Vertical scroll format tips and tricks

[zammap]

Scott McCloud has written a lot about this in conjuntion with his normal "how to draw comics" books. And he wrote/talked about this back in the 90s! When very few people even had the internet! He called it Infinite canvas.

[JeanGuillet]

I miss the 90s internet. I remember reading this essay by McCloud when he first put it up. it was so avant garde and people tried all kinds of things that failed and were just weird, but now I stumble across some old site every now and again, and that nostalgia...cuts deep...

yeah, try weird stuff, for posterity. it's worth it.

[punkarsenic]

(((( someone wanna change the title of this thread to 'tips on flow in vertical scroll' or something? ))))

i think midnight furies is a good one to look at for vertical scroll inspiration - its originally drawn for a page format, and then editing into scroll, which leads to some really interesting compositions imo

Midnight Furies | Tapas

this episode especially has magnificent flow and emotional resonance

Midnight Furies :: Chapter 3 ep 12 | Tapas

[skicoak]

He called it Infinite canvas.

I call it that sometimes ... but some cats then think you're talking about an Avenger's sequel. Ha!

McCloud is a genius and such but, as far as I have found, he really never dealt in the nitty gritty concepts of manipulating eye flow within the infinite canvas. If you have something deeper he wrote, please share.

someone wanna change the title of this thread to 'tips on flow in vertical scroll' or something?

Bah! The title is neither misleading or clickbait (unless you have some weird thesis statement fetish).

I read the episode you suggested. The initial staggered panels do help establish the narrative of the game with good kinetic energy, but for me, when we get to the emotional scene, the format fails the artist. They open up the panels and subtly switches style to try and slow the eye with more detail. But we keep visually pinballing straight down the scroll at a pace that doesn't suit the scene.

It's one of those cases where traditional methods aren't quite working as well in this form.

It's like we're bringing a standard socket set to a job that has metric bolts and nuts.

[silverraven0]

me as a non English speaking bird that's still have limited vocabulary

Dat title confuse me to another level. (/ω＼)

[skicoak]

Dat title confuse me to another level. (/ω＼)

Ha ha! Well, I'm old so this...

(/ω＼)

...confuses me. Is it two sticks swatting a testicle pinata? Or what?

[charliesackett]

I tilt my gutters ever so slightly to try and create a line of sight through panels.

[skicoak]

Do you do it to create a Z pattern? Or something else?

[charliesackett]

Like this.
More pointing down and into the next panel. Traditional Z can kind of lead you off the side of the page if you're not careful.

[skicoak]

Are you concerned, that on mobile devices, that the reader's eye is singularly focused on the total image and resists the technique?

[silverraven0]

Σ( ° △ °|||)

No, lol. It's just a hand on ur face because of embarrassment or something but still acting cute (hahaha) kind of emoji. This is called kaomoji. (•ω•)

[skicoak]

Σ( ° △ °|||)

What?!?

Get off my lawn whippersnapper!

I just don't read....

ω

...as a face. Just don't see it.

[charliesackett]

Not really, but only because that would require me to be much more concerned about whether or not anyone reads it ever. I just do my best and try stuff.

[beta1042]

Oh come on you know the title is your attempt at rebelling the new title rule...you can at least be honest about it.

But I digress. TO answer the question about vertical scroll format, The ways I like to move aorudn the eye are:
1-Speech balloon placement. Because you can add as much white space as you want between panels, this allows a lot of freedom in how you place the speech balloons. Essentially I like to place the balloons in a manner that forces the eye to see the things I want, and focus on what is important. Ex from my comic(I added some markings to help emphasize):

Here the reader has to move their eye from right to left to right forcing them to essentially see what is in the "red oval".

2- Manipulating details. Panels where you want to focus on a single thing, you want to minimize the details around it. This may be a character expression, or an object in a room. That may involve having a simple bg (or even no bg, color gradient, or even heavily blurred bg). It may involve cropping the panel to just the part you want them to see. Or it may involve blurring or fading most of the panel so that the only thing in focus is the object you want the reader to look at. You can also use this to make reader eyes jump around.

3- if you color your comic, there are certain colors that pop more. Or even situations where you can mute/reduce contrast on panels and use brighter colors to draw focus to certain points. So playing with colors can also allow you to direct the eye where you want.

[skicoak]

Oh come on you know the title is your attempt at rebelling the new title rule.

How can it be rebelling if I'm following to rules? That's crazy talk.

1-Speech balloon placement

Not really a strong suit of mine, I tend to place them outside the art just retain the original intent of the composition/art.

2- Manipulating details

Yeah, I find this becomes a default mode a lot of the time. Just because it's easier to use these techniques to force focus on singular concepts/ images in the vertical scroll format.

3- if you color your comic, there are certain colors that pop more.

Just starting to play with this, liked how it was used in ...

Live Forever

[zammap]

Yeah the fun zig zag panels and other shapes work very well but I notice it only works well with action (which the sample comic has a lot of). I noticed this when I was working on my 3rd chapter. The first chapter and part of the second is very action packed, so I didn't have a hard time framing stuff in creative ways. But then so far the third chapter is a lot of people sitting around talking (drama) and I'm having a hard time framing the panels because, well, no action, and speed is slow.

Off the top of my head I can see a comic like true beauty and how it's "boring" in it's format with just square panels and lots of white space in between but it works for that story because it's just drama and people talking. So the idea of playing around with panel shapes and zig zags only works for certain stories or scenes. Can you imagine dynamic panels/layout on a slow scene/comic. It would be too distracting.

[skicoak]

but I notice it only works well with action

I think there's a lot to this in general, just the physical act of reading vertical scroll on a mobile devise is effected by the action we use to advance the story.

Do you ever worry that the speed of which action scenes can be read in the vertical format takes away from the amount of work you put into it?

[VibrantFox]

maybe its odd of me to say but i still wonder if there's a way to blend vertical format with print layout and still maintain readability.

(i probably sound like a broken record bringing it up but) ive always been fond of the panel layout of the sonic the hedgehog comics (both idw and archie) as they've managed to be very dynamic and still easy to follow and it never takes away from the visual details.

im on a phone so i cant quite share samples but they take advantage of some of the things mentioned already and some others:

-skewing the panel or using abstract shapes to create contrast both for content and for dialogue

-speech bubble placement to direct the flow of reading

-using colors to direct the flow of reading and to dictate tone (ive noticed it varies from the way shading is done to using negative/positive space to direct the readers eyes and a lot in creating certain mood or athmosphere)

-overlaying panels (it could be a method that works better in print layout but ive attempted to put it to use though only minimally)

(also with regard to the title i dont think its breaking any rules but its very cumbersome and could be hard for people to understand without a second glace or just clicking into the thing. not that vocabulary is an issue but sometime big words are intimidating especially if English isnt a primary language)

[zammap]

I think the only way that really works if you have a watchman styled format in which everything is confined into panels and don't have anything spilling out into the gutters. In which case you can move the panels between the phone and page format.

I myself design my pages for print and then tranfer the panels over to the long cavnas, having to resize and resign panels in the process. But over all they should look the same.

[ratique]

Updated title from something ridiculous to Vertical scroll format tips and tricks.