Some of my comics made using SketchUp and Paint.NET:

My web comics

My web page

CROWBAR - robots, cyborgs, space pirates, aliens!
CROWBAR - robots, cyborgs, space pirates, aliens!
Space Pirates of the Black Quarter
Space Pirates of the Black Quarter
The most exciting adventures of Princess Yukisaki!
The most exciting adventures of Princess Yukisaki!
Starship Captain II - the further adventures of Captain William Star and the crew of the GSS Eagle
Starship Captain II - the further adventures of Captain William Star and the crew of the GSS Eagle
MARS II - further mystery on the red planet
MARS II - further mystery on the red planet
Secret Agent: British Intelligence II - Thrash is back!
Secret Agent: British Intelligence II - Thrash is back!
Starship Captain - the adventures of Captain William Star and the crew of the GSS Eagle
Starship Captain - the adventures of Captain William Star and the crew of the GSS Eagle
MARS - A murder mystery on Mars
MARS - A murder mystery on Mars
Secret Agent: British Intelligence - When the fit hits the shan and the world's about to blow up, send for secret agent Biff Thrash! This man is dangerous!
Secret Agent: British Intelligence - When the fit hits the shan and the world's about to blow up, send for secret agent Biff Thrash! This man is dangerous!

Making 3D comics using Google SketchUp

A rough guide by dpat57, Aug 2010 (latest edit: 12 Jan 2011)

Intention

The intention of this how-to guide is to create 3D humanoid models that can be moved and posed, so you can take .jpg snapshots which you can then turn into comics by adding dialogue, SFX and other comicky stuff in the art tool of your choice.* This is so simple that even I can do it. I'm not claiming I do it well, I'm just saying I can do it.

If you're interested in how I accomplish this arcane magick, read on! If you really couldn't care less then maybe this isn't the web page for you.

If you're already familiar with SketchUp then some of what follows may be a little too basic for you, apologies for this, I guess I'm aiming at folks who have never seen or used SketchUp before.

I'm a Windows Vista user so instructions are Windows-specific (e.g. hold down the Ctrl key). Mac users, you probably know the equivalent keys.

* e.g. Photoshop, GIMP, MS Paint. I use Paint.NET (see here for download link).


Where can I download SketchUp?

You'll find SketchUp here. It runs on Windows and Macs.

There's a whole bundle of tutorial videos and stuff online that are worth looking at, if only to give you an idea of what SketchUp is capable of. Damn clever piece of software!


When you run SketchUp...

...you'll see something like this:

Green earth, blue sky, X/Y/Z axes, and a sample guy to give some idea of scale. He's around 6' tall.

I've got my toolbars positioned to run along the top, underneath the text menu. The toolbars can be dragged so they're horizontal or vertical, just like the Windows toolbar.

The X/Y/Z axes are colored red, green and blue. Think of them as X=red=left/right, Y=green=forward/back, and Z=blue=up/down.

During certain operations, you may want to tell SketchUp which axis you want to move or copy elements along. The arrow keys allow you to do this with one keypress, Right Arrow=red=X-axis, Left Arrow=green=Y-axis, Up Arrow=blue=Z-axis.

If that scares you a little and you wish you'd paid more attention to geometry at school, don't worry about it, all will be explained in the given examples.


Next: Heads

Intro | Heads | Eyes | Eyebrows | Copying Eyes & Eyebrows | Noses | Mouths | Hair & Ears
The Body

 

 

 

 

 

 

The obligatory © 2009, 2010 by Derek Paterson notice