Manga/Comic Coloring Tutorial
In this example, I'll be going from
to
...and going over my methods of manga/comic colorizing in Photoshop (I use version 7). Please keep in mind that these are my methods, and there are many ways to do things in this versatile program.
First, you're gonna wanna make sure the image you're using is in RGB color mode (a lot of manga scans are GIFs, which are Indexed Color, which makes resizing ugly). To check, click on Image -> Mode and see what setting is currently checked. If RGB mode is not checked, move your mouse down and click on it. That'll change the setting to RGB, which is what we want.
Now, crop your image and resize it. I'm working with a picture of Juri from here.
Now, you can see this image isn't crisp black-and-white, right? I need to fix it before I can play with it. You may not have to, depending on your image, but this is a useful technique.
I duplicated my background layer and set it to overlay.
Now I created a new layer and filled it in with all black. I set that to Saturation, effectively making the image black-and-white.
Then I selected the whole icon, went to Edit -> Copy Merged, and then Edit -> Paste. I then clicked on Image -> Adjustments -> Auto Levels.
As you can see, Auto Levels makes the contrast between darks and lights a little more pronounced.
NOW I'm ready to play with my Juri base! So I go to Layer-> Flatten Image to make the image a single layer.
OK. Well, the first thing I usually do when coloring manga icons is to bring up a color picture of the character to eyedrop from.
For simpleness' sake, I went to Filter -> Blur -> Smart Blur and Smart Blurred the color image.
Oftentimes images are a little pixelized, and the Smart Blur evens them out, which can be helpful when eyedropping.
Now, go back to your manga image and create a new layer. Set this layer to 50% so you can better see what you're doing. Using the Paint Brush and the eyedropped colors from the other image, paint an abstract blob on top of your image that sort of matches the contours that you're working with. You can touch it up later.
Now set that layer to 100%:
And then set it to Multiply.
At this point, go back over your edges and make sure the coloring is uniform and doesn't stray outside the lines.
Now for the finishing touches.
Create a new layer. Choose white for the foreground color on the palette and then choose a small brush (I usually use 3 or 5).
Brush around where the light would fall on your image (the areas that need to be highlighted).
Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur that layer, to whatever settings look good.
I used a radius of 3.9 on this image.
I set that layer to Overlay, but you can leave it as Normal if you like.
Now do the same thing, except with black, where all the shadows would fall. You totally don't have to be perfect on this, it just gives the image a little depth.
Gaussian Blur that layer, too, then lower its opacity a bit...
and drag it BELOW the white layer.
You're done!
For some added flair, you can go to Layer -> Flatten Image to flatten the image, and then duplicate that layer and set it to overlay.
I found that made the lines too harsh, so I hit the Overlay layer with a Gaussian Blur (at 1.7, my favorite blur setting).
So there you go. Hope this was helpful! :)
to
...and going over my methods of manga/comic colorizing in Photoshop (I use version 7). Please keep in mind that these are my methods, and there are many ways to do things in this versatile program.
First, you're gonna wanna make sure the image you're using is in RGB color mode (a lot of manga scans are GIFs, which are Indexed Color, which makes resizing ugly). To check, click on Image -> Mode and see what setting is currently checked. If RGB mode is not checked, move your mouse down and click on it. That'll change the setting to RGB, which is what we want.
Now, crop your image and resize it. I'm working with a picture of Juri from here.
Now, you can see this image isn't crisp black-and-white, right? I need to fix it before I can play with it. You may not have to, depending on your image, but this is a useful technique.
I duplicated my background layer and set it to overlay.
Now I created a new layer and filled it in with all black. I set that to Saturation, effectively making the image black-and-white.
Then I selected the whole icon, went to Edit -> Copy Merged, and then Edit -> Paste. I then clicked on Image -> Adjustments -> Auto Levels.
As you can see, Auto Levels makes the contrast between darks and lights a little more pronounced.
NOW I'm ready to play with my Juri base! So I go to Layer-> Flatten Image to make the image a single layer.
OK. Well, the first thing I usually do when coloring manga icons is to bring up a color picture of the character to eyedrop from.
For simpleness' sake, I went to Filter -> Blur -> Smart Blur and Smart Blurred the color image.
Oftentimes images are a little pixelized, and the Smart Blur evens them out, which can be helpful when eyedropping.
Now, go back to your manga image and create a new layer. Set this layer to 50% so you can better see what you're doing. Using the Paint Brush and the eyedropped colors from the other image, paint an abstract blob on top of your image that sort of matches the contours that you're working with. You can touch it up later.
Now set that layer to 100%:
And then set it to Multiply.
At this point, go back over your edges and make sure the coloring is uniform and doesn't stray outside the lines.
Now for the finishing touches.
Create a new layer. Choose white for the foreground color on the palette and then choose a small brush (I usually use 3 or 5).
Brush around where the light would fall on your image (the areas that need to be highlighted).
Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur that layer, to whatever settings look good.
I used a radius of 3.9 on this image.
I set that layer to Overlay, but you can leave it as Normal if you like.
Now do the same thing, except with black, where all the shadows would fall. You totally don't have to be perfect on this, it just gives the image a little depth.
Gaussian Blur that layer, too, then lower its opacity a bit...
and drag it BELOW the white layer.
You're done!
For some added flair, you can go to Layer -> Flatten Image to flatten the image, and then duplicate that layer and set it to overlay.
I found that made the lines too harsh, so I hit the Overlay layer with a Gaussian Blur (at 1.7, my favorite blur setting).
So there you go. Hope this was helpful! :)