I'm a huge fan of this new application called Comic Book Creator by an outfit called Planetwide Games. This application is *dirt* cheap at under 30 bucks, but it can be and is the best, fast simple solution for laying out comic pages really, really fast.
I've been posting on their forums, which they just recently re-launched-you can check them out by googling Comic book Creator or Planetwide Games.
The site looks fairly cheesy, what with odd Marvel comic tie-ins and Nacho libre stuff, but the app itself is very very Powerful!
People who are into CGI/Poser Rendering have already been creating insane comics, because they've been promoting this application on Renderosity. What Im shooting for is a direct snygistic collaboration between CBC and comixpress.com.
The program works tons better than photoshop, illustrator, manga Creator, all of the comic book production apps I've experimented with so far.
It *does* have serious shortcomings, though, and here's the idea I've been trying to illustrate to the devs.
I'm working on them to modify their aspect ratios, though, but I have created a workaround using adobe Illustrator.
What follows is forum posts I just created, and those of you that have actually attempted or successfully printed your own actual comic books will know how cool this feature would be.
If you dont already have CBC, it will make no sense whatsoever to you, but I encourage you to just go buy it.
Professionals will stick to pagemaker, illustrator and may be dismayed by some of it's features, so definitely read the forums and whatnot before i make it sound *too* cool...
*I'm* extremely excited about this though...
My page output when actually making pages has been clocking in at 10 to 30 pages a *day*...
This is not my best tutorial, because it's advanced, it skips past so many of the steps that artists and production planners have to decide. It doesn't address CMYK color separations, pre-publication planning costs, business plans for distribution and marketing, a whole lotta things...
I'm hoping the advanced users will get a feel for what I'm reaching for, and may feel some sympathy.
Hope this helps,
-LB
OK all, here it is...
Download Sized_for_Printing_Templa.cbtx from FileFront!
http://files.filefront.com/6975903
To view this template, you have to install Java and the Template Creator application listed below in these forums.
Once you can actually view the file in TC, you modify the larger panel, and disregard the skinny side placer panels.
So say make a 6 panel page out of the larger panel, whatever you want.
Save it as a new page template, and open CBC.
Place your 6 panels of material using the default CBC, and publish to 300 D.P.I .tiff.
Open using Illustrator,whatever, and crop the skinny panels.
Save as whatever format your publisher requires (I like pdf), and voila!
You just made a *real* comic page, suitable for actual printing in any traditional U.S. formatted comic book.
Guys, go easy on me i know two things.
One, it's not absolutely the perfect dimension, you have to expand it 104 of original size.
Second, is it awkward to have the spacing panels in your templates-yes! As it stands, they have to be there to force the perspective so to speak.
Also, if this seems confusing, realize I'll post some examples of the pages modified in illustrator, etc... so maybe you can see what I'm talking about.
I welcome any comments, modifications, feedback, I'm trying to explain/show the devs what I'm talking about in my feature request posts.
Extra Extra special shout out to the man from M.I.T. who made this mod possible, as well as the CBC creators themselves.
Hope This helps,
-LB
here it is, recieved from the good folks at comixpress.com
Download comiXpressTemplate.ai from FileFront!
http://files.filefront.com/6976081
It is larger download owing to the fact that it is an Adobe Illustrator 12 file, but it does a great job of showing how the margins work, etc...
This is ideally what you're looking to match, and then export into whatever file format your printer requires. It is the industry standard margins and dimensions when looking to actually print a physical, real-world comic book!
The template from the post above matchs up pretty accurately with the Live Area only-It does not address the "bleed" margins, though you could get into those as well possibly by using the "skinny" placer boxes...
Hope this helps
-LB
Download CX_1D_Complete.ai from FileFront!
http://files.filefront.com/6976240
An 11 meg full resolution page in Adobe Illustrator where the Modded CBC Template page has been exported and transposed over an actual printing template for a traditional US comic book.
Umm I believe I may have had to increase the size to 104 percent to get it to line up...
Sorry about the size of the download...
*This* is what my feature request is for.
Ideally, CBC could incorporate these sizes and margins when you make your custom template pages...
Maybe Have 2 aspects ratios, one for web, one for print...
As workarounds go, it's not *that* many steps, and I'll use it for my first graphic novel if I have to, but when I don't have to manully adjust margins and whatnot, I've been approaching 10 to 30 pages *a day* production output.
k that's my "brilliant" idea, hope these posts go further explaining what I've been ranting about Smile
And by the way, my computer is gettin to be a wheezer, so getting a template that was even this close about blew it up, owing to opening TC, then CBC, then adobe Illustrator, then making a slight adjustment, and repeating the process again and again-*sighs*
Have a good day all!
-LB!
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