yea

do you have tips on comic compostions and angling/framing of scenes beacuse holy fudge what the actual hell your mob comic is An Expirience

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhOOOOOOOOOOOO BO Y AIGHT

I’m gonna take this ask as a chance to masterpost about this comic.

Since there wasn’t a set time limit for this comic, I went all ham for it, which means there’s a lot of thought about angles/framing n shit in this sumbitch. (keep in mind i’m still learning this craft myself as i go along so FEEL FREE TO IMPROVE WHEREVER)

I’ll go in depth about it but all of my tips can be summed up with : 

go for the emotion of the scene.

Everything I do, I do to try and heighten the feeling in a scene. What I’m about to describe were all choices to try and maximize the emotional impressions.

First off, everything in this comic (with the exception of panels 7-9 on page 4) is from Mob’s POV. It’s all built from there. keep in mind goin forward -

We start with Mob terrified of being spotted, of running into anyone. So I strained the perspective to make it feel too close for comfort, despite how far away his other limbs are. I also used the angle to emphasize the “spotlight”, pushing Mob into further discomfort, like he’s being watched anyways.

Mob fears he just murdered someone ? At his lowest moment in this comic? This is where the camera looks down on Mob the most.

Time for shock and awe that the man’s alive ! So Reigen is angled UP, building his Bigness in Mob’s eyes. Most subsequent shots repeat this, keeping us grounded in Mob’s perspective.

Here, Mob is literally on his knees asking for answers. So I pushed for an angle to make him seem really tiny. I wanted him to look as small as he feels.

In the next few pages, the angles basically level out (and I’ll talk more about why in other sections***) until

Mob has just touched back. This was a direct action on his part, so just as I’d built Reigen with that tilt up, it’s Mob’s turn to share that space.

Once Mob fears for the lives of the police, we shift back to high angles. Using a high angle to make a character seem small isn’t groundbreaking but it’s something to chew anyways.

This is less about the angle and more about how cramped everything is. Mob feels backed into a corner unless he can get Reigen to relent. So the tightness and how Reigen looms reflects this.

And here, I mirrored the very first panel. Once again we have a shot of Mob’s back, walking into the light of a streetlamp. But this angle is gentle in comparison, even if slightly off center. We can see where the light comes from so it ceases to feel less like an omnipotent threat and more mundane. Perhaps even hopeful.

I’m sorry to say I feel this is one of my weak points as a creator. I’d like to improve here the most. Most of my panels can be summed up with ‘slant = energized’, ‘straight = stable’. BUT. I did take a few liberties here and it’s good to point them out.

Broken glass to heighten the ouch on Mob’s part.

Salt man don’t give a fuck. he IS the panel. //adds to the energy of this moment

This break from the panels is meant to make Mob hitting Reigen a more immediate threat.

Same with Reigen reaching around it here. He’s still in danger of being shreddy shreddy at this point.

Sometimes a panel will bleed off, to give a more ‘open space’ feel. I like to use it in subtle “oh” moments. That’s the best I could describe it.

annnnnd nothin like a casual reminder on the edges of panels about what would happen should the police show up.

Once Reigen shows up, he dominates the frame, even in shots where mob is closer to the audience. Again, this is all to emphasize how Big Reigen seems to a scared Mobbu.

Mob pushes himself to corners, Reigen’s given the bulk of the space. 

He stands taller than mob and makes the frame uneven.

Even his hand feels huge in comparison.

***That is, until Reigen has a better perception of what’s going on.

Then his actions and staging reflect this.

Reigen kneels down, trying to make himself smaller both to Mob, and in the frame.

The staging reflects Reigen’s attempts to get on even ground, literally and metaphorically.

Mob’s still pushing himself into corners, but now Reigen has actively surrendered some of the space.

Still just, trying to get some of Mob’s perspective.

And from this point onwards, Reigen and Mob share the space/frame more evenly. 

Even in shots where Reigen’s kinda large, he no longer seems so imposing.

Mob still looks up to him but we no longer have such dramatic shots tilting him up and having him hog the focus of the panel.

And we save the closest-closeup, both in staging and in how close our characters physically feel for last. Because bonding and shit.

Decided to make the use of color sort of uncomfortable. Hinted at in edges but not really a presence of their own. Hard to tell what the color of anything is because it’s all nonsense in ur peripherals.

Until we get to humans. But this color seems more invasive, and doesn’t really touch mob in a positive way.

Till we get to these splash of color, messy and kinda unorganized but it’s exactly what Mob needs to bring some order.

From here we get a muted color wash, there but still slightly dulled.

The first hint we get of the saturation to come is centered around the touch.

We slowly fade into full blown saturation once Mob reaches back.

The name meanings of Jun and Tetsuo, since this is the street where they live and why not ahaha.

There’s a lot of bird imagery in ABoT so I

“Kid, it’s like lifting a feather.”

And even tho Reig gets a cool halo from the streetlights n shit

We all know who the real angel is

Mob’s outfit is based on Sakurai’s outfit when he was orphaned as a child.

I literally put the streetlight directly behind the hand in this shot because I lack subtlety and love it.

There are 2 times where I cut out a bit of (frankly beautiful) wordage in order to show things better visually. Both times happen when Mob’s stopped paying attention.

First with Reigen’s words just becoming a flood of nonsense pretty sounds.

The second when Mob’s thinking about the possibility of his barrier being gone.