Blender For Comics

[Anthony Small]

Ive always struggled with doing backgrounds and I had the idea of maybe using 3D software to build up some sets which I can then use to do the backgrounds. That way I won't have to worry about keeping them consistent, I can get a better sense of spacial layout, I only need to make a model once to create views of it from many different directions, etc. My plan would probably involve just rendering out a very simple model of the rooms/environments and then tracing over the top of them so it still looks like my art.

As Blender is free and apparently quite popular I thought I'd give that a try. However it's very difficult to get into. The new upcoming version (blender 2.8) does appear to have made some progress in terms of its user interface, but it's also not got a lot of tutorials associated with it. I'd rather focus on 2.8 because a) it seems like a better user experience and b) why bother learning a user interface that's about to become obsolete anyway?

I had this same question awhile back:

forums.tapas.io Help with Blender?hey guys! i know some of you use blender which i find infinitely cool id really like to try doing some small low-poly projects but ive never done 3d modeling before (is that even the term?) aaand i could really use some help! easy to understand...

and I do a comic with 3d Blender backgrounds for the architecture. It's been really helpful for letting me realize such an expansive vision as a solo comic creator, and to be able to stay consistent with the level of output that I do. I only wish I discovered blender earlier in my journey on this. Highly recommend. People may complain about my sucky (but improving!) anatomy but never about the backgrounds.

I just started using blender and I find doing little stuff and giving yourself bigger and bigger task helps (kinda like they do in school lol). I started off making a mask for a character. I thought it would be easy since I would only need to use plans and boxes. Took me longer then I wanted but I learned A LOT trying to figure it out. I would suggest making a simple boxy item to start and learn the keys. There is A LOT of buttons on keyboard to be pressed which working LOL

I'll share you my experience once I start working on my first scene. It's going to be a forest. I'm using the program to help with 2d animation and since the new blender allows 2d animation to be painted ontop of the 3d models in the same program I am going to have SO MUCH FUN

It might seem kinda overkill because Unity is meant for game and application development, but it's more user-friendly, there's more tutorials out there, you can download free add-ons that let you do some basic modeling right in Unity (I especially like Pro Builder), you can find a lot of free resources on the Unity store, and I find the lighting and materials easier to set up.

On that note, Unreal Engine might also be an option. I find UE less customizable and a little harder to learn, but UE's lighting looks better out of the box (especially if you're going for a realistic look).

Hello, I'm ngel Snchez, and I go by the alias 'angelsan' on Blender Artists. Like the priest character in my comic, I'm starting to have memory problems... It's been a long time since I started working with Blender... Ugh, my memory must go back to 2003!

Maybe it wasn't love at first sight, but it was a love that has lasted till today, only darkened by the need to use other software to complement aspects that Blender can't do on its own. My training in drawing and 3D is essentially self-taught, although my studies and work as a museum curator have allowed me to come into contact with archaeological material and scientific publications, which have been crucial in the creation of this comic.

This project was born out of the need to remove a thorn that had been on my side for a long time. When I was a teenager, I was fascinated by the world of comics and I started to make some comics. However, most of them ended up at the bottom of a drawer.

The need to finish my studies and then concentrate on my work as a museum curator put this hobby on the back burner for a while. However, the shadow of authors such as Jordi Bernet, Vicente Segrelles or Vctor de la Fuente is a long one, and I wanted to create an adventure story with classical overtones as a tribute to the works of these great illustrators that I was so passionate about.

In this project, I decided to combine two of my passions: history and comics. The story would be set in ancient Iberia (between the sixth and first centuries B.C.), a period that has not been widely covered in comics, but which was the ideal setting for a story that combined archaeology and fiction. On the one hand, I would try to be as rigorous as possible in the aspects that archaeology has allowed us to know. On the other hand, the plot would be a fictional story following the classic scheme of the hero's journey.

In this project, I have used several software that have two things in common: free software tools and made for graphic design. In my work, I always try to use these types of tools to show their enormous potential in the field of illustration, an area that has traditionally been dominated by well-known proprietary software.

This article will certainly be different from the usual Blender Nation posts, as this project involved work outside of Blender. Some aspects of the creation process will be better explained than others, but to go into the details of each would be beyond the scope of this article.

For example, I won't go into detail about the process of creating the script and the story. I will only point out that a good planning of the composition of the comic strips and pages during the creation of the script can help to speed up the process. At this stage, it is also important to define the characters, settings, and other objects in order to calculate all the material we will need to carry out the project. This is where we really realize the scale of the work.

One of the objectives of this comic was to achieve the greatest possible historical rigor in aspects such as weapons, clothing, architecture, tools, etc. I therefore needed a lot of references for real archaeological material: to know how to interpret it and how to use it. In this sense, I had the advantage of working in a museum, where I had first-hand knowledge of these materials, and I could also count on the advice of other specialists in this historical period, such as Helena Bonet. If you are interested in learning more about Ancient Iberia, much of this information is available online at our museum's website.

Regarding the work of 3D modelling of archaeological materials, I have published some tutorials on my YouTube channel with examples made in Blender. For example, Forging an Iberian Falcata in Blender (Spanish with English subtitles):

Most of the backgrounds were created in Blender; they are the scenes with standard materials rendered with Cycles. I did not create the final 'comic' look in Blender, but I did prepare the lighting, contrast, and color adjustments of the scene, thinking about the application of the following filters. I don't try to achieve a hyper-realistic look in the renders, as I should focus on how lighting and color can help achieve a better result with post-processing filters.

The work of modeling the cities and architectural elements is done using edge extrusions to create the general lines of the urban fabric. These simple planes are given volume using the 'Solidify' modifier. The 'Shrink' modifier, applied to certain groups of vertices, allows the houses to be fitted to the ground. The materials used for these models are of the generic type for Cycles, without any special shaders.

In most cases, these urban parcels required a topographical base for settlement. These terrains were created using a subdivided plane to which a displacement modifier with a heightmap image was added. The easiest way to create this type of image is through sites such as 'Cities: Skylines Map Generator' or 'Terrain Party'.

In GIMP, the render is post-processed with filters to create a watercolor effect. Basically, we are working to create a base with the color effect to which we will add the contour lines and the black ink. It is important to note that in addition to the standard Gimp filters, I also used the filters from the G'MIC plugin.

Below, I describe the process of achieving these effects, although it should be noted that many of the filter values and settings depend on the size of the original image, as well as its brightness, contrast or color. They are not absolute values. The opacity of the layers can also make some of the effects stronger or weaker. Experiment with all of them until you get the result you want.

The composition of the characters in the comic strip depends on the complexity of the scene. I usually prepare some dummies in Blender that I use as a reference in the drawing. These dummies are normal human models, usually without any details (no clothes or hair). I only use them as models for the composition of the scene (proportions, movement, depth, etc.). These types of models can be created directly in Blender using addons like mpfb from makehuman (only Blender >3.0) or the MB Lab addon.

In Inkscape, I import a render from the 3D viewer to use as a reference for drawing. I draw the details of the clothing and other elements directly in Inkscape to give me more freedom to draw the movement of the hair, folds, wrinkles, and other details that might give me more work in Blender.

Defining the size of the canvas is an important issue as we need to be clear about where we are going to publish our work e.g. online, print, European market, American market, etc. In my case, since the printed book would be produced on Amazon, I chose the US Letter format (215.9 x 279.4 mm/ 8.5 x 11 in) among the options available on this platform. Once the print size was determined, I created a template for the comic strips and incorporated it into the master pages.

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