Get started in WEBTOON

Stephinni Martinez Tinoco offers a tour of Clip Studio Paint’s Webtoon features for creating digital comics

By Stephinni Martinez Tinoco.

WEBTOON is a platform where you can read and upload comics in a vertical scroll format. There are original series created by official WEBTOON artists, such as Lore Olympus, True Beauty, and The Remarried Empress. The important bit for us is WEBTOON CANVAS. This offers you the freedom to create your own comics with your own story and characters. Scrolling allows the reader to dive into the story, so the way you draw the panels, use of colour palettes and the correct tools are important to keep the attention of the reader. The tools I will teach you today are going to accelerate the drawing process.

I know starting is not easy, but thankfully these kinds of webcomics are ideal for beginners. You just need to learn the basics and get creative.

Here you will learn how to create the canvas and use the export features, panel creation, speech bubbles, using 3D materials, and Clip Studio Assets. You can download more materials to work in Clip Studio Paint, too. Artists set up their own tools, materials and brushes and share them in the Assets page. There are free and paid resources, you just need to find the one you need. Now, let’s get creative…

1 Canvas: creation and export

You need to make sure to use the correct canvas properties. This is very important when working with the Webtoon format, because this is going to define the export setup at the end of the project. For the canvas size I like to use the same for all pages, that way I keep the layers and folders in order and it doesn’t affect the computer performance. Depending on your preferred upload platform, you may

want to set the size to a multiple of the maximum file size, in the case of WEBTOON CANVAS this is 1,280 pixels long. Keep the resolution to at least 72dpi for screens. Be aware that there are two ways to create the canvas: Long pages or Divided pages. To optimize the reading pace and get creative with panels and backgrounds use the long page option. If you need the divisions from the start for your storytelling, use the divided pages.

2 Creating the comic panels

You can use the Frame Border or the Figure tools. Here are my tips: Change the size of the frame by using Operation tools>object. If you need to create frames above the thumbnails you already did, just hide the background Paper layer. Name your frames and/or folders with numbers to count the panels.

3 Speech bubbles

Ellipse and rounded balloons are very similar and can be used for a conversation. Make sure to choose the correct balloon tail in case you need to add a thought for the character. Curve the balloons in case you want to create a shape or you can draw your own if you want to give a handmade look to your speech bubbles.

4 Using 3D materials

Clip Studio Paint has a very strong feature for comics, the 3D materials are extremely helpful, not only to use them directly on our panels, but also for references and guides. You can alter the object to match your drawing style.

You must press Browse to create a folder for your comic, where all the pages and divisions will be saved. Exporting is easy. Go to File>export Webtoon. We already set the size up earlier. In Divide Vertically write the height 1,280 pixels for each division… You can check how the canvas looks on a smartphone screen by turning on the [On-screen area (Webtoon)] option.

The Frame Border tool is ideal for creating panels. This one is made for comics, so this is the main tool to use for your webcomic. Just take the rectangle frame and adjust the size you need on the canvas. Frame in canvas In the layer section you will have something similar to a folder, with two layers: A background Paper layer and a regular layer to draw on. Everything you draw will stay inside the frame as the outside is masked. The Figure tool is helpful for panels that feature content that extends outside of the panel in your story. Example using figure tool.

Go to Material>3d. There you will find plenty of 3D materials like backgrounds, objects, characters, poses and body types that you can use. The secret for backgrounds and objects are the settings. Once you get the position you would like to use go to the layer and right click to the 3D object layer. Then select Lines and Tone conversion of layer (EX Version only). Activate the preview and change the settings until you have solid lines. The background or object will stay in the position you need and it now has a natural look to paint over or use the linework directly.

Balloon tool For the balloon tail, set the Bending mode to Spline, which gives the tail a natural curve for the speech bubble. Make sure to use a legible font! Some artists prefer to write in capital letters. The Webtoon format gives us the chance to tell stories using our drawings; it’s not necessary to create long dialogue between heroes or explain everything with text.