What resources do you use for creating your comic/novel?

[Fuzed]

I can imagine it must feel pretty weird to not be able to feel the grit. I'm not sure how I would deal with that. But as I've said, I can barely draw a smiley face so it probably wouldn't matter to me.

I almost never outline my chapters in detail. I have a general idea of what I want the reader to get from this chapter, but never in detail. That's why some chapters are 1.2k words long while others are almost 3.2k long. It all depends.

And yeah, endless tabs are the real problem. But there just aren't tabs I don't need.

[Fuzed]

Oh, I've actually seen your series around. It's BL if I'm not mistaken? I'm personally not into that stuff so pardon me if I don't give it a read. But I'm sure there are a lot of people that would and will enjoy it, so keep up the great work!

The way me and my editor work is that she always suggests and comments what she would do differently and it's always my call to decide. A lot of the time there just isn't room for discussion and what she wrote is objectively better, but sometimes there are just things that I feel like I don't want to change.

[Leverance]

It's a BL fanfiction, yeah. Is all right ^^

At least you've a personal editor, I don't have that lol. Often one own's call is what matter regarding the story.

[Fuzed]

Hi there VibrantFox, how's the day going for you so far?

"...but there's a method to the madness, I promise." could be my life motto.

MedibangPaint? Never heard of it. Is it a free software? I see that you have CSP as well, so would you say that MedibangPaint is easier to use? For what occasion would you use animation?

Is Magic Poser an online tool or a downloadable software as well?

I'm never going to use any of these but I might forward some of this stuff to my illustrator. He'll definitely appreciate it. Thank you in advance and have a good one!

[foxnflames]

Ah, scribble like draw that’s what I thought but I wasn’t sure. For that, I use procreate. I do a prelim sketch then a more detailed sketch then an inked outline on different layers. I always try to go a concept sketch but it never happens so I just stare at my reference pic then wing it

[KizKat]

Doing pretty good!

Thank you for your kind words! My illustration is just for fun (my comics are my daily warm up sketches, so two entirely different things for me), mostly of my TTRPG characters and friends. I tend to just post that sort of stuff on my blog, but I like to do a lot of different styles.

That GIF is a piece that took me 2 weeks from start to finish, and was a complete passion project. Though, the bit that I think caused me the most agro was drawing all the tattoos on the big character in the back, and then getting the wood grain on the floor to be at the right angle. Little details like that are HARD!

You're welcome for the recommendation too! I always find lots of books that are about norse or greek mythology, but its hard to find one that covers mythology on more of a global scale!

[Fuzed]

I've been quite lucky with the personal editor. She helped me tremendously. My series would never be where it is now. If you ever happen to sub to my Patreon, you would see my first drafts. It's a fun read, honestly. The incoherence and lack of paragraphs is breathtaking.

My editor usually helps me with stuff like wording, flow, sentence structure and all that stuff. She rarely intrudes on the plot, unless she spots a plot hole.

[Leverance]

I relate XD first drafts are so different from the newer ones. I'm mostly self-taught actually.

Sounds like an execellent editor!

[DaphnePanda]

For organizing my story I use Google docs. I actually go back and forth between computers a lot to work on my comic so having everything online is really convenient (I draw on a small touchscreen tablet/laptop and do all the final edits on a desktop with a mouse and giant monitor). Keeping track of timelines happens in a Google spreadsheet, lore and world building in word docs, bestiary in a presentation... I have so many files and folders TnT

As for the art side, I use Clip Studio Paint. I've tried Photoshop, Corel, and Black Ink as well but CSP has been the most convenient for me so far since it was designed with comic creators in mind.

And backgrounds... So many things. Nature backgrounds I drew with CSP brushes and from my own imagination, and occasionally photos I took on hikes and stuff. Buildings and architecture are a combination of SketchUp, Unity, Blender, and CSP.

I use a ton of programs. Also, sorry for writing an essay...

[Darth_Biomech]

I personally use a software called Scrivener to plot and organize my story and then write it all down into Google Docs.

I see people using this or similar tools to write their scripts. But how exactly it is different\better than just a wordpad txt file or google doc? From what they were described to me, they sound just basically like an ordinary text editor with few unnecessary (for me) bells and whistles, like script being automatically formatted to the standards of Hollywood screenplays.

[Fuzed]

That sounds pretty bold honestly, but I guess it works for you.

I always admire the patience artists have when it comes to drawing. I wouldn't be able to draw for so long. I always feel like my drawings are atrocious. Perhaps because they objectively are...

[VibrantFox]

Hi there Fuzed, pretty good I'd say

"...but there's a method to the madness, I promise." could be my life motto.

I've absolutely made it mine

As for Medibang it's a totally free to download drawing software on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android

MediBang Paint

Compared to CSP it's been a lot easier for me to use between having most of the features I need including text formatting and having a pretty simple layout. I have used CSP in the past but that was about 3-4 years ago and probably not as many tools and features as it has now.

Animations are pretty far and few between but when I do use or make them it's simple gifs for milestones or if I'm goofing about trying to explore my OCs. I've been looking to do animation memes but in terms of implementing them for comics it's a no go.

Magic Poser is an app but also has a desktop/browser version that can be found here
https://webapp.magicposer.com/
it's super basic and kind of like those wodden dolls just online. It might be closer to compare to them to CSP's character models just without the hair and accessories, which is all limited to the app version

I hope you're illustrator like them and you have a good day too!

[Fuzed]

Wow, that sounds like even more work than I originally imagined.

Do you want to ever work as a comic artist or is this just a hobby of yours?

2 weeks, god damn. Hats off to you. I can barely sit in front of one chapter for 3 hours. Then I need a 3 day pause from writing . The details sound painful to draw. The tattoo really looks amazing btw. Reminds me of The Rocks tattoos.

Mythology is really fascinating. It really speaks volumes about people and their cultures.

[foxnflames]

Drawing will slowly make you lose your sanity but the pay off is good lol.

[Fuzed]

You couldn't be further from the truth.

Scrivener has many functions but the ones that make it really useful for me is the ability to create folders, files, colour code all of these. Then there's stuff like premade templates for Characters so that you can write down their mannerisms, background, relationships etc. You also have the ability to create links on words that lead to different files. (So let's say you've got a character that's hard to remember, so you just create a link and when you go back and can't remember the character, you just click on it and it shows you the character sheet.

There are tons of useful tools inside of Scrivener and these were just some that I could think of the top of my head. My memory is atrocious so I personally really need something like that. I have trouble remembering characters 10 minutes after I've created them so I really need this.

[Fuzed]

I'm glad to hear you're doing good

I'll forward all this information to my illustrator and we'll see what he has to say about them. Thank you for all the tips and the lengthy explanation!

Have a good one and hope to talk to you soon!

[Fuzed]

Isn't that the case with pretty much anything we do extensively?

[KizKat]

Perhaps, one day. It would be nice to make money from my comics, but right now I'm happy for it to be something I do for fun.

The tattoos were designed by the person who plays that character in the TTRPG game. I'm happy to hear you say the Rock, as the character is from a polynesian inspired location, which I believe the Rock's tattoos are also inspired by. The detail impresses me, but damn its a long process. Definately worth it. It makes me really appreciate tattoo artists who can do such beautiful things on skin!

[pilot-obvious]

Thanks so much for asking all these questions! I'm super happy to answer!

When I first started my series, I was pumping out episodes biweekly! Now it's about once a month, but actually making the episode I would say probably takes 12-15 hours of my time! (I should actually time myself b/c that's a total estimate) I have a full time job and value a healthy work/life/hobby balance so I only devote a few hours each week to working on it. I write my scripts before I do any of the thumbnailing or drawing. I try to have short arcs that kind of tell a story on its own, so I write one of those at a time. I'm about to start writing the next arc (I call them cases in my series!) I write all of my own scripts, but occasionally for my found documents I'll consult my writing friend. We collaborated on my last update and she created a research paper to go along with my chapter.

I try to make the photographs stylized, but since I have a more realistic proportioned anime style, I don't have to make any major changes. Here's a comment on another thread where I talk more about my process and show pictures: https://forums.tapas.io/t/drawing-backgrounds/45579/35?u=pilot-obvious

Right now I use CSP models for important shots that I can't create by posing in my own photographs! So namely cool action shots and interesting perspectives. I learned very recently that you can change the model's body type in CSP so I created models for each of my characters to use in case I need it!

But using a lot of 3D software and photography cuts the time I spend drawing everything by hand. It's not necessarily that I don't want to do all that work... but when I'm trying to push out episodes, I have to find a lot of time savers! I definitely recommend it if it fits with your style!

[Fuzed]

Yeah, you always start doing it out of passion and then maybe one day your job and passion will merge...

They look stunning! I watched that loop like 5 more times already .

And tattoo artists that do such huge tattoos are really next level. I would fear that I screw up and then that person is stuck with that for life. It's like being a surgeon.