Help with sketch effect or something similar!

[Streaky]

Hi folks!

I'm in the process of building a toy website and could really use some help populating it! Essentially what I would like to do is take some comic panels or drawings and just have the sketch outlines of those drawings. So for example in a panel that has Spider-man fighting Rhino (or something similar!) I just want to take Spider-man out of that frame, remove all colour and objects, and just have the outline of his features so it looks like a sketch.

Is there an easy way (or just a way!) for me to do this in photoshop or even illustrator? I'm fairly new to both packages but happy to learn. Thanks so much for any help!

 

[Tom Mann]

If you post one concrete example, you will likely get more responses. It would be best if you could post both a typical starting image AND an image that looks like what you want to achieve.

Tom

 

[ibclare]

Is this what you want to shoot for or something else?

original

alteration

 

[ibclare]

One more:

 

[IamSam]

Here's a slightly different version than Clare made, but we probably used a similar technique.

I won't explain my technique until the OP responds.

 

[Streaky]

Hey guys, sorry, went away for a few days. These are awesome!! They're exactly what I'm looking for! Any approach from you two would be great, although I think my favourite is the second one from ibclare

 

[ibclare]

Welcome back.

This is done simply using the adjustment>threshold command. The second one puts two layers of spidey together with 2 levels of threshold adjustments. Pretty basic.
Sam's technique is more elegant, maybe more detail than you want? But the edges are better. So what was your method Sam?

 

[Tom Mann]

FWIW, almost every developer of Photoshop plugins or filters has one or more modules available to simulate sketching efx. Here's a bunch of them. The file name on each tells you what plugin was used. BTW, "PRP" stands for "Power Retouche Pro", a somewhat older suite of PS filters, but nice and still very usable.

Tom

 

[IamSam]

Tom - Of all those, the very last one is my favorite!

Clare - I first removed the BG. I then added a stoke at this point so it would not distort later in the process. I then desaturated. Used posterize. Lastly, I added a film grain.

Very simple and a variety of affects can be achieved by using different settings in the posterize step. Also different affects can be applied instead of film grain in the end.

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Sam - Depending on the intended use, I'd probably would agree with you. My only reservation about that one is if the final product, for some reason, absolutely must have no shading -- just lines, then it wouldn't be appropriate. But visually, it really appeals to me, as well.

Cheers,

T

 

[Streaky]

Guys, I just wanted to thank you all for your efforts, I really couldn't appreciate it more, thanks so much!

Now I've just got to figure out if there's any difficulties with copyrights that I hadn't considered! I know it's not really the forum for it, but if I'm populating a website that is used to sell toys with images like this, does anyone know if that's a problem? I hadn't considered it, but technically the original image is someone else's property...

 

[Tom Mann]

WRT copyright issues, this comes up periodically on this forum. Here's a recent post on the subject:

http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum...cture-becomes-discoloured.html#post1533655790

T

 

[Streaky]

Thank you, I thought it might be tricky. Hmm, I doubt I will get an answer from a lot of the artists responsible for such work. May have to rethink matters

 

[ibclare]

You might want to go to one of the really popular cartoon sites, like Disney, and see if there is a discussion on copyrights for their characters. Maybe there is a way to contact their legal departments for more information. I understand it would be laborious to do that for every cartoon you use, but especially if it is for a commercial site, the legal consequences could be more hassle than getting permissions.

 

[Tom Mann]

Streaky, good luck on the copyright issues. I'm sure that, at worst, very reasonable licensing fees can be negotiated (eg, a small fraction of your sales).

Also, don't forget that there are many other treatments of these images that give a strong "graphic" look. These include line screens, half-tone dots and stochastic halftoning (see below).

T