In this video I’m going to show you how to do a Retro Comic Book effect in Photoshop.
Hey everyone!
Welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel.
My name is Jesus Ramirez and you can find me on Instagram @JRfromPTC.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to combine Filters and Smart Objects to create
a retro comic book effect.
This effect is going to be non-destructive, which means that you can always come back
and make adjustments to the effect.
Also, you can use this as a template so that you could simply swap in files and apply the
effect to a new image.
Okay, let’s get started.
We’re going to work with this image here.
This is an Adobe stock image, but, of course, you can use any image that you like.
This effect works better with a white background.
You can extract your Foreground element from the background if you like, or you can get
the background since it does work with images with the background.
But anyway, so we have this image here and the first step is to convert this into a smart
object.
So I’m going to right click on the layer and select Convert to Smart Object.
This effect is going to be non-destructive, so, that’s the goal of this tutorial, to
create a convincing comic book effect, and keep things non-destructive so that we can
always come back and edit the adjustments or even replace the original image with a
different image and have the same effects apply to it.
So, now that it’s a smart object, I can go into Filter + Filter Gallery and we’re
looking for this filter here, titled, Poster Edges, under Artistic.
And one thing I’m going to mention right after that is that these values that I input
into these filters are for my image.
Obviously, if you’re using a different image, the values maybe different.
So look more at the effect and not so much at the values.
You can use the values that I input as a starting point.
So, I’m going to get started with the Edge Thickness, so I can adjust that accordingly,
I’m looking for an edge about this thick, 4 for me.
Edge Intensity, controls the intensity of that edge, 1 will work.
And Posterization, I think I want to a little bit more than that at 4.
If I were to leave it at 0 then you get that effect there.
4 makes it pretty flat which is what I want and I’m going to press OK.
So that’s the result that I got.
I’m going to go back into the Filter Menu and I’m going to go back into Filter Gallery,
this time I’m going to select Film Grain and I’m going to use a Grain of about 4.
And I’m going to increase the Highlight Area all the way to the right to 20, to create
this flat looking effect.
And for Intensity, I’m going to reduce it down to 6, so this is the effect that I have
now.
I’m going to press OK.
And notice that in my Smart Object we’re building up on those filters.
Now I’m going to go back into Filter + Pixelate, + Colour Halftone.
This filter doesn’t have a preview, so you can just start with the values that I’m
going to use and see if they match my image.
If not, you can make adjustments to try to match them.
More likely than not, the value that you’re going to end up changing the most is going
to be the pixels size.
I’m going to start up with 4 pixels.
Channels 1 through 4 are 110, 160, 90, and 45, and I’m going to press OK.
The advantage of using Smart Objects not only is that we can come back and edit those filters
but we get these icons here to the right of the Smart filter.
In this case, under Colour Halftone, if we double click on that icon, you’ll get this
window that allows you to reduce the Opacity of the Filter and also change the Blending
Mode.
So we can change the Blending Mode to Soft Light, and you’ll see that effect there.
Now that Halftone effect is applied to the original effect that we had.
You could also press P on the keyboard to disable the preview, P to bring it back or
you can just click on the checkbox.
And that keyboard shortcut works for all windows that have this preview checkbox, just remember
to press the P key and press OK when you’re done, of course.
So that’s the effect that we have so far.
Now, we’re going to work in making the outlines a little thicker and more noticeable.
So what I’m going to do is select the Smart Object that we’re working with and then
I’m going to press Ctrl J, that’s Command J on the Mac to duplicate it.
Then I’m going to right click on Smart Filters and click on Clear Smart Filters so that brings
back the original image.
Then, I can go into Filter + Filter Gallery + Stylize + Glowing Edges and that’s the
effect that I get.
You’re going to have to use your imagination at this point.
Imagine that these bright lines are black and that the background is white and that’s
how we’re going to apply those lines unto the background in the next step.
But for now, just control your edge with your brightness and smoothness and just look at
the overall thicker lines that would be black eventually.
We’re going to press OK when we’re done.
Then I’m going to go into Image + Adjustments + Black and White to turn those pixels white,
so it removes the colour, and press OK.
If you’re using an older version of Photoshop, something that is CC, you won’t be able
to apply that adjustment directly on to the Smart Object.
So you can just right click on the layer, rasterize it and then you will have to work
destructively unfortunately.
But anyway, at this point we need to invert the pixels to make the white pixels black
and the black pixels white, press Ctrl I/ Command I on the Mac to invert.
Then, we need to make these lines a bit darker.
So go into Image + Adjustment + Levels and drag the black point to the right and keep
dragging that midpoint to the right and the white point drag it to the left.
So we’re mainly worried about the outline here and press OK.
Now, we’re going to use the Blending Mode to blend these layers together.
So I’m going to change the Blending Mode from Normal to Multiply.
Multiply, reveals dark pixels and hides bright pixels.
I don’t want the entire layer to affect my composition so what I’m going to do is
I’m going to hold Alt/Option on the Mac and click on the Layer mask icon to make a
layer mask that is black which hides all the contents of the layer.
Now I can paint with white using the Brush tool and I can selectively bring back some
of that detail.
I’m going to use the right bracket key on the keyboard to increase the size of my brush
and I’m going to paint on the edges to bring that outline back.
I think I want it almost on the entire drawing, I just do not want it on his face.
And you’ll see why in a moment.
And the reason I don’t want these spaces because I don’t think those lines look very
good.
So I can go ahead and undo that and maybe paint it just a little bit on the lips, because
I did like that effect on the lips, so, maybe something like this.
So you can decide where you want to paint and where you don’t want to paint.
At this point we have a very convincing comic book look.
If I double tap on the zoom tool you’ll see the image at 100%.
I’m going to hold the Spacebar to pan around the image so that you could see it better
and that’s our effect.
Now we’re going to work on colouring the background and changing the colour of his
shirt.
I’m going to double click on the hand tool once again, fist, we need to select our model
here so I’m going to disable this top layer and disable the visibility of the smart filters.
So we’re back with the original image with that layer 0 selected, which is our original
layer.
I’m going to select the Quick Selection tool and click and drag around his body to
make a selection.
And the selection doesn’t need to be perfect.
We just need to make sure that it covers the entire body.
I’m going to hold Alt/ Option on the Mac and click and drag in between his arms and
also in between his fingers to deselect those pixels.
With that layer active, I can now enable the Smart Filters, enable the second layer and
then I’m going to collapse those filters, just so that we have a little more room to
work with.
And I’m going to create a Solid Colour.
And I’m going to make a blue Solid Colour and the blue that I want is roughly this one.
It’s not that important right now, we can always come back and change it so I’m going
to press OK.
But I want the blue to be outside of his body, not covering his body so I’m going to click
on the Layer Mask and I can either press Ctrl I/ Command I on the Mac or I can click on
this Invert button in the Property panel for that Layer Mask.
Right click on Invert, now you’ll get the background.
Then I’m going to change the Blending Mode to Multiply and those black outlines around
his body come back.
So that’s before and after.
We can do something very similar with the shirt.
So I’m just going to disable the smart filters on that original layer and I'm going to select
the Quick Selection tool and I’m going to select the shirt.
And again, you don’t have to be very precise, something like this.
And I accidentally selected the jeans so I’m going to hold Alt/Option on the Mac and remove
some of the pixels from the bottom part of his body, right here, and then create a new
Solid Colour and we’re going to want an orange colour, so, something like that, press
OK.
Change the Blending Mode to Multiply and it gets applied to that layer.
I’m going to bring back the Smart Filters and the effect is reapplied.
At this point you can decide to keep the colour that you chose or change them if you want.
So I can double click on the blue and click and drag and change the colour if need be,
and I can do the same thing for the shirt.
Maybe I want a blue shirt, green shirt, yellow shirt.
It really doesn’t matter what colour you want, that colour would be applied.
I’ll stick with orange.
At this point you can adjust the colours of the image.
So you can create something like a Vibrance adjustment layer and just increase the vibrance,
so that’s before and after.
It’s a subtle effect but I think it works, it mainly works on his face, before and after.
You can also maybe increase the Saturation a little bit and go into Curves, and maybe
give it a little bit of contrast.
I’m actually drag the Curves adjustment layer below those colour, so it affects the
original values, not these colours.
I’m going to click on the shirt colour and slightly reduce the Opacity.
I want to get some of that Half Tone back.
And as a last step, I’m going to create a new layer, select the Brush tool, paint
with black and make sure that you have a Hardness of 100%.
And it works better if you have a welcome tablet but you can come in to your welcome
tablet and you can start painting in some of those areas to make it a little more realistic.
So you can zoom in and just work on areas that you think need more of a manual touch,
like so.
Maybe you can come in and fill in the lips, had a line that comes of his nostrils there
and just start adjusting the image accordingly.
You could also create a new layer and fill in the white of the eye and maybe give the
eyeball a highlight, like so.
And I can double tap on the hand tool when you see that looks like a little too much,
I’m going to bring down the Opacity.
It’s about something like that.
And I’m still liking the brightness of that right eye, so I can always go and just make
a selection out of that highlight and just delete key in the keyboard and it removes
it.
And I’m actually going to zoom in and try again.
So, I’m going to paint with white on that area there and I think that looks much better.
Now, if you wanted to you could always double click on the Smart Object to come in and make
adjustments to the original image.
So another thing that you can do is instead of applying the shirt colour effect after
the fact, we can do it before.
So if I delete this layer and come back into the Smart Object and make a selection.
I’m just going to do this fairly quickly here, you can do the same thing, go to Solid
Colour, select an orange colour like that one, change the Blending Mode to Multiply
and once you close this file and save it that same effect would be applied.
The advantage is now that we get a lot more of the Half Tone and that looks much better
in my opinion.
So you can do it either way, whatever works best in your image.
And also, if we double click on any of the Smart Objects that brings that up, we can
actually bring in a different image maybe her, drop her in here.
And obviously, it’s not going to look perfect because we did have some custom layers there.
But if I disable all those custom layers, we can see it’ll apply the comic effect
to her as well.
So that would be a quick way of creating sort of like a template that you can apply the
comic book effect to and then come in and adjust all the other layers accordingly, of
course.
For now, I’m just going to delete this layer because that’s not what I want to do.
Save it by closing it and clicking Yes and then I have all these other layers.
Something that helps a lot, and I haven’t done too much of that in this video, is just
going through the drawing with your hand and just making those manual adjustments that
I think add a lot to the drawing.
So you can spend a little more time in your image making those manual adjustments.
And by the way, if you decide to create an image using this tutorial, don’t forget
to share it on Instagram with the hashtag #ptcvids.
I often look for that hashtag to see what you’re all up to.
And that’s it for this tutorial.
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Thank you so much for watching and I will talk to you again next time.