kudzucataclysm

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"having a crush can make you act a little crazy" fuck that y'all ever made original characters

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literally ripped from the cold and dropped into an active warzone

when it’s so cold at work yur coworker busts out the hand warmers

#cy life #aka. the bowling alley-

[kudzucataclysm]

when it’s so cold at work yur coworker busts out the hand warmers

#cy life #she gave me some :) #how nice. anyway i might be getting let go sooner or later LMAOOOOO

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When you finally won the battle of opening up your WIP to edit but your brain is fighting you on touching the document so you’re in paralysis like

#absolute agony

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not now kitten. daddy’s writing a post for the three people who always give him notes on tumblr

#meeee

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#IM FREEEE #talking and blathering

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no set scale so this is all vibes based really, given how styles differ etc

#i think i’m just okay at it 😅

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no but really, like 

i know that some folks love telling creative people that “you should be doing it for fun because you love it not for the compliments” but creative people thrive on feedback whether it’s critical or just complimentary

so when i write fanfiction and don’t get any actual feedback i feel like i spent all that time and energy doing it for nothing because i’m not getting feedback from the people i wrote it for 

doing something you’re proud of and then presenting it to the sound of utter silence is like the worst feeling on earth 

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#🕳️ #prions r so fascinating guyz

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the problem with having an evil mastermind manipulator oc is that i am not particularly good at being any of those things

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cannot recommend more putting secrets and hints in your creative work that you dont expect anyone to figure out

#HUEHUEHUE

[kudzucataclysm]

Some thoughts about making comics, and how I approach panelling and thumbnailing them

Step 1: Script

Rats squeak and scrounge around on the cold, damp stone floor. There’s a leak in the ceiling, and their wet fur does little to help with the dank, musky smell that permeates the air.

A delicate ear twitches, and the rats scatter—disappearing who knows where.

A door swings open and the dim torch light flickers, “Don’t try any funny business, demon,” a voice spits, accompanied by heavy footfalls that echo through the cold corridor.

“Why,” another voice responds, “I wouldn’t dream of it, darling.” A playful lilt dances its way through the words.

I write my script in prose format, but it really doesn’t matter what it looks like—just that you write one at all! it’s super important!

I read a tweet once, it was aimed at indie game devs:

[link to tweet]

it’s about the common tendency that independant creators have of starting projects, then getting a new idea that seems so much more exciting than the one that’s currently being worked on.

but more than that, it’s the concept that while an idea is there in your head, it’s filled with infinite possibility—there’s so many different things that it could be, because it isn’t anything at all yet.

but when you start working on it, it ceases to have infinite possibility because suddenly, it already is something.

you could not write anything out at all and jump right into drawing a comic. I’ve done this many times before—I’d be like, “it’s only going to be like four pages, I don’t need to write a script for this!”

But, going from idea straight to comic, all those infinite possibilities have to suddenly become…just one. and if you find that you didn’t pick the best possibility for that page or that panel…

take it from me, it’s much harder to rearrange panels you’ve drawn and keep everything fitting on that one page, than it is to rearrange sentences in a text document!

so, I think, it’s important to confront the different ways you could approach an idea as early as possible with the least amount of commitment to one way.

write it down, feel your idea out!!

Step 2: Find your beats

[ID: the script from before, highlighted into 8 different sections.]

this is, obviously, a section from a larger script, but I cut it here because it felt like just enough to fit on one page without being too much.

it ended up being 8 beats which, in my experience, at most on a single page I can only fit about 14 panels. that’s really pushing it though, on average my pages will only have 7-8! this one being 8 hits that nice comfortable zone

I prefer to keep the higher panel counts for high activity pages—the more panels you have, the smaller they have to be and thus the less time readers will be focused on them.

if there’s a lot of high action content happening, lots of smaller panels will create that du-du-du rapid fire high action feel, but if it’s a low action page, having lots of panels might make things feel hectic and rushed when it doesn’t want to be!

too few panels though, and things will feel very slow. I have some pages that only have one to four panels, these are during very slow moments when I want there to be a lingering feeling.

just something to think about when dividing up your script! for me, 8 is a nice average not-too-much is happening without being too slow to progress things.

Step 3: divide the page & arrange your beats

[ID: A comic page has been split into panels, colour coded to match the previously highlighted beats, with the correspondig beats in the matching panels. I explain my thought process for what I will be drawing in these panels.]

so when I’m thumbnailing my comics and figuring out the panel layout, I don’t think of panels as boxes I’m arranging on the page—instead, I’m splitting the page up into sections.

It’s worth bearing in mind, as you read a comic, panels in a row will be read one after the other, but when you go to an entirely new row, your eyes have to go all the way back to the other side of the page.

that means there’s a slight disconnect between the panel on the right side, and the next panel on the left side.

if a series of beats are connected to each other, I try to keep all of them on the same row, and if a beat is not very connected to the other beat before it, I might put its panel onto a new row. I’ll split a panel in half horizontally if they’re directly connected to each other, or if they’re happening at the same time, also!

but, grouping beats together, then dividing the page into rows that can hold these beats together is how I approach panelling a page

for further reading, I recommend picking up scott mccloud’s books “understanding comics” & “making comics”!

he has a lot of very useful things to say about the different types of panels, how the progression of time works in comics, and stuff like that… essential reads for anyone making comics!

Step 4: Thumbnails time babeyyyy

[ID: the final thumbnails for the page]

in writing, the common advice goes “show, don’t tell” this applies to many different aspects of writing, but especially to describing things.

the other advice is to describe using all five senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.

I prefer to write my scripts in prose format one because I grew up reading a lot of books but two because I think this is just as important to do in comics as it is in prose.

of course, we only really have sight and sound to work with, we can’t describe the way something smells or how it tastes because we can only use visuals and the occasional onomatopeia in a comic,

but how you choose to frame your panels will communicate different things.

the dank, musky smell and scent of damp fur may not be something I can tell my readers about in a picture—but if I focus on the puddles on the floor, and show the rats’ wet fur… you’ll feel how dank it is anyway

this is not to say that I think you should write your script in prose—how you write your script is entirely up to you and your personal preferences as I said earlier—what matters is that you write one.

but, while composing the panels in your comic, consider what you’re communicating through them, and whether you’re telling what happens, or if you’re showing your readers what it feels like to be there and what your characters are going through.

It’ll help you compose more interesting pages!

#reference

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literally pointing at my brain with a loaded gun trying to force us to open a fucking word document this is so painful

i really need to like. make a lore doc for this mech thing (or at least a note document) i can’t keep all this shit in my head

#talking and blathering #ITS BEEN 7 HOURS COME THE FUCK ON

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god I fuckign love ocs. my characters. my friend's characters. the characters of mutuals ive never spoken to. the characters of artists ive followed and maybe spoken to a little more. the characters of complete strangers I see in passing and think "aw that's cool". if you have ten fans I am one if you have one fan it is me etc etc. I love you

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i really need to like. make a lore doc for this mech thing (or at least a note document) i can’t keep all this shit in my head

#talking and blathering #AND NAME IT #I NEED TO FUCKING NAME IT OH MY GOD

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#discord bois #friend says i have executive dysfunction #that’s fine. like i’m ever gonna talk to a doctor abt this LMAO

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I know adverbs are controversial, but "said softly" means something different than "whispered" and this is the hill I will die on.