How to draw a black and white manga

It can be done automatically! Linear blur processing utilizing noise tone

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Introduction

In black-and-white manga, in order to make it easier to distinguish the character from the background, the surroundings of the character may be blurred.

If you do not use grayscale, you will have to draw this process with a Kakeami or a wood grain brush, but it is quite difficult to process many frames by hand.

In this TIPS, we will explain how to automatically perform linear blurring processing along such a silhouette using noise tone and auto action.

1. 1. Apply a blur filter

As a sample, we will apply linear blur to the following shapes.

First, apply the blur filter to the whole.

To apply the blur filter, the color mode of the layer must be "color" or "gray". If the color mode is "Monochrome", change it.

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Select "Filter> Blur" from the menu at the top of the screen.

For the time being, I tried to apply a Gaussian blur with a strength of 200 to the whole.

To blur a wider area, a little peculiar unevenness can be created, but it is also effective to apply moving blur in multiple directions.

This time, the following processing is performed based on the image with "Gaussian blur" applied.

2. 2. Use the noise tone settings to make the blur linear

Use the layer properties panel to tone the blurred layer.

Select "Noise" in "Net Settings".

I think the noise setting depends on each person's preference, but I think it is for 600dpi monochrome manga manuscripts.

Angle: 90 °

Noise size: 130

Noise coefficient: 500

It is set to.

Increasing the "noise size" will make the line thicker and rougher, and increasing the "noise figure" will make the line longer.

With this, I was able to create a linearly blurred image.

It should be noted that the appearance of this data when actually printed and output is quite different from the preview on Crysta.

To check the actual export result, it is necessary to rasterize the layer.

The above image is a preview on Crysta,

When rasterized, the line becomes thick and rough to about twice as much as this.

For black-and-white originals, it is a good idea to return the color mode of the layer to black-and-white when rasterizing.

3. 3. Steps to add when actually using for bordering

In the case of "adding a white border along the character", the silhouette will be smaller than the original state only by the above procedure. The line density may not be sufficient either.

If you want to do this kind of blurring for the purpose of actually "adding a border"

-Perform "Expand Selection" and "Fill" to make the object to be blurred larger than the original silhouette.

-Before making noise tones, repeat duplication and combination of blurred layers to increase the density of the final output line.

It is necessary to include such a procedure.

Also, it is better to perform blurring processing on the layer duplicated in advance so as not to destroy the original layer.

If you record the above procedure in the auto action, you will be able to perform blurring processing like the image at the beginning with one click.

The auto action prepared in advance for black-and-white 600dpi manga manuscripts is available for free below.

If you want to change the blur width, line thickness, etc., please adjust by referring to this TIPS.

When creating a base layer that follows the silhouette of the character, it is convenient to set the line drawing as the reference layer and use K96's "tool to surround and paint without gaps".