/co/ - Comics & Cartoons

>>998655

When you think about the panel, you thing about the page. When you think about the page, you think about the whole comic.

Before you start designing a comic you should always consider the page itself as an artwork, not the small pictures and panels inside. That way, when you're desinging a page, you should look at it like a piece of art, where each element (page number, chapter title, decorations and panels) work together to create a pleasant visual experience.

>a panel

Lets start with panels. Panels should first and foremost show a moment in time in comic, it should reflect the picture in it, emphasize it and fit it in the rest of the page. The shape of panels dictate how fast or slow a comic is read, which panel is most/least important and bring a sense of speed.

>a page

A page itself is a work of art. Each individual panels should work together. When designing a page, one should take notes of pages before and after it. If you have constant wall of texts between pages, you should alternate between pages with high amount of panels then pages with few amount of panels so the reader's eye can rest and simply enjoy the view.

The next thing to consider is what is happening in the page. If there is no action, then simple squares can be used (especially if you want to represent a really boring situation). If you want to bring the action, you should break the panels so edges don't aling, introduce diagonals, use different shapes (circles vs squares vs triangles).

>a comic book

You should take care about the location of your pages. if you should balance your layout so the crucial events in the story happen when you flip the page, because if you don't do that, then reading the page right before it will spoiler (since your eye takes a glance at the whole thing at once and then moves into details (reading). This is also why physical comics are superior to webcomics, because they deliver the sense of surprise harder.

So if you want to draw a comic, you should consider all three of these together. Design a panel to match the page, design a page to work with other pages and calculate which page will end up in what part of the of the comic book (page number and place in spread). Extend/enlarge or shorten panels so you can balance your story in less or more pages.

=ALWAYS SKETCH ALL PAGES OF A CHAPTER FIRST=

Do this so you can count your pages, balance the panels, the ease of read and overall pleasure (or pain) of reading your comic.

>>998687

additional examples of various page details, layouts and whatever might spark your fancy.

>>998655

Fixed

Guys also haven't mentioned how the actual composition of the drawings drastically influence how effective the panels are and how well they flow. If you cram too much in one panel, it'll be confusing and people won't know where their eye should be led.

You should very clearly show where your eyes should be going with the art. Consciously but naturally try to have motion going to the next panel, or have stuff almost subliminally pointing to it.

>First pic: Empowered

>Hair points to next panel

>Eyes glide all the way to read dialogue, come back down her neck to next panel

>Immediately met by more dialogue

>Then able to fully take in the rest of the panel

>Second pic: Fables

>Go up tiger's arm to 2nd panel

>Up tiger's body and to the dialogue, down Snow's body again to third panel

>Met with dialogue, go along tiger and the rockline to Snow's dialogue and down her body to fourth panel

>Met immediately with POWPOWPOW payoff, glide across Tiger's arm to final panel

Now compare these to the third pic: Vampirella V2, which I fucking hated reading for its piss-poor composition. There's nothing actually indicating where you go next, so reading it becomes slower as you have to more consciously think about where your eyes need to go.

Similar shit happens with Jojo. I love the series, but Araki is complete ass at composition. But I think this has more to do with him often trying to put a lot of extra shit on a page. That's why it gets easier to read when it's in color.

>Last pic related

It technically does have flow. You can go from the dialogue to Josuke's face to the 2nd panel, to the dialogue and down to his eyes, and follow those eyes to the third panel, and so on. But there's just so much unnecessary bullshit. Jojolion's better about it, though.

Dick Sprang knew how to make some dynamic layouts.

This is a good place to ask. What is the recommended size of your webcomic page? I don't want it to be too small but I don't want it to take up the whole screen.

>>998655

Good paneling can lend weight and momentum to a static medium, much in the same way that smear frames and squash-and-stretch animation can add a certain lifelike quality and a sense of impact and force to 2D cartoons. When done in a simple and uncomplicated way, it forces a greater need for high quality writing, aesthetic, and characters to make up for the boring presentation. A well written, interesting comic drawn by a moderately talented artist can get by with standard paneling, but becomes even better when presented in a dynamic sort of way.

Conversely, a shitty comic with boring as shit, template paneling, like The Pervert ( >>989036 ) has its many flaws magnified greatly because everything is presented in the most bland way possible, on top of being an awful comic with ugly art and boring writing.

Good page layout and paneling can create the illusion of time and a sequence of events from static images by drawing the reader's eye from place to place in a specific sequence.

This particular page is probably my favorite example of this. The final bits of Reimu's dialog are cut off by the needle, creating a fantastically well executed impression of her dialog being cut off by the attack. The specific part of the needle you see first is the one with all the motion blur, and tour eye is naturally drawn down the needle due to the way the artist handled perspective, where you reach Shinmyoumaru. The secondary motion on her clothes, combined with the lack of blur on the needle, gives the eye the impression of the attack having already been completed by the time you process the panel. Your eye then flows down to Reimu, whose secondary motion implies that she just started moving. Your eyes see this in this sequence and interpret Reimu's dodge as the last thing that occurred, giving the impression of her just barely dodging the attack in time.

The slight deformation in the panel structuring in the direction the needle is thrust creates greater emphasis on the attack and helps guide the reader's eye towards that sequence.

I could write a fuckin' thesis on this dude's art. He's the only motherfucker I've seen that can surpass Murata in the illusion of time.

>>999008

Murata is a god damn gift to mankind.

Sage for /a/ related.

>>998988

>weak reason to use integrate a sense of touch in you comic using texture

>weak reason to use special colours to make your comic stand out of the rest

>weak reason to combine different papers and materials for viewers to interact with the medium itself regardless of what's in it

>those things aren't guaranteed to be a part of every physical comic book.

This is why physical comics are fading away.

>>998655

Page layout and paneling are very important. Proper paneling and layout can dictate the pace at which your book is read, it can be used to establish patterns which can be used to achieve certain effects, they can enhance illusion of motion in the images, and so on.

Unfortunately, American comics have been more and more lacking in that department over the years. Knowledge on how to lay out a page properly is getting lost in the U.S. and finding information on how to properly do it is difficult. That's likely one of the reasons why American comics are not faring too well today. Boring or clunky paneling is pretty common, even in supposedly 'great' books that win awards left an right. Best you can get are gimmick panels like pic related. However, they tend to be more tedious reads than manga or most European comics.

Interesting thing about paneling I just read through a chapter of Saiki and pic related came up. Pretty interesting read.

>>998664

>and a comic that's god-teir if you are into amputation porn and pseudo-intellectualism.

I see what you did there

>>1015363

It's a gimmick, but it's fun. I really should get a physical copy of this issue.