What is your process for making comics?

[rbenham87]

-First I draw a quick basic outline for the page on scrap paper
- Then I draw the basic figures on the main page with pencil on 9in x 12in sketch paper
- Add details with pencil
- Tape 9x12 tracing paper to the page.
- Ink over my drawings with a Faber Castell .04 artist pens. (these pens are great but they dont last long at all ....)
- scan
- Coloring and editing using Gimp. (my coloring skills are simple, mostly use Paint Fill)
- Use Comic Life for lettering

[punkarsenic]

• first level script: just the story as it goes
• panel script: the story put into panels described in detail
• sketching layer on sai and vague notions of where the speech'll be
• lines
• colour
• lettering
• resize for tapastic

[Jelw]

There are already several topics on this if you check the forum

[DynamoToon]

• Think of joke
• Realize joke
• Think how I'm going to draw said joke
• Think of which characters to include in said joke
• Draw said joke
• Import said drawing to another software to add boundaries and text
• Repeat until I have satisfactory amount of panels
• Go online
• Search Tapastic
• Upload panels
• Publish comic
  That's it. That's what I do for my comic, Room for Improvement

[rainbowolfe]

• Write the stuff
• Sketch out panel positioning, speech bubbles, and vague shapes that look like people
• Sketch Background
• Do a more detailed sketch of characters/people and work out where the lighting is coming from
• Lineart on everything, make it all neat and nice (includes panels and speech bubbles)
• Solid Colors!
• Shading!
• Lighting Effects! (optional)
• Sound effects added in
• Any necesarry background details (posters, background character
  silhouettes, etc)
• Add Text In~!

I think that's it for my process with Destiny Awaits!

[insomniascrawl]

-Write out what I want to happen in a chapter (with messy doodles next to each point so I remember the layout)
-Crack open photo shop and set up my panels
-Do the sketch
-Linework
-Shading/Colour
-Add all text
-Save for web
-repeat process on the next set of panels until complete
-Upload that stuff here
And then Boom the magic is complete. (until the next few panels anyway.)

works for both of my comics anyway.

[Waterdrain]

• Sketch out/write out as many I can for the chapter
  -start line art for the first page of the batch
  -do flat colors
  -Shading and lighting comes next
  -finish doing backgrounds
  -look over writing for errors
• save and resize in a different file format
  then ta da! page is doneions!

[SethJH]

1. Write and review script
2. Create thumbnail drawings to determine what happens
3. Revise thumbnails into a page/layout composition
4. If necessary, gather reference images or create 3D references in blender
5. Agree on the final layout
6. Create .psd, put panel frames, speech bubbles/text, and set up a folder hierarchy for the document
7. Block in the characters and backgrounds
8. Finish the background paintings
9. Finish the character paintings
10. Final review, sign it, and upload!

[AnnaLandin]

Well, this is assuming I've got an outline for the story, and know pretty much where I'm going with it. Also, I work on the entire chapter in one go; I storyboard the entire chapter before I sketch it, and sketch the entire chapter before I ink it. Then, I go back and forth between inking and colouring.

1.) Sit down with the outline and pick out the notes for the chapter/part I'm going to work on now. Break it down in a page-by-page description. "Page one: characters arrive in city. Page two: They walk through a huge crowd.", etc., etc.

2.) Take all of my assembled notes, outlines, scribbles and ideas, and start working on the storyboard. It looks something like this:

It's a bit messy. However, this is where 99% of my writing gets done, as I write my dialogue alongside the panel-layouts.

3.) Digital rough sketches, full-size, plus dialogue, in Manga Studio 4EX. I put the speechbubbles in here, because it helps me get a better idea of how much space they'll take up. Also, I work in 4EX because of it's nifty Story-function.

4.) Clean sketches - sometimes in Manga Studio 5, sometimes in Paint Tool SAI, depending on my mood.

5.) Ink several pages - this, and all following steps, are done in Manga Studio 5.

6.) Go back to page one and colour it. Go ahead to the latest page I inked and ink the next one. Go back and colour page two. Go ahead and ink another page. Etc, etc.

7.) Having finished the entire chapter, I go through it all and check for mistakes and grammar issues and whatnot, and fix those if I find them.

8.) Resize for posting online.

[AngieVX]

• First I write a script
• Then divide a script into pages
• Sketch panels
• Add details, ink characters
• Draw backgrounds
• Scanning, post-processing
• Submitting

[colinwmd]

I suspect my drawing process is one of the silliest in terms of mixing up the various stages but here goes...

1) Think of idea and add it to the list
2) Expand on it over the next month or so till I'm happy with it
3) Generate the panels programmatically
4) Add the dialogue and balloons in MS5
5) Start sketching the basic outline
6) Ink parts that I'm happy with
7) Sketch some more
8) Flat colour some of the finished bits
9) Keep repeating 5-8 till it's all flatted
10) Add shading, and highlights

I think I should really have a clear cut off between sketching and inking and inking and flatting, but I'm more motivated when I can see the coloured parts I'm happy with taking shape properly.

[mg78]

script - story while doing characters design
storyboard (very easy)
drawing (pen on paper)
drawing (ink)
scanning
post process (tones, lettering, translation checkup)

[Silerna]

1. Make 4 panels, then start sketching first panel
2. 2nd panel , then 3 and 4.
3. Add notes for myself to remember. Like what characters would say etc.
4. Erasing double lines
5. Scan in/ photo
6. Post or redo in paint tool SAI

[Amymone]

• Outline, preferably using templates (intro, conflict, rising action, etc.)
• Script in the columns of a folded piece of paper. (I use two folded sheets for dialogue heavy chapters and one folded sheet for combat heavy chapters)
• Storyboard 10 page chapter sequence into a small booklet.
• Create the ten pages of blank panels on the computer and print them out. (Keep them because they will become the official pages later.)
• Sketch out the story through all ten pages of the blank panels.
• Scan the drafts, reverse them, print them out in non-photo blue.
  
• Lineart
• Scan the blue pages, reverse them back, strip lineart from the blue and clean it up.
• Start cropping and inserting each picture into it's respective pre-made panel from earlier.
  
• Color
• Add dialogue and resize files
• Post or buffer horde for an entire year!

[purrlpankras]

• Sketch pages in ancient code only I can understand
• Get on the computer and then draw out the colour shapes
• Bash the tablet until coloured

Basically untill it looks like this

The only wip I have...

[Shiori_Saku]

Check out this Forum for my steps:

The 5 steps of Creating a Web Comic

[Damatris]

• Write the general way I wanna the story to unfold (and keep adding notes to infinity)
• thumbnail pages traditionally on A4 paper, I usually try to thumbnail a whole scene on one go
• Scan it, start rearranging panels 'cause they don't work as well as they could on the thumbnail (photoshop)
• Sketch layer where I change poses and make things make sense (done on SAI)
• Inking (done on SAI)
• Coloring (done on SAI)
• Lettering & bubbles & resizing on Photoshop

And can't forget crying over things too but that doesn't have any exact time xD

[Dranif]

First phase- Idea gathering.
I either get ideas from my dreams, or at random. The ideas for the first 3 pages of Wognified actually came to me while I was taking a shower, lol.
Second phase- Setting up environment.
I prefer to work in a quiet area with minimal distractions outside my personal space, and have music I enjoy listening to playing.
Third phase- draw.
If drawing traditionally, (like the first 3 pages of Wognified were) sketch, ink, erase, and color. Then scan and do any edits (like resizing and making it readable, some people can't read my handwriting lulz.)
If drawing digitally, work with layers. Outlines on one or two layers, colors and shading on others.
Fourth phase- completion.
Post or schedule upload, and then done.

[aspiderjonny]

This is my method for creating Jonny Web Series and Valve Web Series:

In my Sketchbook:
- Start with a story outline with a vague idea of what each page will
have.
- Thumbnail a bunch of pages in my sketch book

Move on to Photoshop
- Start outlining in blue
- Digital inking
- Making words/speach bubbles in Comic Life 2
- Base colors
- Finally add shading, highlights, and other effects

I actually uploaded a step-by-step of how I made page 2 from Jonny #3 if anyone wants to see a more visual guide to how I do pages.

[Kamikaze]

Kamikaze is kind of unique in that it's made by a three person team - myself, my husband Alan, and our partner Havana.

We start our...frankly ridiculously long process by writing everything out in full on TV script format (it's just how I usually work when writing). We use Celtx which is a wonderful program and totally free!

After the ENTIRE episode script is finished we begin with thumb nailing. Here Alan's breaking down pages into pages, and then those pages into panels. From there he starts thumbnailing everything out page by page. From here he creates the full size page rough layout and drawing.

And then Havana comes in to clean up his underdrawings. She makes sure everything is neat, tidy, and that all characters are on model, and their acting/expressions are pushed to the proper levels. Alan sort of sets our stage, while Havana makes sure our characters are really acting to make each panel pay off.

While that goes on Alan gets to work on our backgrounds. If there's an enviornment that we need reference for (or that we'll be coming back to a lot) he'll build up entire models in SketchUp! This for example is our main antagonists, the Razor's, headquarters - and yeah...it's not very inconspicuous. For a reason, I promise.

From there Alan takes a screen shot of the model and places it to match the character art in our scene. First he vectors...

Then greyscales the vectors...

As Alan does that I'm simultaniously going through the process of ink and paint. I begin by putting the clean art under a really obnoxious color and reducing it's opacity. This allows me to see what I'm doing with my anchor points a bit better. Due to our cell shaded and sort of 'animated' look, I don't get to do the wonderful inking I'd like to. I usually use a single weight line, but I have been known to vary that in the past - especially with forced perspective panels.
This is the clean work I start with..

and the inks I end up with!

From there it's pretty straight forward for me:
Flats...

Shades guides (used to keep my shades clean and crisp)...

And the final completed shading!

But sometimes...I get to do highlights and levels of interesting layered lighting, which looks like this!

Once my character work is inked and painted up pretty, Alan combines his finished colored and textured backgrounds with the final character art! During this process he'll add effects like dust, smoke or glows, and color treat the characters to further match the background.

Once the page art is done, it goes back into Havana's hands for lettering!

And then...we have the final page, all pretty and ready to post!

It's a hell of a lot of work, but we think it's worth it!