Transcripts
1. Introduction to Panels and Composition for Webcomics: Hello and welcome
to your course on panel layouts and composition,
whole web comics. My name is Matthew Dewey and I'll be your instructor
for this course. I'm a writer and of course
we've come in create. I'm currently working
on to web comics now. One is called malice and
the other cryptic pons, which you can find on web tunes. Now this is a basic
course talking about how to create panels
for your web comics. And I'm talking about the
traditional comic style, the one that is
used in superhero comics like Marvel and DC, as well as graphic novels. And paneling can be a difficult aspect
of creating comics, which is why I'll be talking
about the fundamentals, as well as providing
you with a template. If you are really new
to web comic creation, as we go through
the fundamentals, you'll be able to ask
questions along the way. We'll submit any
progress work as well as our m and
active instructor, and we'll be able to respond
to your questions or review work as soon as possible. Now of course, this
is of course directed at beginner web comic creators. But if you are new to
creating web comics in the style of comics
and graphic novels. This is also a course
that you can find useful. This is not the
only course that I teach or web comic creation. I have a course on creating your first web comic
and publishing it. I have a course on creating quick and easy backgrounds
for your web comic panels, as well as a course on dialogue and ballooning
in your web comics. And with that, I welcome
you to this course on panel layout and
composition for web comics. I'll see you in the
very first lesson. Bye for now.
2. Purpose Behind Panels: Hello and welcome to the
very first lesson in your course on creating
panels for your web comics. Now, as I stated in the
introduction for this course, at all, does depend on the top of comic
you want to create. Today's format of
web comics often is based on vertical panels. So if you want to work
with web comics purely, your panels will be
separated vertically. This is because you
want each panel to flow into the next. So that way you can
tell the story in a sequence that reads well, on a phone or tablet, not just a desktop. Now, there isn't much to panel in when it comes to
that sort of format. The same thing applies when you are working with a comic strip. The same sort of format
applies to comic strips. As you can see
from this example. Comic strip that I made
earlier in my webcam in Korean are based purely
on classic comic strips, which are square panels
one after the other. There isn't much when it
comes to the purpose of the panels in these cases, as you are simply telling
a story in a set format. However, web comics that are styled of the physical Comics, such as superhero comics like
Spiderman, an X-Men, etc. These are comics
that tend to have different panels depending on the type of story
that wanted to tell. It depends on each page and
the purpose of each page. So I'll be going through
different examples that I typically work with when
I'm creating my comics. I'd like to show some
other comics off as well. But unfortunately, I'm
not allowed to use other people's work
in my courses. So with that in mind, you'll simply have to take note of the methods that
I'm talking about, not just the examples. You'll find that if you pick
up your favorite comics, the same would apply
to them as well. With that said, I
also want to say that I'm going to be giving you a template that I often use
when creating web comics. As you can see, it's
a basic what page? It's resolution is 3,440, 800, and it has a simple black
border here in the center. Now are able to give you the creator format because
some of you might not be using creature as
your web comic program. But I'll be able to give
you the image itself and you can take it and
use it if you wish. With that said, I
created this format to give me a little space
here at the bottom, bigger than that at the top. So that way I can
include details such as the page number and link to my patriot and the title
of the web comic and so on. I've also created a black
border to have centered here that I can adjust depending on the page
without a month. Let's have a look at one of
the web comics examples. Now on this page I want to
show an interaction between two characters and
a larger shocked. To do this, I want you to create a more dynamic feeling
for this dialogue. I didn't want to simple
back-and-forth on a single panel. I also don't want to have
vertical panels because I wanted to add to the
emotion of the character. As you can see, the character is hitting something
with flash-lag. In order to show this a
bit more dynamically, I use the dynamic
shape of a triangle. As for the other
half of the page, I haven't separated
into many panels, just one certain
way I could show more of a landscape scene
with the character they, however, this isn't
the case all the time. There's a lot going on here, but nothing that so much that the reader needs to
pay attention to. However, in the next example, I've split the page in half. The reason being
is because I want to larger establishing shots. The reason I do this is because the characters examining
something they've picked up, and I needed closer to the reader's eye so that way they can understand what
has been picked up. In order to show this off. I can't have it
in a small panel. Also feel it's not
important enough to be in one large panel and it
takes up the whole page. And this example here, I have split the page
into four panels. This gives me a lot
less room to work with, but at the same time, it still gives me an
opportunity to tell the story. Now whenever you have
sequential panels like this, you want to do this
because you have some dialogue back and forth
that you want to show. Or in this case, I wanted to
show the passage of town. But I could have just as easily use this format for having a dialogue like I
did in this example. This example, I want you to have a back-and-forth dialogue
between a group of characters. These three particularly. So to do that, I separated the panels so that way I can show
each character but closer without having to include any major
background elements. This way I could spend most of the page on the dialogue which is here centered
in the middle. I don't have any
details or back on elements that will add
to the scene at all. So I decide to make the purpose of this page purely
about the dialogue. So here I am having
a dialogue between two characters and I'm using
that full panel format. And I used over again. And finally, there'll be times where you don't even need to separate the templates
into panels. And that doesn't have to
be the case all the time. Sometimes you just want
to establish the setting and characters and show
them often a cool way. And sometimes you need more than just a few panels to do so, you need the entire page. So in this example here, that's exactly what I do. I show the shape of
the characters and create a larger piece
for the reader to enjoy. At this point, I don't even
need to include dialogue, but sometimes I can. As in this example here, I use an entire page to show off these two new characters and are still include
dialogue here as well. So your project for
this lesson is to figure out the purpose
for your page. You don't have to decide
what panels you plan to use or the
composition just yet. We'll be talking about the
different types of panels in the next lesson and composition
and balance later on. But it's an important
step in storytelling to figure out exactly what you
want to tell the reader. If you have any questions about deciding the purpose
of your page, let me know in the
comments below. As an active instructor, you will receive an answer as soon as I see your question. With that, let's
jump straight into the next lesson where we will be talking about the
different panels that you can use to create an
interesting comic.
3. Different Panel Shapes and Their Benefits: Hello, and welcome back to course on panels in web comics. Now, in this lesson, I'm going to be talking about the different types
of panels and the shapes and what purpose they may serve in
your wave coming. Now, I already touched upon some of this in the previous lesson, but I'm gonna be talking
about it a bit more in depth. Now this does cover
some art theory basics, but I'm gonna be talking about my experience when
it comes to drawing web comics and what panels and shapes that I use
for particular scenes. So to start, I'm gonna be taking the template that I've
shown you earlier. And in this template,
I'm gonna be breaking it down into
different panels. So that way you
have a better idea of what I'm talking about. Now, the most basic
format is one of the first format cells
used in western comics. The reason this was used
in the old co-exist because there wasn't that
much attention to detail. Moving on from comic strips into something that
was a bit grander. Because they want to recreate more annual releases
of their comic strips. And they wanted to make
sure they expanded upon those comics into
full-blown comics. That means multiple panels, that meant a longer story. That mean to put more jokes and a bit more opportunity
to show one's art. Now this is still format
that is used in web, comics and comics
and graphic novels, does not every page. Their advantage of using
such a simple layout is that each panel is the
same size and it's easier to follow the
sequence of thought, e.g. they will start here
in the first panel, second, third, fourth,
fifth, and sixth. So the reader can follow
the story as you write it, as if they're reading a book. Each square has plenty of
space to include figures, dialogue, or in some cases, show off a scene. If you're more experienced
drawing comic strips, so you're very new and inexperienced when it
comes to drawing comics. This is not a bad way to
start and get into comics and graphic novels with a
basic square shaped panel. Next we have vertical panels. So let's just draw a line here
straight down the middle. We have two major
vertical panels. Now this shape is mainly used for accentuating
verticality. In a picture. If you have a lot
of buildings in your scene and a
small road down here. Here's some old buildings
and you want to show that vertical perspective. So here's a car. Here's the moon, so not seen
stars. You get the idea. This helps to match the
vertical feeling and direction that is created by
the buildings in this scene. Sometimes that isn't the case. Sometimes you just want to
have a line of figures. So let's just do a
quick background here. And let's just real basic
stick man, figure, walking. And you want to have a
lot of dialogue, baby. And you want to throw
that into the next. If you've seen has a lot of vertical elements or you want to do something different
from our previous page. This is a great
shape to work with. Of course, that does bring
us to horizontal panels. And luck with vertical
panels helping to emphasize verticality
in an image. Horizontal ones while of course, emphasize the horizontal
feeling in that same. So if you've got a landscape, then our horizontal panel
would work well for closed Sharp block that
horizontal panels are often used in web comics because
not only do they help emphasize this landscape scene that you might be
wanting to create. But also it gives you
plenty of space to include several figures standing
next to each other. Like so. Having a dialogue. You also need to remember
that looking through these panels is like a reader
looking through a window. They are seeing something
strange and unusual. They seen something interesting. And you want to present
it in a way that helps them feel a bit more most. So when it comes
to your landscape, a landscape shaped panel
or work very well when it comes to a conversation
between several characters. At helps to also
include the reader as if they're standing or sitting
there with the characters. Now, you don't have to use
a triangle shaped handle to present all your
dynamic actions. This is just one way
of doing things, but you can use the torso. Make a more interesting scene, as I said earlier, sometimes they don't
even have to be as complex as that one. You can have a simple
one like this. It has you include
a large scene here. You can have perhaps
a character. Emphasizing emotion is
perhaps the karate kicking, something like so that you can have a simple
one like this that helps you emphasize and
action of a character. E.g. this one sort
of matches the flow of this character's karate kick. Things like that work very well. When it comes to more
dynamic shaped panels, you can present your triangles
in a vertical format like this also help you
present vertical elements. E.g. you can have
a scene like this. We have the two figures
here presented in these two panels,
one here and two. And the third panel,
you have a background of them sitting by the fire, forest in the background, stars in the sky. Having a dialogue. It's an interesting way
to present a scene. And the vertical dynamic lands here helped to accentuate
the dynamic figures. And of course, it
works well with the trees in the background because it's kinda the
shape of the tree. The tall vertical triangle. So that pretty much covers the vertical shaped panels that you most commonly encounter. Whether it'd be more
of a rhombus shape, whether it be a set of triangles or whether it
be square or rectangular, vertical or horizontal,
that covers most of them. And the shapes that
you could use, the pros of using each one. But of course, you can create more interesting panels
whenever you wish. You don't have to
stick to this format. E.g. you can have a circle shaped panel to help you include
something very interesting. Sometimes the panels
are a clash of so many different shapes to really add to the strangeness. You can have triangles, you can have circles. You can have a
basic square panel that cuts to images
of different scenes. Perhaps you have a
character of the arms stretch to match the
flow of this one. Perhaps you have a
character who has a roundish face that fits
into here pretty well. And perhaps you have
a ticking time bomb over here that has only
5 s left on the clock. And in this major
panel over here, you will have some grand seen that includes all these figures. Breaking it up with
dialogues here and there to create this chaotic scene with so many elements will
read it to enjoy. Maybe a bit of a challenge
for the artists to campus so many dynamic
angles and to include it in a way that's coherent. So that way the reader
can follow the dialogue 1-2 to three to four, etc. But if you can pull this off, it'll be a fantastic
and unique comic page for the reader to enjoin. Of course, it never has
to be that complex. You can have a
curved panel on to squarish panels over here, 12. And a simple scene like this. Wrap the rolling hills to match the shape of the curve there. Moon, some other round
objects that will all work. You can have a massive
portrait of a character, or even the vertical buildings that I've mentioned before. You can include in a
scene that pretty much covers all the panels
that you'll most likely work with annual
comic creation Korea. There are so many ways
that you can present them so many sizes and combinations. But in doing so, one thing I
do want you to keep in mind is try to find a
panel that works best with the image
that you have in mind. Sometimes if you are comic
creator and you just want to set out the panels and then forgot
the Images folder. That is just fine as well. Another method is
both easier or more difficult for certain
comic creators. So you just simply pick the
one that works best for you. Your project for this
lesson is to look at your web comic
creation so far. Or look at the next
page that you plan on creating and decide which panels are best suited for each scene. And see if you can adjust or create a pedal that will best suit that page and a story
in it that you want to tell. In the next lesson,
we'll be talking about the importance of
gutters and spacing. I will see you
then. Bye for now.
4. Gutters and Spacing: Hello and welcome back
to your course on panel layout and
composition for web comics. In this lesson, I'm
going to be talking about gutters and spacing. Now this refers to the
spaces between our panels. Now this isn't the case for every top comic when it comes
to web comics nowadays, a lot of the comics
are being told in a vertical format without
really any separations. It's normally a long strip that flows from one panel
into the next. And if you are using
this format and there really isn't any
need for balance and composition because each
panel flows into the next. So you're telling the
sequence almost like a novel. We read from left to
right and downwards. But when it comes to comics, you can jump between panels and look at different
images here and B. But when it comes
to this format, you have to follow
the sequence 1234. When it comes to other comics, the format tends
to be different. E.g. in traditional comics, you will have different panels. The composition
will be different. The shapes of the panels
will be different. And you have to follow
the sequence of events as they
present themselves. But at the same time
it's a little more complex than just
working downwards. If I was to bring up the
format that I typically use, you'll notice that I have large spaces here on the
sides of the main panel. This main panel, as I mentioned
earlier in this course, can be divided
into other panels. But for now, let's just
say it's one panel. Now there are two
reasons that there are these spaces around
the central panel. The first reason is
that these spaces were created with a practical
reason in mind. Comics were of course, physically printed and not
rape digitally at first. Which meant that we
needed to have a space where to include page numbers, which would be down here. And they needed a space on
either side because you'd have your fingers on these spaces when you are turning the pages. So that is one of the reasons
these spaces were created. The second reason these
spaces are being used and still used in
digital comics, such as these, is that it's an excellent way to
frame the picture. Framing when it comes to comics
like these is important. The spaces and
gutters are all about separating one image
from the next. This isn't something that
are understood to well, when I first started
creating comics, understood that each
panel needed to be separated for the reader to
understand what is going on. But at the same time,
I do not understand the thickness of these
spaces and gutters. So as you can see in one of the first pages
that are created, the spaces on either side at the top and
bottom are a bit too thin and especially the gutters in-between the
panels are way too thin. This was made worse by the fact that this is a limited palette. Having such them lands made
it so easy for one image to cross over to the next if you weren't looking
at it carefully. So pause to take a
more recent image. You'll notice now I use a thicker space at the
top and bottom and sides, as well as the thickest space
to separate the panels. The same applies to
model web comic, where I have a very clear space between panels in order
to separate the scenes. And if you are working for
comic strip, the same applies. There's a space between each
panel that I have here. With that said, I can give you some practical advice if you are using the template which I provided to you
in this course. If you're planning to separate
your panels on each page, then I recommend a separation of 50 to 75 pixels in length. So if I was to select my normal brush and
hours to select, let's say 73 and
draw a line here. You'll see that
that separation is thick enough for each panel. You can then adjust
it as necessary, but I feel that this
is thick enough to separate each panel
if you're not using the template that
I provided you for this course and you're using
your own web comic template. That's perfectly fine. Now you need to figure
out who your template, which separation based
suits your web comic. As with panels, you can have
a lot of fun with this. Create an interesting
separation. You can create one that's very, you can create one that has
a strange space in-between, whichever best suits the scene that you're trying to create. Your project for this lesson
is to just experiment with the different spaces if you
are still creating a format, this is a great time to
figure out the spaces as well on other side, and then we can add
that to this later on. In the next lesson, we'll
be talking about how to balance the
panels on your page, as well as how to create an
interesting and varied layout that your readers can
enjoy. I will see you then. Bye for now.
5. Panel Balance and Visual Interest: Hello and welcome back
to your course on panel layout and
composition for web comics. In this lesson, we'll be talking about how to balance
your panels, as well as keep your readers
interested in the layout. Now when it comes to
balancing panels, there are several factors that
you need to keep in mind. Balancing panels is all about making sure that the
information you're giving the reader is clear
in this format that I provided to you on
notice that when it comes to many of my panels, I tend to have a certain size that allows me the opportunity
to provide an image, but also speech bubble
with some information. With this in mind,
this does limit the size and variety
that I can use. Now there are a lot of comic
artists out there which create these amazing
dynamic images. Ones where they have strange
and odd panels here. And they to include bigger and more dynamic images that can even cross over
into different panels. Yet when I keep all these
factors in mind are typically structured my panels
in a simple fashion. Typically, I'll try to make sure that I don't have anything smaller than a
third of the page, if I can avoid it. There have been times where
I've divided the page into 67 with a vertical line down the middle and
something like that. But having larger panels
gives me an opportunity to present a lot of information
or a cool-looking image. And of course, having larger
panels than that does the same thing with its two horizontal panels are two vertical
panels like these. The last thing you wanna do
is create a clash between panels that make it a lot more difficult for the
reader to read. E.g. if I had two largest
panels at the top here, but then I divided the panels in an interesting way
at the bottom here. But the panels are too small to actually include
any information. This can cause some problems. Of course, there'll
be a lot worse if I did the same thing for the entire page as is
where there's a lot of small and difficult to understand panels that
are better off just being filled and actually used. If you're working,
if the template I've provided you are working
with a similar one, keep those two factors in mind. We want to create an image that the reader can understand. Or you want to
make sure you have enough space to include the information you
want to convey. It can be very
difficult to condense all your information
into one page, which is why it's sometimes
better to realize that if you have to go a page further,
that's perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with
that, especially in the web comic industry, year-and-a-half to
have a set amount of pages to tell you a
story in each chapter. Don't force every
page to be perfect. Simply focus on creating the
art and telling the story. As long as you keep these
things clear to the reader, the balance of your
panels should be alright. Of course, that brings me
to my next point here, and that's creating a visual
interest in your paneling. So having a set size is okay, but at the same time you
need to make sure there is some variety in order
to keep it interesting. This is why when
I'm working with my webcam x that I'll make sure that each page has a
different panel layout, at least a little different. So that way it
remains interesting. By keeping this in mind, it becomes a lot
easier to create interesting panels for
the reader to enjoy. And at the same time gives them a lot of variety in interest. Even if this does mean reusing the same layouts that
I've used before and just using them in a random
fashion as will help create a visual
interest in my webcam x. Of course, if you are working at comic strips instead of
comics or graphic novels, you don't need to
pay attention to this information because
you have a set format, whether it'd be
three or four panels that you just have in sequence, one after the other,
with all the saved. How are you going to keep
your readers interested is with your art and
with your dialogue. This is enough to
keep them going. But when it comes to
working with panels, variety is important as well. If you're creating a traditional comic book or graphic novel. This is something to keep
in mind with that said, that brings us to the
end of this lesson. Now your project for this
lesson is of course, to have a look at
your planning for your comic book and see if
you have enough variety in your panel shapes and
sizes in order to create some subconscious interests
in your web comic. Of course, your artwork
and dialogue comes first. So this is really
something that should be low on your list of priorities. Now in the next lesson, we'll be discussing
the final project for this course and where to go
from here. I'll see you then. Bye for now.
6. Final Project and What Next?: Hello and welcome back
to your course on panel layouts and
composition for web comics. You've made it to
the final video, which means it's time
for your final project. Your project for this
course is simply to take all the information
that I've given you, choose which best
suits your webcam x. Create a layout for your
first web comic page. Now as they are a lot of
factors to keep in mind. If you're unsure about the layout that
you're working with. You can show it off
in the comments or the project section and receive a critique if you want it
as inactive instructor, I'll be able to
answer any questions you have or review any work you submit in good time when it comes to the layout
of your first page, one thing I do recommend is
keep it simple at first. What you wanna do is establish
your scene or introduce a character so you will have
a larger panel included. This should make it
easier for you to present your art style as well. Once you have
finished that layout, you can show it off in
the project section. Now the next question is
where to go from here? Well, this is not my first
course on creating web comics. This is a small cost to talk about the panels
and the layouts. But I have courses
on establishing dialogue and speech bubbles
in your web comics. I have a course on creating quick and easy backgrounds
for your panels and of course on creating your very first web
comic and waited posted. So if you are new to web comics, so you want to take
your web comic further, I recommend checking out
those courses because I not only provide
you with a lot of information on those subjects, but each course has its
own web comic community, communities where you
can ask questions pertaining to each cause
or submit your work. So that way you can
get more readers. I certainly encourage all of my students to show
off any of the work and perhaps even promoted through the discussions
or the project section. With that, Amanda, I really do hope that this course
has made it a bit easier for you to set up a
layout for your web comics. And if you have any
extra questions, be sure to leave them in
the discussions panel. I do hope you enjoyed this
course and I wish you luck on your web comic
creation Korea with that. Good day, good naught,
and happy drawing.
Matthew Dewey
