Professional Comic Book Foundation Course : Lighting, Lettering, Effects and Covers

Join us for the continuation for foundational webinars to assist you in producing your comic. This time we’re focusing on special effects, lighting, lettering and comic book covers. Presented by Drew Spence, the creator of the Force Six Annihilators comic series.

This foundation comic creation course is perfect if you are wondering of HOW to be most effective when dealing with lettering (speech bubbles), lighting your scenes within DAZ Studio, adding special effects and postwork to enhance your story panels and creating effective comic book covers.

PART 1 : Saturday the 22nd of September

Commences 20:00 BST (London)/15:00 EDT (New York)/12:00 PDT (Los Angeles)

Duration: 1.5-2 hours

The comic foundational course continues with Post Work and Special Effects. We’ll explore the four types of post-render tasks and a multitude of systems and techniques to enhance your artwork. Everything from the subtle to the sublime will be covered in great detail. As always, we’ll cover your best options from the Daz Store and explore what’s available, across all the platforms, and many free options.  Drew Spence will add a conceptual approach so that the lessons from today will remain relevant for years to come. The course includes:

– Fixes for repair and the many ways to save a “bad” render.

Find a few options to save and salvage your work – without the time-consuming re-render option. We always say -tuck it away and keep it in play.

– Enhance and Elevate

Add to the fine work done by the talented Published Artists and create your own look after the render is completed. We’ll show creative ways to edit every aspect of your images to fully encompass your sensibilities and artistic vision. That’s a fancy way of saying make some of their stuff look better.

– Envision your Environment

Generate your backdrops from scratch and take total control of your environment.  Create your own camera effects, after the render, and add a dramatic sense to any image. We’ll present new products to create everything from inner space to outer space.

– Find fine details in the Frame.

Frame your work and add artistic touches. We’ll cover numerous ways to add a signature style to your projects and create your own tone.

– Special Effects

Whether you are concerned with magic, action or nature, we’ll explore the many ways to create special effects in your Daz Studio interface and take the look to the next level in post. We’ll cover the must-have products that will enable your renders to contain all the energy and power they deserve.

– Lighting Effects and Helpers

Enjoy creating stepped-up renders that set-up your post work enhancements with creative techniques that take full advantage of our comic sensibilities. Push your dramatic lighting to max in Daz and in post. We’ll break a few rules and create a set of options to push the boundaries of the iray engine. We’ll actually- we do a little bit of cheating to get around long rendering times.

PART 2 : Sunday 23rd of September

Commences 20:00 BST (London)/15:00 EDT (New York)/12:00 PDT (Los Angeles)

Duration: 1.5 -2 hours

Drew Spence and Digital Art Live present the fourth and final segment of the Comic Book Foundation course. A picture says a thousand words as we look at the usage of text in our work and break down the first impression, which is our cover art. Paul Bussey commissions the exploration of the total comic package. We will discover why words are more than words and how your character-driven dialogue becomes the greatest vehicle to the gaining long term interest from your readership. This course will cover:

– Dialogue and Text

We discuss the basic rules of sentence structure for comics – from grammar to grabbing attention. It’s about comic book fonts and laying out your speech. We’ll cover the norms and conventions, but still leave room for creative expression.

– Word balloons and encasing text.

After we cover their creation and placement, we explore the many programs and options and then tie it all back to planning the Daz Studio render. It’s the pulse and pace, using panels, paragraphs and pages to push and pull your readers along.

– Titles

What’s in a name? We’ll talk about word association and why what you say must match what you mean when it comes to comic and sequential art. We explore why a title remains something you earn.

 -Logos

Take your title and turn it into a head-turning logo that will stand out. We will explore the link between the words you choose and the shape of words and how that matters in the creation of your comic title. We will explore creative options that move your title and logo beyond fonts and phrases.

– Covering your Cover

Drew Spence will present most important concepts behind cover design and why this first impression of your series is so important. You’ll learn to tell your full story in one image and deliver on your promises.

– Publishing and pushing

As a special bonus, the Comic Foundation Course will send you on your way to self-publishing your title and list the many options for presenting your work in a commercial capacity. We will arm you with the concept of Arms and give you the tools you need to share your work and allow your releases to garner the attention they deserve.

Along with a technical how-to approach, this course deals with higher concepts so that the lessons you resources you gain today will remain relevant and useful for the rest of your creative career. The Comic Book Foundation course is commissioned by Paul Bussey for Digital Art Live and created by Drew Spence from the Dynamic Universe. Thank you for attending and being part of this creative journey

About the Presenter Drew Spence