Making Sound Effects in an Action Comic

Introduction

The is part two of my The S-Classes that I Raised study. Part 1 is

How to Panel a Vertical scroll Web-comic where I studied paneling.

In this blog post, I’ll go over how I studied the sound effects in the comic, what I learned, and how you can add these to your own comic!

My S-Class Hunters - Ep. 50 - Peep! (1)

Yoojin is an F-ranker overshadowed by his little brother, an S-ranker. All he does is get in his brother’s way, causing trouble wherever he goes. When a seemingly routine dungeon raid goes wrong and costs Yoojin his brother’s life, Yoojin decides to use the wish granted by clearing the dungeon to reset his timeline. The plan was to lead a quiet life from now on… but now it turns out he can help other people become S-rankers?! Maybe this is Yoojin’s chance at building his own entourage of powerful metahumans… but it may be easier said than done.

https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/my-s-class-hunters/ep-50-peep-1/viewer?title_no=3963&episode_no=50

Table of Contents

Introduction The Study Research Phase Official vs. Fan Translations What I Learned 1. Choosing Colors for Your SFX 2. Steps for Creating (fancy) SFX 3. Save Your SFX for Future Use References

The Study

After studying the panels, I thought about what other areas I was weakest at in the comic creation sphere. To me, there was an obvious answer - comic sound effects!

Comic sound effects are onomatopoeia, which are a type of word that sounds like what it describes. Ex Boom, Buzz, and Whoosh

Research Phase

I started out by watching a few YouTube videos on the subject. This is the one I found to be the most helpful:

How to Make Webtoon Comic Sound Effects with Clip Studio Paint

Learn how to make exciting and professional looking sound effects for your webtoons and comics with just a few easy steps using Clip Studio Paint. https://www.clipstudio.net/en/ You can also access the web tutorial on Clip Studio Paint's tutorial site. They were kind enough to sponsor this video, so be sure to give them some love. https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/articles/5157 This is the technique I use to help elevate the look of my comics and honestly just to make the panels a lot more fun. This is a very detailed step-by-step process on how to make sound effects or SFX as they're called in the biz. Or even just onomatopoeia. If you have any problems with the process, leave a comment and I'll try to help out. If you try it out, send me a link to your comic so I can check it out in action. The Bluetooth keyboard I use with my iPad https://amzn.to/36cvZFB My favorite anatomy book - https://amzn.to/3wWGBoj My favorite perspective book - https://amzn.to/3ln38W6 My WEBTOON comics http://ghostbats.co/wt http://walterostlie.com/haxor PATREON: http://patreon.com/walterostlie KO-FI: http://ko-fi.com/walterostlie INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/walterostlie TWITTER: http://twitter.com/walterostlie FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/walterostlieart STORE: http://walterostlie.storenvy.com T-SHIRT STORE: http://walterostlie.threadless.com Interested in my gear? Halo light - https://amzn.to/2IsTdxl - in front of my face - prolly the most important light. Side/back/wall lights - https://amzn.to/2Xfmq2m - back wall or side of face Camera - Canon M50 - https://amzn.to/2XfjkLE Lens - https://amzn.to/2IuK7QS Mic - https://amzn.to/2UFcmTv - But I want to get a RodeMic Boom Stand - https://amzn.to/2UowyDS *Amazon Links are Affiliate*#walterostlie #makecomics #webtoon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XLbsfhKbYU

I love, love CSP auto actions, so I though for sure there would be some text auto actions that I could use to speed up my process. I chose to download the following two:

The action that somehow looks like a character ver3 - CLIP STUDIO ASSETS

Make illustrations, manga, comics and animation with Clip Studio Paint, the artist’s tool for drawing and painting. All you need for drawing and creating digital art!

https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1847824

Character Design effect - CLIP STUDIO ASSETS

Make illustrations, manga, comics and animation with Clip Studio Paint, the artist’s tool for drawing and painting. All you need for drawing and creating digital art!

https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1651390

Tips on finding text auto actions - the auto translator doesn’t use the word “text”. Since it translating from Japanese the translator uses the word “character”. So when you’re looking for CSP text auto actions - try searching for the phrase “character type:actions” too.

I explored the auto actions I downloaded on a test page. Note: Since all of the text on the auto actions was in Japanese, so took a screenshot of the auto actions panel and fed it through Google translate. Then I added it back on the canvas for quick reference.

My testing page for CSP text auto actions… though I didn’t end up using any of them in the end

After testing out all the different auto actions, I picked out the ones I thought would be the most useful for creating sound effects, and I copied them over to a new auto action set. I renamed them all to English names for personal use, but… TBH I didn’t end up using them LOL 😭. There’s an even easier way. See the next section “What I Learned” for what I’d actually recommend you do to create sound effects.

Official vs. Fan Translations

I chose to use the official translation of The S-Classes I Raised Ch 50 (called My S-Class Hunters on Webtoon) to study from. From what I saw looking at both fan translations and the official localized translations, the sound effects were 1) more complete, and 2) made more sense in English.

What I Learned

1. Choosing Colors for Your SFX

Its important to choose colors that blend well with your sound effect. A white and blue for steam works well, and a red and yellow might look best for a sizzle or crack of a fire. Look to your favorite comics for exampl

Sound effects from The S-Classes that I Raised ch 50

2. Steps for Creating (fancy) SFX

When paneling you should have an idea of what the sound effect will be.

For fancy SFX…

Use the text tool and write out your SFX letter by letter.

The fonts I chose were both free fonts from https://blambot.com/

Position the SFX in the order that makes most sense on the page (Ex. horizontal, diagonal, vertical?) It all depends on where you left room for SFX in your thumbnails.

(Optional) Resize the letters. Some can be smaller or larger - its up to your taste.

Merge all the layers together

And rasterize the layer!

Rename the layer to the text sound effect

(Optional) Use the Warp tool to adjust the rasterized text even more. For example, by making it bulge in the center or shrink at the end

Alpha lock the layer when done editing the overall shape

(Optional) Add a gradient to the words with the gradient tool or a soft brush.

Now to add the borders, effects and glow… Go to the “Layer Properties” panel. Add and adjust the border or glow.

If you want both a border and glow duplicate the layer. On one layer add glow, and on the other add the border. I recommend having the glow layer on the bottom.

Finally, merge all of the layers into one.

You did it! Rinse and repeat for all sound effects in your comic. Reuse some of your old sound effects by following the steps below…

3. Save Your SFX for Future Use

Save your future self some time compiling a list of sound effects. Its as easy as dragging and dropping the layer with your sound effects into the assets window. Its best if your sound effect is merged into one layer and is named appropriately so its searchable at a later date.

Tutorial on saving your SFX for future use

You’ll be able to retrieve your sound effects in basically the same way. Drag and drop the sound effect from the asset window onto your Canvas. Resize the sound effect as necessary. And you’re done!

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XLbsfhKbYU

How to Panel a Vertical scroll Web-comic