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Friday, January 6, 2012

Sprite Komic Makers

Soooo much for posting huh? Well Pérez I understand, I don't understand Danny but ohh well gives me more chance on making something stupid irrational xD Soo hmmm were was I? Ahh yeah an old passion of mine :P This time around I want to talk about what we refer to komic makers. So if you are one or are interested in making sprite komics (no, not the beverage Sprite, I'll explain which type of komics later :P) then read on becuz I'm gonna give some basic tips to get started and the experience itself (also some kind of idea on how it would look ;D) so hang tight! I'll take you on a wild ride!!

So what is a komic maker? A komic maker is someone who uses character sprites from any source and make it into something funny/make a story/use your imagination xD This guys pretty much look out for what we call sprites, backgrounds, and then edit and create stuff for a simple view or create a story line and continue down on different parts (what we know as different pages of a single komic) and go on like it as if it were a komic like Green Lantern or something like that :P I'll introduce to some aspects and a little example on each, and I'll try to encourage to follow people who make this type of komic or to make one yourself :D

So for starters, you have to make sure you have a program in which to edit backgrounds, stages or such, you can use Paint. Once you have that covered, look for a basic idea you want to start (for this example, I will use the Underworld Trio in a funny situation xD). Once you have the idea, you have to look pages where you can get sprites/backgrounds (for this example I'll be using MK sprites, so we'll use MK Warehouse :D You can google the sprites you need don't worry ;D) Anyways, once you have that, you're ready to start. I recommend you do the steps as you read the guide so you may get the hang of the idea but don't worry if you just wanna read :)

Okeii, we got a place were to get sprites, backgrounds (BGs) and other props we may need, now let's start!
So first you gotta open your image editing program (Paint). Now, enter the page were you are going to use the sprites/bgs and firstly look for a background to work with. I told you we're gonna use MK Warehouse so here's the link Now, I'm gonna use "The Subway" stage from MK3 for this example but you may use any stage you want :) Now save the image of the stage and open it on the image editor (or copy-paste it the one you prefer). *NOTE* In komic making, we have what we call "slides" which are the practically the BGs where you are working at. I usually work with only 4, also, it's true that you can use any number of slides you wish, but I'd recommend you don't use more than 6-8 or it'll become troublesome. *END NOTE* Okeii, now we got our stage on the program like this:
Now something important, if your going to use the SAME BG for all your slides, then copy and paste that BG  x the number of slides you will work with. If not, then proceed to look for the other BGs your gonna use and arrange them properly as you go on the komic. I usually arrange the BGs and then add the sprites, but you can arrange the slide as you wish and then pass to the next slide, but remember the BG ALWAYS goes first. The same procedure goes with the sprites, copy/paste or save the character sprite and then incorporate it into the comic, as I said, I'll use the Underworld trio for this example, so the sprites I will use will be Scorpion (UMK3 Myself), Reptile (UMK3 Pérez) and Sub-Zero (MK3 Danny). So now look for the sprite your going to use and do the same procedure you used for the background (this case, the 3 chars are walking, so look for the walking animations and procede)... you should have something like this:
*NOTE 2* If you can rip the BGs or the sprites, PERFECT!! I congratulate you!! You can work with that also!! If not don't worry you can google them ;) *END NOTE 2*
Now to give it some life!!

Yeah, now we're going to put some text into it, as komics require reading obviously xD *NOTE 3* There's NO excuse for bad lettering in a komic, nobody will read a komic if it looks like it was written by a preschooler, so check for mispells before anything else *NOTE 3* So well, there are possibly two ways to add text to the comic, you can either do it from paint itself, or you can write the text on a word processor and then print screen and paste in paint and finally crop them out and paste them on paint, whichever the way you want :D Also, you can use different fonts for the characters, you can use any font you like xD Also something else, in the world of komics, it is perfectly fine to have all text in capital letters, becuz some letters like "j" have a little tail that may go out of the word baloon (where the text in a komic goes) and to keep as little space as possible, so to avoid that people write in capital letters (also the great komic makers like Marvel and DC do this ;D). So now I'm gonna add some text to the komic to show you how it would look :
Notice, make sure the word balloons are in chronological order, never put first what is going to be said last, and add the balloon tails in order to know who's speaking. Also have a way of knowing when they are speech balloons or thought balloons!! *NOTE 4* Take into account that in komics that have fighting in them, people are usually mad, and when mad they usually like to shout, so try to look for fonts that reflect the characters personality and make it look like they are shouting accordingly! It makes it more interesting than simple making the letters bigger ;) *END NOTE 4*

This is VERY important for any komic maker so please attention. Consider this something important.... is your joke funny? Is your plot interesting? Be creative!! Don't use other people's jokes or ideas, make your own, but be sure it is funny or is a good plot. *NOTE 5* If you can't idealize a joke or don't have any good idea for a plot, then don't do komics, simple as that. Also, as suggestions, don't EVER make gay jokes, that's immature, and don't steal someone elses jokes, be creative. *END NOTE 5* *NOTE 6* Depending on the sprites, you can take ideas from rare things that happens in the game itself from where you have the sprites (like in MK, you can make a komic based on rare things that happens in games or on the storyline itself, like the multiple times Johnny Cage has died, or the various glitches that occur, be creative!!)*END NOTE 6*

So now you have your word balloons, your sprites, your BGs and all that set and hoping it's funny. You're ready to start wrapping up! First things first something I forgot to explain before. You have to change the transparency effs to other color that isn't white or you may experience problems (like the word balloons being white :P). To do that, on Paint go to the "Select" option and click on the bottom option that appears below, then go to the colors and right-click any color so that to make that color be transparent. Now on the Paint you have the word balloons, paint the background the color you chose to be transparent, select the word balloon, and copy paste it into the comic. Now you can repeat this to finish the slide and for the other slides as well!! And doing so finishes your comic!!

You may want to add sound effects to certain part of your komics that includes action in them, it gives it more life and makes it look more professional. You can look for them over in Google ;)

Now to save your komic, save it as a BMP!! If you save it as a GIF, it may lose a lot of quality :/

Here's more or less how a komic would look ;)

So this is it guys!! Have fun doing komics hoped you enjoyed!!

See ya later Underworlders!!
Meklord Emperor FTW!
Draconic Emperor Ricardo :)

1 comment:

  1. Can you post some more comic examples? Also there are some things I can't pull off... can you help me?