While working on yesterday’s comic, I figured out something that has been bothering me for some time. The line art in my final render of the strips always seems a bit… fuzzy to me. It never seems as crisp as when I draw it, and it is certainly not as crisp as a lot of the comics I read. As it turns out, it’s because of a shortcut I’ve been using.
Once I’ve finished drawing the comic, I import the panels in to Plasq’s Comic Life to add the framing and word balloons. The problem is, once I export the comic page back out, ever thing is bumped up to a higher resolution than what I drew at, and not surprisingly, things are a bit… fuzzy.
So… I need to stop with the short cut. Comic life is a fine tool, but it’s getting in my way. Now, framing I can do, but word balloons… I’m pretty awful at that. So, I appeal to the ‘net. Send me your favorite word bubble tutorials. It’s time for me to learn a new skill.
This is the tutorial I learned it speech bubbles from, assuming you have photoshop or a similar program with a marquee tool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4pXAxk2mso
The polygonal lasso tool is pretty helpful as well.
Thanks. I’ll go have a looksee!