How do you do it? turn a photo into a comic? With Paint Shop Pro it's very simple and just a few steps, all explained in this tutorial.
Let's examine the photograph that we want to process: this technique will give the best result with images in which the subject in the foreground is well in focus. However, it is also interesting to use it for the processing of architectural or landscape photographs given the effect, similar to a drawing, that is created. Starting from a photograph, the "comic strip" that we will obtain will obviously be very realistic.
This processing technique consists of two phases: as normally happens for the creation of comics, from the photograph we will first obtain a “drawn” image from the photograph and then we will proceed to obtain an adequate coloring. We begin by duplicating the “background” layer twice, using the appropriate button on the layers palette, or the duplicate command from the layers menu.
With the top layer selected, we “double-click” on the icon to the left of the name in the layers palette: the dialog box relating to the layer properties opens.
We set the color blending mode to “weaken” and confirm by pressing the OK button at the bottom of the window. Similarly, in the properties of the underlying layer, we set its name to “drawing”.
By selecting the adjust menu and the negative image command, we then invert the colors of the image contained in the upper layer. The image suddenly disappears from the monitor! In reality, this is a property of the “weaken” color blending mode when used to superimpose its negative on an image: we will exploit it to our advantage to obtain a simplified version of the photograph.
We select from the adjust menu the blur items and then Gaussian blur. In the filter dialog box, we set a value of 2.00 for the radius. The preview window shows us the effect applied to the layer with the colors inverted (and the effect is certainly not the best). With the test button (depicting an eye), we see however how a 'drawn' effect is already recognizable on the image.
After confirming the filter by pressing the “OK” button, we merge the upper layer with the one immediately below (which we had called “drawing”) by right-clicking on its icon on the layers palette and selecting merge and merge down. We then select adjust/brightness and contrast/threshold and we see how the drawing now appears in black on white, as if traced by a pencil.
We adjust the threshold to reveal the drawing stroke, attenuating the presence of 'noise'. The optimal values vary between 230 and 250 depending on the photograph and the desired result. You can also reduce the noise by applying the filter smooths and preserves edges before working on the starting photograph. Sometimes the best solution consists of a few minutes of patience and a brush.
Now let's define the coloring of our "cartoon": we temporarily hide the "drawing" layer and create a new duplicate of the "background" layer, to which we apply the filter adjust/add and remove noise/smooth and preserve edges at maximum power, so as to eliminate a first part of the detail of the photograph. From the properties of this layer, we change its name to "color 1"
Let's duplicate the layer we just renamed "color 1" again and rename the copy to "color 2". Let's apply another filter, selecting adjust/add and remove noise/average filter... and specifying an intermediate value (in the example, 13) for "filter aperture". The value we will apply depends on the size of the photograph, and on the presence of details to be attenuated.
We duplicate the “color 2” layer for the last time, rename it to “light” and set its blending method to luminance (existing). We then select the effects/artistic effects/posterize filter which, by adjusting the number of levels between 3 and 7, will give us flat areas that simulate the printing of color comics. We check the result by pressing the “test” button and finally confirm by pressing “OK”.
Let's make the "drawing" layer visible again, which we had hidden in point 8, and set its blending mode to multiply. Let's see how the drawing we obtained in the first part of the tutorial overlaps with the coloring obtained so far. At this point we can further intervene on the drawing with a white brush, eliminating any imperfections.
By acting on the sliders on the channels palette, we intervene on the opacity of the “light”, “color 1” and “color 2” layers to mix them in order to obtain the final effect that we consider most pleasing: by varying the opacity of “light” we will have nuances on the coloring, while by varying the opacity or the mixing method of the underlying layers, we can reveal the details of the original image or apply special effects.
A further elaboration can be to create a “pop art” effect: through the command levels/merge/merge down we merge all the layers that are below the “drawing” layer. We then apply effects/artistic effects/halftones by setting the cell size – in our example – to 3 pixels, possibly applying the option use as overlay to blend it with the background.
If we wish, we can finally add a vignette to the image, using the vector drawing tools provided by Paint Shop Pro: on a new vector layer with the default shape tool (shortcut key P), we choose a vignette that satisfies us from the options bar and trace it on the image after having selected the white fill and the black stroke.
Using an appropriate font, we can then insert a greeting, a witty phrase or anything else we want our “characters” to say inside the vignette. When we are fully satisfied with the result, we can merge all the layers of the image by selecting layers/merge/merge all (flatten) and then save the final image.
Comment first