Tutorial: Comic Panels

Panel setup is a really difficult thing for us photo manipulators. As we don't draw our own material, we're slaves to how the photographer originally shoots the subject. With this lack of control we have more constrains in terms of setting up the panels. We need to setup our panels based on the source material, rather than setting up the panels and then drawing the material on top.

With that in mind, I'll take a fairly different approach to panel setups. Here's what I learn from working on The Taming.

There're 3 stages to my panel setup in The Taming:

1. Initial layout
2. Panel setup & speech bubbles
3. Photo manipulation

I choose to do step 3 last because I never know what works and what doesn't until after the speech bubbles are in. I've had to change my source images multiple times because the material just didn't work. You may not have this issue, and by all means you should do the photo manipulations first to simplify things.

There're also 3 components to my panel setups:

• Panel Borders
• Group mask
• Base image(s)

You can actually get away with 1 component a lot of the times if you choose to manipulate the base image first, and use a Vector Mask to create the effect. However for more fancy effects such as speech bubble overlaps with subject in picture, you'll need all 3 components.

Anyways, enough theory, let's get physical.

Stage 1 - Initial Layout

Start by setting up your document. Note: You should consider the resolution of your base images when choosing your document size. Bear in mind you'll likely reduce the base images to fit onto the page which allows for larger documents, however if you intend to do full page spreads - it may result in a blurry finished product.

I'm using my template for the previous pages, with some Guides and Collaterals setup already. I've also got 3 Groups setup in my Layers Pane, where I'll be storing my individual elements. They're not compulsory, and I sometimes put dialogues in the Panels group anyway for layer dependent effects.

For my document, I chose 30px margins between panels (and edge of page), yours will depend on your document size. To create the guides easily, simply use a Fixed Size Rectangle Marquee Tool, snap it to the edge of document and drag a guide from your document ruler to the document.

We now have some guides to help us keep the page elements tidy. Let's start Placing (File > Place) some base images. In Photoshop CS5 (I can't recall for previous versions) placed images are automatically converted to smart objects. This is ideal as we'll likely be resizing the images a lot during our panel layouts. If they're not automatically converted to smart objects, do so now to make sure you don't lose image quality later.

I've put all my base images in the Panels group and started resizing them to give me a general feel of the page. Remember to hold the Shift key to maintain image aspect ratio when resizing!

Next, we need to start cleaning up the images, cropping out unwanted areas and what not. As a preacher of non-destructive photo-editing, I'm going to teach you how to do this without deleting any of your base images. We'll be using Vector Masks.

Start by creating a Vector Mask for your base image. You can do this through Layer > Vector Mask > Reveal All, or go to the Masks Pane and click on Add a vector mask.

Next, we'll use the Shape Tool to create the actual Masked area. Select the Vector Mask on your base image, pick up the Shape Tool, make sure you're in Paths mode and draw a rectangle around the base image.

Rinse and repeat to all base images until we're happy. At this stage, we don't need to be super accurate. We'll tidy things up in the next stage.

Stage 2 - Panel Setup

Now that we have the general setup ready, we'll properly format our document into a panel comic.

Let's start by giving our panels strokes so we can finalise our layout. We want to get this stage right first as it'll reduce the amount of work later should we change our minds.

Similar to speech bubbles, I choose Center Stroke, and I've used 6px in my document - you may find other settings more appropriate.

Next we'll unlink the vector masks to the layers. This allows us to move the base image independent of the vector mask, meaning it won't mess up the alignment of the panels if you want to reposition the images.

To resize or reposition the panel itself, click on the Vector Mask first and press Ctrl + T to transform the Vector Mask.

Use additional Guides to help you get the right panel setup until you're happy with the results.

Now we've basically got our panel setups done, and if you started off with manipulated images, you can probably finish at this step. However, as I have yet to edit the base images, I need to start breaking my panels down into different components.

To keep my panel independence (which will allow me to do additional effects to each panel), I'm going to create the 3 components for each panel. Let's start by creating the Group mask first since it's the easiest. Click on your base image and press Ctrl + G to create a layer group.

Next, drag your Vector Mask from your base image into the group.

By transferring the Vector Mask onto the group, it gives us the same freedom as before when we unlinked the Vector Mask, but we can now apply more effects on the layer within the group!

The problem now is, the strokes will no longer be bound to the vector mask, but the base image itself.

Unfortunately we can't apply styles to Groups (not as of CS5) so we'll create a border on top. We can achieve this using a Shape Layer with 0% fill and Stroke Style applied. Since Shape Layers are actually Filled Layers with a Vector Mask applied, we can do this step very easily:

Create a shape layer (any shape) above the panel Group:

While holding down the Alt key, drag and drop the Group's Vector Mask onto the Shape Layer.

The Alt key basically make you copy the object you've dragged in the Layer Pane (it works in many other places in Photoshop such as paths), so when you drop the mask onto the shape layer, you're saying "Copy my Group mask, paste it onto the Shape Layer".

Now what we've done is basically covered up our panel exactly with a shape layer - not very helpful at all. We need to make the shape invisible, but give it a visible Stroke Style. This is where I teach you the difference between Opacity and Fill in Photoshop which has baffled many.

First, let's drag the stroke style from our Base Image onto the Shape Layer (don't hold Alt this time).

This replaces the original stroke effect I had on the Shape Layer, to the setting that I want.

Next, bring the Shape Layer's Fill Percentage down to 0.

The difference between Fill and Opacity is that Opacity affects Styles applied to the Layer; Fill does not. So in most cases Fill and Opacity setting gives the same effect, but whilst we have the Stroke Style applied to the Shape Layer, 0 Opacity will remove the stroke; 0 Fill will not:

Now we basically have our 3 components ready for this panel:

• Panel Border - on Shape Layer
• Group Mask - on Group
• Base image(s) - inside Group

To maintain the relationship between the Panel Border and the Group - either link the layers together, or group the whole thing together now. Rinse and repeat for other panels to finish the panel setup.

Tip: Alt drag the shape layer to quickly create the additional shape layers.

Stage 3 - Base images manipulation

Now I'm going to show you some of the things you can do with this setup.

First of all, I need to apply a blue filter to two of my layers to cool down the temperature (I chose to use Overlay for a more dramatic effect instead of Photo Filter), easy, just add a Fill Layer inside the relevant Groups:

Next up, I want to make my panels more dreamy. Let's give them some Blur filters! Since all my base images are already Smart Objects, I can use Smart Filters as well. Smart!

For argument's sake, let's say there's something wrong with the base image, such as a water mark that I want to edit out:

No problem! Double click on the base image's thumbnail will launch the smart object into a new window.

Make you changes and close the document, saving the changes made.

With this setup, you should be able to play with plenty of effects and stay organised. I hope you find it useful, and I hope to see more MC comics out there!