Course: Comic book lettering in Adobe Illustrator

This is a basic course in how to digitally letter comic books in Adobe Illustrator. Over the course of 21 videos and 4 hours of instruction, you will learn the basic techniques to construct word balloons, set font size and spacing, the ins and outs of special balloons like radio, thought, and burst balloons, special effects, and comics grammar. This course has everything you need to create professional-looking lettering for your comic projects. The course also includes helpful templates, practice materials, and suggestions on fonts.

Video titles and topics are as follows:

Basics/Setup

1.1 Setting up the interface (4:45)

1.2 Creating a template (10:00)

1.3 Illustrator terms (7:32)

1.4 Illustrator shortcuts (14:25)

1.5 Fonts (19:08)

1.6 Lettering rules and comics grammar (15:15)

Basic Balloons

2.1 Creating a balloon - Stroke method (20:35)

2.2 Creating a balloon - Layer method (18:27)

2.3 Fitting balloons into tight spaces (14:57)

Special Balloons

3.1 Caption balloons (17:05)

3.2 Thought balloons (9:51)

3.3 Radio balloons (13:51)

3.4 Whisper balloons (12:44)

3.5 Burst balloons (14:22)

Special Effects and Other Techniques

4.1 Special effects (13:15)

4.2 Tail best practices (5:38)

4.3 Overlapping balloons (8:06)

4.4 Linewidth adjustment (2:14)

4.5 Matching balloons to lineart (2:32)

4.6 Incorporating panels (4:26)

4.7 Thinking outside the balloon (9:27)