Creating a Web Comic on Xtreme

**sallybode** · 02 November 2006, 12:58 AM

You should be able to save as a template and then tell Xtreme which template you want to use.

Or you could do a make from and always have the bottom layers locked as your cells. In otherwords, you save as and just delete the layer with your cartooing on.

**Thatch** · 02 November 2006, 01:02 AM

Let me just be the monkey that throws his wrench into this one....

There are a number of reasons that newspapers have comics in the standard cell format. The biggest being that it allows editors to easily break apart the comic to fit various layouts. As such it as become rather standard practice to create comics this way but the great ones, from Bill Watterson to George Herriman bucked that and created frameworks that added to the comic itself instead of just framing it homogeneous boxes.

You, unlike newspaper comic artists aren't bound by any editors demands. You have no compelling reason to maintain a hard and fast structure to your comic and I would suggest you think about the content of your comic in much broader terms than just making a 3 or 4 panel standard cartoon. Strong action might dictate a sweeping landscape panel, tense emotion might imply a narrow hard vertical layout, you might pass objects from one panel to the other, break the boundary of the panels, layer panels one on top of the other or even do away with panels all together. Point is you should use your layout to help tell your story.

If you are going to have a reoccurring comic and you use a standard template you comics will soon become very similar, very familiar and ultimately very boring for the reader. Think outside the box (or panel in this case).

While I am FAR from an expert on this I do try to play with layouts some. I'm at work and only have a couple of partial works to share as an example of some very simple ways to address sequential art layout. Wish I had some better examples to share.

Good luck,

J

**Egg Bramhill** · 02 November 2006, 01:46 AM

I've never created a comic strip in my life Joe, but your advice is great, not only for cartonists but artists in general. Thank's for that. (Glad to see you're still lurking).

**rpc9943** · 02 November 2006, 05:03 AM

two mandatory books by Scott McCloud
understanding comics
making comics

btw i couldnt believe i didnt ever think of making a FRAME LAYER ABOVE the drawings- you have no idea how hard its been to select every single object and then the frame and do the apply clipview each frame... god...

havent had any time to work on the graphic novel in my head... no time no time no time... but ... www.caveproductions.net > anime kitten is my silly webtoon - never got a chance to use xara on it, unfortunately... unsure where to go from here as an artist but ive been using xara for a lot of my interface design for my online game www.dawnsoft.org

sorry for the shameless plugs

ROnC

**Anders 205** · 02 November 2006, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by Joe Skeesick

Point is you should use your layout to help tell your story...

Love this affirmation. A golden course of action. Thanks for excellent demo, Joe!

Cheers, Anders.

**Thatch** · 02 November 2006, 04:26 PM

Glad to see that what I said made a little sense at least then. (sometimes I wonder) I'm much better at the preaching then I am the practicing.

J

**NeoGreen** · 07 November 2006, 02:25 PM

Wow awesome examples. This has helped me alot.

**TDolce** · 08 November 2006, 05:48 PM

Joe,

What a beautiful example! Thanks for sharing! I agree 100% about the variation of frames for a strip. It can become so lifeless so quickly when you continue to use a concrete template layout for every strip. At the very least,
if using for print, try and mix the frames up in width. Also a tapered line with varying width helps too. I LOVE it too when objects exceed the boundary of the box and lay on top or beyond the framework as often seen in comic books today. Very cool stuff.

td

**Thatch** · 09 November 2006, 03:40 PM

Thanks TD.

It should be noted that repetitive layout can in some cases be the proper vehicle for a cartoon strip. As in the case of Red Meat, a droll comic with a very peculiar feel to it... is benefited by having the repetitive (typically) 3 panel delivery. The monotonous feel of the strip adds to the odd humor. (and example is included below.)

http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/current/index.html

I would suggest however that in most strips that use standard strip delivery this is not the case and repetitive strips are used out of habit and not as a element of the story telling.

j