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Jun 2020

@ninjashira I'm gonna try to give Sketch Up one more try...I really dont have the patience to learn to use & build enviroments in 3-D programs, but I do see where it can it would help in production. I do use 3-D models in my character poses, which really helps me save time when laying out my pages; I also use 3-D items like furniture and modify them to my specific needs/tastes.

Def like the finish..! :+1:

If I've drawn a complex environment or prop from the rough angle I need once, I usually copy-paste the inks in other panels. you can change the perspective and all sorts using the transform tool in Clip Studio or Photoshop.

Tip for drawing lots of windows or similar repeated objects: Draw one or two, then use that drawing to make a custom brush that draws that thing.

Literal copy and paste entire panels. Ain't nobody gon care.

First panel:

Copy and paste, but redraw the head slightly. Blur out the lion.

Copy and paste, change expression.

Copy and paste, change redraw the lion and husky's expression.

In a 9 panel update, 3 of the panels was just a rehash of the first panel. Different zooms, crops, and panel sizes can disguise the copy pasta buffet.

For my characters, I just copy and paste if the next frame the character doesn't require a complete redraw of the pose. My comic's camera is stationary so I can get away with this. If panel one has the character talk, panel two being silent, and panel three talking again, then I can just draw the first panel, c&p into the second, redraw the face to be silent, c&p to the third, and perhaps change a small detail like having them raise and arm for a bit of dynamism. So far it's worked out just fine but it only works because the camera is stationary.

For backgrounds, I use photographs as a reference. I tried making them from scratch at first but I found it much easier to just use various photographs and redraw aspects from them. It gets the backdrops done faster.

If there are scenes in the comic that take place in the same area but in different angles, I use SketchUp instead of having to just draw each scene from scratch. If there are characters that have the same poses in a few panels, I just copy and paste the line art poses and change the characters' expressions for each panel.

I work in very high resolution (10k pixels) so I can be less pedantic about dropped pixels when I fill colours. Small white areas that don't get filled usually disappear by the time I resize it back down for web.

Working in Clip Studio, that also offers a couple of conveniences I haven't found in other programs (came from Paint Tool SAI, Firealpaca/Medibang)
- various preset balloon shapes, so I can just drag and drop onto my comic when I'm typesetting. CSP also has a really good text function where you can insert text into a balloon shape, and the text will lock to the balloon, allowing you to move both around at the same time with only the balloon selected.
- CSP's vector layers are really good for expediting lineart, you don't have to make sure every stroke is perfect any more and you can just erase stray intersected lines.
- the fill tool in CSP is the best I have used of all the art programs I've used in my career, and it has various other fill tools that help save a lot of time.
- the combination of perspective rulers and 3d models is very powerful in CSP, allowing me to draw complicated angles accurately.

I know this sounds like an advert for Clip Studio LOL, so I'm sorry, but it genuinely is the best drawing software I've ever used in my life, and upgrading to it last year was such a game changer.

I definitely agree with you! I switched over to Clip studio from Procreate/photoshop around a month or so ago and it's been incredible. The assets, custom brushes, the fill tool, etc....all are so amazing and time-saving. I'm still trying to figure out how to do curves on the app version but I've also heard great things about that tool

Don't be sorry! I just bought clip studio because it was on sale and have no idea what it can do. You just explaining a couple of its features helps a lot!

For now I am comfortable with keeping Photoshop as my primary software, but I may switch to CSP in the future too.
I don't really have time saving methods. Sometimes I just waste a lot of time and I am late with everything.

@sushy00 as you become used to making your comic, you want to figure out ways to use less time in making it- or you're gonna be burned out before you can finish.

CSP just ended a sale Tuesday...I dont think they'll have another one until late August or September that usually coincides with Back to School.

Is this just for art, or is it for writing too? Because I have a few writing tips that can save a ton of time in the long run:

  • Name your chapters. If you need to go back and reference earlier material, it is 1000% easier to remember which chapter to go to if you actually have a name to associate it with.
  • If you write your story/script in Google docs and find it slow (as most people without a gaming PC do), create a full RTF or .doc file containing your full story and keep that open in Office/Open Office/Wordpad. You can use that to ctrl+f passages, go through your entire manuscript up to that point, and it won't take minutes of loading time to go through.
  • Buy and learn to use Scrivener. Regardless of whether you do comics or novels, if you want a comprehensive story document and the ability to organize your work with very little loading time, this program is the best of the best. I have a 300,000 word manuscript and worldbuilding info all in one project file, and it loads chapters pretty much instantly. Plus you can do metadata tagging and keep your outlines organized and all that fun stuff.
  • As for actual story-related advice: If you need to get a chapter out quick but words aren't coming out, a technique I like to use is "in medias res opener." Start the chapter in the middle of a conversation, so that the characters are already talking and interacting and you can get right to the meat of the content.

While I do have Scrivener, I dont do the naming chapters thing. It got to the point where it took to much energy to think of clever titles, so I just stick with "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2", and so forth...

It helps me a lot, but other people may be better at remembering their own stories than me lol. So that is OK.

I always do my comics after work from Saturday to Sunday, It may sound exhausting but it's pretty much my hobby and I'm enjoying it more than playing games or watching movies.

How I manage to finish panels is because in Photoshop, I keep making multiple layers, such as the background line art, and another for it's color and the next for its shad and the same thing for the characters.