Thought Balloons?

Sss · Post by **Sss** » Thu Nov 14, 2002 10:44 am

Okay how do you make them? I'm talking about the ones that look like clouds now not speech bubbles. Mine just look like crap unless I actually draw them in the comic first. Thanks!

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Fri Nov 15, 2002 12:34 pm

If you tell us what graphics program you're using, we might be able to suggest a method that'll work. If you're using Paintshop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, or GIMP (the last one's free BTW, if you're like a lot of people and can't can't afford the first two) things become much easier.

Reinder · Post by **Reinder** » Fri Nov 15, 2002 3:27 pm

I draw all my balloons in the comic first. What's the problem?

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Fri Nov 22, 2002 5:13 am

Well, making thought bubbles my way, in Paint Shop Pro:
1.make two layers: text and bubbles, both beeing normal, raster layers,
2.type text in the text layer.
3.set the bubbles layer's opacity to 50% (makes it easier, but is not necessary)
4.go to the bubbles layer, select pen tool, set it to +- 25 pixels diameter, 100% hardnes, rgb=#000000
5.draw some clouds, and don't worry, just make sure whole text gets black background. Add some little black circles if it doesn't look cloudy enough.
6.select the whole cloud with the magic wand tool.
(if you have more clouds, or left some holes inside the cloud, you can select everything that is not a cloud by clicking magic wand outside, and then invert the selection)
7.contract the selection by 3 ( 2 or 4 or whatever) pixels,
8.bucketfill it with white.
9.set the layer opacity to 100%

oh yeah, make sure you do everything in greater resolution than the actual image is going to be.

That's how I do it,
I don't claim it's "the way",
but you might want to try it.

Reinder · Post by **Reinder** » Fri Nov 22, 2002 7:33 am

YarpsDat wrote:Well, making thought bubbles my way, in Paint Shop Pro:
1.make two layers: text and bubbles, both beeing normal, raster layers,

Good God, why? It's so much more flexible if you create both text and bubbles as vectors, in vector layers. You can always rasterize later if you need to do non-vector effects with them.

Keeping the text and the bubbles separate is a good idea, though. Keeps things organised.

Kev of the Apocalypse · Sat Nov 23, 2002 9:00 am

I use photoshop and here's my method.

I have the text on a seperate layer by default so that's no problem. Under the text I just use the circle marquee to make the cloud shape. You can hold down shift to add more circles to the original. Then I use edit> fill then edit> stroke on a width of about 2 pixels. Then I just make the little bubbles leading to the head with the circle marquee again. Hope that helps.

Sss · Post by **Sss** » Sat Nov 30, 2002 7:45 pm

Yeah Photoshop is what I 'borrowed' from school! hee! hee!

I just have a hard time drawing free hand on the computer. I was just hoping somebody had some kind of 'saved selection' I could use. Know what I mean?

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Sat Nov 30, 2002 9:12 pm

That'd probably be too inflexable to meet your needs. All you need to do is use the eliptical selection tool a few times. Hold down 'Shift' when you use it to add to the previous selection, and once you've got the right shape, save that.

That way it's your own work, and it's custom built for your comic.

'Borrowing' photoshop's not a good idea. GIMP is almost as good, it's free, and best of all, it's legit.

Kev of the Apocalypse · Sun Dec 01, 2002 7:17 am

Yeah, Seven3, that's pretty much what I said. The elipse is your best friend in this line of "work".

Trying to free hand, even in photoshop, can be disasterous unless you know what you're doing. God knows I don't. Use those marquee's man. That's why they're there.

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Mon Dec 02, 2002 3:06 am

I used to use elitical selection too,
but then I figured I don't really need "real elipses",
I just need that "cloudy thing",
and I find doing something like this:

clickin with magic wand on the outside, and then doing my whole procedure, gives you pretty much the same effect as elipses, but is a lot faster.

BunELovecraft · Post by **BunELovecraft** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 7:38 pm

I must be the only comic artist to use Micrographix! But I use the paint on mask to make my thought bubbles and circle/elipse select for parts of it too. I really don't like thought bubbles... I need to find a better way to do them. I used to do my speech bubbles like stickers, but just masking then filling is much easier to do for me now, more flexible and less space on my zip drive.