Dialogue Guide
Jun 27th, 2007 by twilson
Here’s a quick guide to dialogue:
This is spoken text.
This is an inner thought.
SOUND EFFECT!!!
Jun 27th, 2007 by twilson
Here’s a quick guide to dialogue:
This is spoken text.
This is an inner thought.
SOUND EFFECT!!!
I wonder why you are re-inventing the wheel so to speak. Generally in books, online (and I think the comics I have seen) italics indicate internal thoughts. Sound effects are fine in square brackets but they could also be ALL CAPS which for most folks online indicates loudness thus already associating such text with an audible component.
Yeah, I know it’s a little late to change now, but I thought I’d share.
Not too late at all (well, maybe for 1 & 2), especially since episode 3 will begin with a lot of internal thoughts as the characters individually come to grips with their situation. Your suggestion is a good one, since simpler is usually better. We debated using colors, name tags as in a script, and several other things. Definitely open to further ideas that don’t cover up our pretty sets with speech bubbles
For those interested, this was the previous system before we started using avatars in combination with Ted’s suggestions:
Spoken lines are indicated by the right angle bracket, like so:
> 1st character from the left
>> 2nd character from the left
>>> 3rd character from the left, etc.
Thoughts, or interior monologue, use a pair of angle brackets and italic text, like this:
< I wonder what's for lunch. >
Sound effects use a pair of brackets an text, all in italic:
[splash!]
I love the whole idea. I would like to do a stop motion film, but just not enough time. So the graphic novel is very appealling for me - build and go and if I have to stop, no sets to wreck…
I would enjoy larger photos and a bit more lighting. But mayne your trying to keep the files small. So maybe some closr shots for details…. I can follow the dialog wioth the avatars and think it’s a LOT better than dialog balloons!!!!
One question, did you just photoshop the SFX? I have to read the speacila features section….
Keep up the good work and waiting for the next chapter!!!
Thanks for the feedback! Work on the Mercurials has sort of languished as I’ve worked on other projects, but we’ll be getting back to it. You’re right that I’ve tried to keep the file sizes on the pics down a bit, also to keep people at lower screen resolutions from having to scroll too much.
The graphic novel format has worked out well for us. I like to think it helps cheat the fact that their faces aren’t animated. You can still do a lot with “body language”, I think. I just don’t have the patience for stop-motion anyway!
The effects are done in Paint.net, a free graphics program (well, I’ve donated to the project, but free to download). It’s not as full-featured as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, but it is a heck of a lot easier to use and has everything I need. That’s what I use to crop, adjust, and assemble the pages as well.
By the way, if you are anyone else is interested in trying the graphic novel format, I’d be glad to share my code. Probably I should re-write it since I’ve learned a lot more programming since I wrote it, but if you think it would be helpful I’d be glad to share. After all, nearly everything I use is open-source!