Workflow breakdown

I’ve mentioned previously here about my great plan; my cunning, genius, time-saving and fantastical workflow, involving drawing digital layouts in Manga Studio which (upon export) automatically sync to a pre-prepared  Indesign document. Ready to print booklet PDFs on demand. What could go wrong?

All was well and good until I decided to restructure the order of the source files (which I’ve written about here). This resulted upon export in a reordering of the files and their names, which was particularly a problem considering the source files were all placed documents within InDesign, while the lettering and titles were not placed, rather made within in InDesign and laid over the top of the placed files. InDesign, naturally and sensibly, was not able to intelligently match the lettering with the new location of its relevant files. All this resulted very quickly in a chaos document with lettering and panel constructs in all the wrong places. Back to the drawing board…

As with all problems there is a silver lining. Better this happens now, 150 pages in, than later, once I’m 500 pages in. As a result of this I’m now working entirely within Manga Studio and the idiocy of my previously chosen workflow  now seems crystal clear. A process becomes less stable and more prone to problems the more steps and/or softwares it requires. I was doubling up on work to maintain something that only needs to be created in the final stages, once the drafting is final and I’m ready to bring it all together in one polished document. Until then, I’m now happy to work in Manga Studio and restructure the order of my documents at will. And restructuring will certainly be an ongoing process, as I’ve found that the story for me only becomes 3-dimensional and comprehensible once the visuals are in place. An overview of scenes becomes easier, and the links between events seems more tangible.