my principle is, first to get a rough sketch with the base colors, after that start with the gradients. after that add details, like lines, highlightes, etc.
first i'm gonna start at the top right text.
i use this settings for my brush
and start redrawing roughly the base colores with little focus on gradients on a new layer, i want to get a rough sketch
use more layers if you want to seperate different parts, like hairs, pillows, background, from each other and make it easier on yourself
now i have only have the form and base color of things right.
next i use a similar brush with low flow setting
after that you can make a new layer and create a clipping mask onto your rough sketch to prevent you from drawing into other regions,
so how to work out the gradients: brush tool and select a light color of your gradient (alt+l. click)
and start drawing here
do the same with a dark color
and do that until you think the gradient is right and you have a smooth transition.
start working out the gradients, shadows, highlights etc.
next step is adding finer details like lines etc. new layer, brush with this settings
now add the lines and small stuff which has a high contrast
1st step:
always with such a redraw, i paint everything white what i won't need any longer. normally i always draw stuff like that new, because it's such a bother to get smooth transitions in the speedlines or in the patterns, so new it is.
i will redraw the red marked area with stamp tool.
2nd step:
i select the area where i want to have a pattern
and fill it on a seperate layer
make the selection a little bigger than in the original.
additionally, if you don't have the final form for your selection you can create a layer mask to adjust the form later in the process.
3rd step:
use your dodge tool, midtones, 30%, soft round (0% hardness) and adjust the layer roughly to the original. remember if you want to burn something just press the [Alt] key. dodge, burn
if you have the gradients down, use dodge tool, highlights, 30% and let the edges look jagged
4th step: new layer and create a clipping mask[Alt]+left click between the layers
now use your line tool to draw the white lines
fill path 2 times with
if you create a layer mask you can adjust the opacity locally, i needed it here
if you want to create an effect like that
just use blur tool in "Lighten" mode.
don't forget to adjust the gradients of you pattern layer further.
5th step:(optional)
i wanted a little noise near the highlights, so i just [Clrl]+left click my layer from step 4, refine edge, shift edge +100%.
select your pattern layer,add noise
6th step: new layer and draw the black speedlines with your line tool, same settings as with the white lines
i got something like that
as you see there's no nice transition.
how to fix it, create a new layer and use your brush, soft round 1-2px here, you can draw straight lines, when you use the [shift] key
after that use your brush, soft round 1px exactly here
as you see that only works when you have a white background. if you want to do that with a pattern as background you could replace the brush with the stamp tool
your are done, i did the upper part of the redraw in the same way as discribed as above, just with another pattern.
for short:
draw white background
add background pattern
adjust gradient
add white lines
add black lines
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Chapter 3 - Patterns
alright, a lot of novice redrawer have apparently problems with patterns.
i'll try to explain in this part how to redraw them so you won't notice it any longer.
here we have a rather easy example.
as you can see we have enough of the pattern for our clone source. when we zoom in, we see it in more detail, and here's where it gets complicated.
we can see now how it is arranged, but notice that they are slightly different
also notice that chessboard pattern is shifted.
so now we start redrawing, pick your clone stamp tool and zoom in. we want to start here.
remember that block and find a similar one as source.
and start drawing on a seperate layer.
when you zoom out you will notice that it's slightly darker than the surrounding area
to fix that select your dodge tool
and draw over it 1-2 times until it matches the surrounding pattern. do that all at 100% zoom
a little help on how to choose you dodge tool settings
dodge tool:
highlights --> contrast gets higher
midtones --> stays the same
shadows --> contrast gets lower
burn tool:
highlights --> contrast gets lower
midtones --> stays the same
shadows --> contrast gets higher
keep in mind that only applyes on grayscale pages, when you work with colors that changes completely
if you don't have a source which has a similar shade, but one with the same pattern but is noticeable darker/lighter you can also use it, but you will have to change between highlights/midtones/shadows when you adjust the shade.
ok, back to our page.
i didn't change my source for the clone tool and started on the next kanji, again on a new layer
as you notice i started to clone the black area, if something like that happens, make a new layer. select a new source and draw over it.
and here we have the areas. every color is a seperate source and layer
if you only have a small source area you can patch that way bigger patterns together.
adjust the shade of every layer seperately. when you are satisfied with it merge them or put them into a group, otherwise you will get a lot of layers.
ok, we have replaced the text with our patterns, adjusted the shade and merged them.
the only thing left to do is draw the lines.
---------- Post added at 10:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:16 AM ----------
Chapter 4 - Advanced Patterns
alright, but what should we do when you don't have a perfect pattern or they just want to match up
as you will notice the right side is slightly shifted towards left and a little up.
the first thing you will get when you try to redraw it will be something like that
but as you see at 100% zoom, you see that
so how can we reduce the recognizability
we just nudge the pattern only a small distance until they match up again
and at 100%
as you see way better as the first try.
so how did i do that i just shifted the pattern slightly with the clone tool
and everything again
as you see, that way i can shifte the pattern sligtly in all 4 directions until both sides match up
with some experience you can patch up such patterns and make a lot of shiftes.
some info, try to make the shiftes in the blurry lines, but don't let them get too thick, otherwise you will see the blurry area really easy
---------- Post added at 10:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 AM ----------
Chapter 5 - How to make your own patterns
1st:
2nd: filter-->filter gallery-->
for your info, if you change here the contrast it also influences how you page looks like after resizing
3rd:
depending to which size you resize, the pattern changes.
examples
1400
1350
1300
1250
1200
1150
4th: make a rectangular selection and then layer via copy
now nudge it horizontally and vertically until you find the same left top pixels and select it like shown
if you don't want to do step 4 just skip it and select your whole page. it should work for most of your redraws
5th: edit--> define pattern
for CS5 and previous versions you will need "pattern maker" addon
so change the values for you resize to find the right pattern for you and then make a pattern.
if you want to change the contrast or brightness just use topaz clean3 and/or brightness/contrast adjustment layer
and if you want to to create rotated patterns like that
just rotate your layer before you resize it
---------- Post added at 10:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 AM ----------
Chapter 6 - dealing with different shades of patterns
lets see.
when you have different shades you should start at the background.
just use stamp tool and clone it
and adjust shade with dodge tool
if you have to change the shade a lot you can use a combination of the settings.
as you see you change the contrast of the pattern, so if you want to keep the same contrast but just darker/brighter use a combination of the 3 settings.
or you can use a brightness/contrast adjustment layer. it will work to a certain degree. just play with the 2 settings of it.
you can also use the adjustment layer to roughly change the shade and preserve the contrast and use the dodge tool to fine adjust it
if you want to add a gradient, you can do 3 things.
make a new layer, create a clipping mask with your pattern layer,use the gradient tool, and adjust the opacity of it
use dodge/burn tool with 0% hardness with a relative big size
use a brightness/contrast adjustment layer with a gradient as a layer mask
here's an example
as you see, with a gradient you won't get a consistent contrast,
and with an adjustment layer you only can make it brighter or darker, not both
and with the dodge tool you will take longer, when you don't have already a lot of experience
my prefered methode for adjusting shades in general is always dodge/burn tool, because i have a lot of control about the endresult and enough experience to get the desiered result without wasting a lot of time
when you have forms with different shades of the same pattern just use the selection tool.
if you have a different pattern, or the pattern doesn't match, clone the pattern on a new layer
left one with selection and dodge, right one you can also have a nudged pattern, because of the line you won't notice it.
keep that in mind when you redraw pattern and you have lines in them, e.g. hairs. you can use them to break the redraw up in different parts without bottering to match the pattern at the line.
before i forget it. you can use the dodge tool as a brush to draw staff with your cloned pattern.
---------- Post added at 10:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ----------
Chapter 7 - Layer Masks
i always use layer masks, when i don't want to change the transparency of a layer, destructive. That means i want to reverse something without relying on the history feature and influencing the actual layer.
that would be the case when i don't know yet how the rd should look like or i want to adjust a rough drawing.
examples would be to change the opacity of lines, patterns,...,
you delete everything
so an a new layer you put a rough drawing of what you want there to be
note that the black background is just to illustrate the white layer, btw, that's just 1 click with that settings.
create a new layer on which you put the pattern and create a clipping mask
i used the mask layer to delete everything outside the panel and to create this effects
with only the mask showing
a few helpful things to know
if you [Alt] click on your mask you actually see it, that's helpful when you want to paste something into it without complicated work arounds xP
you can use a mask layer onto a group (only works with cs6+)
with [ctrl]+click you select the transparency of your mask and with [ctrl]+[alt]+click you can subtract the transparency of your mask from a selection. works the same way with your normal layer
you can create easily
Layer 19 copy is just Layer 19 horizontally flipped and the mask looks like that
if you unlock the mask from your layer, so you can nudge it without the mask getting nudged too.
---------- Post added at 10:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ----------
Chapter 8 - typical shoujo pattern
create a new document with white background.
make a new layer and draw vertical lines with the width of
copy that layer 2 times and rotate it 60° and -60°
now merge them and rotate it for the amount you see in your original merge it with your background and filter --> noise --> add noise
and a 2nd time
how much noise you add really depends on how your original looks like
last step is just to
and edit --> define pattern
and as in the previous chapter explained, use the brush tool, 0% hardness and disolve setting to get the desiered effects, and dodge shadow to adjust the shade.
---------- Post added at 10:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:20 AM ----------
Chapter 9 - Spreads
1st open the raw pages and straighten them out. usually you can go with panel borders, the longer they are the better
if you don't have any borders use the page edge as first reference, it's possible you will have to rotate it again when you join them, step 4.
and DON'T use jp text as reference, just DON'T.
2nd create a new document with the (raw hight + 100px) to (2 * raw width + 200) and a white background.
now duplicate your 2 raw pages into your new created document
3rd
nudge them until they fit your new document
and delete the gap between the artwork and your layer border of one side (i did it on the right side)
4th Free Transform[ctrl]+[T] the right side and nudge it until you see think it fits
but when you scrool upwards you will see that it doesn't fit really
and i will have to rotate and resize it to fit it.
check again the transitions
when you think it fits apply the free transform
remember as reference "99,6%" as resize factor for your right side, it's usually the right amount.
5th
now that the lines match we look at the patterns. clone the pattern of your left side on a new layer
after that nudge your right side to match it. try only to nudge it 1-2px horizontally and vertically, otherwise they won't fit any longer. same methode as in Chapter 4
and a little burning
and you have redrawn the pattern.
also keep in mind the match doesn't has to be perfect, just avoid stuff like that.
if your pattern gets a little stretched or compressed its alright, you just should preserve a quasi checkboard pattern
6th
start redrawing the raw, reason is that you can be a bit sloppy with patterns which will fix the cleaning and resizing
EXTRA
alright, BUT what when i can't match it, what should i match and what should i fix with bigger redraws.
my list would be look like that. lower number --> higher priority
fancy speedlines, they are a real bother to redraw try to match them exactly
straighter and bigger the objects are harder to redraw, because it's easier to see if they are aligned properly
stuff that goes through both pages and have pattern or hard stuff to redraw as background
smaller curvy stuff with patterns
big stuff like which are only lines with white background
but when you can't match them don't worry to much really, just try to match the stuff you will think is hard to redraw.
conture of the object fits but not the surounding pattern, only way is to redraw the pattern new
small stuff with white background just copy the part which is out of line and nudge/rotate it until it fits again
matching 2 pages gets easier the bigger the gap is, but it also means more work for the redrawer
---------- Post added at 10:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:20 AM ----------
Chapter 10 - Effects 1
we want to redraw that
first get rid of the text
and draw the pattern on a new layer
and create a new layer as clipping mask
now take your brush with
and start drawing. sould look like that
with that brush you can make a lot such pattern effects. you also find them a lot at shoujo patterns and if you make a layer mask at it you can fine tune it better
(use the same brush you used for the effect itself)
we still have to adjust the shade of our pattern
and add a little blur at the white dots
for last we only have to add the lines, draw them again on a new layer and we are finished
---------- Post added at 10:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------
Chapter 11 - Effects 2
we have such effects above the pattern
first redraw the background pattern and adjust shade
next make a copy of your pattern layer and redraw an bigger area
now set it on multiply
and nudge the layer 2px down 2px left/right, you will get such an effect
if you paint on layer 2 white you will get such an effect
.
if you don't want to bother with something like that you can also use such a pattern
anyway now make a layer mask and use a disolved brush to draw the effect, don't forget to set it as clipping mask to your background pattern,
after that or before that draw the black stuff on a new layer, you also use it to make the noisy stuff in the darker parts.
if you don't get the right shade use dodge on the clipping mask.
---------- Post added at 10:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------
Chapter 12 - Smoky Patterns
we want to redraw the text
so lets see what pattern we have first.
that pattern makes it rather easy, because it's just noise. first create a pattern like it. keep in mind that also works every other pattern!
as next only cover the text, inclusive it's white stroke with your pattern, don't replace too much of the original pattern with your new one
so... next is defining the rough shape, make a new layer and set it as clipping mask to your pattern layer, select your brush,disolve, white color, flow 20%, 0% hardness(5-30px size) should look like that.
you should be able to already see where you have a transition to background white and where the dark areas could be. and don't merge it with your pattern layer.
select your pattern layer again and remember you can easily switch between dodge tool and burn tool by pressing the [alt] key.
select your dodge tool, midtones, 20%, 0% hardness and adjust the shade. first use midtones setting to make a rough draft, then use shadow setting to dodge the light areas. and highlights setting to burn the black areas.
burn midtones your dark areas and dodge midtones your light areas
dodge shadows, the light areas
burn highlights, the dark areas
dodge highlighs, the transition from light pattern to white background
the other side the same way was made the same way
finally you can also blur your white dots in your clipping maks, when they are to sharp in the darker pattern area
---------- Post added at 10:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 AM ----------
Chapter 13 - Fixing Patterns after redrawing
alright, here we have a semi perfect pattern redrawn
as you will see there are still some discrepances in the patterns
so how to fix them.
merge all your patterns for that redraw into one layer
make a copy of it
select the transparancy for it
enlarge the selection for 20-30px
select your cleaned layer and create a new layer via copy
move it under your pattern copy
select the transparancy of the layer
merge your pattern copy with your cleaned layer copy
contract your selection for 10px and feather it with 5px afterwards
now use topaz denoise or topaz clean to fix them.
[*]create a mask on it and earese the stuff you don't want to keep, smudged lines, noisy whites etc
i use denoise most of the time, because i have more control over the endresult, and denoise's algorithm actually tries to recreate patterns, with clean can't. that's helpfull when you weren't able to redraw the pattern very good and want to fix it so you won't see it anymore.
anyway if you want to actually fix your pattern use denoise, with clean you just degrudge the pattern which will work on some too, and it also helps to fix something like that
you can do the steps above, expect 10 and 11 with a action!
---------- Post added at 10:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:23 AM ----------
Chapter 14 - Clouds
Clouds... that redraw will be a combination of pattern replace, lasso tool, masks and dodge
alright, lets start.
first, whiten everything where you will have a white background
and don't forget the small stuff
next, clone your pattern or use your own to draw everywhere, where there will be clouds.
after some dodge should look like that
when you used your own made pattern, adjust the shade roughly to the original, add noise, and fine adjust the shade afterwards. you only need to add noise when you have such a pattern, obviously.
next, select the outline of you clouds with the Lasso Tool
maybe feather the selection with 0,2px. create a layer mask onto your pattern and finalize the mask with the brush to get some transparancy and a fading effect
finally, select the area, where you have a different shade and adjust it
if you want to redraw that "perfect", the only way is at raw size.
the following is a close enough redraw at final size.
first redraw the background.
when have done that select your line tool
settings:
and start drawing lines, it's easier when you have a startpoint.
usually, start with the mayor lines first, to get the right direction,
then fill the space between them
make a new layer "Lines" above your pattern background and fill path with
make a copy of "Lines", set it to disolve and ajust opacity (~45%) --> "Disolved"
now select your sharpen tool and adjust the edges at "Lines"
now you filter --> noise --> add noise on "Lines"
in case you want to adjust "Disolved", add a layer mask and use a disolved brush to reduce the white spots farther out
finally make a new layer and draw the white bubble
use laso tool too select the rest
i usually just move my mouse fast in zig-zag to get that kinda effect.
after you have the desired selection fill it it with white.
you can add more layers and use brush/disolve to adjust the transition further
make sure that all new created layers are set as clipping mask to you background pattern layer, otherwise the lines will go into the surounding art
final result:
Chapter 16 - Connecting Lines
i will use
as example, but you can use it practically everywhere where you want to connect lines with different thickness, seamlessly.
first remove the text
next, select your brush tool and adjust thickness/hardness.
for most lines i use 1px/100%, because i can easily use it multiply times to adjust thickness sligtly, opacity, etc.
click 1 time on one red point, press [shift] and press at the 2nd red dot
notice that i click where the transition between full line and white is, that way i get a seamless transition (with some experience xP)
if the first drawn line is too thin, just draw another.
-->
if you want to make the line a bit thicker, shift your starting and ending point sligtly outwards
-->
and so on.
start with the lines, where you have a starting and ending point.
if you have a case, where you can't get the right shade between lines, select the color of it
draw a line with its color
adjust, the 2 black lines again
when one line gets too thick, draw a white line, as you did with the gray one
if that doesn't work good enough use a bigger brushsize.
you can easily change brushsize if you press [alt] and press [right mouse button] and move left/right,
to change hardness press [alt] and press [right mouse button] and move up/down.
to change the selected color press [alt] and press [left mouse button].
press [D] to reset your selected color to b/w,
press [X] to switch between the 2,
press to select brush tool,
and press [E] for the ereaser.
with some exercise you will get a good workflow.
don't forget you can also use clone stamp tool, when you have enough source.
make a new layer for every line direction, that way you can easily erease stuff.
now what's left are the small details,
for windows etc, use copy/paste or clone tool, add other lines, dirt, chips etc.
Wow I had no idea all the time the people who release manga online, all the hard work they put in to make the free manga i read so beautiful. It looks really complicated and difficult. Thanks for putting this up. I will appreciate all the hard work they put in more.
You find a Edited Manga group you wanna work with, go to their website, look for recruitment section and apply.
You can also look at credit pages of some series you're reading - recruitment status for the group is often placed there as well.
I just want to note, that alot of the 'image' links in the first couple posts are broken/non-existent. Might be time to re-post or edit it with new ones?
I just want to note, that alot of the 'image' links in the first couple posts are broken/non-existent. Might be time to re-post or edit it with new ones?
Sadly this seems to be the case with many of the "older" tutorials. And since Rain441 wasn't online since 03/2016, it's unlikely that he will fix the dead images.
It would be great if people would use a more permanent host for their images. Maybe there could be a "tutorial" section added to the "Media" database on here?
It is a shame to let such great tutorials go to waste.
Edit:
I found the whole tutorial with images on the archived version of the page they used to have:
If you have questions, pls ask them in the original thread here TOC: Color Pages speedlines over patterns Patterns Advanced Patterns How to make your own patterns dealing with different shades of patterns
web.archive.org
So in theory you could grab / copy and rehost the images from there an mod-edit Rain441's posts to reinsert the imagelinks.
Sadly this seems to be the case with many of the "older" tutorials. And since Rain441 wasn't online since 03/2016, it's unlikely that he will fix the dead images.
It would be great if people would use a more permanent host for their images. Maybe there could be a "tutorial" section added to the "Media" database on here?
It is a shame to let such great tutorials go to waste.
Yeah, I think the dropbox links were meant to be permanent, unfortunately Dropbox changed the way it let us share our files a few years back, making the links invalid.
But yeah - it'd be cool if we could upload the files here as well.
Edit:
I found the whole tutorial with images on the archived version of the page they used to have:
If you have questions, pls ask them in the original thread here TOC: Color Pages speedlines over patterns Patterns Advanced Patterns How to make your own patterns dealing with different shades of patterns
web.archive.org
So in theory you could grab / copy and rehost the images from there an mod-edit Rain441's posts to reinsert the imagelinks.
Cool find. And not a bad idea about reuploading the files.
As for Rain, he might not have been online for over 3yrs here, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't respond if somebody sent him a PM.
Chances are he's like me and even though Dropbox removed the original links for him, he hasn't removed the files from his account and it's just the matter of relinking them.
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