You don't need to use AI illustration sites
When I started drawing manga with AI, I first looked up how to do it on YouTube.
Around April, back when I think Gemini's Nano Banana was being called amazing...
I watched videos by various people, and it was interesting to see that they all used different methods.
Some used the slide feature in NotebookLM, or generated images one panel at a time and then used Crysta or Canva to arrange the panels and paste them in...
However, they all seemed like a hassle, so I searched for a site that could easily output manga.
Since these two sites were introduced in the videos, I subscribed to their paid plans right away.
Well, in conclusion, I don't use them now...
I made a wasted investment.
The reason is that I realized, wouldn't it be better to just generate them directly in ChatGPT or Gemini?
That's when I noticed.
I learned about something called 'YAML' in a YouTube video.
page: 10
scene: "引き"
panels:
- panel: 1
size: "medium"
composition: "真白の目"
- panel: 2
size: "small"
composition: "赤い蝶"
- panel: 3
size: "bottom_black"
composition: "暗闇"
text:
narration: "もう、見られている"↑ Something like this.
If you give instructions to the AI with this, it will output images as manga.
The procedure is as follows:
1. Have it create a character sheet.
2. Have it turn settings and stories into manga storyboards.
3. Have it output one page at a time in YAML format.
4. Have it generate images using that YAML format.
It's like repeating this process.
The most troublesome part was the corrections.
It often ends up as a Western-style comic that you read from left to right.
Sometimes it emphasizes the hands and the arms move in a strange way...
And when I give instructions to fix it, it outputs a completely different picture...
There is a savior feature in Canva!
Around May, I learned that something called 'Magic Edit' had appeared in the English version of Canva.
This can be used for manga corrections!
You can swap panels left and right!
I switched Canva to the English version and used it, yes.
It is now implemented in the Japanese version as well.
My manga, 'Sakamatsuri,' is made this way using ChatGPT and corrections in Canva.