This video is gonna feature 10 things I wish
I knew before starting work on both my webseries
and my webcomics!
OH and, Stick around til the end, the last
tip especially changed my life as a creator.
hello hello this is puddle- welcome back!!
If you're new and wanna follow along for more
videos and project announcements- like, sub,
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1.
OUTLINE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE
The whole story doesn't have to be scripted,
but definitely have an outline in order!
If you're one of those creators that works
page by page without a plan in mind for the
late-story,
you're gonna eventually feel like you wrote
yourself into a corner.
and when you do that, you lose drive to work
on your series.
This happened to me with Street Magic.
I drew the first 10 pages in one night without
ANY plan at all.
I didn't even have bubbles or text planned-
I slapped that on after!
Which means I had to spend a lot of time making
every element from the beginning MATTER to
the overall story later.
that's harder to do when you're working in
this order!
2.
PACING**
Some advice I picked up later to improve pacing
is to use Action and Problems to speed things
up,
and use Dialogue and Rest to slow things down.
An excellent time to use dialogue and rest
your story between action is while your characters
are eating.
That's a ghibli tip for you.
Jibbly?
Gibbly?
I swear no matter how I pronounce it I'm corrected.
How do you pronounce studio ghibli?
3.
SIMPLIFY YOUR CHARACTERS
I lucked out.
I drew Barsa in her big stupid cape from the
beginning so I can get out of drawing her
whole outfit every panel.
If you wanna get Jojo levels of detailed,
be my guest-
but remember you're gonna have to figure out
how to shorthand those designs at some point.
You gotta learn which corners to cut sometimes.
If you put max effort into every panel, shot,
animated element, et cetera,
it's gonna take you forever to make by yourself.
which leads me to my next point:
4.
CONSIDER THE SCALE.
AND CONSIDER IT AGAIN.
OK chances are your story is too big.
Too too too big.
I know I told you to outline it-
maybe also consider giving yourself a limitation
on that outline.
See if you can tell the story in as few parts
as possible.
Follow a story plot chart if you need help.
I do!
Maybe drop a subplot.
Kill off a character you can't find a use
for in ACT III.
And if you can't bear to cut it down any further?
5.
MAYBE.
DON'T DO IT ALL YOURSELF?
I'm a hypocrite and a fool since I make pretty
much all my projects by myself,
but like I said- if you can't bear cutting
corners and you want to FINISH this thing,
that's the key point- you wanna be able to
finish it! you might need to hire someone.
If backgrounds are taking you forever, consider
hiring a background artist.
If you love storyboarding the project but
editing and sound production is a mystery
to you-
you see where I'm going with this.
you could hire sombody.
It also means you're featuring other creators
on this project!
again stick around because the next 5 things
are really big and important and 10 changed
the game for me —
buuuuuut hey real quick i'm not sponsored
i'll be fast-
I'm also in the process of making Living with
a monster available to read entirely on my
website!
The first 3 episodes are already up.
You can follow LWAM, as well as all of my
other projects on my mailing list.
all my uploads, comics, demos, secret projects-
and of course it's totally free to follow.
it's like a special little pack of surprises
every time!
also youtube makes me say it twice: LIKE SUB
BELL!!
ok back to the video!
6.
WALK AWAY
In the rush of meeting my own self-imposed
deadlines
I often end up making obvious mistakes that
still eat me up inside.
Lookit- missing earring, missing earring.
hoodie strap: where is it??
that doesn't even go there!
whenever I notice this stuff I can't help
but get irritated at myself:
like come on, past puddle! are you even CHECKING
THESE PAGES?
and I mean.
I am? but I'm not.
I'm spending x amount of hours on each page,
panel, shot, what-have-you—
and then I'm missing the forest for the trees.
I've had my nose in it so closely for so long
that I don't notice all the errors every single
time!
which is why it's important between the stages
of FINISHING the thing and EXPORTING to SHARE
the thing,
TAKE A BREAK.
WALK AWAY.
yes LITERALLY LEAVE IT.
go get some water, walk around, and stretch
your dang wrists!
I KNOW I sound old I don't care JUST DO IT
IT'S GOOD FOR YOU
and when you come back, that missing earring
or hoodie strap is gonna slap you in the face.
and ykno what? you'll fix it before uploading.
and you'll also be hydrated.
win win.
7.
IF YOU'RE DOING THE ART: EXPECT YOUR STYLE
TO CHANGE.
A LOT.
GET USED TO IT.
DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR IT. AND IF ANYTHING,
IT'S INSPIRING TO OTHER ARTISTS.
EVEN IF YOU'RE TEMPTED TO GO BACK AND FIX
OLD PAGES, REMEMBER THAT.
EVERYONE MAKING THESE KINDS OF PROJECTS IS
ON THEIR OWN ART JOURNEY,
AND THAT INCLUDES YOU!
BUT I UNDERSTAND IF YOU WANNA FIX SOME STUFF
IT'S OK.
LIKE, NO ONE'S GONNA STOP YOU.
BUT THAT'S TIME THAT KEEPS YOU FROM WORKING
FORWARD AND GETTING THE PROJECT DONE.
8.
I KNOW YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF HAVING
A BACKLOG OF CONTENT AS A BUFFER.
but I've had a lot more success with getting
work on my series done by doing it in phases.
every episode of living with a monster goes
BULLET, THEN SCRIPT
PAGE SETUP, THEN PANEL SETUP
VALUE THUMBS, TEXT PLANNING
BUBBLES, THEN TYPOGRAPHY
SKETCH, VALUE ADJUSTING
BACKGROUNDS, FOREGROUNDS
ZINE THEN CHATLOGS (my episodes sometimes
contain those)
LINEART, FACES, THEN LINE POLISH/CLEANUP
CHARACTER FLATS, OCCLUSION SHADING
WALK AWAY AND CHECK
EXPORT, CONVERT TO SITE DIMENSIONS
SCHEDULE TO PLATFORM
I will do an entire episode's sketch before
I move onto inking.
I will do the entire inking stage before moving
onto flats.
For Street Magic, I do this for the whole
chapter.
Ykno how I just said your art style is gonna
shift as you go?
And how that's unavoidable?
Yeah.
This at least keeps an entire episode or chapter
looking semi-consistent
and the work goes by a lot faster when you're
not forced to switch ART MODES constantly.
9.
ohhh I'm gonna say it.
BE YOUR BIGGEST FAN.
If there's a part of you that keeps going
"ugh this sucks" while you're working on it,
give the microphone instead to the 10 year
old fan inside of you that REALLY loved a
certain story or cartoon or game or book series
growing up.
Try to get that inner child excited about
your project the same way.
if that means making indulgent fanart of your
own property
or gushing about it relentlessly to your friends,
so be it.
Your friends should be happy for you, anyway.
10.
MY BIGGEST TIP : BURNOUT IS DUMB.
Yeah I said it, who wants to go?
I used to be one of those people who would
stay up late into the night to finish the
page or shot I'm working on.
or a whole video.
I would forgo getting enough sleep, sunlight,
or even water.
I did this because the idea of being a GOOD
WORKER was synonymous with being a HARD WORKER.
and I thought a HARD WORKER focus zoned and
never took breaks or got enough sleep.
I fell for a glamorized depiction of what
it means to be an overworked artist.
And during that time I also had terrible output
for weeks at a time when I would inevitably
crash afterwards.
and I would hit myself with guilt over why
I wasn't getting enough done!
I'd also have huge art blocks where I couldn't
stand my work as soon as I put the first few
lines down.
I could work for hours and hours, but I dreaded
starting work.
Yknow what helped me out a ton with that?
Setting and sticking to a time schedule.
Not only did setting schedules have me going
to sleep consistently and feeling more rested,
but I was also THRIVING once I set and committed
to work hours.
Y'kno when you're almost- ALMOST done and
you gotta make dinner or walk the dog or answer
the phone or WHATEVER-
but you're ALMOST DONE.
JUST ANOTHER COUPLE MINUTES, RIGHT?
GUESS WHAT BUCKO THAT TIME ADDS UP AND BEFORE
YOU KNOW IT
YOU'VE BEEN WIGGLIN IN YOUR CHAIR FOR AN HOUR
BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO PEE AND
YOU DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE THE ZONE YOU WERE
IN.
I'm gonna tell you something that goes against
that urge to keep working and you're likely
gonna go
"yeah ok" and then not implement it because
I SURE DIDN'T but if you wanna prevent art
block?
If you want to prevent burnout?
THIS IS THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU:
SET A TIMER or SET YOUR WORKING HOURS
TO MAKE YOURSELF STOP WORKING WHEN TIME IS
UP.
Actually STOP while you you're still enjoying
it.
If you need to make a note on where you left
off- do it.
But stop as soon as the timer tells you to.
If you're like me, SET ALARMS if you have
to, I DO.
It's life changing I promise: because you'll
start looking forward to the next chance you
get to work on your project again!
And in the time that you aren't working on
it?
That's GUILT FREE TIME TO RELAX AND HAVE FUN.
and that's priceless.
you're giving yourself peace of mind to not
always work on your project!
"oh I wanna doodle right now and it's not
during my work hours.."
GUILT.
FREE.
that's my biggest tip!
big thanks to my patrons! check out my other
vids if you get the chance!
I have a completed webseries and also make
webcomics and music!
Links to everything below and on my website!
Maybe sign up for my mailing list if you can!
thank you for being so supportive and thank
you for listening.
take care!
and I'll see you next week!
