8. speech bubbles - bnf
TRANSCRIPT
SpeechBubblesIncomics,charactersspeakthroughtextthatappearsinspeechbubbles,orspeechballoons.Eachbubblehasatail,orpointer.Thetailpointstothecharacterthatisspeaking.
TheDifferentPartsofaSpeechBubble
Bubblesconsistofthreeelements:
● Thebubbleitself,whichsurroundsthetext.● Thetext.● Thetail,whichpointstowhoisspeaking.
PlacingYourBubblesProperly
Bubblesareplacedonapageinapreciseorder.Wealwaysstartbyreadingthebubblethatishighestintheframe,thenthenextonedown,andsoon.Whentwoormoreframesarenexttoeachother,wereadthemfromlefttoright.
[LearntoStructureaFrame]
[LearntoStructureaPage]
Tails
Thetipofthetailpointstothecharacterwhoisspeaking.Inthefirstexamplebelow,thetailispointingtotheboy,meaningthatheistheonespeaking.Whenabubblehasmorethanonetail,itmeansthattwoormorepeoplearesayingthesamethingatthesametime.
Thetailshouldalwaysbepointingattheperson’sfaceormouth.Ifthetailispointingatthecharacter’sstomach,readersmightthinkthecharacterisaventriloquist.
TextSize
Speechbubblesshouldbelargeenoughforthetextinsidethemtobelegible.Ideally,allofthetextsinyourstoryshouldbethesamesize,font(typeface,ortypeofletter),face(boldorlight)andcase(i.e.capitallettersorlowercase).
Textthatissmallerthantherestwillgivetheimpressionthatthecharacterisspeakingquietly;larger,thattheyarespeakingloudly.
Puttingallthetextinaspeechbubbleincapitalletters,ormakingitbold,willreinforcethateffect.Ifyouhavelarge,boldcapitalletters,itmeansthecharacterisshoutingatthetopoftheirlungs.
Anotherwaytoshowthatacharacteriswhisperingistouseaspeechbubbledrawnwithadottedline.
Youcanindicatebubbles’relativeimportancebyoverlappingthem.Thetextofthelowerbubbleisconsideredlessimportantthantheoneontop.
DifferentTypesofBubbles
Bubblesdrawnwithdottedlinesmeanthatthecharacterisspeakingquietly.Otherkindsofbubbleshaveotheruses.
Ifthetailismadeupofsmallerbubbles,thatmeansthatthecharacteristhinkingratherthanspeaking.
Rectangularspeechbubblesusuallymeanthatthesoundisdifferentfromtherest.Theyaretraditionallyusedformechanical-soundingvoices:avoicecomingoutofatelephone,oracomputerorroboticvoice.
StackedBubbles
Toillustrateadialogue,youcanstackmorethanonebubbletogetherwithasingletailtoshowthattheyarebeingspokenbythesamecharacter.
WithBDnF,youcanmakestackedbubbles.Youcanstackasmanybubblesasyouwant,aslongasthereisenoughroomintheframe.Don’tforgettofollowreadingorderandtoalignthemneatly.
Captions
Sometextgoesinsideframeswithintheframe,calledcaptions.
Thekindofcaptionthatexplainswhereand/orwhentheactionistakingplaceisusuallyplacedatornearthetopoftheframe.Itisoftenusedtoindicateachangeoftimeorplace.
Othercaptionsaremorenarrative.Theyareusedtocommentonthehero’sactions.