Prepare This Before You Start Your Comic | Webcomics | Webtoon Contest

[@delfi__arts]

A tip for people who are not super confident in their art but are joining the contest: Instead of drawing it panel by panel or even episode by episode, I recommend sketching the entire thing (or at least most of it) before finalizing it. The reason is like what you mentioned with the bike, the more you draw something the better you get, and you're gonna draw a LOT if you're making 120+ panels for the contest. Drawing your characters multiple times is gonna ensure by the time you're done with episode 3 your art is gonna be a lot better than it was in the first couple of panels. If you do that, you get to adjust what you didn't like of your early art without wasting too much time redrawing it or having to present something other than your current best!

[@ndbern42]

A super good tip! I was gonna mention something similar in an upcoming video, but in this one I forgot to say anything about sketching. thanks for filling the gap!

[@HugeFrigginGuy]

Love hearing your thoughts on this. I go in shockingly unprepared when making my comics! No character sheets, no predesigned backgrounds, no assets, just a script, an outline and a prayer. I like to work as much out on the page as possible, and I do fully thumbnail a complete arc before starting, so the ideas are percolating in my head, but most of my visuals are very much pantsed. This is somewhat evident when judging a characters first appearance vs once I've got my reps in. Probably most egregious is my first Nigel comic, I had an almost completely different style in mind from where I ended it, and the whole affair was under 100 panels. That said, I will never be able to understand the headspace of those who can just jump into a comic without planning at all. Truly an impressive feat.

[@ndbern42]

It should count as a high form of art to be a pantser and not let your audience know about it! Takes some guts (and prayers) and of course the magnificent skill to make things seem like life happening- only more interesting and with more magical twists! I mean life is kinda pantsed as well...god or who ever is Steven King but for real life

[@JulieSteam]

I keep changing my mind on the subject of preparation versus actually drawing the comic, it's interesting to have your opinion. On one hand I get impatient with all the prep work required, but on the other I get stuck in the comic when I don't know what the next room is supposed to look like. Prep work is kinda inevitable in the end, but I find it more fun to jump from one to the other regularly

[@Lizozaurus]

This is a great video! When I first wrote my script, I did *no* planning🤣 but now that the story’s fully written and I’m working on the actual book, things are a lot more organized!

[@ndbern42]

Thank you! Sounds like a reasonable amount of planning to me, but I already said that I'm not a good reference haha

[@vonfoxula]

I used to not really plan anything and bcuz of that I constantly ran into plot holes and had to restart many many times… I’ve learned my lesson and am now a huge planner. Whatever planning is needed for an animated series is the amount I plan for my comics/books

[@Jess-wm5js]

Great tips Bern! Preparing my environments is so important for me. I like to model my sets that are going to be used over and over in sketchup. It’s a time saver when I’m actually in the process AND it helps me so much plan my scenes. I have a hard time visualizing how I want scenes to go sometimes. So I’ll pull up my model for the set and move the camera around to get ideas about how I want to shots framed up and what perspectives I want to use. I’ve learned it’s a must do for me.

[@ndbern42]

only saw your comment just now, thank you jess! Wait, are we talking about an actual physical model? if yes what materials are you using? I'm intrigued, that sounds like a great idea.

[@Jess-wm5js]

@ I meant 3D model. 😄 I’m not dedicated enough to make physical ones. That would be cool though!

[@thelemmallama]

I personally don't find it helpful to draw a firm line between "preparation" and "working on the actual comic"; I like to go back and forth between "macro-level" stuff and "micro-level stuff"; e.g. I find it easier to figure out what the setting is by trying to draw out an actual scene, and if I decide on the environment first before drawing the scene it takes place in, I might run into logistical issues and need to go back and tweak the setting a little. I feel like a lot of people get stuck in preparation because there's this perception that preparation and "drawing the actual comic" are discrete, separate stages and once you're "finished" with a stage, you must "move on to the next stage" and you're not allowed to go back and change the things you prepared

[@ndbern42]

I love your interpretation of that preparation hell loop! Sounds very true to me, especially in combination with the fact that many webtoons on canvas are posted when only 3 eps exist

[@daniellaemeline]

I haven't prepared anything for the new contest and maybe I'll do it last minutes 😂 I did better preparation during CTA. I started with the premise and the 3 act structure. I divided the long story into 3 sections, even named the folder as beginning, middle and end, so I don't feel overwhelmed working on my story. 😅 For the characters design, usually I reuse characters I like from my random sketch.

[@ndbern42]

Oh 3 act theory works wonders! but it can also feel really narrow.. and its funny how everything says how they took the CTA contest more seriously than this one, haha

[@daniellaemeline]

​@@ndbern42 I think the 3 act works for shorts story, but might need some adjustment for a long series 😂 It feels like CTA is an eye opener for what to expect in webtoon contest that's might be the reason nobody put extra effort on the new contest 😅😂

[@pantheontalks]

Great video BURN! 🔥 I think preparation is a huge key to success. I’d love to hear your thoughts on your current process.

[@darklordsoma]

Needed this. I already have my script just needed a few more things to confirm. Thanks.

[@skullknight4579]

i don't know why i'm watching htis, i'm litellry 4 chapters into my series lol

[@ndbern42]

lol I get that, I watch videos all the time where I am like, yep, doesn't concern me but I'm still wanna hear what they say. Anyway, thanks for watching the channel!!

[@Gamerponnu]

i have one question, can you please answer mee ........ did we have to submit a complete story or just first 3 or more chapters in the contest

[@benjaminmuratore9341]

Hey Ndbern, or CroakyCrow, or whatever name you'd like to go by, could you please help me with something? It's webtoons related, but not in the same way as the video.

[@ndbern42]

sure, shoot! nd is fine :))

[@benjaminmuratore9341]

@ndbern42 Thank you! :) I didn't expect a reply so soon! So, I've been looking for KZbin channels that review webtoons, particularly bad ones. Specifically bad ones that fall under genres other than romance, which is what larger webtoon channels like Jack vs. Webtoon, Chalupa, and Accel Byzantine tend to focus on. I'm not sure if you're the right person to ask, but are there any webtoon channels you know of that might be what I'm looking for? And if not, do you at least know of someone else who might be able to help? I tried asking some other webtoon channels already, but until now I haven't received a reply.

[@ndbern42]

@bernjaminmuratore9341 No problem, that's actually a very good question! I too watch the channels you mentioned and it's correct that they focus on romance. So I for example used to critique other webtoons other than romance but I stopped doing it because of the following reasons: A webtoon is mostly created by a single person and it felt very mean to critizise them for something that is anything less than e.g. abusive/ harmful or just generally stuff that is very toxic. So that might be the other reason why none of the other guys criticizes webtoons that are not very obviously toxic or harmful. (and romance ones often fall into that category, so I see that this is a thing lol) Pantheon Talks and the Webcomic Hub also critique webtoons from their viewers ant they are not all romance, so you could try them. But other than that, it seems to be a niche that is not taken yet! Were you thinking of any specific genre? Now I'm intrigued to talk about this on my channel ;D

[@benjaminmuratore9341]

@ndbern42 Thanks for getting back to me! I wasn't really thinking of any genre in particular, I just didn't see the harm in covering bad webtoons that fall under stuff like comedy, horror, action, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, thriller, sports, etc. Especially because people cover a variety of genres in other mediums no problem. I'm pretty sure I've heard of the two channels you mentioned, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to give them another chance. There's also Shy Chef, but these days he usually talks about a dozen webtoons in one video, when I'm obviously looking for something a little more focused than that.