Community Pro Lesson: Perfect Page Layouts
Join Andy Schmidt and learn how to craft awesome, clear comic book page layouts!
Grids and Tiers
- What is a grid
- Why Grids work (implied reading order, gutters)
- What is a tier
- How Tiers work (every panel must SIT ON THE SHELF)
- Organization of information – that’s what these are all about. They organize the panels in such a way to take away the artists’ ability to screw up the reading order.
Panel Shapes
- Squares and Rectangles
- Circles
- Trapezoids
- Overlapping panels
- Things busting out of a panel border
- The key is to maintain reading order as you break away from grids and tiers
Juxtapositions
- Implied meaning between two panels next to each other.
- Using it for effect.
- Your brain wants them to relate
- Gutters versus a line separating panels
- Contrast in panel compositions and why it’s important
Time In Panels
- Reader assumptions
- Elongating time with layout
- Quick cuts with panel layout
- Building suspense with panels
- Slowing time down (taking a breath, not slow motion)
- Connecting panels to control a “pan” (the polyptch)
- Time between panels and how to play with it (Calvin & Hobbes)
Double-Page Spreads
- What is a double-page spread
- When you might want to use one
- Can they have multiple panels?
- How do they work so that you know the correct reading order?
- Examples that work and that don’t
Leading the Eye
- Putting it all together. Your job is to organize information and action for your reader.
- They must go from one panel to the next WITHOUT thinking about it. It must be intuitive.
- Complex layouts create risk that your reader gets lost and pulled out of your story.
- But they can also have very cool payoffs (Prometheus)
- There are two ways to lead the eye from one panel to the next, which, if you’ve laid your panels out effectively, simply make the transitions that much easier for your reader and seamless.
- The first is with your panel layout, which we have discussed in previous sessions
- VECTORS: The second is how you direct the reader’s eye through the compositions within your panels.
- Creating Vectors
- Pointing vectors from one panel to the next.
