Starting on Maraverde~

Long time no update...

BloodyBerry and I are joining a Komik Festival (ManHua) on March 31 and the registration deadline is on March 3rd, and now we're working on a project and its what's taking up our time. We went through so many titles that we wanted to work on and because of clashes with real life activities, we couldn't work on the story we wanted to do most since it requires details and attention. We settled with the most unexpected story we often skip out on but hey, it turned out hilarious. Our story Maraverde, means green river in English, was the choice among the dozens that fleeted through our minds. It's a supernatural and comedy story combined and kinda like a comic strip only not made into a strip or the usual 4-panel you see. And the very last I did and got my sister in the mood to draw was removing all restrictions on how she must draw. You see, BloodyBerry likes details, and I mean lots of lines and designs on her characters. With that and the talk we had about doing one page a day of our indie, we got our gears moving. I estimated that we can make it on time, afterall, the requirement for registration on ManHuaCon we wanted to enter was the final cover and any 2 comic page. With fingers crossed and a lot of 'hopefully'... we get to finish our indie on time.

In addition to this, we also formed a group. Please visit our site: The BLANK PAGE

Doujin Production Team Positions

PRE-PRODUCTION
Story Contributor
Script Writer
Proof Reader and Editor

PRODUCTION
Penciller
Inker
Colourist and Toners
Type Setter

POST PRODUCTION
Quality Checker


DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES

PRE-PRODUCTION

Story Contributor

• Story Contributors are the ones who gives a story to be made as a manga project. They are responsible for the plot, characters, development, and resolution of the story. Everything that is to be done in a manga project starts with the Story Contributor.
• Story Contributors must have at least an understanding to excellent grammar. They should also be responsible for the research of their own stories.
• Depending on a plot, Story Contributors can collaborate and come up with one solid plot.

Script Writer

• Script writers are the ones who turn the story given by the Story Contributor into a plausible manga project. Script Writers are the ones who plan each page and panel with precision using words describing each scenes carefully and vividly.
• Like Story Contributors , Script Writers must have at least an understanding to excellent grammar. They must be able to follow through the story and be able to see them in panels and pages, and be able to write them down in detail.

Proof Reader and Editor

• Proof Readers and Editors are the ones who fix up the kinklings and errors in what the Story Contributors and Script Writers have done. They also point out and fix continuity, grammar, and dialogue errors that are to be found in the script. They should be able to suggest on how to improve the plot of the story more.
• Proof Readers and Editors must have good grammar and spelling skills.

PRODUCTION

Penciller

• Also known as the Rough Artists, they are the ones who sketches out the primary look of the manga from the script to paper. They are in charge of picturing what is written in the script and interpreting them into drawing.
• Pencillers should have a good eye for layout.

Inker

• They are the ones who finalizes what the penciller has drawn, cleans them up and inks them. Inkers should have a broad repertoire of inking and pen techniques with a range of pens and markers. Variety in line weights and depths is crucial.

Colourist and Toners

• Colourists, as the name refers, are the ones who colour the covers and pages. Toners on the other hand, instead of colors, use screentones to define and put detail in manga pages.

Type Setter

• Type Setters are the ones who will layout the dialogues and captions in the comic page.

POST PRODUCTION

Quality Checker

• Quality Checkers are the ones who will check for typographical and aesthetic errors that can be found in the finishes product. They must have a keen eye for detail.

How to Create a Short Story Manga

This was taken from HOW TO DRAW MANGA

Creating a Short Story Manga
A story is something that is composed of a character and actions that the character brings about.

You will notice that majority of the stories are series where a lot of fascinating characters appear. And with these characters, the story gets bigger and more interesting but... that won't work for short stories.

With short stories, if you want to create a complex story, you'll end up increasing the number of characters in a lot of unresolved episodes making for a half-finished, difficult to understand story. So why does it end up like this?

As a familiar example, let's say you in your school uniform are in the same class as B-kun. Since you have just met, you don't know much about each other. It's one year later. Now what kind of guy is B-kun?

The same goes for manga characters. After the reader sees a few scenes, they understand the character and have feelings for him. It goes without saying that pages will have to be expanded to show scenes.

But, short story - as the name suggests - has a limited number of pages. In addition, throughout the story, the setting has to be explained, the characters have to be introduced and the storyline needs to be developed. And since the development of the setting and storyline cannot be omitted... If something has to go, the only thing to omit is the number of characters. Making many characters is not suitable for short stories. In a word, a few crack characters are desirable for creating a short story.

While the rule - the less characters the better - holds true, if the characters don't have something that will fascinate the readers, they won't amount to much. One method is to make people think the character is a slightly quirky person.

Short Story Themes - Keeping it Simple
The theme is the 'character as he ought to be' which runs through the center of the storyline.

Avoid big themes if possible with short stories. A big theme would be something like becoming the strongest man in the world or defeating a powerful villain and the like. If the theme is becoming the strongest man in the world then the character must defeat several other characters, which doesn't make for a short story.

So what kind of themes are oriented toward short stories? For example, confessing one's love to someone or defeating one's (one and only one) rival are tales with only a few characters. When the number of characters is limited from the beginning, the themes are naturally geared for short stories.

Allotting pages from the Script to the Manga
Add scene settings and dialogue to the plot outline to complete your script.

It is important to consider the type of speech suitable for each character. It is easier to do this now than at the plot outline level. Next, allot parts of the script to the manga pages. Divide off the script into one-episode scenes.

Getting the Right Number of Pages
To get the right number of pages make abbreviations and omissions to the script when scenes are too detailed or too long or too much has been written to explain something pedestrian.

However, if omissions are made to the part expressing the theme or the thoroughlines in the script, you won't be able to convey what you want to the reader. Omissions is a means to get the important parts of the story on the page and by no means intended to thin out the storyline.

Fundamental Frame Rules
Based on the script, consider the spread of the frames using composition paper. Following the basic knowledge of flow, strange shaped frames can be created. The most important thing to consider is whether or not the frames are easy to read. The number of frames per page should be six or seven at most.

Then, consider the organization of the frames using a variety of compositions.

• low angle composition
• eye-level composition
• high angle composition
• full scene shot (master shot)
• long shot (distant view)
• full shot (entire body view)
• close up shot
• close shot (bust-up shot)

As a basic rule, when using these compositions, organize the frames to convey to the reader in an easy-to-understand manner the following: who, what, when, where.

Getting the Story Rolling
The introduction is the 'hook' of your story. Try getting the story rolling with the script and visuals (including frame allotment).

First of all, the following must be conveyed to the reader: who is the main character, what is the setting and world.

As a general rule, the main character appears in the beginning; however, his physical being does not have to be shown. For example, characters gossiping about the main character is enough to give him existence. That is absolutely true but what manga editors really want is something that hooks the reader from the start.