Reducing scope is super important! I'm trying to do an animated series but doing frame-by-frame animation is a lot to do for a single person, so I spent a long time finding ways to make it more manageable...which led to another rabbit hole of experimenting with 3D (complicated), then reusable 2d character rigs (also complicated if you want them to be versatile), to now experimenting with something adjacent to motion comics along with non-reusable, shot specific character rigs (which I'm still trying to see if it's realistic to do). This caused me to not really post anything in a while and since it's been so long I even decided to reboot everything since a lot has changed with my writing since then. Reducing scope of parts of your work can be painful at times but the improvements to motivation cannot be understated, plus it can force you to be creative.
That sounds wonderful! I wish you all thhe best of luck with your animated series! it is a lot of work and effort so i hope that you enjoy te process and ave fun The way you are going about it is smarter since you are saving time and overall the whole process will teach you a lot, so watever makes it less stressful, the better! I agree 100% is very important to scale the projects to wats doable and managable, not because we can do more we sould always give our 100% each time, or that will burn us out a lot, It definetly can lead to us being far more inactive on our own socials, same thing happened with my videos, I had to drop quality a lot until I can be able to afford a better pc to make the process much much easier and enjoyable
Agreed, hopefully being aware of it can help on holding yourself when is needed, I'm glad you enjoyed the video, wishing you the best of luck on your projects
hey, i just found your channel! i just came down here to thank you for the reminder to scale down your first comic. i'm in the scriptwriting period of my comic, right after i decided to completely restart the script. i was Kind Of in the middle of plotting out some advanced-ish plotlines for it, but then i remembered: this is my first comic (ignoring all the other ones i scrapped when i wasn't following this advice). so, because of the reminder i will scale it down a bit! thanks!
Thank you so much! And yeah the amount of times I restarted my stories is crazy, I hope this time it goes much more smoothly for you, best of luck on your projects!!!
That's actually a great example of how readability is very important! Also is mostly important when it comes to animation, so they are different mediums but overall same principal
I’ve been planning a comic for maybe over a year now? I really want to make it shine, to be proof of what I can do, and that’s lead to a lot of really good iteration! The stuff I have right now is definitely better than what I had when I started. But it’s also been extremely time consuming and hasn’t resulted in much final work, which is only compounded by the executive function issues I keep experiencing. I’ve tried downscaling before, but I tend to end up right back at something more complicated at my writing skills catch up to my ambition. Thank you for the reminder to start small again! As much as I want this to be great, and I want to practice as much as I can, actually making comics will certainly be a much better form of practice than redoing outlines forever, even if that’s one page noncanon comics! I think if I actually manage to take this advice to heart I might be able to finally make something I can share
This is something similar to what happened to me, I ended up only making it a few episodes in and hhad to give up on it or restart it It takes a long long time to work oon a comic and is normal to underestimate that since the art of each panel looks doable, but the ammount of work behind that one panel tricks us because it definetly takes a lot of effort Thank you so much for sharing i really hope you can manage your projects and have an enjoable story to share and work on! You will definetly will get much better by simplifying the story and work on it youll be better at making stories, telling stories, drawing them and overall the skill shows, so enjoying the process is really important
Great video gebbu!! I think the main part that really resonated with me was when you were talking about overplanning since you can very quickly overwhelm yourself purely from your own expectations. And while planning can be great for the sake of a good story, if you can’t even bring urself to start cause it’s THAT daunting then it’s not doing you any favors. Starting small and making shorter scenes to get a feel for it sounds like a great way to lean into it and see if you enjoy the process cause comics are hard work! All art is but comics and pieces that convey feelings and tell a story take time! I also really agree that in the end your story is more important, it’s not a great metaphor but art is like the packaging while the story is the actual product itself. People can pick up ur product for the first time cause of the art it has but if the story isn’t engaging then most people will fall off of it, as opposed to a comic you chose to read that might not have CRAZY art but the story itself is charming so you feel invested to come back. This makes me miss workin on comics! If I take a stab at it it’ll be nice to revisit this video so it feels less daunting, thank you for this video gebbu!!!
Thank you so much Ling! it definetly is a trap were in thought "making our best" is wat we should do, but we have to define what best is, since pushing the perfectionism to its limits is just the illusion of us doing our best wen in reality we are cornering ourselves Starting is in most cases the hardest part of the process, because anything is good and miles above noting, but is scary to even try when we fear failure the balance between art and story is definetly soimething that people will always one side on opinion, people will say story is most important, many people would say no, art is, but bot are important and can boost eachothers potential, thats why working from begining to end is important to improve both and grow as a creator, which regarddless of wich one is more important, the comic will be better overall Thank you so much for sharing!
What if Im not really interested in writing short stories? I really only have 1 idea for a comic and i just want to put that out there and never work on comics again. I like drawing and I like worldbuilding but im not really interested in becoming a comic artist so I only really want to do it once. My first comic is likely going to be my last.
That's ok, I think is good to simplify the overall story and such but there's many ways you can break down your longer story if that's the case, focusing on much more achievable goals, like simplifying the art style and such, no matter how you go about it you will learn a lot as you work on it, so splitting it in seasons, shorter episodes, etc etc, the goal is to unload the stress from committing to a very overwhelming project, there's many things I can say about this but the comment will be long but I might expand on it on a Livestream or a future video I hope you can still find joy working on your projects and best of luck overall
I was in your situation too, my solution is draw a short story that serves as purpose to introduce aspect of the world, while still connecting to the main story. When you are able to bite long story you can just combine them into one
Hey Gebs! It's really nice to see a video from you about making comics! Since this month I was planning on exactly that. This month I also REALLY wanted to focus more on storytelling than art, hence this month of me making comics and capsulating a scene in one image! So I really thank you for the tips because so far I have been struggling by doing way too many things at once and being such a perfectionist. Thank you for motivating and guiding us :) You're one of my favourite creators!
Thank you so much! It is really common to want to go ham and give your everything from the get go but sadly that will lead to issues on the long run, I wish you the best of luck on your projects!
Thank you so much for this wonderful video! I've just graduated from art school, and I'm starting to make efforts to sell my art at stalls and fairs, and put myself out there more. I'm planning on starting on a comic to post online, I've made comics for myself for years, and now want to start pttting time into putting one out there online. Will it work out? Who knows! I just know I want to do it and have fun. This video was ever so helpful and motivational, so thank you so much. Also I LOVE the comic you were making in this video, it looks so cute! Would love to read it :)
Congratulations on graduating!!! That's very exciting and I wish you all the best of luck on your projects! I hope your comic goes well and you learn a lot from it, is a great and fun experience so I'm sure you'll do great! Also thank you, I started this comic as a warmup but now I do it casually for fun, I should link it on the description since it has a few uploads, thank you for being interested in it!
I have so many comic ideas I want to make but I keep procrastinating cause I can’t finish out the freaking panel layout and my main drawing program doesn’t have any tools for making them so I would have to draw them manually which would make everything take longer(though I suppose it would give me the opportunity to take some creative liberties with how they look 🤷♂️)
I used to make comics for myself on paper, I don't think the medium matters as long as you get to make your stories and get experience from it, eventually one can adapt and evolve and try different mediums but do the best and most with what you have, also simplifying the stories that you can will help you commit to them until they are finished (I rarely committed to most of them back then hah)
I started a webcomic almost 2 years ago, and it was going well until recently, a lot of life events started to make me really stressed out and stop being able to continue it. i finished the chapter i was working on just barely and then just couldn't continue. i still want to tell the story but it was just too difficult to carry on. i'm thinking of changing the artstyle to a simpler and easier one but would that be okay to do?
Something similar happened to me, I started and cancelled comics like 5 times because of it, simplifying the process can be a really good idea indeed, so going for a simpler style can help a lot, also maybe shorter episodes or simplifying the story as well and make it much shorter can help you to commit to it! I really hope things are better now and I wish you all the best with your comic! Thank you for sharing ❤️
Reducing scope is super important! I'm trying to do an animated series but doing frame-by-frame animation is a lot to do for a single person, so I spent a long time finding ways to make it more manageable...which led to another rabbit hole of experimenting with 3D (complicated), then reusable 2d character rigs (also complicated if you want them to be versatile), to now experimenting with something adjacent to motion comics along with non-reusable, shot specific character rigs (which I'm still trying to see if it's realistic to do).
This caused me to not really post anything in a while and since it's been so long I even decided to reboot everything since a lot has changed with my writing since then.
Reducing scope of parts of your work can be painful at times but the improvements to motivation cannot be understated, plus it can force you to be creative.
That sounds wonderful! I wish you all thhe best of luck with your animated series! it is a lot of work and effort so i hope that you enjoy te process and ave fun
The way you are going about it is smarter since you are saving time and overall the whole process will teach you a lot, so watever makes it less stressful, the better!
I agree 100% is very important to scale the projects to wats doable and managable, not because we can do more we sould always give our 100% each time, or that will burn us out a lot, It definetly can lead to us being far more inactive on our own socials, same thing happened with my videos, I had to drop quality a lot until I can be able to afford a better pc to make the process much much easier and enjoyable
Perfectionism is definitely an annoying thing to deal with; I struggle with it all the time. Good video, homie.
Agreed, hopefully being aware of it can help on holding yourself when is needed, I'm glad you enjoyed the video, wishing you the best of luck on your projects
hey, i just found your channel! i just came down here to thank you for the reminder to scale down your first comic. i'm in the scriptwriting period of my comic, right after i decided to completely restart the script. i was Kind Of in the middle of plotting out some advanced-ish plotlines for it, but then i remembered: this is my first comic (ignoring all the other ones i scrapped when i wasn't following this advice). so, because of the reminder i will scale it down a bit! thanks!
Thank you so much! And yeah the amount of times I restarted my stories is crazy, I hope this time it goes much more smoothly for you, best of luck on your projects!!!
@@Gebs-Art for sure!! the new script's definitely makes more sense and is more organized this time! thanks for the encouragement!
Thanks 🥲👍
"...stick figures to a masterpiece, it's impossible"
HAVE YOU HEARD OF ALAN BECKER?!
That's actually a great example of how readability is very important! Also is mostly important when it comes to animation, so they are different mediums but overall same principal
I’ve been planning a comic for maybe over a year now? I really want to make it shine, to be proof of what I can do, and that’s lead to a lot of really good iteration! The stuff I have right now is definitely better than what I had when I started.
But it’s also been extremely time consuming and hasn’t resulted in much final work, which is only compounded by the executive function issues I keep experiencing. I’ve tried downscaling before, but I tend to end up right back at something more complicated at my writing skills catch up to my ambition.
Thank you for the reminder to start small again! As much as I want this to be great, and I want to practice as much as I can, actually making comics will certainly be a much better form of practice than redoing outlines forever, even if that’s one page noncanon comics! I think if I actually manage to take this advice to heart I might be able to finally make something I can share
This is something similar to what happened to me, I ended up only making it a few episodes in and hhad to give up on it or restart it
It takes a long long time to work oon a comic and is normal to underestimate that since the art of each panel looks doable, but the ammount of work behind that one panel tricks us because it definetly takes a lot of effort
Thank you so much for sharing i really hope you can manage your projects and have an enjoable story to share and work on! You will definetly will get much better by simplifying the story and work on it youll be better at making stories, telling stories, drawing them and overall the skill shows, so enjoying the process is really important
Ur editing is soooo good and cute
Thank you so much! ❤️
Great video gebbu!! I think the main part that really resonated with me was when you were talking about overplanning since you can very quickly overwhelm yourself purely from your own expectations. And while planning can be great for the sake of a good story, if you can’t even bring urself to start cause it’s THAT daunting then it’s not doing you any favors. Starting small and making shorter scenes to get a feel for it sounds like a great way to lean into it and see if you enjoy the process cause comics are hard work! All art is but comics and pieces that convey feelings and tell a story take time!
I also really agree that in the end your story is more important, it’s not a great metaphor but art is like the packaging while the story is the actual product itself. People can pick up ur product for the first time cause of the art it has but if the story isn’t engaging then most people will fall off of it, as opposed to a comic you chose to read that might not have CRAZY art but the story itself is charming so you feel invested to come back.
This makes me miss workin on comics! If I take a stab at it it’ll be nice to revisit this video so it feels less daunting, thank you for this video gebbu!!!
Thank you so much Ling! it definetly is a trap were in thought "making our best" is wat we should do, but we have to define what best is, since pushing the perfectionism to its limits is just the illusion of us doing our best wen in reality we are cornering ourselves
Starting is in most cases the hardest part of the process, because anything is good and miles above noting, but is scary to even try when we fear failure
the balance between art and story is definetly soimething that people will always one side on opinion, people will say story is most important, many people would say no, art is, but bot are important and can boost eachothers potential, thats why working from begining to end is important to improve both and grow as a creator, which regarddless of wich one is more important, the comic will be better overall
Thank you so much for sharing!
What if Im not really interested in writing short stories? I really only have 1 idea for a comic and i just want to put that out there and never work on comics again. I like drawing and I like worldbuilding but im not really interested in becoming a comic artist so I only really want to do it once. My first comic is likely going to be my last.
That's ok, I think is good to simplify the overall story and such but there's many ways you can break down your longer story if that's the case, focusing on much more achievable goals, like simplifying the art style and such, no matter how you go about it you will learn a lot as you work on it, so splitting it in seasons, shorter episodes, etc etc, the goal is to unload the stress from committing to a very overwhelming project, there's many things I can say about this but the comment will be long but I might expand on it on a Livestream or a future video
I hope you can still find joy working on your projects and best of luck overall
I was in your situation too, my solution is draw a short story that serves as purpose to introduce aspect of the world, while still connecting to the main story. When you are able to bite long story you can just combine them into one
Hey Gebs! It's really nice to see a video from you about making comics! Since this month I was planning on exactly that. This month I also REALLY wanted to focus more on storytelling than art, hence this month of me making comics and capsulating a scene in one image! So I really thank you for the tips because so far I have been struggling by doing way too many things at once and being such a perfectionist. Thank you for motivating and guiding us :)
You're one of my favourite creators!
Thank you so much! It is really common to want to go ham and give your everything from the get go but sadly that will lead to issues on the long run, I wish you the best of luck on your projects!
Thank you so much for this wonderful video! I've just graduated from art school, and I'm starting to make efforts to sell my art at stalls and fairs, and put myself out there more. I'm planning on starting on a comic to post online, I've made comics for myself for years, and now want to start pttting time into putting one out there online. Will it work out? Who knows! I just know I want to do it and have fun. This video was ever so helpful and motivational, so thank you so much.
Also I LOVE the comic you were making in this video, it looks so cute! Would love to read it :)
Congratulations on graduating!!! That's very exciting and I wish you all the best of luck on your projects!
I hope your comic goes well and you learn a lot from it, is a great and fun experience so I'm sure you'll do great!
Also thank you, I started this comic as a warmup but now I do it casually for fun, I should link it on the description since it has a few uploads, thank you for being interested in it!
I have so many comic ideas I want to make but I keep procrastinating cause I can’t finish out the freaking panel layout and my main drawing program doesn’t have any tools for making them so I would have to draw them manually which would make everything take longer(though I suppose it would give me the opportunity to take some creative liberties with how they look 🤷♂️)
I used to make comics for myself on paper, I don't think the medium matters as long as you get to make your stories and get experience from it, eventually one can adapt and evolve and try different mediums but do the best and most with what you have, also simplifying the stories that you can will help you commit to them until they are finished (I rarely committed to most of them back then hah)
I started a webcomic almost 2 years ago, and it was going well until recently, a lot of life events started to make me really stressed out and stop being able to continue it. i finished the chapter i was working on just barely and then just couldn't continue. i still want to tell the story but it was just too difficult to carry on. i'm thinking of changing the artstyle to a simpler and easier one but would that be okay to do?
Something similar happened to me, I started and cancelled comics like 5 times because of it, simplifying the process can be a really good idea indeed, so going for a simpler style can help a lot, also maybe shorter episodes or simplifying the story as well and make it much shorter can help you to commit to it!
I really hope things are better now and I wish you all the best with your comic!
Thank you for sharing ❤️