Question

How can I make dynamic page layouts easy to follow?

Nathan Shannon, Canada

Answer

Tom replies

Page layouts have a lot of influence over how a reader follows a story, so making them seem natural and easy to follow is vital. For this article, I’ve laid out a page detailing an escalating conflict. In the first two panels, there’s only mild conflict and so I’ve used straightforward angles and panel placement. But as things become more heated, I begin to drop or break panel borders, stagger panel placement and incorporate more dynamic angles and perspective. I use DAZ 3D to plan my panel compositions; manipulating the camera placement and focal length can create some dramatic effects that would be difficult to achieve using traditional methods.

Then I use Photoshop to organise my DAZ renders. All the major compositional elements in each panel are placed to subconsciously guide the reader from one panel to the next in sequence. The figures in panel three are shot from such an angle as to create an invisible, diagonal line that leads from the upper figure, through the lower figure, through the left fist of the character in panel four, right to the focal point of panel four: the face of the charging character. I then guide the reader through the focal points of the following two panels in a similar way, using one, continuous, zig-zagging line of action. This way the action can be dynamically staged, yet be clear and intuitive for the reader.

An increasingly varied page layout can help escalate tension and drama in a scene, but the action should still be clearly delineated.