Hi deviants,
I've been a comic book reader and sporadic amateur penciller for about the last 25 years. I've been back into drawing for about a year and well, I'm... almost not awful at it. I'm thinking about making my own comic book and have been researching some of the options out there to make it happen. It looks like I would be able to make backgrounds in Sketchup and finish them off in Photoshop (although if I'm off base about this part too, feel free to tell me).
What concerns me is trying to get the characters drawn into the scenes in a timely fashion. Is there a modeling program that I could use to create my characters, then pose them over my backgrounds? Would I be able to give them a 2D look (you know, a comic book-y look) in Photoshop afterwards? I've read some about Poser software but I'm not sure if that is the right thing. In an ideal world, I would draw everything in myself, but I'm an adult with all the responsibilities and trappings that go with it, so time is sort of limited only in the sense that I would like to be able to make more that two issues a year once I get started.
Any feedback that anyone has would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to hear or see anyone's stuff that has the sort of workflow I'm talking about. Thanks so very much.
Yoop
I've been a comic book reader and sporadic amateur penciller for about the last 25 years. I've been back into drawing for about a year and well, I'm... almost not awful at it. I'm thinking about making my own comic book and have been researching some of the options out there to make it happen. It looks like I would be able to make backgrounds in Sketchup and finish them off in Photoshop (although if I'm off base about this part too, feel free to tell me).
What concerns me is trying to get the characters drawn into the scenes in a timely fashion. Is there a modeling program that I could use to create my characters, then pose them over my backgrounds? Would I be able to give them a 2D look (you know, a comic book-y look) in Photoshop afterwards? I've read some about Poser software but I'm not sure if that is the right thing. In an ideal world, I would draw everything in myself, but I'm an adult with all the responsibilities and trappings that go with it, so time is sort of limited only in the sense that I would like to be able to make more that two issues a year once I get started.
Any feedback that anyone has would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to hear or see anyone's stuff that has the sort of workflow I'm talking about. Thanks so very much.
Yoop
Cool. Thanks a lot for the help guys and gals. I'm new to so much of the digital end of this stuff that almost any information helps. I've got the income tax refund coming and didn't want to buy something only to find out 3 months later that it isn't useful and blindly typing into Google wasn't working. Certainly anything free is going to get a good look first.
Again, I really thank you all for this and would be happy to hear anything else you'd like to share. I need to go post a few questions in the hardware forum next.
Again, I really thank you all for this and would be happy to hear anything else you'd like to share. I need to go post a few questions in the hardware forum next.
I some times use DAZ Studio to pose 3d characters for reference. It's free and its similar to Poser. Might have a tune render feature, I don't know.... I mostly just use it to create reference material. Saves a ton of time though, once you get the hang of doing all the posing.
Manga Studio can import 3D models to use as reference. I have looked into this myself but with background objects instead of characters. Like cars and buildings. One program I have worked with is Metasequoia, a 3D modeling program. There is a free version and is has a built-in toon render feature. To do this with characters you would have to model them and bones to pose them. In fact Metasequoia is one of the main programs used to create models for MikuMikuDance and if you have seen the MMD videos on YouTube many have that toon render look.
You can render 3d models straight into cartoon-ish images. It's appropriately called toon rendering and most 3d apps support it 
Poser would work but you might find it somewhat limited in terms of you making your own stuff. Blender 3d is free but more difficult to learn
Sketchup will work for backgrounds. So will blender.
Poser would work but you might find it somewhat limited in terms of you making your own stuff. Blender 3d is free but more difficult to learn
Sketchup will work for backgrounds. So will blender.