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Tutorial 1 Creating a simple comics frame

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on March 26, 2009 at 11:20:07 pm
 

 Creating a simple comics frame such as in Figure 1 is now easy in Second Life. 

Figure 1 A simple comics frame


 Step 1: Positioning your actor in a frame 

After wearing the MURKU HUD, use your camera skills to position the actor so that it is within the guide frame (Figure 2). This step is optional. I use it to match my sense of balance regarding text size and graphics in my comic strips. 

Figure 2 Positioning actor in frame


 Step 2: Selecting chat bubble

Click on the graphic element of your choice representing the chat bubble you need to select it. Selecting the item makes it transparent. 

Figure 3 selecting chat bubble


 Step 3: Placing chat bubble where needed

Click on a point close to the actor to position the chat bubble (Figure 4) 

Figure 4 Placing chat bubble where needed


 Step 4: Resizing the chat bubble

Click on the 'scale-up' button to increase the size of the chat bubble (Figure 5)

Figure 5 Increasing the size of the chat bubble


 Step 5: Positioning the chat bubble

Note that you will now need to position the bubble manually using the positioning widget in the position and color section (Figure 6).

Clicking the triangles moves the selected graphics elements, in this case, the chat bubble in larger steps. clicking on the circles moves the graphics elements shorter distances. 

Figure 6 Positioning the chat bubble


 Step 6: Scale and position to taste

After scaling the chat bubble and refining its location using the manual positioning widget, we end up with what is shown in Figure 7. 

Figure 7 Scale and position to taste


 Step 7: Adding text to the chat bubble 

To add text to the chat bubble, we first need to select a text handler (Figure 8). And click on the chat bubble where we want the text to appear. 

Figure 8 Adding text- Select a text handle 


 Step 8: Placing text handle where needed on the chat bubble

Again, if you are not happy with the positioning, make sure the text handle is selected, and use the position widget to position the text handle manually (Figure 9). 

Figure 9 Place text handle where needed on chat bubble 


 Step 9: Selecting text handle to manipulate it e.g. change its size

The text handle support line widths of 10, 20 30 to 40 characters. In most cases, you would want you text length to match the size of the chat bubble. 

Figure 10 Select text handle


 Step 10: Increasing text handle length to 20 characters

Inside the text handlers section (Figure 11), click on the '20' button to increase the length of the selected text handle. 

Figure 11 Click on the number of characters you intend to type in per line, here I clicked 20

 

And the result is shown below in Figure 12. You might want to reposition the text handle for better results using the position widget. 

Figure 12 You can see that the text handle size increased to represent the length of the line


 Step 11: Adding text to the selected text handle 

Once the text handle is selected, you need to tell it what text it needs to display. Type in the chat box /2 followed by the text of your choice (Figure 13). Press return, and you end with what is shown in Figure 14. 

Figure 13 After adjusting position of the text handle the same way you adjusted the chat bubble, type in /2 followed by the text you need

 

Figure 14 Resultant text message in chat bubble

 

Now, having the transparent green text handle is not nice. Let us hide it. This is done by clicking on the 'hide text handle' button in the Text handlers section (Figure 15). 

Figure 15 Hide the text handle and finally, take a snap shot 


RESULTS

 

Use any screen capture software to capture your frame. Vista has a tiny screen capture tool in accessories, use that. Or use Screen Hunter, it is a tiny application that works well and can be accessed easily with a single click, select region to save. And here's the final results.

 

Figure 16 The final frame of your comic strip

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