Not that long ago, in a galaxy not that far away, we released an update to Pharos IV: Assault!
This 1.1 updates unleashes computer assisted torpedo targeting for greater accuracy, resumption from highest level attained - no more starting over from level 1 - and fixed the stutter issue that affected iPhone 3.0 users.
Update is for both iPhone/iPod Touch and Pharos IV: Assault and Pharos IV: Assault Lite versions.
This latest update for Comic Touch (1.2.2) (direct link to App Store) addresses several issues that popped up with the release of the latest iPhone 3.0 update.
The update fixes UI display, photo rotation issues when going into landcape mode, and image effects display issues.
Please update from within iTunes or using your iPhone/iPod Touch device.
Trimming balloons to panels - 2009/05/16 22:25I could have sworn this had been discussed before, but I can't find it so here goes.
I've recently been playing with the Comic Life Magiq demo some more, thinking I may actually upgrade this time. I still prefer Comic Life's simplicity, but a few of Magiq's features would make what I'm doing a lot more professional, if not easier.
One thing though, balloons don't seem to trim to the panels they are within. I seem to remember this being brought up before, and being shocked to learn that this wasn't possible in Magiq.
I hope I'm wrong, since that's a deal breaker for me. All of the other bells and whistles won't make a professional looking comic if the balloons routinely break the panel borders (it's OK once in a while, but shouldn't be over used). That one limitation, at least for the work I'm doing, would make Comic Life the more professional application.
Re:Trimming balloons to panels - 2009/05/17 06:12No, Magiq doesn't currently have that "trim to the panel" feature for balloons yet.
There's a workaround where you can turn the balloon into an image by copying, opening Preview, Doing comman-N, then copying THAT and pasting into CLM. Now that it's an image, it can be clipped to panels, BUT if you need to edit the text, you'd have to re-create the balloon.
Re:Trimming balloons to panels - 2009/05/17 07:03Well, just like I remember, I'm shocked that that isn't included. Now that CLM has been out for a while (just over a year actually), I would expect something that basic to have been addressed.
I'm sure there's some perfectly reasonable explanation as to why this is difficult to do because of how the graphics engine in CLM works, but as an end user I really don't care. I just see a supposedly complete program, one that's supposed to be the "quantum evolution" of another program, that doesn't include one of the most basic abilities that the simpler program includes.
Oh well, I guess I'll be sticking with Comic Life for now. I'd rather deal with the existing shortcomings of a program I've already paid for, than to pay for a new program with such an obvious flaw. It's too bad, I was just warming up to it after not caring for it for over a year.
Re:Trimming balloons to panels - 2009/05/18 08:30Yup, you're right, there's probably a few good reasons a few of which depend on how the OSX drawing engine has changed in the years. I've mentioned one workaround, but just came up with another.
Due to the simpler nature of the captions, you CAN clip those to a panel. AND, if you add points to caption, you can create a tail out of it. So, you'll have a word balloon, that's clipped to the panel AND is editable.
What do you miss? For one, you miss the "instant" nature of the word balloon. For another, you don't get the "balloon-only" features that allow you to move the balloon without moving the tail. You also don't get the feature that lets you rotate the balloon. Caption balloons also don't get their "tails" auto attached to the panels, but, since we're talking about clipped balloons, you wouldn't have it sticking outside anyway.
Yes, it's a limitation, especially for someone already well versed in the earlier app. But, hopefully the difficulties will be worked through and this feature and more will be a part of CLM 1.5!
Re:Trimming balloons to panels - 2009/05/19 03:41Apparently, though I didn't know it at the time, I was just bluffing. I picked up Comic Life Magiq last night. I'm starting a new project and had to make a decision one way or the other, and decied to go with CLM over CL.
I took another hard look at this issue and decided that while I really wish balloon clipping was there, it's not quite a deal breaker. After doing some tests, I think that so long as the balloons are placed consistently (so it doesn't look like a mistake), and not too far outside (for instance, keep the text itself within the panel boundries) it's not so bad.
I'm still looking forward to a future update that includes this feature, but I'll deal with it for now. The increased flexibility in every other respect is worth it, in the end.
