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The Process

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Ok, so this isn't really a tutorial (Like I promised pffttttttt), but this is sort of a step-by-step in all the major parts in the process of cell-shading. Well, at least this is the way I work.

1) The sketch--

I do almost all of my sketches traditionally on good 'ol computer paper. It's all about preference, really. I don't like sketching on photoshop, so I do it on paper and scan it into photoshop. It also has to do with the fact that Flaurence (my tablet) is only 4" by 5", and is really hard to draw on. BIGGER TABLETS ARE BETTER.

2) Line-art--

In cell shading, line-art is really, really important, but it's also my least favorite part because it's really tedious work. The Line-art should be on a transparent layer and should be at the top at all times. Some people put it on "multiply", but I don't see the difference. To get thinner line-art, draw on a really big canvas (3000x3000 or bigger with a resolution of 300 pixels/inch). Once you finish the whole picture, you can make it smaller and BOOM, a lot of the mistakes disappear/ are not visible. Line-art is also easy to fix later on, so don't worry if it looks weird later on.

Also, your lineart should NOT detail every wrinkle and every shadow in your picture.

3) Base Colors--

Base colors are important for the layout of the picture (Obviously) and are pretty simple. The base color should be the "normal" color. Not the highlights or the shadows, just the middle tone. I usually cheat and use the magic wand tool to select inside the lines of the lineart, and while it's still selected, I switch over to the layer that I have my base color on. Some people order their layers by color, but I order mine by article of clothing-- I.E. my "undershirt" layer is on top of my "pants" layer, my "jacket" layer is on top of my "undershirt" layer, and my "hair" layer is usually on top. If there is more than one character in the picture, I like to keep their clothes' layer separate by name. In this picture, I had two "Vest" layers, one named "DANA- Vest" and one named "WES- Vest". This means I have a shit-ton of layers, but as long as you label everything, you should be OK.

At this point, I also put a gradient on the very bottom layer to help with the next step of shading. You can also see that Dana's face looks different then it did in the lineart because I opted to change it (Like I said, lineart is easy to fix).

4) Shading--

This is one of my favorite parts, but it can also make or break a picture. Depending on how intense your lighting is, you should have a different amount of "layers" to your shading aka how many different colors you use. On a normal picture, you'll usually only use two darker colors for shadows-- three if you count the base color.

To go about shading, I put the layer that I'm going to shade on "lock", so I can only draw on the color i've already placed down. Then, I put down the "slightly darker shade". On top of that, I put the "even darker shade". Your "even darker shade" should be inside the "slightly darker shade". The light in my picture was really intense, so I needed a "highlight" layer, which I applied last. It helps to know how wrinkles and the human body work when shading, because shadows do most of the work when defining your features. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE OUTLINED EVERYTHING WHEN YOU WHERE LINEART-ING.

Also, I use the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL a lot when shading. It's kind of cheating, but it makes things easier IF you use it properly.

5) The Background--

Another one of my least favorite things, I hate thinking of backgrounds and they often ruin my pictures and/ or are too simple. It's good to look on google for ideas and/ or textures. It's not good to use a plain 'ol picture and just copy and paste it to your background because it usually looks out of place, though, with filters and adjustments, it sometimes looks OK if you aren't too ambitious.

For this one, I just googled "tech" and browsed the pictures for ideas.

6) Effects--

My all time favorite part :), it's also the last thing you should do. You can play around with textures and filters and layers settings and get lots of fun combinations (My favorite filter is the "film grain" filter).

For this one, I took the gradient I made from before and lay it on top of my "background" layer. Then, I set it to "hard light". Not satisfied with the lighting on the characters, I made another gradient-- one that faded from light blue to nothing-- and placed it above all my colors, but below my lineart. I set it to "hard light", and then played around with the opacity, and TADA!


7) Finalizing--

After all the hard work is done, I save the PSD file, compress it to one layer, then copy the whole thing onto a blank canvas. Once I have the whole thing on a new canvas, I go back the PSD file, click "control+z" until it's all layers again, and I save it-- still as a PSD file.

Then, I go to the file with the whole picture on one layer, put my name/ watermark down, compress all the layers, and resize it to a more "Internet friendly" size (I.E. 1300x882 pixels). Then, I save it as a jpeg. If you do it the way I do it, you should have two files now, a PSD file with all of your layers that you can fix later if you want/ need to; and a jpeg file, that is the one you put online. I'm very paranoid, so I ALWAYS make sure I haven't over-rided my PSD file with my smaller, jpeg file.

--


Well, hope this helped. Maybe one day I'll do a real tutorial.

One day.

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Comments13
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xXFinal-FusionXx's avatar
I noticed you changed the dude on top's mouth from open to closed :/