Hello everyone, in this part I will show you how to create, edit, transform and add text to your comic-style frames. Make sure you understand what we have review in previous tutorials since I am going to explain the topics a little faster, assuming that you already understand all we have seen so far. We are going to use all we have created in the first, second and third part of this tutorial series.

 

 

Let's continue!

 

Create Frame

 

The first thing we want to do is to create a New Document for Illustration, [Width 1920, Height 1280] and Resolution 300. Select the [Create frame] tool (shortcut U two times) and click and drag over your canvas to create a rectangle frame. ▼

 

 

Now let's select the [Cut frame border] to divide our rectangle. Click next to the [Create frame] tab and select [Divide frame folder]. You can click over the rectangle frame and you will see a line that moves with your mouse, you can hold SHIFT to restrict the movement to straight horizontal, vertical and 45º. If you release the click it will divide and create a new Layer folder from the rectangle frame. ▼

 

 

▲ As you can see a Black and White vector mask thumbnail has appeared next to the folders. The black areas indicate what is hidden and the white area show what is visible. You can only use frame tools to edit frames.

 

Edit frames

 

You can see a blueish color around the frame mask, let's right click over the mask and hide it for now. Do the same with the other folder. ▼

 

 

Change the folder names to “Top Left” and “Bottom Right”. Select the “Top Left” folder and with the [Operation] tool selected click and drag the “blue circles” to transform the frame area. If [Keep gutters aligned] is active, both folders will be transformed. You can set that option to [None] to edit each folder without affecting the other. ▼

 

 

You can also edit the “Draw border” color and “Brush Size” from the [Tool Property] panel. Let's change the brush size to 0,80 or something lower.

 

Now set the [Keep gutters aligned] to None and click over the yellow arrows this will snap the border to the next available ruler or (if there is none) to the edge of the canvas.▼

 

 

Once you edit the frame as you like, select the “Bottom Right” folder and on the [Cute frame border] select [Divide frame border]. This will allow you to divide the frame without creating a new folder. Feel free to divide it as you like or to do something similar to the screenshot. ▼

 

 

Before divide frames you can adjust the vertical and horizontal gutter in the [Tool property] panel. You can also go to [ File > Preferences ] to set the values and check [Space of frame border in preference] to a use the preferences values.▼

 

Now select the empty layer from the “Bottom Right” folder and fill it with a solid color or gradient as we review in the previous tutorial.

 

You can also duplicate or create a new raster layer and apply tones like we review in the previous tutorial. Let's try a different dot settings, select “Line” and change the [Angle] to 135, set the [Number of screen frequency] to 8.0, change the [Blending Mode] to Soft light and decrease the Opacity to 64. ▼

 

Now you can select the “Top Left” folder and fill it with colors and tones. Moreover you can change the color of the paper to whatever color you choose or create another gradient outside and below of the frame folders.

 

As you can see in the screenshot a tone gradient with “Ninja star” shape was created, duplicated and moved in the layer panel so it looks like it has continuity but with a different gradient color. You can also apply what you have learned and change blending modes, opacity and draw border. ▼

 

Text & Transform

 

Select the [Text] tool (shortcut T) to add text. Choose a thick font and a size and click on the canvas and write whatever you want. I am going to write the number “02”. Once you have written your text make click over the circle icon that appears below the text. ▼

 

 

As you can see a new text layer was created on the layer panel. Let's transform the text from [ Edit > Transform > Scale up/Scale down/Rotate… ]. ▼

 

 

Now you can drag from the squares around the text for free transform or from the [Tool property] panel change the transformation mode, scale ratio and rotation. Make sure the “Fixed aspect” is active a set the width value “W” to 800, the “Rotation angle” to -15 and click on the circle icon to confirm the transformation on the canvas or in the tool property panel. ▼

 

 

Use the [Move layer] tool (shortcut K) to move the layer. If for some reason you accidently don't have the move layer sub tool or you deleted, click on the [Create copy of currently selected sub tool] icon and create a new one. You can even choose a background color for the icon. ▼

 

 

Now we are going to see another quick way to create outline or border around a shape. With the text layer selected Go to the [Layer Property] panel and click on the first icon [Border effect] and bring the [Thickness of the edges] to 4.0. ▼

 

Place your images out of the frame

 

Now let's bring the image(s) we made in the previous tutorials. First, if you haven't already save the file. Open the file where you save the previous image(s) and select the Layer Folder with all the layers inside (fill, line, tones, outline, gradient, etc.) with the [Move Layer] tool selected (shortcut “K”) go to [ Edit > Copy ] and select the “Frame Borders” tab. Now paste the folder with CTRL+V or [ Edit > Paste] and place the folder to the top outside from the “Top Left” and “Bottom Right” folders. ▼

 

 

▲ Also make sure the [Blending Mode] of the Layer folder is set to “Through”. This will allow to the blending modes to affect the layers below.

 

Feel free to bring other image and put in practice all the techniques we have seen in this and in the previous tutorials. I will spend some time doing the same and we will continue with the next topic after that.

 

Balloons-Comic Materials

 

As you probably know already Clip Studio Paint offers many free and paid materials for all the users. If you go to “Manga material” you are going to find frame templates that you can use to save time. Now we are going to add a “Balloon” but instead of create it let's use one from Clip Studio Asset.

 

Click in the link below to download the one we are going to use in this tutorial or feel free to use other. ▼

 

Select the balloon and drag it to the canvas. It will probably fall inside of one of the folders so, with the [Operation] tool selected place it outside (of the folder) to the top as we did before. ▼

 

▲ If you want to hide the material panels you can click over the arrows in the top corner.

 

You can change the line and fill color of the balloon from the “Tool property” panel. You can also change the brush shape and transform it. ▼

 

 

Now we are going to add some text. You can select the [Text] tool and click over the balloon, by doing so the text will appear in the same layer with the balloon. This is convenient when you work with comics but if you want to add color gradients or effects we might have to select the text with the [Operation] tool. Press CTRL+X to cut it and then select any layer but the balloon and press CTRL+V to paste. Just like so you can drag the text above in the layer panel and paint over, add a gradient, effects, whatever you want. In case you want to keep the text inside the balloon but need to change the color. You can select the content inside with the “Text” tool and with the text highlighted-selected click over the color you want to apply in the Color Set panel. ▼

 

Merge visible layers

 

Once we have our final image with all the effects let's merge all visible layers in a new layer. Make sure you select the top layer in the Layer panel and then go to [ Layer > Merge visible to new layer ]. ▼

 

As you can see a new layer was created on the top. This is helpful if you want to copy a flatten image to another document and still keep the editable layers. Also it's a good and fast way to add some contrast. With the new layer selected change the blending mode to [Soft light] and decrease the opacity maybe around 40 or 56.

 

EXTRA TIP: If you create two Merge visible layers. You can apply Gaussian blur to the [Soft light] layer -around 6 or 8 of Strength- to make the edges smoother. Moreover you can apply Gaussian blur to the layer below with less Strength around 2 or 3 to achieve the same.

 

Here is my comic-style image with the changes I made from the last screenshot ▼

 

 

1. New layer in Screen blending mode, painted with airbrush, duplicate layer and used tone effect with the dot settings in noise.

2. Color changed in the balloon. Color added to the text “[-.-]” inside the balloon..

3. Text "02" Moved and transformed. Tones created from a rectangle selection.

4. Shadow and reflect added from an oval selection with blending modes.

 

And there you go, that's how you add some comic-style frames to your artwork. Feel free to join me in the last Part.