Review Of Comic Life 3 For Mac
Not that long ago in a place not that far away comic books ruled. There was a time when a comic book collection was as important as a record collection. That's right. Good old vinyl.
While those where fun times for some of us the younger generation of the Renderosity community never really got to experience the excitement of a new comic or for that matter. An old, well thumbed, torn and faded comic stuck in your back pocket. This was the equivalent of carrying around your tunes or smartphone with you today. If you were lucky you might even have jammed two or three folded up comics in that pocket just to make sure you didn't run out of entertainment that day. The good old days??? There was no Wi-Fi but one can still experience the nostalgia or discovery of comic books with a simple and budget priced application called Comic Life. When I say budget priced I don't mean lack of features but a full featured program that's less than $100.
Make that under $30. $29.99 to be exact. In today's world that's a bargain for any piece of software that actually does something. I first used this little jewel of an application back in an earlier version when I needed a quick mock up for a client.
If you’ve read more than one of my reviews you know by now one of my keys to good software is ease of use. Throw in a small learning curve and I'm hooked. These features are generally lacking in most of the 2D/3D visual arts applications available today and mostly for good reason.
Yes it takes skill to create good digital art but no one says the tools have be like wearing a hair shirt or a millstone around your neck. The better the tool the more creativity for some of us so we are always looking for an edge.
That app that sets our work apart or is so incredibly efficient you can't help but LOOK for projects to use it with. That elusive easy button.
'The drag and drop feature of the bubbles and the panels remove some of the biggest time consuming and technical hurdles in comic production.' This is where Comic Life comes in. In my review of iClone 6 I was looking for a way to showcase single image renders and remembered Comic Life. Not only was it alive and well it was updated to a new version.
Comic Life 3 Tutorial
After doing a double take at the low retail price, which I probably did when I first downloaded it too, I was able to get into my account and get an updated version up and running in minutes. After deciding on a campy 4 page comic it was a simple matter to insert the artwork, add captions and even manipulate the action labels in terms of warping, bending and scaling.
Plenty of thought bubbles and other items that can really dress up the final version of a comic or graphic novel. WHATS INSIDE When opening up the application you are presented with options on various templates and blanks of various sorts. There are scripts and comics each with their own examples ready for you to use. It’s not just comics either.
Review Of Comic Life 3 For Mac Serial
There’s also some How-To, Creative, Life Stories and Educational templates plus single panels. After you choose your flavor you are then presented with a drag and drop interface for your prepared artwork. This artwork can be anything from hand drawn fine art or stick figures to 2D/3D renderings and photographs.
Just about any type of image can be dumped into the panels for use. MAIN INTERFACE The main interface is a simple layout placing the tools and artwork in front of you. The left side menus show the actual pages in the publication and the styles used. The drag and drop workspace is located in the center of the user interface above a large menu bar with all the bells, whistles and goodies needed to make an interesting and visually aesthetic comic such as lettering, captions and various bubbles. The right side menu contains tabs holding the template set on one tab and the template library on the second tab. Below these tabs is a section that displays the selected artwork in a choice of Photos, Explorer and Camera.
This reviewer relied on the explorer feature on a Windows pc. PANELS THAT WORK The core of this product and the one of the reasons for its ease of use are the artwork panels. They are extremely versatile in that you can reshape, resize and easily change the style of the panels.
A huge template library is provided that in itself is a tremendous resource. In fact there are so many different template styles included that it’s hard to believe this is a $30 piece of software. The panels are simple drag and drop affairs. You can browse to your artwork from a menu on the lower right side of the workspace or you can drag and drop from any open explorer window (Windows) by just hovering the artwork over the panel’s interior and releasing the mouse button. Click on the panel once and you select the panel for moving or scaling.
Click again and you get a set of red shaping handles (red dots) that you can grab and drag with the mouse to reshape the panel. Click again and you have selected the artwork in the panel which can then be manipulated via the inspector panel and scaled or moved.
ARTWORK SPECIAL EFFECTS With your artwork selected the Inspector menu gives a wide range of filters to further modify or enhance your artwork. You can go to black and white, thatched, pen, paint and many more. There is also an entire menu of control sliders for Brightness, Exposure, Saturation, Sharpness, Contrast and Blur.
BALLOONS AND TAILS Now we come to an important part of this application and one that makes using it so much fun. The balloons for speech and thought are extremely versatile drag and drop tools with tails that can be moved via a handle that allows you to push or pull it to the desired location. There is also a curve handle on the tail if you drag it out long enough to see a red dot. Combining this with the ability to scale or rotate the bubbles makes these some of the most versatile thought and speech bubbles this author has used. EXPORT OPTIONS Another very important feature is the ability to get your comic out in to the wild so the public can view it. As obvious as this seems there was a popular comic application years ago that was not as versatile as Comic Life but produced a good comic.
Trouble was you had to jump through hoops. Comic life doesn’t suffer from this problem as it gives you many export options from the CBZ format for digital comics to the well known and widely used pdf format. Comic Life also exports to eBook standard, Facebook, ePub and images. An email option is also available.
SUMMARY Plasq has created a great tool at a budget price for anyone that wants to quickly and easily create a comic, graphic novel or other artwork driven publication. If you possess decent computer skills and have or can create the artwork to tell a story then you need to at least try this little jewel of a program.
According to the Plasq website there is a trial available. Check out the Demo Comic Comic Life for Mac or Windows Purchase: $29.99 Upgrade: $14.99 Available: plasq.com or the App Store Comic Life for iPad and iPhone Cost: $29.99 Available: App Store iPhone App: Comic Touch Cost: Free Available: App Store M.D.
McCallum (warlord720) is a International Award Winning Graphics Artist, 3D Animator, 3D Sculptor and Published Author. He is a staff writer and reviewer for the CG Industry news section here at Renderosity.com.
You can find more info on M.D.
The Most Powerful Photo Comic Creation App Available. 'Of the comic book apps I've used, Comic Life,'. Has the most features and works best on an iPad because of the bigger screen. I love the way the app allows you to edit tiny details, from the shape and style of word bubbles to the size and placement of each story cell.'
- Kit Eaton, The New York Times. Introducing an integrated Script Editor. Next generation image filters and built in Instant Alpha tool. New graphics features include speedlines, halftones, updated stroke options and more. Dozens of fully customizable templates.
Everything you need at your fingertips: speech balloons, photo filters, comic lettering, templates, shapes, shadows and effects. Download Comic Life 3 to create dynamic comics with your photos. Packed with fonts, templates, balloons, captions, and lettering art, Comic Life is a fun, powerful and easy-to-use app that makes creating comics easier than ever. And now you can build your comics anywhere you like. Easily go from taking photos to creating full comics all on one device with full page templates and panel layouts. Create original stories with the integrated Script Editor then drag and drop your words to the comic page when you're done.
Bring in photos from your photo library or access web photos via Flickr integration, and the app's powerful editing and design tools to get exactly the look you want. When your work of art is complete, use the integrated reader to review pages on your device. Or share with your friends and family.
Choose from Facebook, Twitter, email or open your comic in another app as a PDF. New Tools and Features in Comic Life 3.
Script Editor. That recognizes elements as you type. 17 Advanced parametric image filters. Dozens of full templates with hundreds of panel layout options.
Instant Alpha tool built in so you can knock out image backgrounds. Speedlines, halftones, and textures. Fully customizable fill and borders for balloons, lettering, captions, panels and shapes. New balloon variety slider for even more customization. Customizable gradient builder.
Over 60 font options. Load photos directly from photo library. Integrated camera feature to instantly add photos to your comic.
Supports multi-page comics. Using Comic Life you can: Read your comics with the integrated e-reader. Create photo comics in the full featured comic editor. Share your comics on Facebook, Twitter, via Mail, AirDrop and iTunes File Share. Transfer your comics to Mac or Windows and keep working with Comic Life 3 on your desktop or laptop. Send your comics to a printer on your wireless network.
Choose from full page layouts including panels, titles and captions along with complimentary styles for a high end look. Drag and Drop elements anywhere in your comic page.
Easily add photos from your library with the Place Photo button in panels. Curve and place balloon tails precisely with advanced tail controls. Resize and rotate images, clip them in panels along with balloons, captions, and lettering. Create multilayered color gradients to design the perfect style for lettering, captions or background.
Use smart shapes to add common shapes and the free form shape drawing tool to create any line or shape you can imagine. Work without worry of losing your creation as documents are automatically saved whenever a change is made. This feature is available on iPad only.