Butterfly Kisses Update - Drafting Milestone Reached!

Hello Internet,

YAY~! *happy dance* I've reached a milestone in creating "Butterfly Kisses." As you know, I said I finished the scripts for episodes 2 through 8. Well, as of today, I've finished the initial layouts for all of these scripts. Why is this important? -- it means the end of almost complete uncertainty! A script can only go so far when it comes to the manga media. You still need to know what is in its panel and how big to make the panel and how to put it in a flow that makes sense.

That's not to say that a script is not useful. It has to be step 1. Initial layout is step 2 of the process and helps put down the first layer of solid foundation for the rest of the creation process.

Here's what my document and initial layout looks like.

Layout Example

It's pretty simple, right? That's the advantage to the Webtoons platform - its thin and vertical so keeping it simple works just fine. In traditional manga, you have to do overlays and negative space treatment when you're limited to a ratio. I only do fancy paneling when I want to showcase something super cool.

The blue lines are set as a draft (as noted by the pencil mark in Clip Studio (formerly known as Manga Studio)). Those will not show as long as I have "Draft" unchecked in the output window. The color is light enough for me to do the next step, storyboarding, while not bothering me too much. It saves some time at the end. I use this to give myself enough direction to start with doodling.

What I learned from my previous manga series that I created back in high school was text takes space. That's why the dialogue should be typed up in this layout phase. I can make sure my panels compliment the dialogue boxes. Dialogue is super easy to do, and if there is one thing in my blogs you'll here, if it's easy, just do it. Finishing this easy thing will go a long way towards progressing, but you should finish the boxes as you storyboard just to make sure the images focal points are not covered.

Well that's all for now. Have a good one!

~Rox