How to write a short comic
Sebastian Hermida
on
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Why not have a short comic explaining how to write your own short comic?
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Meta! I know, right!?
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Before I start, let's get the big questions out of the way.
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You don't need to have amazing drawing skills to make a comic.
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Look at me...
I am just simple shapes combined together.
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The crucial part of the comic is the story.
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If you have a story...
You have half a comic.
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The more details you remove from your drawings, the more people can relate to it.
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Few people relate to this guy.
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More people can relate now.
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A lot more people relate to this.
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Whatever your heart wants.
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People seem to relate to stories with a struggle to conquer.
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Or a trip to take from point A to point B.
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Or a hero in the making.
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I don't know if there is a universal process, but I'll explain how I do it..
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I start with a text editor.
I write the down the text that you are currently reading. Like a movie script.
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I open some software to draw. You can use whatever tool you prefer.
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I create an individual artboard where I copy and paste each line of my script.
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Then it's time to choose colors.
I search color palettes for inspiration.
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Then I draw characters. They are super simple.
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Don't overthink their personalities and expressions. You'll figure it out as you go.
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The goal is to complete a first pass at the story as fast as possible.
Keep using simple shapes.
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And slowly come back to each artboard to fill in the gaps.
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As I focus on each artboard, I think: What I can do here to emphasize the story? Can I animate this? But I try do not overdo it.
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I export each artboard in SVG.
SVG are awesome!
I can animate the comic with CSS. -
SVG look always crisp and are very small in size. They don't take forever to load on a page with 30+ drawings on it.
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And that's pretty much it. All you need is a story with simple shapes.
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That's how we started. We first made a comic called How DNS works
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Which introduced these two characters.
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Then we made a story about the first one: Trusty.
Oh this has just begun.
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Now go make your very own short comic!
Sebastian Hermida
Appreciates the finest things in life: clean code, good illustrations and carrot juice. Someday he will run a marathon.
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