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Mini tutorial 2 : Colouring your scans...

Philippe Jofresa · 2001-02-23T23:59:26

Well, here is a method I use to colour my drawings. It uses Photoshop, but it will/should work with any program that uses layers (gimp, Paint Shop Pro, etc). The first step is to get a picture to work on In this case I simply scanned in a wee drawing done in pencil in five minutes. Note that the method works BETTER when the drawing style is clearer. That is, shaded drawings is a bad idea (though I have an example where it actually worked fine). If you scan in a drawing be sure to use a large resolution. DONT scan too small. The bigger the better, you can always scale down later. Alternatively, you can use a mouse drawn picture. This is where the method actually works the best. Simply use the pencil tool or whatever equivalent, and draw away. Here is the original, unaltered, uncleaned version : First, I do a bit of cleaning up. Get rid of the inside of the lips for instance, or erase some messy lines. I also desaturated the picture, this is important for the rest of the operations, so dont forget that. We want to work with grayscale for the moment. I also increased the contrast to get pure black lines, rather than greyish. Here is the cleaned up version : Now we can start the filtering spree ! First, Gaussian Blur the picture. The amount is to your discretion, the idea is that you dont want to lose the shape of the drawing, but you need to "stretch" the lines, by blurring them, dont worry, it gets better after using ... ... the Adjust>Curves menu ! You need two control points really, the value you'll place them will basically make how dark and thick your lines will now be. The A part of the graph below is what becomes Black (because it's at the bottom), the B part is the anti-aliasing if you will, the more the slope is smooth, the more grey you get. Then the C part is what become White. Depending on where your B section occurs, you get thicker or thinner lines... again, mess around, it really depends on each drawing. Here is what I get after using the Curves : Doesnt it look nice already ? Now that we have our lineout, we can start colouring. The layer the lineout is on will be my TOP layer as in here : As you see, it's using the MULTIPLY mode, that way only the black are "pasted" with the underneath layers. See how I have different layers with the names of the parts of my picture ? For instance, I create a Skin layer that will contain everything that is skin in my drawing... and so on and so forth. I use the Paintbrush and the Eraser when I draw outside of the lines. That's pretty much it, and it's not very hard. Here is what I get after I have done my different layers : Now I can start the shading. Before you start, turn all the layers with color to Preserve Transparency. That way, you cant draw outside of the coloured areas of each layer. The background is pretty simple so I started doing a texture directly (using the Texture tutorial somewhere else in this forum... shameless plug, I know ). To do the shading, I use the Airbrush, set to 5% or so. When I want to make shadows, I use a slightly darker colour and set the Airbrush to the Multiply mode. When I want to make highlights, I use the Screen mode, with a lighter shade of the base colour. For shiny surface, I use Color Dodge instead of Screen, and Color Burn instead of Multiply... That's how I did the jewels in the picture (the gold part, necklace and pearls). Here is the shaded version. It's nice enough, but I can still make it better, it looks too "airbrushed" to me ! So, let's do some texturing now ! As you see in the Layers diagram above, I add a layer on top of the layers I want to put a texture in. For instance, I have a "Hair" layer that contains the hair of the woman, and above that, a "Hair texture" layer where I put a greyscale texture. The texture layers are in Overlay mode. That way, only the shadows and highlights are "pasted" on the underneath layer*S*. The problem is that you dont want the texture to be applied to ALL the layers underneath. To avoid that, I simly CTRL click on the color layer to get a selection, and that gives me where my texture will be done... I hope you get that, if you dont, let me know, I'll elaborate. Anyway, here's what I got after a bit more work on this lovely face : youpla :-P Edited by - ahw on 12/14/00 9:13:18 AM

2D and 3D Art Visual Arts

Started by ahw December 11, 2000 03:42 PM

37 comments, last by ahw 23 years, 4 months ago

richardve

122

December 19, 2000 04:51 PM

quote:
ahw wrote:
Is it just me, or am I the only one to post art in this thread (except the brave richardve !) ?

*grin*

I''ve been very busy with my OGL engine the last few days but maybe I can make some new pics tommorow...

AynRand

122

December 19, 2000 08:55 PM

quote: Original post by richardve
Eh, sorry.. my English is not very good.. what''s a wammy??

lol
I mean, you said you have no scanner, cant draw with mouse, and have no tablet...

3 things you said are bad,
hence:
"Triple Wammy"

---------------------------------------
"I am 17 and on medicare..."

Fantasy Edge

122

December 20, 2000 10:38 AM

depending on the overall image mood you are trying to achieve, this works well. usully i do the origional drawing in pencil, outline it with a thin pigment liner or something to that effect. then when you scan it you can scan at lower color depths and you can minimize the file size occupying your temp directory. my meathod is very similar to this. usually i view the image to find any broken lines first as i draw with a .005 very frequenty. too often there is the need to fill lines with the mouse, this isnt all that tough but before you do this it is important to adust the brightness and contrast. im working on one now that will be a combination or ink drawing and animation cell. simple is often the best way to go but it can look really good.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts

sunandshadow

7,435

December 20, 2000 11:45 PM

quote:
Eh, sorry.. my English is not very good.. what''s a wammy??

quote:
lol
I mean, you said you have no scanner, cant draw with mouse, and have no tablet...

3 things you said are bad,
hence:
"Triple Wammy"

Sigh. Being an English major, I am compelled to provide a clearer definition.

Correctly spelled "whammy", this was origionally the word for a voodoo (vodun) curse. it is now used to mean any stroke of bad luck, and is also associated with the slang term "wham" meaning to hit. So, when bad luck hits you, you''ve been whammyed.

Ahw: yes, these tutorials are very helpful.

It''s frustrating to be away from my own computer for the holiday so I can''t try the suggestions out and post my results.

I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.

richardve

122

December 21, 2000 08:19 AM

Wow, I''m learning new words everyday!
Maybe my English will be better than my dutch someday..

Blade Runner

122

December 25, 2000 12:38 AM

Why no new scans come on people post some scanned art.

--------------------------I shall thrash his bloody head in, cut it from upon his shoulders, and as his blood flows effortlessly down my blade, I shall taste it's sweetness. Blade Runner’s Entertainment Nothing much right now...

ahw

264

Author

January 08, 2001 10:30 AM

Yeah, make me happy, and show me that it''s actually worth writing stuff for you guys.

youpla :-P

-----------------------------Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

lupine

122

January 09, 2001 05:55 PM

quote: Original post by ahw

Yeah, make me happy, and show me that it''s actually worth writing stuff for you guys.

youpla :-P

HEY! thanks for the tip, gimmie a few hours to try it
out and I''ll put something up tonight (PST)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Then Bedivere spake--
For bold in heart and act and word was he,
Whenever slander breathed against the King

"do you like my helmut?"-yoghurt

Blade Runner

122

January 12, 2001 03:03 PM

Hay lupine your leaving me suspense come on let''s see what you put together.

lupine

122

January 15, 2001 04:43 PM

quote: Original post by Blade Runner

Hay lupine your leaving me suspense come on let''s see what you put together.

SHOOT! I''m having a problem with my files, I''ll spare you the d,
I should be up and running by the weekend...stay tuned

"do you like my helmut?"-yoghurt

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Mini tutorial 2 : Colouring your scans...

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🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉

Mini tutorial 2 : Colouring your scans...

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