We’ve been talking recently about the importance of lettering when making your own comics. In my two posts Comic Balloons & Clarity and The Comic Lettering Spell the discussion in the comments turned toward discussing our own processes.
Personally, I use a program called Comic Life.
A lot of you asked to see how I use Comic Life to letter my comic, The Dreamer. So while the topic is still fresh, I recorded my lettering process on the most recent page of my story.
In This Tutorial I Will Show You:
- how to import and export between Photoshop and Comic Life so the process is seamless.
- how to create and use Styles to easily format all your balloons in one time-saving click.
- why lettering your comic early will help you make better, stronger comic layouts.
Read on to learn how I use this simple program with professional results…
Comic Life, Friend of the One Man Show:
A professional comic letter must have a variety of fonts and styles at his disposal. Who knows what his next job might require?
But for the independent creator who is wearing multiple hats in the process of making a comic, the job of letter is often just one of the many tasks he must juggle. So for people like me who are working on only one comic—the same comic—all of the time, having an arsenal of cool fonts and customizability isn’t our greatest need.
Our greatest need is working quickly but professionally. And I’ve found this simple little program, Comic Life (designed to put silly captions on vacation photos), actually works as the perfect solution for my lettering problem.
What Comic Life Gets Right:
Why not Illustrator or Photoshop?
I’ve been using Comic Life for over five years, since Page 1, Issue #1 of my comic. (I’m now on issue #15.) So why haven’t I moved onto Adobe Illustrator, yet?
- Professional looking word balloons are just a drag and drop away in Comic Life.
- By creating your own custom Styles in the program, you only need to set up your favorite font, stroke and color preferences once.
- Text is designed to maximize the space inside a balloon, and text is automatically reformatted every time you make a change to balloon size and placement.
- Balloon tails are highly adjustable, and only take seconds to tweak.
- The program comes fully loaded with commonly used balloon shapes, popular comic fonts, and even Sound Effect lettering options.
- The program only costs as much as a Blu-ray disk.
So watch how I use the program, and see if you get a few new ideas on how to streamline your own comic lettering process.
Fantastic tute Lora! I’ve gotta get Comic Life. Up to now, I’ve been doing everything in Painter. Useing the elips shape tool, commiting it, and then using the distorto tool to stretch a tail out of the edge. Very shotty, and I’m ashamed of myself for taking all this for granted. Really, I’ve not paid half the attention to lettering that I should have. This will help so much on my reworking of Ouwangalaymah. Super Super tute!
I know, Sam! Leave it to PaperWings to make a tutorial featuring a software … that is about SO MUCH MORE than the software. Thanks Lora for sharing your tips for efficiency, controlled process, and great storytelling! Can’t wait to see what you do with this newfound knowledge, Sam.
We can’t help it, Scott. 🙂
Thanks!
Me too Scott, me too. 😀
It’s so cheap, it’s worth the investment. Especially if you’re using Painter!!
You’ll make up the money in the headache meds you won’t have to take anymore. 😉
This is great, not just for the specifics of “Comic Life”, but for the art of laying out word balloons in general. The way you use the balloons to sort of bracket the artwork is very smart — like signposts at the beginning and end of the panel.
I’ve been using Photoshop for lettering, mainly because I do everything *else* there, and it’s so convenient not to have to switch programs whenever I want to change something (I did a quickie walkthrough of my process here: http://jkcarrier.livejournal.com/189386.html ). Those automatic word balloons in Comic Life do look super handy, though. I may just have to switch…
I know that Chris used Photoshop to letter his comic.
I say experiment with Comic Life. If it saves you time, make the switch! But try it more than once. There’s a learning curve with any program, no matter how simple, just to get used to it, and get used to the different ways of doing something that you already knew how to do in different program.
The whole point is efficiency and professionalism. Work in whatever way you can find that.
Glad to hear I’ve given you some pointers you can take with you to whatever program you ultimately decide to use.
Love this! I will be switching to this for my next project. It looks like it would really save me some time and headaches when placing word balloons, instead of creating them all from scratch and shifting text around in photoshop. Poor photoshop just wasn’t meant for text…
I agree! Let us know how it goes!
Wow, looking at your comic, I never would have guessed you weren’t using Photoshop or Illustrator to do your lettering!
Holy… the word balloon tool is AMAZING!!! I will most definitely be getting this. Creating the balloons in Photoshop or Illustrator is like pulling teeth. This is a great tutorial, Lora, thanks for this! And it’s really nice to see how you layout all the text to create a proper flow for the dialoague.
You’re welcome!
Once you start using it, report back! I hope you like the program.
You make a strong case for using this program, Lora.
Although, for Prehistoric Sideshow, I need the crappy, hand-made look for my word balloons, when I do another, slicker comic, I just might use this technique.
This tutorial is exceptional. VERY, VERY good.
WOW. That’s a lot more than I’d expected to hear you say!
Ha ha, to the Wingerz: Chris has, in the past, suggested we have a, um, “Letter Off” to see whose process is better. LOL.
Great tutorial video! I’m set in my ways with mainly Illustrator(as an aspiring letterer), but many many people can benefit from this tutorial.
Laura’s first tip, in the video, about including your lettering in the rough stages of comic making, is one of the most important tips ever! Even if you aren’t the one doing the lettering, it’s very important to think about where the word balloons will go. Have you ever come across a comic, print OR web, and found it hard to figure out which balloon to read first? That’s the reason. Or if the words are super tiny because there were too many to fit in the allotted space? Same reason.
Whoops, just realized I look like a careless jerk for spelling Lora’s name wrong! Apologies!
Apology accepted. 🙂
I agree that anyone who wants a job as a letterer, Illustrator is the way to go. But this is a nice solution for a creator like me.
Good luck in your aspirations!
My worst habit EVER… Now that I include word balloons in the beginning, life is so much easier!
These tutorials and posts about lettering are coming at a PERFECT time. I’m working on my first comic project (a short story, just to try my hand at comic creation from start to finish), and so far, I’m working on the pencils. I wouldn’t have known to work on the lettering and word balloons so early in the process, but it makes perfect sense! I’m certainly glad I know now, before I get to a point when it’s harder to fix problems.
You are going to be so glad you did!
First time I ever sat down to letter a page I remember thinking, “CRAP…! There is NO room!”
For some reason I thought a letterer would magically be able to fit the first chapter of Moby Dick on my page without being able to cover any of the art.
Great tutorial, Lora! Once more very useful information, I have a tendency to want too much control over how everything looks in my comic and seeing such a streamlined workflow from a pro like yourself really gets me thinking about what choices to make regarding software and work habits.
The silly thing with software is that I often find we tend to stick to what we know or have mastered and that can hold us back. Your tutorial – just like Chris’ Google SketchUp video – is also a good reminder that learning new tools isn’t that hard and that the initial time invested to get to grips with them always pays off (even if you don’t end up using them, you’ll most certainly get out of it with using insights and knowledge).
Yes, I too am a creature of habit, Wouter. I understand that. But sometimes when you do take the time to learn a new program or system, it is a lot easier to make the switch than you thought it would be. 🙂
Try it out and see how you like it!
Lora,
Great video/article (AKA Tutorial), this will help loads when working on my (future) web comic! I really love these sort of software “demos”, because it exposes me to new programs that I either over look or knew nothing about. I also bought Sketchbook Pro after reading an article stating that you used it for your designs and finish art… excellent program!
Again, thanks Lora for the video, I’d have to say money well spent! Now… on another topic…
Is there anyone in Winger-land that could lend a creative eye/ear? A few weeks ago Paper Wings covered the topic of creating a creative trust circle for feedback and to simply bounce ideas around. Well, I live in an area that it isn’t easy to meet or communicate with people with our creative talents, so I was hoping to meet some most excellent folks here!
I know I haven’t been so “chatty”, but I am looking to change that. I’m just simply looking for people I can trust to share ideas and help me mold mine into a truly entertaining experience… or does anyone do that anymore? Heh heh omg I am so “out of the loop”!
Cheers!
OH and the heck do I create an icon image for my profile/avatar/digital ID? I’m not computer literate, but I’m old enough to say that for me ‘computers came later in life’ and I’m still learning.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
For the avatars, you should head on over to http://gravatar.com to set one up that will be universally available! 🙂
thanks Brian… I will head over there… errr… not now, but soon. OH and not later, but soon… just not right now! THANKS!
okay last post… for now… but I checked plasq.com and there is a ComicLife 2 and downloading it directly from their site to your computer will only cost $29.99 (or a $9.95 upgrade) which is even cheaper then the Amazon route.
Oh and if you are still not sure about it, there is a 30 day trial! One of the neater features for ComicLife 2 is that you can export in PDF now (plus 15 more new features)!
Okay I have to stop, because I am starting to sound like a ComicLife rep… heh heh omg… are they hiring? *sad face* I need a job… heh heh
Hello, Moody! What kind of ideas do you need to ‘bounce’ around? For my job, I work with writers as a sort of circle of trust “for hire” (it’s a writing center on a college campus, helping students with any and every writing assignment) so I’ve been wanting to try working with someone in a more creative aspect (ie, story telling, or drawing, or both). So if you’re interested in sending me some stuff, let me know! I’m on deviantART as ShadedCorners if you’re signed up there at all 🙂
About the avatars: I *think* this site probably uses “Gravatar” ( https://en.gravatar.com/ ), a site where you basically associate your email with a profile image. I’m pretty sure that’s what is used here 😉 You just go there, sign up, pick a picture, and you should be set! It sometimes takes a couple days before it works, though…
Mary Claire, thank you so much for the link! I am sure I can figure out how to change my grey silhouette to a excellent graphic. Heh heh “Gravatar” huh? Sounds like a ‘death metal’ band! Wooot!
I will head on over to the Deviant and check out your spot… I AM a member there and my user is… surprise, surprise; Moodyvibe. Anyways, the issue I have and I think it is an issue for most writers, is that I have SO many bloody ideas that it’s hard to focus on the important details and filter out the garbage.
I’m heading over to Deviant now, thank again for your reply!
Welcome aboard, Moody. And yes, Mary Claire is right. Sign up for gravatar. It sometimes won’t begin working right away. Give it a day after you sign up and upload your image.
Lora,
Heh heh wow welcomed twice! YAY ME! …errr to be fair I believe I am using a different name than before. I might have introduced myself as Jeremy or something more personal. I had written a lengthy intro about myself about a month ago here on Paper Wings, but the fault is mine for changing my silly name.
Thanks for the help with the Avatar… errr… avatar, not to be confused with the giant blue thingy or the due that bends air! Hmmmm… speaking of “bending air”… pizza totally sounds good tonight! Woot!
Ahoy Moody!!!
I am also glad to see Mary Claire here too! A writing coach is an amazing asset to have on a community just because she is trained and expereinced with knowing how to find issues and communicate them to the creator. Glad to see you both here!!
As for the mountain of ideas you have i have a suggestion; get a program called “Wunderlist” on both your phone and desktop. it is an idea and task management program and it will help you bury related ideas “inside” other lists and keep track of them all. then, once you have them in there, walk away from them. give yourself time and space to let the ideas fight for priority and affection away from your day to day life. soon certain ones will rise to the surface becoming something powerful enough to pend your time on and those will go places. other projects that seem go no where may eventually get broken down and feed to other stories as fuel. it is a great way to think of it.
For me it did one important thing, it cleared my path. it got rid of clutter and allowed me to face my day without the stress of carrying all of the details in my head. you will he more productive! listen to the older podcast through this site titled “time management tips” if you havent already and that will help too!
Best to yall!!!
Oh Captain, my Captain! *stands on desk*
Thanks for the reply… I will check into Wunderlist *writing that down* boy do I ever need a time manager! It’s been so long since I published anything (last comic 2004) that now there are so many wonderful “toys” and programs to help make creating/publishing easier!
I’ll have to say this… I LOVE this site!!! Now if only you all could fit into my pocket… oh the ventures we could have! Oh not to worry… I have TWO pockets… one fer da boyz and ONE for the gals!
I use Illustrator. But I actually learned Illustrator inside and out before I was any good at Painter (or Photoshop or Sketchbook). You might say Illustrator was my first software love… so I still prefer it for lettering.
One thing that made it even easier for me was Scott McCloud’s tutorial on youtube” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhsqRjBehmw
Still, I found a lot of stuff in this tutorial that is helpful to keep in mind when using Illustrator 🙂
Well… I take back a little bit of what I said. After actually playing around with Comic Life, I realized it IS faster 😛 WAAAAYYYYY faster ha ha XD
HA! I’m glad you tried it. 🙂
Thanks Lora for the excellent video. I am always looking for ways to streamline my comic making process. This may very well come in handy!
Try it out and let us know what you think!
I’m convinced. That was a great tutorial. The fact that it center justifies for you and you can automatically ad extensions had me geeking out. I can’t wait to use it!
As always, thanks for the awesome material.
Just wait till you play around with it. It’s all so easy. I love the way the text centers and adjusts as you manipulate the balloon!
Lora, I am sending you a huge digital hug right now!!! This was great and so much easier than InDesign!!! I downloaded the trial version and i am mocking up the roughs to Kodi’s second short story with it already. i will do like you said and work this into the roughs stage to make it easier to correct things. i will let you know how it goes, thank you thank you thank you!!!
I would just like to take this moment to say it’s cool to see how other artists do their scripts.
Did you read this article Chris wrote awhile back? http://www.paperwingspodcast.com/2012/02/how-to-write-a-comic-book-script/
Hey!
Sorry I couldn’t write before about this. This was a great tutorial! Even if I had try some of the things myself before I was wondering how you did arrow-less panels. I also love the styles bit. I had overlooked it.
Two pieces of advice for those who wanna try Comic Life first time:
1) If you can, use Mac. The Windows version is not good.
2) In Mac, if you press alt and then the arrows you change the kerning (space in between letters). Up and down changes space in between lines, left and right in between letters.
Hi, Lora,
I’m actually approaching this as a writer working with an artist who has provided me with finished pages to letter. (Fortunately, he was very good at giving me the right amount space for bubbles!)
I noticed that you went back to Photoshop to finish the page. Do you recommend having Photoshop or IIllustrator to do your finishing work, or can it be done reasonably well enough on Comic LIfe alone if the art is in its final form?
Well you can’t export from Comic Life into vector art. Which is why I put it into Photoshop. If he’s lettering in Illustrator he won’t have to jump back and forth. It’s one of the limits of the Comic Life program.
When i letter in PS what i do is use a layer for bubbles
Set your word bubble layer above your art but below your text.
Create new layer and double click on it to have the layer style menu to pop up
under the styles menu click on the color overlay menu and choose white this will fill your shapes with white for text overlay
Under drop shadow, change the angle to 90
then just add a tail with the pen tool
Then merge the layers together.
By following Lora’s great tut, I made sure that ComicLife’s prefs were set not to store the image in the file, so when the ComicLife file is opened, it’ll refresh the images. But the cool thing is that if you’re using Sketchbook Pro, you can save the SBP files as a layered TIFF file, follow Lora’s instructions (modifying them for SBP, import the file and set the composting mode to Multiply — SBP doesn’t have a magic wand, but that’s no matter, as I’ll explain in a bit). Now that you know where the text is, you can finish the drawing/inking/coloring. When you’re all done with the art, either hide or delete the text layer and save the file. The text layer isn’t needed, as we’ll be going back to Comic life…
Go into ComicLife and open your comicLife file. Ba-Bing, all the art work should now reflect the state you saved them in SBP. Now it’s just a matter of fine-tuning the text, and you can export the comic from within ComicLife as image files (JPG, PNG or TIFF) as a PDF (I don’t know if this is a Mac only thing or not) or as a CBZ file.
One more thing, Comic LIfe can open Photoshop files but some features of PS can make ComicLife display the graphic a bit badly, so make a composite layer and put that on top and hide the other layers — what ComicLife can’t see, it ignores. So if you save the file in Painter as a PDF, ComicLife should be cool with it.
It’s critical that your directory/folder structure doesn’t change after you’ve created your ComicLife file. Moving the Comic Image folder will break the links that the ComicLife file has, so you’ll have to re-import the comic art pages back into ComicLife.
One more thing, comicLife doesn’t have layers — but it can put things above or below other things. This means that you can have the comic art below everything, then the text above that. And here’s where it can get good, You can make a Panel layout, with the gutters filled with white and just export that layer as a PNG with settings set to “Millions of Colors +” or some such variation of that. Now in Comic Life, just drag and drop the image (exactly like how the Comic art orginally was imported into Comic Life) and this filled-in-gutter paneled page should be on top. this will cut off any balloons and tidy up your page a bit. BTW, Sketchbook Pro can export PNGs with transparency, just make sure the SBP prefs are set to show “Transparent Background.”
whew.
Hope this was understandable, if not I can do a video tut in a few days if anybody wants.
Great first part of the tutorial. The info about having the book template in mind even if its only a web comic at this time was a good word of caution. I don’t want to end up re-doing hundreds of pages down the road. I also love the photoshop (or in my case, the Gimp) layers aspect for panels on top of pages. Great advice. And finally, the method of scanning the pre-inked drawings for the word balloon placement might be something I need to try.
The rest of the tutorial involving comic life, however, was irrelevant for what I want to accomplish. I really don’t want to use computer-rendered word balloons. I want those boxes and balloons to match my drawing style, not Comic Life’s. But here’s the catch: I DO want computer-rendered text in my hand-drawn balloons. So how about it? Does anyone have a method? I really don’t want to handwrite my letters, but I don’t want computer-rendered boxes and balloons either. My desire for the hand-drawn balloon with computer-typed text may be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, but if anyone has a technique, I’d love to hear it.
If you select a word balloon in Comic Life and copy it, and then go to Photoshop and paste it, it will paste as a vector smart object. Same with sound effects. Not sure how much help that may be, but it is an interesting feature.
Thank you for this great tutorial! Helped me out in a pinch! You’re awesome!