels which aren't generally always perfect squares as we know.

also "if you don't get the top version there is a limit to the number of frames you can export." this concerns me if there is indeed to how many gif panels you can add per work. I can't really afford the top version right now but the standard version here: https://www.clipstudio.net/en/purchase

[SleepingPoppy]

I'm just not entirely sure if you can incorperate them in cartoon panels which aren't generally always perfect squares as we know.

If you don't know how to incorporate them then thats going to be a problem in any art program. I don't use clip studio paint, so I can't really advise you on that. I know GIMP can be used to make gifs and is free, but I've never used that either. I use Photoshop, but thats a more robust (and expensive) art program, so doesn't seem to be what you're looking for.

Regardless of the program you choose, you're going to need to learn (or look for tutorials) how to incorporate them into your comic.

[torque3656]

Ok i'll look into things more. Thanks for now

[VibrantFox]

For the most part it seems like you've gotten a lot of good feedback, I'd also like to add that it'll not only help to look up tutorials but also see how people have implemented animation or gifs into their own comics. just to give you a point of reference.

I can't recall the name of the comic but there was a series featured on tapas that included a large number of animated panels. there's likely a handful of those on tapas if you look around it's just a matter of searching.

also software that I'd recommend for animating would probably be firealpaca. its a good beginner software and free. finding tutorials on how to use the program shouldn't be too difficult and as for its animation tools it's mostly a simple onion skin layer mode which is good for those simple frame by frame animations.

also something worth noting is if you're going to be uploading GIF panels or animated panels into your comic you'll have to pay attention to compression and file size because if you're putting it on tapas they've got limits to that so you'll have to check it in the upload section. as well as paying attention to your file sizes.

hope you're able to work things out