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obtusity — Speech Balloons in FireAlpaca using Selections by-nd

#cartooning #speechballoons #speechbubbles #firealpaca #firealpacatutorial
Published: 2015-04-08 10:41:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 19207; Favourites: 189; Downloads: 70
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Description Updated (and simplified) version here: 

I apologise for the large size.
This is just one way to create speech balloons (or speech bubbles if you prefer).
You could draw them by hand (used a lot in manga styles). You could use the Curve snap (ruler), but I find that gets fiddly.

Instead of using selection shapes and tools, you could just draw the balloons in white with the ellipse variant of the Fill Tool (filled shapes, not the Bucket Tool), and the tail with the polygon variant or a large normal white pen/brush instead of the SelectPen (you could add outlines by first using the Select menu, Create Selection from Layer / Opacity) - this might be better, but I find it a little difficult if I'm working with white balloons on a white background - hmm, I might have to play with this more using a temporary middle grey background layer.
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Comments: 11

hanibun169 [2022-09-02 12:49:57 +0000 UTC]

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Chillypenguin178 [2020-01-17 14:18:32 +0000 UTC]

This makes my life a hecc of a lot easier. Thank you!

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VueloNocturno [2019-03-11 18:51:20 +0000 UTC]

this is exactly what I needed.
Thanks!!

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SquidFace416 [2018-12-13 13:39:49 +0000 UTC]

Can I make a comment on something that might make deselecting easier? You just press control d, I believe. Thank you so much for this tutorial though! Probably the best one, and saved me SO much time and effort! Thank you so so so much!

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WolfJinx007 [2018-12-01 00:24:44 +0000 UTC]

Incredibly helpful. saved me alot of agony lol

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CaptinWakajack [2017-02-24 21:13:48 +0000 UTC]

Super freaking helpful!!! Thank you this actually helps! Especially if you use custom fonts, this can lead lead to some pretty sick comic word bubbles!

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selenedrakant [2016-05-18 08:52:59 +0000 UTC]

I must congratulate you for this. You have gained a new follower and a llama badge. This will be most helpful for my graphic novel

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obtusity In reply to selenedrakant [2016-06-26 23:46:39 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!
My apologies for the delay replying, my free time lately has been mostly devoted to some other subjects.

These days, I'm beginning to think it is faster to draw the shapes directly, add a tail with a Fade In/Out pen, and add outlines (if desired) by using Select > Create Selection from Layer / Opacity.
Keep an eye out for a newer tutorial using that technique, and one for 3 ways of drawing traditional thought bubbles.

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Dreamer-T [2015-05-28 23:08:45 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for this

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Belderchal [2015-04-08 14:24:01 +0000 UTC]

ahh I didn't know about that "draw selection border" tool. Thanks!

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obtusity In reply to Belderchal [2015-04-08 14:30:46 +0000 UTC]

Glad you got something out of it!
Yeah, for an apparently simple program, there are a lot of features in FireAlpaca.

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