Want to make a webtoon but you’re not sure where to start? Use our step-by-step guide to help you!
Even if you have a great plot idea, it can be daunting to know exactly how to make a webtoon that will reach the millions of fans that are out there. So let’s go over the essentials, from how to plot a webtoon to where to publish your webtoon.
Step 1: plan your webtoon
Before you do anything else, you should come up with a plan for how to make your webtoon. Specifically, you’ll need to flesh out your concept into a full outline, while developing your webtoon characters, their motivations, what relationships you want to explore, and coming up with an idea of where you want your webtoon story to end.
How to make a webtoon plot
First things first: in order to create a webtoon, you need a plot idea. If you haven’t already come up with a webtoon plot concept, there are tons of online story-generation resources. We particularly like the Self-Publishing School’s story prompts.
If you’re struggling to come up with a plot, a fun premise that will always help you get webtoon readers is isekai: a manga/webtoon trope in which a character from one story (or the real world) is transported into another fictional world.
This can be a great way to retell a story from a different angle, or to tell a totally new story from an outsider’s perspective. But be careful: if you want to do this with a webtoon that already exists, you may need to get permission from the author first!
Story is driven by conflict! If your webtoon plot starts slowing down, add in a point of conflict to create a complex situation for your characters to navigate!
Once you’ve decided on your concept, you’ll need to come up with a basic outline. You don’t need to know exactly how the story will end (though it helps to have a rough idea). But if you come up with an outline for the first three episodes at least, this will help you create a buffer of content before you publish your webtoon (more on that later).
How to create webtoon characters
When it comes to making webtoons, characters are perhaps even more important than plot. Character-driven stories are always compelling: get your readers to fall in love with your characters, and they’ll keep coming back week after week to find out what shenanigans they get up to next!
But remember, every character needs…
- Motivation
- Connection to the main character
- A role to play in the story
The more characters you have, the more stories you can tell. However, too many and your webtoon will feel overcrowded. You can avoid this by making sure that every character has a specific role to play: they must be in the story for a reason!
And remember, when you’re thinking about how to make a webtoon, each character needs to have a clear motivation. Make sure you know exactly what each character wants, and then you can decide how they would act in every situation. It might help to create a webtoon character sheet where you can list your character’s name, background information, and their wants and needs.
Step 2: webtoon pre-production
Here’s where you get into the art stage. Concept art can really help you visualize your story, and help you get to know your characters better.
Tease your content on social media! If you’re creating concept art, post it online to build buzz for your webtoon.
And of course, when we’re thinking of how to make a webtoon, one of the most important considerations is art style. Here are some tips for creating your own, unique, webtoon art style…
Match your genre
Romantic webtoons look very different to webtoons about crime bosses. Match darker plotlines with darker colors and bolder lines, while fantasy scenarios could feature rich jewel tones and classic serif fonts. That’s the style that Beedrws used for popular webtoon Surviving Beauty, mixing in stained glass window techniques for the prologue to make the story feel like a fairy tale.
Know your influences
Are you going to go with a manga style, emulate American action comics, or get inspired by indie graphic novels? There are so many different types of comics out there, and it’s great to look around for influences. However, be careful not to directly copy another artist’s style!
Be distinctive
Even if you’re creating webtoons in a style that many other people use, you can keep your style unique to you by adding in distinctive elements. Maybe you could use watercolor backgrounds, or use muted colors with a few bright tones for emphasis. No matter what you do, crafting a unique style can help your comic stand out from the crown and get more webtoon readers.
Step 3: creating your webtoon
Now it’s time to make your webtoon! There are many different programs you can use to create your webtoon, from Apple’s Procreate and Adobe Photoshop, to independent programs like Clip Studio Paint (which has webtoon dimensions as project presets).
Before you start drawing, it’s important to know exactly what dimensions your webtoon needs to be.
What are the dimensions of a webtoon strip?
Most webtoon apps set the dimensions of each panel at 800px by 1280px (including Line WEBTOON, Tapas, and Taddy). You can include as many panels in a chapter as you want. However, some apps have image upload limits, eg: WEBTOON and Taddy both set the limit at 100 images per episode, while Tapas restricts users to 60 images.
You can double or triple the pixel width and height while drawing, then resize the artwork before uploading.
WEBTOON and Tapas also auto-crop their images, so if you upload something that is over 1280px (or 2000px for Tapas) it will be automatically split into multiple images
What is the webtoon maximum file size?
This varies depending on the webtoon app. Line WEBTOON and Tapas both set their maximum file size (per episode upload) at 20MB, while Taddy’s is 500MB.
Taddy’s high megabyte limit allows artists to upload much higher quality images, which artist Rosie Reitz took full advantage of for the comic HiLo Spirits. Published via Taddy to bam! (our comic reader app), HiLo Spirits is fun, mysterious, and gorgeous — and the image quality is super sharp!
Oh, and before you upload, double check file size limits, otherwise you’ll spend more time resizing your webtoon than you took to draw it!
When resizing your artwork to be smaller, it can help to use the “sharpen” tool, as resizing sometimes makes your linework softer.
How to use webtoon’s vertical scroll
You can create your panel layout however you want, but remember that people will be vertically scrolling through your comic.
This means you can do fun things with color washes in your backgrounds or have entire sections of the webtoon that pan down an image, like beedrws used for Surviving Beauty.
You can slow down the reader, using the vertical scroll to have a character ponder their thoughts. On the flip side, you can speed up the reading experience by placing lots of action close together, to make it feel like things are moving faster.
Step 4: publishing your webtoon
You’ve planned your story, you’ve created your webtoon, so now you just have to publish it! However, there are a few things to do first.
Where should you publish your webtoon?
With plenty to choose from, it can be difficult to know which webtoon app you should publish on. So, why not publish on several platforms? You can manually upload your stuff to Line WEBTOON and Tapas, while Taddy allows you to publish on multiple apps at once with the click of a button.
Above all, know your rights. Some apps, like Line WEBTOON, have membership tiers that require exclusivity, and in some cases they will own your content. Other tools, like Taddy, allow you to retain all your IP rights no matter what app you publish to. Be sure to read through the terms of service carefully so you know what you’re signing up to.
Welcome to the wonderful world of webtoons!
The process of making a webtoon is complex and detailed, so this is just a brief overview of the main steps you need to take. But once you’ve completed these stages, you’re ready to go! At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you enjoy the process. Art should be fun! So dive into your story, publish wherever you want, and share your creation with the world.
Sign up for Taddy to publish your webtoon on multiple platforms
Article by: Eleanor Tremeer
Written on Nov 2, 2023