Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Open the original photo in Adobe Photoshop. (In this tutorial I use Adobe
Photoshop CS. I haven’t got other versions of Adobe Photoshop, but I guess the
entire steps described in this tutorial can be applied on any version of
Photoshop)
On choosing the photo to be cartoonized, choose a clear and sharp photo with
the face of the person clearly seen. Blur, out of focus, or under-exposed photo is
a bad choice. The larger the resolution of the photo is the better
2. On the 'Layers Palette', drag and drop the 'background' layer to the 'New
Layer' button to duplicate it.
Rename the new layer to 'original'. (To rename a layer, right-click on the name in
the Layers Palette and select Layer Properties).
We will keep the original photo (the 'original' layer) intact in case something
''wrong' happened in our cartooning activity and need the original picture.
You could use Eraser Tool, Magic Eraser Tool, or Background Eraser Tool which is simpler and faster for this purpose,
but the result won't be as professional.
Take the Pen Tool, create a path around the object (Rihanna for this case), load path as selection (ctrl + Enter),
inverse the selection (ctrl + shift + i), cut (del), then deselect the selection (ctrl + D).
Step 3: Creating outline of the picture
1. Copy the 'Layer 0' layer (drag and drop it to the 'create a new
layer' button).
Rename it to 'outline'.
3. Make sure color palette is black for the foreground and white for the background. (Press 'd' if they're not).
Set 'Detail' to 3.
Set 'Darkness' to 8.
Click 'OK'
The value for 'Detail' depends on the picture. Most of the time a value of '2' gives the best
result.
Experiment with this setting. The goal is to make the outline as detail as possible so we can
recognize the result as Rihanna, but not over-detailed that the outline becomes 'dirty'.
Turn the slider right and left, experiment with it, until the
preview displays the best outline you can get (a
compromise between 'detail enough' and 'clean enough').
By the end of part 2 of the tutorial, we will have something like this:
1. Select the 'outline' layer. Press Ctrl-J to duplicate the layer (or drag and drop it
to the 'create a new layer' button). Rename the new layer to 'white'.
Move the 'Brightness' slider all the way to the right (+100) and the 'Contrast'
slider all the way to the left (-100)
Click OK.
On the 'Color Picker', pick a creamy brown color. This color will be used
for the skin color. (I picked #FAD594 for the skin. You don't need to be
too picky here. We can change the color easily later whenever we need
to).
Click OK
9. Choose 'Paint Bucket Tool' . Click on the canvas to fill skin's layer mask with black color.
11. Create a clipping mask between 'skin' layer and 'white' layer. Press Ctrl +
G while the 'skin' layer is still selected.
12. On the 'Layers Palette', click on the 'outline' layer while holding (pressing) the Ctrl
button. This will tell the ants to march around Rihanna. Oops, I mean, this will put a
selection mark around Rihanna.
14. Choose 'Paint Bucket' tool, click inside the selection on the canvas to fill it
with white.
What's more, giving some shading to the picture (especially the face area) makes the person in our cartoon photo
more recognizable because the viewer will be able to see the cheek bone, jaw bone, etc which differentiate someone
from the others.
We already have the skin base color (i.e. the 'skin' layer), so now we need to add the shade and the tint.
Set the radius of the blurring to 4 pixels. (Typical values are between 2 and 4. A value of 2 is usually enough).
Click OK
Experiment with 'Number of Levels' value while looking at the preview window
(pay special attention to the face). Typical values are between 5 and 8.
Choose a value giving the best result for the shading of the face.
Let's choose 8 for 'Number of Levels' for it gives the nicest shading on the face.
4. Using the result of the Cutout filter, we will create a shade and a tint.
5. Rename the
'Layer 0 copy' layer to 'shade'.
7. Now we have two new layers, tint and shade. Let's work on
the shade first.
We're done with the shade. Now let's continue with the tint.
Basically, the steps are the same as what we've done to create the shade.
20. Change the blending mode of 'tint' layer to 'Soft Light'. Change the opacity to 60% (experiment with this value
to get the desired result).
For our Rihanna picture, we need to colorize her shirt (tank top?), lips, teeth, eyes, and hair.
Let's begin.
1. On the Tools Palette, choose 'Paint Bucket Tool' (or press 'G').
2. Press 'd' to set the foreground color to black and background color
to white.
4. Click the 'Create new fill or adjustment layer' at the bottom of Layers Palette.
On the popup menu, choose 'Solid Color...'. A 'Color Picker' dialog box will be displayed.
5. On the 'Color Picker' dialog box, pick a dark red color. This color will be
used for the shirt. (I picked #B24747 for the shirt. You don't need to be too
picky here. We can change the color easily later whenever we want to).
Click OK
7. Click on the canvas to fill our shirt's layer mask with black color.
9. Create a clipping mask between 'shirt' layer and 'skin' layer. Press Ctrl + G while
the 'shirt' layer is still selected.
10. Repeat step 4 through step 9 to make layers for the color of lips, eyes, iris,
and hair.
From the 'Tools Palette', pick 'Pencil Tool' (or press 'B').
13. Make sure the foreground color is pure white. (Press 'X' if you have to switch foreground and background
colors).
14. Start painting the hair. Use a hard brush with the opacity set to 100%. Make sure that you zoom in when
coloring, so that it is nice and tidy. (The clipping mask help us a lot here. It won't let the color run out of border)
15. Now let's move on with the next layer, the 'iris'. On the 'Layers Palette', select the 'iris' layer. Repeat steps 13
through 14 to paint the iris.
16. The eyes (the white part of the eyes) and teeth (for they have the same color, which is white)...
And anytime you feel the need to change a color of any layer, just double click the layer (not
the layer mask!) and choose a new color on the Color Picker. Very easy.