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Hmm....dou kana...?
About once a week, I end up asking myself one very crucial question:
Will my editor let me get away with this?
Take today, for example. In Captive 2 page 150, we have an extreme closeup of a pair of wide eyes that takes up the entire width of the page in a narrow panel. The eyes are accompanied by a blush, a sweatdrop, strands of pretty hair, and shoujo sparklies. Over the whole thing is a large "ki do" in katakana--white fill with thick black outlines (at least it isn't transparent with tone over the top...) The FX extends beyond the panel borders, so the top and bottom of the letters are cut off by the same. The FX are written right across the face, covering portions of both eyes. BLAM!! Kido.
The fun thing about lettering FX is that Japanese FX are almost always in Katakana, which is the straight, choppy alphabet. (As opposed to Hiragana, which is the curly, rounded alphabet.) And English letters--even uppercase--are half straight and half curly. Not to mention the English equivalent is always longer in terms of letters than the Japanese it's meant to cover. Here, for example, that "ki do" is meant to be repalced with "th-thump". Including the hyphen, more than twice as many letters.
So I wrote "TH-THUMP" over the whole thing as best I could, in all caps since this is a big moment. I can't cut the tops and bottoms off all the lettters b/c that would cover too much artwork and render some letters unreadable. (U, for example. Without the top or bottom it could be O, or two instances of I) I CAN cut them off on some of the letters, namely the first TH and the M and the P. But doing so will render the 2nd TH much smaller--unless I cover artwork that isn't covered in the original. That's frowned upon, especially since the artwork in question here is part of an eye. And even if the artwork IS covered in the orignal, my editors tend to ask for the English to not match the Japanese when it comes to covering faces and hands whenever possible. (A lesson learned the hard way.) So....
Making the first TH much bigger than the 2nd isn't too great of a problem, especially since with that eye there, the reason behind it is obvious. The hitch, the thing that made me lean back in my chair and ask myself that oh-so-important question above, is that the U is underneath the M, and only a little bit to the left. (The U is between the eyes, the M is above the right eye and partially over the eyebrow. The letters are not touching.) Granted, all the letters are leaning to the right, which helps with the flow. And the FX as I've drawn it is clearly meant to be read from right to left instead of vertically...and more than half of that U IS located to the left of the M. The P is also not touching the M, which matches the U and M's isolated placements, and that P is also clearly to the right of the M and on the same level, whch makes the FX quite clear to read. To MY eyes, anway.
This really is an awkward moment when it comes to lettering. The artwork and original FX placement prevents any graceful English solution. It all comes down to the U and the M. *drums fingers and considers the FX*
......
.....
Yeah. I think she'll let me get away with it. If I'm wrong, I'll let you guys know. :P
BTW, this is that aforementioned Pink page, the last page left for me in Captive. This volume is almost over.... T.T
The fun thing about lettering FX is that Japanese FX are almost always in Katakana, which is the straight, choppy alphabet. (As opposed to Hiragana, which is the curly, rounded alphabet.) And English letters--even uppercase--are half straight and half curly. Not to mention the English equivalent is always longer in terms of letters than the Japanese it's meant to cover. Here, for example, that "ki do" is meant to be repalced with "th-thump". Including the hyphen, more than twice as many letters.
So I wrote "TH-THUMP" over the whole thing as best I could, in all caps since this is a big moment. I can't cut the tops and bottoms off all the lettters b/c that would cover too much artwork and render some letters unreadable. (U, for example. Without the top or bottom it could be O, or two instances of I) I CAN cut them off on some of the letters, namely the first TH and the M and the P. But doing so will render the 2nd TH much smaller--unless I cover artwork that isn't covered in the original. That's frowned upon, especially since the artwork in question here is part of an eye. And even if the artwork IS covered in the orignal, my editors tend to ask for the English to not match the Japanese when it comes to covering faces and hands whenever possible. (A lesson learned the hard way.) So....
Making the first TH much bigger than the 2nd isn't too great of a problem, especially since with that eye there, the reason behind it is obvious. The hitch, the thing that made me lean back in my chair and ask myself that oh-so-important question above, is that the U is underneath the M, and only a little bit to the left. (The U is between the eyes, the M is above the right eye and partially over the eyebrow. The letters are not touching.) Granted, all the letters are leaning to the right, which helps with the flow. And the FX as I've drawn it is clearly meant to be read from right to left instead of vertically...and more than half of that U IS located to the left of the M. The P is also not touching the M, which matches the U and M's isolated placements, and that P is also clearly to the right of the M and on the same level, whch makes the FX quite clear to read. To MY eyes, anway.
This really is an awkward moment when it comes to lettering. The artwork and original FX placement prevents any graceful English solution. It all comes down to the U and the M. *drums fingers and considers the FX*
......
.....
Yeah. I think she'll let me get away with it. If I'm wrong, I'll let you guys know. :P
BTW, this is that aforementioned Pink page, the last page left for me in Captive. This volume is almost over.... T.T
ETA: Captive 2 is DONE. T.T Now I can start Skip 18.....eh heheheheheh *faint*
ETA2: SE4 did not object. Woot!! XD