Digital Comic Tones

[Chibiartstudios]

I want to experiment with using manga style comic tones with photoshop but havent got the foggyest idea on how to make them.

Any ideas/tutorials/techniques anyone know of?

[-Rain-]

"how to fake comic tones" in Polykarbon: http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/halftones/tone1.htm

There are only three tones, though: dark dots, medium dots, and light dots. Maybe you can tweak it to get more variety. (I don't know, I don't use them )

[Caduceus]

Make a grayscale image.

Convert to Bitmap.

Choose "Halftone Screen" and set dot frequency.

Convert back to Grayscale and resize to your liking if you are going to publish to the web.

Halftones don't work too well on screen, though.

[Jackhass]

Ah, cool...I've been wondering how to do this.

[SquirtEryna]

http://www.drgnden.com/phpbb2/viewtopic ... 962f41a494
here's a tutorial on screentones.

[Mercury Hat]

There are also free scans of screentones all over the 'net you can make into a pattern and use. Soap used scanned screentones all the time and she still has links to some on her DP site (pele.keenspace.com).

[Hartchamber]

i use comicworks. it's a bit quirky here and there. how to draw manga just released Computones vol 1. it contains a plug in modules of tone patterns. that you can use for photoshop 4-7.0 photoshop elements 2.0 and jasc paint shop pro 7.0-8.0.(Which is what i use). i just bought it and hope to install it this weekend and test it. I'm hoping that'll work fine because it's very cheap($24.95) compared to comicworks($100). and HTDM plan on putting out more plugins. i'll let you all know what i think of it when i finish testing it.

[Zhan_Dvega]

The way I do tones is, I scan my pictures in at 600dpi monochrome, then in PSP7, paint in fullsized tones (simple custom patterns I created) and reduce the image to about 12 or 13% of the original.



Now it looks good resized on screen, and if ever the time comes that your comic is put into book form, the 600dpi version will look good printed.

EDIT: And unlike the Polykarbon fake-tones, I can get more than three shades ;E

[KODAMA]

I have comicsworks 600.... I am pretty dissapointed with it.
I've managed to convert all the tones in comicworks into photoshop format, and plan to just use the tones in photoshop.


by the way, tones are usually bought or downloaded, and not manually made at home (most comic creators in japan and korea purchase their tones.) hmm.. hmm. here's a few special tones:

*but if you're thinking about print your comics, these tones will probably be no good. I'd upload 600dpi things here, except um, that's not allowed.

[Chibiartstudios]

thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!

*yoinks away the tones.*

[Zhan_Dvega]

The first one Kodama posted would be super helpful if it were 600dpi. I've been trying to fake that for a while now :/

But as it's not allowed (for whatever reason)... Beh. :/

[RemusShepherd]

by the way, tones are usually bought or downloaded, and not manually made at home (most comic creators in japan and korea purchase their tones.) hmm.. hmm. here's a few special tones:

This is a fascinating look into how professional artists work. You're saying that most artists don't create their own crosshatched (or whatever) tones -- they buy pre-made tone templates like these, and use onion paper or something to trace the pattern into their art?

If that's true, I feel much better about being an amateur...one who knows how to make his own crosshatched tone templates. Mu-hahahaha...

[Mercury Hat]

Tones aren't traced, they're like stickers. The artist (rather, the artist's assistant) cuts them and sticks them in place where needed. Manga artists are on a tight deadline to get out a full chapter in a short amount of time and screentones are much quicker than sitting there and shading it all panel by panel.

[Dominic]

I've only browsed them, but there's some links to articles and tutorials on screentones over at OniKimono (http://www.onikimono.com/links/#scr); maybe you will find something useful there.

[KODAMA]

by the way, tones are usually bought or downloaded, and not manually made at home (most comic creators in japan and korea purchase their tones.) hmm.. hmm. here's a few special tones:

This is a fascinating look into how professional artists work. You're saying that most artists don't create their own crosshatched (or whatever) tones -- they buy pre-made tone templates like these, and use onion paper or something to trace the pattern into their art?

If that's true, I feel much better about being an amateur...one who knows how to make his own crosshatched tone templates. Mu-hahahaha... :)

Some comic creators will create their own "tone like" patterns with pens and stuff, or use watercolor or airbrush instead of grey tones or even scraps of tissue or laces. But the bulk of tones used for manga in the professional industry are purchased through some big retail seller like IC tones or deleter.

[War]

Professional artists often draw their own. Frazer Irving is an inking god.

http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/i ... ice=death1

This is an example of his brushwork.
I'm surprised tones are still used, they're a relic of pre-digital years (they'e used in old western comics, particularly for skies).

[Soap Committee]

Screentones can give an interesting texture to a drawing, but they're very much abused as cheap ways to avoid drawing backgrounds (I was sooo guilty of this).

[KODAMA]

Professional artists often draw their own. Frazer Irving is an inking god.

http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/i ... ice=death1

This is an example of his brushwork.
I'm surprised tones are still used, they're a relic of pre-digital years (they'e used in old western comics, particularly for skies).

Not a lot of asian comic artists are apt enough with computers to create their comics with computers. It's also tougher to work in groups of 4 or 5 to create a comic if there's only one or two computers.
:o..