CBP thumbnail dummy questions
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I’m working on the thumbnail dummy at the moment and I have some questions.
Should I focus on one page at a time, doing 20 to 30 thumbnails like usual or should I do one thumbnail for a page, move onto the next one and so on until I have a whole thumbnailed book and then do more iterations from there?
I feel like it’s necessary to do one page and go right to the next one because the sequential format can really effect how story flows.
However
I also think that just working on one page at a time is better for getting to the desired thumbnail quickly.I know this really just comes down to preference and everyone has different work flow styles so I suppose the question I’m really asking is what process have you found most helpful?
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@griffin CBP was my first book dummy experience. I learned a lot about how to calibrate the beats of the story to the page turns, and to give the book a flow and pace overall.
For that reason, I'm finding it useful to thumbnail by working on everything as a whole, and then refining. First, I find the key moments of the story and sketch whatever comes to mind for those, and drop them into the dummy. I also do a quick value shading over my whole dummy spread if I know that, for example, I want the beginning of the book to feel dark, and the end to feel light.
Like, for H&G, I needed a big dramatic spread with lots of sudden movement for the moment Gretel pushes the Witch into the fire. So I go with my gut and thumbnail that moment, and drop it in my dummy layout. Then, I thumbnail the spreads around those key moments to support the story pace I'm going for, keeping in mind my pagination breakdown. So for me, that looks like "ok, I know there's a surprise coming on the page turn. So i want a big bold 2-page spread here. So the spread before that needs to look like a quiet moment of tension before the surprise."
Hope you have as much fun as I did in that class!
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@valerie-light I like the idea of using those key moments as sort of anchor points, I think I’ll try that. Thanks!
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@Griffin I agree with @Valerie-Light on her approach.
I thumbnail the entire book first.
Pick key moments to build toward.
Keep refining every page so they more and more effectively build toward those key pages.The result of all this is that while the book as a whole will undergo many revisions, you may thumbnail one spread 30 times and another just 2 or 3.
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@davidhohn this will help me guiltlessly do only 2 or 3 for some pages then haha. As I’ve been doing this I’ve been thinking 20 to 30 thumbnails for 30 pages is going to take me a loooong time.
