Using Blender for Making Comics 

Happy to hear Aaron. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

That's nice to hear Trav 3dstuff. I've just uploaded the 2nd part of this series which focuses on a view more ways of utilizing Blender for making comics. May it continue to inspire you to create amazing comics of your own. :)

Thanks Drawing Vlog, I’m happy you enjoyed it. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

There are tons of people out there creating amazing 3D assets and selling them. I haven’t come across people yet that are making their assets specifically for comics by for example adding freestyle line art info or grease pencil lines into their assets. I think that might be a bit too specific to the desired style of the creator, but it might nonetheless be an interesting idea to explore at least.

@@artofdavidarroyo if you sold that asset-set setup for comics creators on Blender Market, you would sell thousands of them

Haha... don’t worry about the rambling StellarElite. It seems to be the good kind of rambling that you provide so no worries. Thanks for the kind words and I wish you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

I agree I’m looking to learn how to make backgrounds in a software so I don’t have to draw the backgrounds for every single frame of my comics. But I want to build more fantasy settings like castles, trees, grass, mountains, etc. Basically kind of ghibli style. I’m pretty sure it’s possible nowadays in software and want to learn that. I love fairytale type of stories, so want to learn that. I’ll check out more videos here but I would love to see that if this guy hasn’t done a tutorial like that yet.

You’re welcome Dennis, I’m happy you enjoyed it. 🙂

You’re very welcome Red Glasses Art. I’m happy you enjoy the content. I wish you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

You’re welcome The Architect. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

Thank you for the kind words Ferrosa. I love using blender in my workflow. There are still so many more videos that I want to upload about all of this, including the use of sculpting techniques to use as character references within comics, or indeed the use of the grease pencil to create animated storyboards which could also translate to animated comics. All of these are in the back of my mind, but I’ve entered a moment in my life where finding time is like finding gold dust. It’s very precious and extremely limited at the moment. I look forward to the days that I can upload my content more frequently. Thanks again for the lovely words about my work. I appreciate the love. 😉👍🏻 Wishing you all the best on your creative journey and looking forward to seeing what you come up with as your own project moves forward. 🙂

You're very welcome Sharpmindtech. I'm happy you enjoyed it. :)

Hi @by-Tidorz, I’m happy to hear that you like it. May it help you on your creative journey. Wishing you all the best! 😉👍🏻

Thanks Xcreenplay, I’m pretty sure one day you’ll get to create art just like this and even better if you set your mind to it. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 🙂

It’s my pleasure Shaksa71. I wish you the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

You’re very welcome Earnest. I hope it has managed to help you along your creative journey. Wishing you all the best. 😉👍🏻

It’s my pleasure Jen. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey 🙂

You’re welcome 🙂👍🏻

You’re welcome Dylan. If all goes well and I can find the time, the next video should be about creating scenes with freestyle line art and comic shaders so that the grand majority of the work can be done within Blender. I might also cover the grease pencil in the next video. I’ll see what I can do. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo I'd appreciate it and I'd be liking it all the way. I wish I could do more. I've started drawing lessons as I'm still a student which is greatly helping me. It's slow but it's getting there. If I can make another suggestion for the Greace pencil. If you have time you can make it a step by step follow along. Like how to make your own comic. It could be one of yours. It will be a lot of content and a lot of videos. However, I haven't seen anything on RU-vid that has a step by step guide to comics and I believe you can do it. It will cover character creation, world creation, using blender, shading, texturing and modeling etc. Thus, allowing you to get more exposure and everyone can maybe post their comics on your page with giving credits to you. Imagine 5years from now all 5million views having posted 5million free comics giving credit to you. The exposure will be next level. Think about it. You are one of the few creators who are hands on with their comments and fans and I'm truly a fan and this is helping me and countless others become better everyday.

Thank you for the very kind words dear friend. I most definitely appreciate the positive vibes. I’ll think about your proposal to do a series of tutorial videos as I do agree that I would be a good great idea indeed. It’s something that I would need to plan well in advance and I would have to have the finished page done before ever uploading the first video so that I could show the viewers where it is that we’re going to with these series. I definitely like the idea, but it will require some planning for sure. I might upload a few smaller videos first, while up would prepare for this bigger tutorial series in the background. Also don’t forget that I’m a father of three young children and a concept art teacher who has 80+ students this year divided over 4 classes so it’s safe to say that I’m also pretty busy in that department which means that it will slow down the process of me making these videos. So I’ll think about how to approach it and see what’s the best way of doing this (in terms of time management) but yes... it’s definitely a great idea that I could work on over time. Thanks again for the kind words and support Dylan. I really genuinely appreciate that brother. 😉👊🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Thank you David, have an amazing day. You truly are a superhero and you just motivated me again as I'm writing exams, doing practical and learning to draw. Can't wait for the next video and take your time we'll be here waiting.

I’ll do my best brother 😉👊🏻 Take care and best of luck with your exams. 😉👍🏻

Thanks, I’m happy you like it. 🙂

Muchas gracias hermano. Es un placer poder compartir mi trabajo online. Aún más cuando está bien recibido por la gente que lo ve. 😉👍🏻

Thank you Mario. I’m happy you like it. 🙂

Thanks for the kind words Brandon. As for the thumbs down that some of my videos get… that’s okay… people have the right to express themselves freely and without judgment. They are free to dislike my videos or work. It does not affect me at all, especially when I see the ratio of like videos versus disliked videos. I’m doing pretty well in that department. 😉 As for getting your hands on my 3D assets… you’ll find my email address on my website (can be found in about section here). Send me an email with your request and I’ll see if what I can do.

Thanks Srdjan, I’m happy to hear that you enjoy them. I haven’t given it any thought to be honest with you as I’m very, very busy at the moment, but I will keep it in the back of my mind. The upcoming video will be a continuation of this one with more examples of using Blender to make comics. I’ll also be covering the use of the grease pencil within this process. I wish you all the best on your creative journey 😉👍🏻

I agree, a tutorial about this general shaped models and their rigging would be awesome and very usefull

Go for it Ice Cold. You definitely won’t regret getting into Blender. It’s super useful on all fronts and will increase and improve your productivity and quality across the board. The freestyle line render feature is also something interesting to look into as Blender can render out all the line art you’d need and with the right setup it can really look very professional and as if it were drawn by hand. 😉👍🏻

Hi Hookflash, thanks and that is an amazing question which unfortunately I still don't have an answer for yet. I've been so busy with my concept art course that I haven't had the time yet to look into the line art modifier. On first glance and this is without me trying it out, it seems like a great new tool... on the other hand, I am also very aware of how unbelievably versatile the freestyle line art can be with its own modifiers in the render settings so I'd have to see how far you can push the new line art modifier and how fast it renders vs the freestyle line art. I guess a great thing about the new line art modifier is that you can see the results in realtime in your 3D viewport whereas with freestyle you have to render it out, to see it. Plus, let's not forget that freestyle line render allows you to render as a separate pass which is extremely useful so I still think that it might have a one up on the new modifier, but again... this is me just speculating as I haven't tried the feature yet. Wishing you all the best in your creative journey. :)

Yeah, that’s also an option. You can also use websites like www.mixamo.com where you can even import your own characters to get rigged automatically and use the massive animation library on their website. You can then export it back into Blender and place the characters in your scenes with great looking animations. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Or you can use MakeHuman software for character creation it's free and also have plugin for Blender. And you can use Krita (it's free) for painting by exporting UV of object from Blender and import into Krita (i assume you know that you can paint texture into blender too).

Hi Luke, I understand what you mean. I’m going to try to cover that side of things in my next video. I’ll try to create some comic looking shots entirely in Blender (or at least I’ll push it as far as I can within Blender). It’s true that being able to draw helps a lot when making comics, but at the same time 3D artists make stunning renders without any illustrative effort so it’s definitely a topic that I’m interested in covering. 🙂

I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the video Roy. Wishing you best of luck on your sci-fi comic. 😉👍🏻

Hi MatticArts. Yes, I have definitely worked with importing OBJ’s into CSP and it also works fine. I forgot to mention this in this video, but I’ve covered this in a previous video about CSP on my channel. The lag might have been due to the screen recording, I would need to check it out again. As for the asset library... I’ve been at it for weeks as I have to spread my time a lot. I’m a full time concept art teacher and I also storyboard for movies from Hollywood from time to time so it doesn’t give me much free time to work on the library or even these RU-vid videos. I think you would be able to do it in about 3 days work if you’d work 8h/day. I’m happy you enjoyed the video and I wish you all the best learning Blender. I’m sure you’ll be great at it 😉👍🏻.

That’s a valid point that I very much agree with which is why I don’t always use this method. It’s very useful for generic characters or storyboards. I suggest you draw from imagination when creating main characters or stuff like that.

You could always add Make Human to your pipeline, which let's you quickly create characters with different proportions. These can then be brought into Blender for posing and putting onto your scene. Alternatively you can use the MB Lab add on for Blender, which does the same, but in Blender.

Hi @@queertales, true… you could indeed also use free software like Make Human or Daz Studio. At the time of recording this video I was always creating my own 3D base mesh characters, but I’ve recently invested in the Character Creator software to do all of that work for me. I use it for my comics in combination with ZBrush for characters, but I also use it in other 3D projects like previz. There are plenty of good and free alternatives online that do the same thing, just not as in-depth as character creator. Which in all honesty you really don’t need if it’s just for tracing over which I like to do with as little detail on the 3D as possible so that I can give it that human look and feel with my own brush strokes. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

Yes indeed you can, and I strongly recommend it if you’re working on a project where this would make sense to apply. 😉👍🏻

Hi OscarMemo, I made all 3D models myself within blender and modified them to my specific needs. 😉

Hi Miranda, I wish I had more time to do a tutorial about it. I’ve been swamped with work lately. I’m sure you’ll find similar tutorials online on how to create such libraries. Wishing you all the best. 😉👍🏻

Hi John, sometimes I work with Clip Studio Paint and sometimes I work with Procreate. Most of the time I will use Clip Studio Paint for everything related to line art when I'm making my comics, but for recorded demos it's easier to just use Procreate as it records every brushstroke so I can easily showcase it here on RU-vid. It all really depends on the working method. In some projects I let Blender do about 95% of all the line art for me through Freestyle line rendering. The same goes for the flatting process and in some cases even the colors and lighting. If you want to save time into making comics and have a high quality output, I strongly recommend getting as much out of Blender as possible and then add the finishing touches in your program of choice. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. :)

@@artofdavidarroyo Thanks David. I would love to see more of your videos and the process of using Clip Studio Paint with Blender. I recently upgraded to the EX version of Clip Studio Paint and I'm still learning Blender. But I'm trying find all the best resourceful information for using the two together.

I still use both quite a lot. Sometimes I prefer working in CSP as it is less technical and more about just drawing, and sometimes I prefer the flexibility that Blender gives with its 3D possibilities. I do believe that I’ll end up using Blender within my comics process, but this might still change. I’m still doing lots of tests behind the scenes.

@@artofdavidarroyo thanks for the insight David.

Thanks Jack, I’ll see what I can do with this busy schedule of mine and cook up some tutorials in the near future. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Thanks man, keep inspiring us

I guess I need to watch part.2!! Looks like you’re about to cover most of my questions!! Love it!!

Hi INFINI, I made these assets myself within Blender. I haven’t put them up for sale. I might maybe one day in the future, but it’s not really something I’ve given too much thought. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Oh ok no problem! Can you do more blender tutorial to make comics ? I would really appreciate it

@@ElKibito I love that enthusiasm and I have definitely thought about doing that in the near future. At the moment I am still very busy and won’t be able to add any new tutorials for now, but rest assured… they’ll come eventually. 😉

Hi kv, yeah… I do indeed create the assets in one big file and just organize them one next to the other. I turn on my grid snap so that they easily snap back together when I need to. I hope this information helps you forward. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo thank u 👍

Hi DaFox. If by the background on the left you mean the drawing on my monitor, you can see the making of from minute 14:52 onwards.

@@artofdavidarroyo Well now I'm confused. Guess I skipped it since it was close to the csp part. Sorry about that 😅

No need to say sorry buddy. Happens to the best of us. 😉👍🏻

You can showcase your wireframe at all times through toggling it on through your display menu which is located at the top right of your 3D viewport. Click on it and a window will expand. Somewhere there you’ll see a tick box to enable wireframe. That should do it. Best of luck on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

Hi Bored Trucker, if you mean how long it took me to create the 3D asset library that I’m showcasing in this video? I’d say about a week or so... However, once I’ve created all the assets I need for a particular scene, then it only becomes a matter of minutes before I’ve assembled the pieces together to create my set. Think of it like assembling a Lego set where the majority of the work is already done... all that’s left to do is bring the parts together. So it’s always a bit of an investment to create your asset libraries, but once you’ve got them... your productivity will start going through the roof compared to before. Hope this explanation helps. 🙂

Hi Claudio, realistic renders can work just as well within graphic novels. Because of the traditional illustrative nature of comics, I would prefer to add some illustrative look to realistic renders in order to make it look a bit more traditional. This is something I could for example continue to do within an application such as Photoshop after exporting the render passes from blender. I have a video that covers a bit about this on my channel as well. This is the video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mx-RlsvUrSo.html You can see an example with a bit more realistic style from minute 27 onward. Hopefully this can help you out. 🙂👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Yes, thanks a lot! I prefer realistic aesthetics, but your work is really cool. And nice ocean HDR there, by the way! 😉

@@ClaudioMalagrino thanks. I’m happy to see that you enjoy my work. I wish you all the best on your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

Hi mightybyne, I still do comment on my channel, just not as often as I’d like to lately. I’ve been swamped with work these last few months and hope to get a little more active on my channel again soon. To answer your question… these lines are freestyle line renders. I have a tutorial about this on my channel. Feel free to have a look. Wishing you all the best on your creative journey buddy. I’m sure you’ll do great 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Thank you so much for the reply! I'll check out your tutorial & sub to your channel too :)

Thanks for the sub 🙂🙏🏻

Thanks for sharing Teri, the 3D assets are normally not as laggy as they were in the video (maybe due to screen recording), but it could indeed be that they run smoother on other hardware than mine. The video was recorded on an iMac from 2017 so any new hardware that came afterwards will most likely show better results. 😉👍🏻

That’s a great question Pile333. It’s still possible to use Blender for cartoon style projects. In this case you’ll just need to adapt your 3D modeling style to the art style of your choice. This is similar to what they do when creating animation films. I’m hoping to provide some examples in my next video where more of the work is done within Blender (incl. colors). As for cartoon characters, you can choose to draw them traditionally on top of your 3D environments or you can model and rig them. I hope this helps some what. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo That's the point. In some animation films, I mean 2D films, although 2D actually doesn't even exist any more as we all know, the 3D aid is clearly visible while in some others it is perfectly hidden. That's the difference in the quality of animators and that would be an interesting topic to be explained.

I understand what you mean Pile333. Traditional animation is gradually disappearing, just like traditional comics. I love how they made 2D animation look like 3D within Klaus though... that technology was very impressive. 😉👍🏻

Hi David, yes I do. Always. This is good common practice so that you can share your 3D creations with others. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Thanks :-)

Hi Chariots8x, what you’re looking for are particle simulations in Blender. I know how to make this as I started as as a 3D artist back in 2008 creating that kind of visual effects in movies, but I don’t have any particular videos of it on my RU-vid channel. Once you create a particle simulation that you like in Blender you can always freeze the frame with spacebar en export as an image. This works for fire, water, wind, basically any visual effect that requires a particle system to imitate it. Considering I don’t have any videos on this, I’ll refer you to the following one by Ducky3D: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2bv973aqx-w.html Give this one a try as it explains particle systems quite well. Hopefully this helps. 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Thank you for the info! It's good to know that the spacebar is to freeze the frame. But I might not get the frame that I have in mind right away. What are the best ways to rewind & move forward in order to get the best shot? Sometimes I might want to move slowly because I'm looking for subtle changes. At other times, I want to move fast to get to a more distant part of the animation. I watched the video that you shared and I think it's a good starting point, although kind of basic. It is a little hard to imagine how I would create more complex particles, such as splashing water, swirling flames, and slimy monsters. I wonder how I would shape up the particles to take the form that I'm looking for. Also, if I want to depict particles such as wind, it probably wouldn't be directly visible but it would show up by how it affects characters and the surrounding environment. For example, wind would push the character's hair & clothes according to the direction that it is moving. I wonder how I can portray the indirect effects that elements such as wind have on characters & environments.

Hi Chariots8x, you can move between frames by just scrolling over the timeline in Blender back or forward until you find the exact frame you’d want. In terms of tutorials, yeah... you would definitely need to view more of them as there are many different ways of utilizing particle setups within Blender. Some are specific to liquids, others for fire, etc. You can type in RU-vid for example something like “how to create fire in blender” or “how to create water simulations in blender” and I’m sure you’ll get the right examples that will be able to help you. With water you can mold or direct the flow of it with all kinds of 3D shapes in order to push it in directions you want it go... works for all particles really and you can choose how many you emit and how strong they fly out of the emitters, etc... endless options and opportunities. Have fun I’d say! 😉👍🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo Thanks a lot for the tips! I will try them out. :) I noticed that there aren't really any specific tutorials for what I want but there are some that can possibly be adapted to give me the effect that I'm looking for. Currently, I'm looking at some tutorials to teach me how to make hair & clothes that are flowing in the wind. This would be great for action scenes and dynamic scenes. I couldn't find anything specifically on this topic but I found some that are kind of related, such as creating a flag with wind physics. Maybe it won't be so different when these effects are applied to a character's hair & clothes.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that the tutorials you’ve found will be able to help you move forward. I wish you the best of luck on your creative journey Chariots8x 😉👍🏻

Hi Jay Kay, I might put them up for sale on Gumroad in the future once I’ve got a decent library within them. It would be a small and affordable price for sure. Same goes for the asset library. I’m not sure when this will be done, but it would have to wouldn’t be for the immediate future.

Yeah these would be real cool to have honestly

Hi Haeleigh, I haven’t put these up for sale yet. I might need to add some shaders to them and such if I’d ever do just as an added bonus. Unfortunately I’m always very busy with projects, etc, so that gives me very little time to focus on creating a sellable product like this one. I’ve definitely thought about it, no worries… but it might have to be something I do a little later down the line when I have a bit more time. 😉👍🏻

Yes, this is also true and I cover something similar in the video that follows this one (even though I don't showcase the "drawing the grease pencil on top of the 3D surface" technique in that video, but you are right... this is something that I also could have done within Blender without having to make the jump to Procreate. I think in my case it was just more of a preference to use Procreate for it as I can also use my perspective guides to perfectly draw over the lines.

@@artofdavidarroyo ok, that's cool. Just wondering if it csn be painted in grease pencil just as well as in Procreate and if making the concept art once in 3D is worth going that extra mile in Blender instead of moving to another painting program

@@thecommentschannel3548 that’s a really good question and I guess the answer to that will depend on the look that you’re going for and what the art is to be used for. If you’re looking for art that can be recycled over and over again, I’d always bet on 3D because it gives you the freedom of choosing your angles and such. You can do so much within Blender that staying within the program will actually often be the way forward. If you’re going for a specific look that requires particular brush sets or something that’s more complicated to recreate in 3D, then maybe another program might be a better option (or it might be faster in obtaining the desired result). With that said... I do believe that 3D is the future and with a solid understanding in materials, shading and lighting, you can practically recreate anything within 3D. Sometimes it will just make more sense to do it otherwise, but in theory I do believe we should be able to recreate anything in 3D for sure.

@@artofdavidarroyo Thanks for the in depth answer. One last question, what about using procreate once or twice and then using EBsynth to get the same work done in other angles?

I guess that’s a possibility as well, however I have no experience with working in EBsynth so I can’t really give a valuable answer to that. I’d have to look into that it in order to provide a more educated response. 😉

Hi Guus, you might be right. Thanks for the insight. Wishing you all the best in your creative journey. 😉👍🏻

Yes, that is also a possibility. 🙂

What a crazy concept right? 🤣

Haha, I understand what you mean. I like both worlds. When not using 2D I prefer doing as much as I can by hand without any assisted guides, etc. When using 3D, all of these issues are obviously solved. 🙂

No worries 9 words, then maybe the next video might be more for you as I’m planning on showing strategies where you’ll rely more on the 3D software and less on the illustrative side of things next. I’ve got you covered. 😉👊🏻

@@artofdavidarroyo aww, tysm

That’s a very valid point Will. Ideally we use 3D models as a reference or guide to help us draw say for example “the right perspective”, but I do agree with you when saying that comics are about energy and action. These two points work best when over exaggerating their expressions at times when we need to go past the limits of reality in order to leave an impressionable mark on our imaginations.