The Comic tips topic

[cheat-master30]

When making a comic, first consider the importance of good written, interesting content and humour, but also consider a few other things, and this topic will give you tips on how to make your comic different from many of the failures out there which end extremely shortly after they started.

Sprites and hand drawn comics

I personally don't mind either, and I will make clear that one is not always better than the other, regardless of what some very narrow minded message board goers may think. However, there are pros and cons of each, which I will list:

Sprites (Pros):


Easier to use sometimes, no drawing of characters and scenery required.
If default ones from sprite archives are used, no real artistic skill is needed. Good for those comic creators who are better with humour and storylines than artistic progress.
Plenty to find online.
A style based on a non used game will bring the comic alive with a very original, very pleasing style.
Custom sprites can look awesomeSprites (Cons):

If you really suck at making images transparent in Paint, this can look really bad...
Some sets are overused. Seriously, Mario and Luigi, Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World sets for Mario, and Minish Cap and Link to the Past sets for Legend of Zelda comics are like extremely commonly used for online comics. Which really is not original.
Sometimes using already made sprites will keep the story from achieving it's potential, and make people feel as if they already read thousands like it.
Some themes with this are really, really overdone. Shy Guy comics for one example (sorry Nintendan, but look how many shy guy comics there are on the Nsider Mario board).Hand drawn (pros):


Always look original.
If you have great artistic skill by hand or computer, it shows.
Making custom characters and locations is actually easier without sprites.Cons:


No artistic skill = awful comic.
Not for those without skill in area.
No pre made resources for images.

[cheat-master30]

Storylines (optional):


Storylines should be relatively in depth and also be original. In my opinion, while it is okay to a degree, stories about Princess Peach/Daisy getting captured by an evil villain, or even worse, by Bowser again are incredibly overused already in the Mario series, as is the idea of Ganondorf trying to conquer the world and capturing Zelda in The Legend of Zelda series. Be original, original stories are always more fun to read.
Explain why characters act how they do. Mario suddenly turning evil with no explanation is often pretty stupid, same with evil villains in the story turning good instantly.Humour:

A funny comic should actually make even a small audience laugh. If no one finds it funny, and the comic is actually about random humour, you lose.
Certain subjects may offend, so think carefully about jokes. Also, totally random comics are seriously not funny after a short while, as in where the whole comic appears to be totally messed up for long periods of time.Guest stars:

I am no expert on this part, but introducing guest stars right at the star is just ridiculous.

[cheat-master30]

Custom sprites and backgrounds:

I hate badly edited sprites. Such as those edited with basic paint tools on default settings.
If I see enough Mario relative in a comic which is a basic re colour of his or Luigi's basic Mario and Luigi sprite, I will flip.Please say you can suggest things?

[Symerwizkid22]

how to make transparent?
dont you use that star tracer thingy?

[NintenDan]

In Paint, transparent is the white colour. I've never heard of Star Tracer. Also, may I add to the list, here's another aspect:

Comic Layout:

Now then, you'll need a design for your comic, like, how many panels will you have, what font and size, what you'll use for speech bubbles, so here are some things I like to use to add the finishing touch to a comic:

Make a Nice Title that will appear up the top of each and every issue, such as mine in "Mario's Western Land" or "TSS" for examples.

Do you want a border? If so, do you want to theme it to suit your topic? This will either work, or mess up, so remeber to save before adding changes, or else you're stuffed.

I prefer to use speech bubbles, as it makes it easier to read, and can clearly notify which character is speaking at the moment. You may want to make an order of speaking also, such as: "Highest speech bubble read first, to lowest speech bubble read last". Don't forget font. Make it clear and visible, and make it fit in the bubble if you're using one. Avoid fonts like "Chiller" as it's squished up, and hard to read in a small font. I use either Arial or Tahoma, as they are straightforward texts.

And finally, panels. I just go with whatever suits me, as I rarely plan my panels for comics. In fact, I've never planned my panels, it just comes naturally. Also, consider using small panels to show confined space, and wide panels to show empty spaces, or big spaces.

THE END

[cheat-master30]

I forgot to mention the speech bubble thing. Always use them, either pre made or custom, as writing directly on background, even with lines pointing to characters is extremely unclear, and makes the writing almost unreadable.

I can make a comparison image if you want.

[NintenDan]

Speech Bubbles are very important. If you want to do comparison, that's fine. It will show others how difficult it is to read with no speech bubbles. And a reasonable font too, not Times New Roman, as that font is too boring for me. Arial and Tahoma are simple and nice!

[cheat-master30]

This help?

http://www.dsultimate.net/Avatar/speechdiagram.PNG

[NintenDan]

Yup! Sure does!

[cheat-master30]

Note how difficult text outside a speech bubble is to read?

[NintenDan]

But, on some exceptions, such as making a nature sound effect, as long as the text is still readable, like yellow on a dark background.

[cheat-master30]

Or black on white... If for some reason you can find a reason for a pure white background...

(most likely either the white room in Mario 64 DS or the destroyed void that remains of Sammer's Kingdom in Super Paper Mario.

[NintenDan]

Ah, heh, heh, heh... I use white backgrounds a fair bit in TSS#03 - Part One...

[cheat-master30]

Depends on the scene. This would be a good time to use a white background, having this scene in a comic (thanks to video author who posted it on Youtube):

eTBvW39mNEQ

[NintenDan]

That looks like Super Paper Mario, am I right? It's a good example of a white background too!

[cheat-master30]

Yep. The other place with a white background is the room behind the door behind the mirror in Mario 64 DS.

[TheMaskedWonder12]

I use Paint.NET (WAY better than paint) and I don't know how to do the transparency efect. im trying to put Sprites on a backround and if I use white, the backround turns white...cuz its colored...help...please....