Introduction

When making a webtoon, constantly drawing intricate backgrounds from different angles and perspectives take up a LOT of time. So most creators choose to use 3D materials for their backgrounds.

 

But for anyone new to using 3D materials they might try using one and think, wow… why do these look so ugly? It looks so obviously 3D and doesn’t blend in with my character art :(

 

So here is a tutorial specifically on how to use and render CSP 3D assets to make pretty webtoon backgrounds!

Importing a 3D Asset

In this tutorial I will be using a default CSP “Convenience Store” asset. Select the frame your character is within and then drag your asset into the selection.

Move the 3D asset to match the scene your character is in and repeat the process for other panels of the same location.

Now you have some really easy backgrounds but unless you like this look, they don’t really match the character art style and look kinda ugly.

LT Conversion

Now you’re gonna duplicate the 3D layer and apply CSP’s LT conversion feature to the copy.

Then you will get a new folder from the LT conversion. Select your frame again and delete anything that got rendered into lines and tones outside of the selection.

And woah, if I was making a black and white manga, I could just call this good. But we're not, we are making a webtoon and usually those are in color. So we have to do a little bit more work.

 

The obvious thing you could do from here is just manually color the new black and white background. But that’s a lot work and defeats the purpose of us saving time using the 3D asset in the first place.

 

Instead, we are going to extract 3 layers from the LT conversion and the original 3D background and then merge them back together.

 

Extracting Lineart

Find the top layer(s) named “Outline” that is placed in the new folder that was created after using LT conversion and make that lineart layer for your background. TIP: change the layer color to the lineart color you use to match your art style

Extracting Colors

Go back to the original 3D layer and uncheck/turn off the lighting + lines to only have the colors left.

 

Rasterize the layer, place it under the lineart layer and edit or recolor the background to your preference. (Ex. I use lighter colors in my art so I usually increase the brightness and contrast here and sometimes quickly paint in some extra trees or skies)

 

Extracting Shadows

Back to the folder from LT conversion, pick some shadow layer(s) you like that are named “Tone” (Feel free to delete all the other layers you aren’t using.) Change the layer color from black to the shadow color you usually use in your art and change the blending mode from normal to multiply.

 

Then move that new shadow layer over the lineart and color layer from before.

Last Touches

Finally, paint in some optional lighting or add a blur effect if the background should be out of focus.

Doesn’t that look so much better for webtoons now? This same concept of extracting the three layers and rendering them together in CSP can similarly be applied with other 3D programs (ex. sketchup) as well!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or Twitter @5o0m5 or check out my Webtoon “Bibimbap!” on Webtoon Canvas