LAYER-TOBERFEST 2K16 (Patreon)

Okay so the subject of this post is relatively dry, but it's probably the part of the comic-making-process that I've gone through the most permutations with, and it's something you never get to see in the finished product, so I'm ready to get all over explaining it.

Using a layered file to create comics allows for some interesting opportunities, and because of the wide-open nature of it there are a lot of ways to approach the process. These screencaps capture the order of layers in episode 3 page 7,  as an example of how I currently set a page up. I'll start from the bottom and move to the top, since that's how layering happens ya see

In the top left, all folders are closed, to show how the layers are divied up. 

• "White Matte" is exactly that
• "Bug" contains the logo and url displayed at the bottom of every page.
• "Frames" contains a vector shape that defines the panel frames--in this case, it looks like this.

Art (which you can see expanded on the right side) contains the meat and potatoes.

• "Ref" is where I keep visual  references, if I'm using any. 
• "Sketch" is what it sounds like. 
• "Cleanup" is rarely-used, but it's where I draw over my initial sketch if I think it needs extra work before getting inked. 
• "Color" contains the flat colors, separated between "characters" and "environment".
• "Ink" contains the final line art. 
• "Lighting" is an additional color folder, which layers lighting effects over the flat colors to finish off the look. You can see that there are separate folders for effects on the environment and effects on the characters. "Atmospheres" are setting-specific color effects that affect everything in the image; for example, there's a blue-green "Cruvaro" atmosphere cast over every page of Episode 3.
  

Dialogue (which you can see expanded on the bottom) contains exactly that.

• The "Balloons" folder contains vector shapes that form dialogue balloons (you can see on the bottom right that every dialogue balloon I use is a modification of a combination of the same two shapes).
• "Text" contains the text!

I realize this looks like a flowchart from a high school technology textbook, BUT this is what I'm looking at 100% of the time while making pages, so I thought it would be fun to reveal a part of the process that's omnipresent to me but invisible to the reader.