How do you make comic bubbles? You have a tutorial?
I actually learned this mostly from another tutorial, but I can’t find it. :( So here’s a really quick one of my own making for GIMP, but same idea with Photoshop or really any other similar program:
1. Lay out your text in a way that’s shaped in a vaguely circular format. So for example, if you have three lines, the bottom and top should be shorter than the middle line.
2. Add a white outline of the text as a guide. I fancy a 10px width myself. (If you’re not sure how to do this in GIMP, you can use Script Fu > Stroke, or do it yourself by right-clicking on the layer and choosing Alpha to Selection, then growing the selection by however large you want the outline to be, and filling it in with white on a layer below the text.)
3. On a new layer below the text, use the Eclipse select tool touching the edges of the text outline, then fill it in with the paint bucket.
4. Now, if this wasn’t just a tutorial I’d probably go back and increase the size of the circle, since the text is a little too close to the edge for what I’d like, but lets just move on by pretending it’s great as is. However, sometimes you may want to adjust the circle using the Distorts > IWarp tool, if the shape you need isn’t a perfect oval/circle.
5. After you’re happy with the actual circle part, use the path tool to draw the speech bubble’s tail. If you want it to be perfectly straight, check the Polygonal box, otherwise, use the path tool’s angles to give it a curve. Then click on Selection from Path, and fill in that selection with white.
6. Final step: In the same way you gave your text an outline, give one to your speech bubble with black. The width is up to you, but I mostly use 2px or 3px.
You may have to fix up the tip of the tail by hand, if it comes out fuzzy like in the above picture.
That’s it! Really easy. :)
This is exactly what we do at DittonComics. :D
