Doubleoh4
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Introduction
Some of you may know me already, some of you may not, if not i make DF edits, you can find my Gallery by clicking on my signature.
I have had lots of questions asked in the past about how i make my comics, and have been thinking about making a guide to doing it, one that is simple to follow. without further a do, i will begin.
First of all, let me apologies for anything that hasn’t been covered, i tried to remember everything, but as questions are asked, and answered, i will update this main part of the guide for the information that was missing, and hopefully it will get better.
Step 1 - Creating the pieces
Firstly, lets talk about compiling all the pieces to the puzzle we will eventually create (this will be time consuming, but if your thinking about doing lots of comics, it will save you lots of time). the pieces we will need are, backgrounds, characters, and speech bubbles, you can make as many or as little of these as you need. lets talk first about how to get these.
Note:- Save files as Tiff’s, PNG’s or BMP’s, do not save any pieces in JPEG format, or any other compression file types
Step 1a - Backgrounds
First off take a screen shot (Print screen for PC users, or your grab feature for mac users) make sure (if your playing DF) that your character is in a position where they will be easy to remove. see picture below
Then remove your character from the background using your pencil and brush options, to get a result like this:-
Its as simple as that, different backgrounds have different levels of difficulty when removing your character, if it is too hard to use your brush to remove your character (for example its brick in the background) use your selector to select a similar part of the background elsewhere, copy and paste it over your character, and use the pencil to touch it up, if it needs it. Save your file as “Guardian tower background” for example. so you can find it easily when you need it.
I have made backgrounds for virtually all the areas in DF, it is fairly easy, maybe time consuming, but once you have them, you never need to get them again.
Step 1b - Characters
Firstly, much like the background, you will need to get a screen shot of your character (do this in battle so you can get whatever poses you want, this will also ensure your pictures of your character will always be the same size) and again like the background, try to pic a spot where your characters background can be easily removed (rescue mission, and ice cave are good choices) See pic for an example of a good shot to get.
Use your filler tool to fill all the background around your character (you wont be able to get it all with the filler, but you can get the large areas) fill using a color that does not appear on your character (this will help you later) or if your going to be using ms paint fill the background white. After using the filler tool, remove the rest of the background with the brush and pencil tools (be sure to get those areas around the character especially, since later, when you paste them to a background, they will show up and look bad), once youre done, it should look like this:-
Save these files as “attack” “stance” “stand” “run” for example, so you can easily find what you need for your comic. Again, make as little or as many of these as you think you will ever need for your comics.
Step 1c - Speech bubbles
Use the same methods for this as you would your character, the only other thing you need to do here is erase the name that was in the bubble, and put your characters name in there, you can also change the size of these bubbles to whatever you need, heres a copy of the sheet I use, these sizes seem fit for every occasion, and ive never had to make another sized bubble since:-
Step 2 - Putting together the pieces
Congratulations, the hard work is behind you now, its time for the fun part, and make up some creative/funny/interesting comic stories
Step 2a - Create an idea
The method i find best when creating a comic, is to get a pencil and paper, and make a quick sketch of what i want to do, how many frames it will be, and work out which of the “puzzle pieces” i will need. when you know what you need for your first frame, open up the files (puzzle pieces) and get ready for the next step
Step 2b - Copy and pasting
Now all we need to do is copy our character, speech bubble, and anything else you may have created, onto the background. if you are using paint, simply select all of your characters image, and paste it directly onto the background, be sure transparency is “on” and that your secondary color is set to white (or whatever the color of your background is around your character). if not using paint, use you “color selector tool” (this is why it was advisable to use a color for the background that is not on your character) go ahead and select all of that color, then use the option “invert selection” now all of your character is selected and none of the background, simply copy, and then paste onto the background. like this -
Step 2c - The final touches
Now it is just a case of pasting in more characters (if needed) and your speech bubbles. use you text feature to write in the bubble (i find arial a nice font for edits). See picture
After that, produce the rest of your frames in the same way, start a new blank document (big enough to fit all your frames in) and then copy and paste those frame in the document, Crop the document, to look like this:-
(this image is scaled down for convenient viewing)
Make sure this file that your hosting is now saved as a JPEG or a smaller file type, this is the only file we have talked about that should ever be saved in this kind of format.
Step 3 - Hosting
Now all you need to do is host this image on say “image shack” it is straight forward, and once you follow the instructions they will give you at where your hosting, simply copy the link address they give you, and paste it into the body of your response here on the forum.
Step 4 - Congratulate yourself on a job well done
Closing Statement
Be sure to message me any adjustments i could make to this guide, and any questions you may have about comic making that are not covered here, or maybe they are covered, but either dont make sense, or are not detailed enough
Thanks for reading, and good luck editing
-Doubleoh4-
< Message edited by doubleoh4 -- 3/12/2007 16:06:35 >
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