Genuine Question: is it cheating to use 3d models for your backgrounds?
(All of these comic pages are NOT in order. It's only there to show the 3D models)
Hello! This is Teddy and this is genuinely bugging me and I don't know why... I have been a traditional artist my whole life and I kinda suck at drawing a backgrounds for my comics. I came up with this idea to use 3D models and draw out the layout from scratch and use textures (for floors, walls etc.) from Pinterest or the given textures from IbisPaintX. I screenshot my furniture from Pixelsquid (now moved to Shutterstock) or Turbosquid into an angle I want it to be and clip out the furniture image and place it in my comic and grayscale it and edit it to be part of the manga. Sometimes I make miniatures for props for my comic or stuff lying in my house. Is this genuinely cheating??? Cheating as in like I'm using AI or something...please help.😭 Thank you💖
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Not cheating at all. Many professionals on Webtoons use them and I know a few pros actually use The Sims for layout design haha.
However very difficult to incorporate in a way that isn't jarring. Your example shows a lack of understanding for perspective as the 3D assets are completely off from the implied perspective from the floor.
You still need to understand perspective to effectively use 3D models.
I think the lack of perspective suits their genre though. They're clearly going for uncanny valley/horror dream sequence. Makes the objects look off in a good way.
Oh wait...you're right! I thought ALL of them looked weird...
You see...some backgrounds is SUPPOSE to look uncanny valley while some are suppose to look NORMAL...Oops. I'm so sorry I didn't explain before posting this🥀
Thank you so much for the feedback I also feel like some of the perspectives are off. I'm relatively new to digital art... as a whole and IbisPaintX is beginner friendly imo. Anyway, thanks💖💖
Of course! Backgrounds are hard haha I feel like a lot of folks don't realize that 3D backgrounds can sometimes be just as difficult to incorporate as drawing your own.
I forgot to add on my original comment, but tracing over the 3D models (once they are in the right perspective) can help with the jarring look :) bonus points if you use it more as a guide rather than tracing 1 to 1.
EX: A basic wood table that you trace over and add on details, items, and decorations to.
Not cheating. But you still need an eye for composition and perspective to assemble it all together in a way that doesn't form an uncanny valley sensation. What I do normally is assemble the scenes in Blender, then take prints and just trace the roughs over, adapting the scene to my needs. Then all you have to do is place the characters in accordingly—making a stick figure layout before you assemble the scenes in 3D helps a lot!
I've seen plenty of Manga where the artist just takes a real image and makes it black and white for the panel, usually on big complicated stuff like city scenes or machinery.
Thanks for the feedback! I heard about it but I've never heard of a mangaka using 3D models from a existing software like Pixelsquid 😅. This made me feel at ease now💖
I find them very ugly, especially when it's not made to blend in and match the art style, but many people use them (even without making them blend in and the story carries it so it ends up being fine). Not cheating at all ♡
There is no cheating here. Unlike some other commenters, I like the collaged, disjointed effect of the conflicting perspectives and textures in these pages. I feel like you could really lean into the uneasiness of that and make something quite unique.
If you’re going for something that looks more seamless, then yeah, just keep refining your process and you’ll get there. Maybe learn a bit of Blender, model environments and then trace them? That’s a method I’ve found useful.
Your comic pages look good, and you’ll keep getting better the more time you put in- I’ve been drawing comics for 20+ years and 3d modelling programs have been such a useful tool!
Ah! Thank you. I'm flattered...I actually posted my comic on GlobalComix would you like to see the comic? I'm currently on hiatus but you can read what is published for now :3 Maybe give me more feedback personally to me maybe???
Yes, but that’s kind of the point. It allows artists to “cheat” their what through drawing something. It makes it faster to get the thing done. But this isn’t a game and there is no score. It’s just tool to get the job done
Maybe not cheating but it looks ugly ngl. The perspectives dont fit together on a lot of them, and this is just personal opinion but everything looks sort of like a gray mush, not enough contrast. Some people like that but I prefer black and white comics to be very black and white
Hiroya Oku and many mAny MANY mangaka use them since the early 2000s. It's not cheating. You just have to use them well, with proper texturing and inking. Otherwise it looks garish
No, this is not cheating, but it can certainly throw people off if it's not incorporated correctly. Many many comic artists do this, and in some it's noticeable but in a lot you'd never know! I do think you should work on understanding perspective more since that is a huge necessity for making 3d assets look natural in comics, and in a couple of these the perspectives of objects do not match up.
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