as for anything to ask, i wanted to know a little bit of how your process is for creating the webtoon, as someone who wants to get into it but isn’t exactly sure where to start. would you suggest planning out the story, making a script, and then drafting the drawings and then finalizing?? or do you have a different system that you would recommend??
I'm so glad you're enjoying it!! And thank you, please don't apologize, you're so sweet and I love this question! I could blab about comics all day.
So for making a series, the first place you need to start is with a process many people call "pre-production." This is where you refine the concept (or "elevator pitch"), nail down the setting, art style, and themes, work on the main characters, do design concepts, nail down how you want the paneling to look, what color the gutters (spaces in between panels) should be, how you want to do visual things like speech bubbles and flashback sequences, and most importantly: loosely how you want to start and end the series. The rest you can find along the way. You should really aim to figure most of this out before you start on your first episode or else it can be very overwhelming trying to make it up as you go! Pre-production is really fun! Keep lots of sketches and sticky notes and outlines. This is the phase where everything is open and you get to play around a lot.
But one thing I do caution against is getting into pre-production limbo. I'd say give yourself a time window, where at the end, you start on your episodes. This is because SINCE pre-production is so fun, I think a lot of series stay there forever. Your concept doesn't have to be polished and perfect. You'll learn so much along the way. Don't aim for perfection. Think of it like building a road. What you're doing is clearing out the trees and leveling the land, that's all. Just so that building the road is easier for you later. Don't try to build the road while you're still in pre-production.
Once you're done with your outlines and sketches and all manner of scheming, then you can start on a script. And even then, I wouldn't start on it until you do a real quick outline for both the arc you're starting on and then for the ep you're working on. Outlines are your biggest friend! Then go crazy with the script, and from there you can get into storyboarding (also called thumbnailing), and once you're satisfied with that, inking, flatting, and rendering.
Your first few eps will probably take you WEEKS, even if they're not very long. Our first five eps for Nevermore took us a few months, because we scrapped and restarted like, twice? I think? And we have been working on webcomics for YEARS. Be kind to yourself, and try to have fun with it. Don't burn yourself out too early, and just know that it WILL get faster as you settle into a story and learn the characters, both in design and in their voices/motivations. Try not to feel discouraged early on because it's NOT EASY to start a new series, no matter who you are or how many times you've done it before.
Good luck!! ✨
