Yale Stewart

Behind The Scenes, pt. 3.1 - Thumbnails, cont.

Added 2017-09-18 19:18:03 +0000 UTC

Apologies for the delay, everyone. Trying to nail down how to explain thumbnails is a lot trickier than I thought, since for me it tends to involve a lot of concurrent trains of though, and it's quite hard to figure out which one is arriving at the station first, so to speak. The reason I've taken the route to describe my process is as follows:

Step 1: Design panels as thumbnails.

Step 2: Try to make a coherent page layout with using panels created in Step 1. If there are logistical issues (size, pacing, aesthetic, etc), I then proceed to Step 1A to make adjustments.

Step 1A: Revisit thumbnails to make adjustments as necessary, repeat Step 2.

And from there I could theoretically cycle back and forth and back and forth until I finally settle on something that works. Generally, I manage to arrive at thumbnails and page layouts that I'm fairly happy with on either the first or second pass. It's pretty rare that I have to go through more than one series of revisions, but it does become common on longer projects, like JL8 #200, for example.

Anyway, as stated in the above image, the next update will take a look at my individual thumbnails and break down how the scribbles translate into a finished panel as I attempt to explain my thoughts on shot composition, readability, pacing, and other important elements that go into designing panels.

Thanks so much for reading!