All the photos included in this article were shot by me and the drawings are my own original creations.

Intro

In this 'Tips of the Month', I am going to explain how to use the functions in the ‘Layer property’ panel. The first thing to consider about these useful functions is that they are effects that are assigned to the selected layer, but their greatest feature is that they act like a switch that you can toggle on and off with a simple click. In fact, these do not permanently change the layer as we’re going to see, so you can return the layer to the way it was at any time.

Another thing to know before you start is that some of these effects are only applicable to certain types of layers, so I will indicate next to each effect the type of layer you can use it on.

As for the ‘Extract line’ effect, this is only present in the EX version of Clip Studio Paint, but I will explain a little trick you can adopt to simulate the effect in the PRO version of Clip Studio Paint as well.

All these effects can be found in the 'Layer property' panel, which you can activate by going to the Window > Layer property. Of course, make sure that you have also activated ‘Layer’, Window > Layer.

Border effect

(It applies to all types of layers except to [Gradient] and [Fill in monochrome])

 

First, select the layer to which you want to apply the effect. To activate the border effect, simply click on the border effect button in the layer property panel. At this point, we can choose between two types of borders, ‘Edge’ and ‘Watercolour Edge’. If the panel is too small you may not see the names of the effects but only the icons, simply enlarge the size of the panel to see the icon names.

I generally use the border effect to highlight an element, to create a separation between detail and the background, or to make an entire element stand out. If you select a layer the effect will only apply to that layer, as in the first image below, the border around the two strawberries makes them stand out from the cake.

If, on the other hand, you select a folder that contains several layers, the border will be applied to the outer outline considering all the layers in the folder, as in the second image below. In this case, all the layers that make up the cake are inside the folder, so when we assign the border to the folder it will be formed outside all the layers. Also, looking at the parameters inside the layer property panel next to the cake you can see the difference in the thickness assigned to the two borders and the different colors:

You can change the thickness by clicking on the 'Thickness of the edge' bar, while to change the colour of the edge there are two ways, clicking directly on the bar showing the colour will open a window from which you can choose a colour, as shown in the following image:

Or if you already have a colour selected in your palette, simply click on the bucket icon next to the colour bar, and you will see that the bar becomes the same colour you have already assigned in your palette:

The edge effect is very useful and time-saving, as well as creating a precise outline in the blink of an eye. However, you may have noticed that the thickness is always uniform, and this could be an issue, especially in cases where you would like to have a thinner outline in some areas and a thicker one in others. You can adopt a little trick to achieve this result: create a new layer above the layer or folder on which you have activated the border effect, and after right click on the new layer, click on ‘Clip to Layer Below’. Now, everything you do on the new layer also affects the active border effect on the layer below. In the following image, I used this trick to thin some parts of the border, I set the clipped layer to multiply, to emphasize a shaded spot on the cake.

As you can see, the thickness of the border is greater at the top and thinner at the bottom of the cake. Of course, experiment with your imagination, after all, you can remove and put on the border effect in one click.

Above we have seen how to apply the border to an element contained in a layer or to an entire folder containing several layers; however, it can often happen that after finishing a drawing you find that you want to add the border effect to a particular element in the drawing, but this element is not on a separate layer. In this case, I use the ‘selection pen’, which is very useful, especially for complex shapes. In the tool panel click on the ‘selection area’ and then in the sub tool menu select ‘selection pen’, it is very simple just color the part you want to select and then click on the ‘cut and paste’ or ‘copy and paste’ icon. You will see that the element is now on a new layer and you can easily use the border effect.

Before moving on to the watercolor edge function, you should know that both the edge and watercolor edge can be applied to balloons and also to frames in your comics. It's simple just follow the same steps explained in this article, here is a practical example:

Watercolor edge

We have seen the edge option in the previous section, but what happens if we select Watercolor edge in the border effect panel? This function affects the edges of the design in a different way from the previous one. We select the layer or group of layers to which we want to apply the effect in exactly the same way as we did for the Edge option; however, there are a few important differences to be aware of compared to the previous effect so that we can use it effectively.

In the Edge effect, the border is created around the image and as we act on the thickness option the border becomes thicker without ever encroaching on the image inside the border; with the watercolor edge effect we do not have the thickness parameter to act on, moreover, as you can see in the following images the effect does not just act on the outside of the border but also encroaches on the inside in a way.

If you also look closely at the parameters in the image above, you will notice that there are more parameters than the Edge option. In fact, we can act on the thickness of the inner area, the part of the effect that invades the drawing, via the ‘Area’ parameter; the greater the value you assign to the parameter, the greater the area of the drawing invaded by the effect. In addition, it is possible to adjust the opacity and darkness; the last option ‘blurring width’ allows you to act both on the external part of the effect and on the invaded area inside the border, but in this case, it does not increase the thickness but adjusts how smooth or crispy the effect is; if the value is low, the border will have a pixel effect, if instead, the value is high, it will have a blurred effect:

Another thing to say is that, unlike the edge effect, there is no bar in the parameter panel that allows you to change colour. In fact, if we activate the watercolour edge effect from the layer property panel it will appear more like a dark shadow, however, we can activate this effect directly in the brush settings so the colour will also change according to the selected colour in the palette:

In the last window at the top right of the image you can see the ‘Blurring width’ parameter, you will only be able to act on this parameter if the ‘Process after brush stroke’ box is checked.

But enough with the explanations and let's get to the action! I had fun with the watercolor edge effect both applied to the watercolor brush and to the final image, this is the result:

As you can see the effect applied to the brush characterizes each stroke and eventually creates a certain texture that I thought would be perfect for drawing a fresh watermelon, then I also applied the watercolor edge effect to the whole watermelon image in order to create a detachment from the background, and finally, I used the white edge effect on the text and marker in the background.

One last tip on the edge effect: It is very useful for making text, used in your illustrations, stand out, whether you use it for freehand writing or apply it to text created with the text tool. In the case of freehand writing, I enjoy activating the effect even before I start writing so that the border is created as I write, try also using the eraser after writing while the border effect is active, it is very satisfying! Of course, you can also activate it afterward. Try it out!

Tone

(It applies to all types of layers)

 

The Tone function is an effect that manga fans like me will love, but it can of course be used in many other fields. I will show you how to use it to create backgrounds for manga, screens to apply to your images, and colored tone effects for illustrations. To activate this effect, the procedure is the same as for the border effect seen previously: in the Layer property panel we click on Tone and the effect will immediately be activated, in addition, we will see various parameters appear in the panel. In fact, by acting on these parameters we will be able to balance the effect until we achieve the result we desire, first and foremost the Frequency parameter. I will explain all the parameters in detail in the following paragraphs, showing their effects.

Background for manga

Surely one of the most useful uses we can make of the Tone effect concerns the creation of backgrounds for our frames in a manga. All we have to do is take a good photo of the scenery we want to use as a setting, and after making a few adjustments to contrast and brightness we can apply the Tone effect to obtain a background ready to be inserted into the manga.

In the example below I created the classic cloud background from a photo I took:

The effect is exactly that of a halftone, but there are a few things to pay attention to in order to obtain the desired result: First of all, the size and resolution of the image will influence the final result. For example, if we use a very large image and assign a high value to the ‘Frequency’ parameter, we will obtain an image that appears to be black and white, where the dots are so dense that it is impossible to distinguish them. In some cases, it may also be necessary to change the brightness of the photo before applying the Tone effect, we can do this through the ‘Tone curve’ or the ‘Level correction’ that we can find in the Edit menu, Tonal correction > Level correction / Tone curve.

In addition, if the ‘Reflect layer opacity’ box is ticked, the moment we change the opacity of the layer, it will also change the density of the dots that form the screen. If, on the other hand, we do not check the box, we can act on the layer's opacity as usual by varying its transparency. 

As for the ‘Posterization’ parameter, I refer you to the section in this article on how to simulate the Extract line effect, where I explain it in detail.

The image above is the result of two adjustments, the initial photo was lightened by adjusting the levels, and after I applied the Tone effect I used the Eraser tool soft to lighten some areas even further, resulting in a much clearer image that could be used in a manga frame. The soft eraser is a very useful tool for ‘scratching’ the screen I will explain in more detail how to use it in the following paragraphs.

Fusion of real objects and drawings

In addition to making backgrounds, I also love to use the Tone effect to visually merge real objects with elements I have drawn, it is a method that is used in manga making to save time and achieve an incredible result.

In the image above, I used the Tone effect to visually merge the cake I designed with a photo I took of a real plate, this effect creates a newspaper-like image and is great for manga because the image appears to have the screen applied.

However, to adapt this effect to different uses you need to know a few details, first of all, the Frequency parameter shown in the image above. This parameter acts on the density of the dots that form the screen, we need to act on this parameter to find the right balance so that our image looks the way we want it to.

Black and White and Colored Screen

I also use this effect to quickly create both black and white and coloured halftone effects to be applied directly to the drawing areas we want. Let's look in detail at the Frequency parameter and the steps required to create a coloured screen with the Tone effect.

The first thing we need to know is that the Tone effect does not only apply to images or photos. If we create an empty layer and activate the Tone effect, we can draw directly with a brush and the line that we will see forming will be formed directly by many black and white dots.

There are however two things to pay attention to, one of these is the frequency parameter, by acting on this the dots that will make up the stroke will be more or less numerous and therefore more or less large; Moreover, the other important thing is the choice of colour in the palette, in fact, I recommend, in order to obtain a better effect, to select a colour or a grey tone rather tending towards dark so as to obtain well-defined dots as shown in the following images. But before looking at the images it is right to point out that in this first phase even if you choose a colour this will appear black, the screen colouring process will in fact take place at a later stage, but let us proceed step by step:

As you can see in the images above, a frequency value of 60 allows us to obtain denser and therefore smaller dots in a given area, while a lower frequency value, as shown in the example value 40, will give us larger dots in the same area. In addition, you can see that if we use a simple soft eraser tool to erase, we can simulate the effect where the screen is ‘shaved’ and then lightened to obtain shading. You can apply the screen to the desired area of your drawing, thus creating customised screens on the fly.

The colouring process, on the other hand, involves a few simple steps: first of all, in the Density settings, you must select the ‘Use brightness of image’ option in the drop-down menu. If you select this option, you can then colour the dots afterwards because the space between dots will be intended as transparency.

The second step is to make the layer raster, so right-click on the layer and select rasterize.

In the third step, we click on the ‘Lock transparent pixels’ icon in the Layer panel, so that we can only colour the selected layer. Now we are ready to colour the layer with the marker or another brush, you can also use a gradient effect the limit is only your imagination.

You can then create a shading effect on the screen created with the soft eraser and apply it to an area of your drawing as a shadow or as a colouring, it will give a printed paper effect as in manga illustrations.

A clarification on the use of the soft eraser with the Tone effect: if you use the soft eraser on the screen you have created you will notice that the dots that make up the screen become smaller at the point where you use the eraser, obviously if you use the soft eraser after you have rasterized the screen layer it will act normally by lightening the dots but not making them smaller, you can use this to your advantage depending on the result you want to achieve.

In the drawing above I inserted a screen made with the Tone effect, obviously I first created a new layer above the desired layer and then activated Tone and simply used the marker on the area to be screened and then adjusted it with the soft eraser.

In this case, however, I first colored the drawing normally with the watercolor brush, then I applied the Tone and after I made the layer raster, I colored the screen with a gradient effect. You can really create a lot of effects, I love screens! Experiment yourself!

Tone and Gradient Layers

Another way I like to use the tone is combined with the gradient tool, this allows us to create many types of effects that we can color as we like using the same steps explained in the previous section, let's see what steps are needed to achieve a result like this:

First, we need to use the gradient tool: in the tool panel we select Gradient, there are some parameters to pay attention to in the Gradient panel to get a good result, let's see them in detail:

We first select the ‘Foreground to background’ sub-tool and set the two colors white and black, at this stage, it is important to choose black and white RGB with maximum values, as explained in the previous paragraph the coloring will take place later. In addition, as shown in the image above, we select ‘Create gradient layer’ in the drop-down menu, in this way when you draw the line on the sheet a separate layer will be created that will allow us to manage the gradient effect even after having drawn it, in fact after having drawn the gradient hold down the CTRL key and you will see the line that you have drawn, acting on the end of the line you can modify the gradient in real time until you reach the desired result, it’s convenient, isn’t it?!

We select the gradient layer that has been created and it is to this layer that we apply the Tone effect from the Layer property panel:

In the image above you can see the important parameters to pay attention to in this case, we then select ‘Use brightness of image’ so as to make the white space transparent. This step will be useful for colouring the black parts later. We act on the frequency parameter to adjust the density and finally, we choose the effect in dot settings in this case I chose ‘Square’.

Now, all you have to do is follow the steps I explained in the previous section to colour the layer: Rasterize, lock transparent pixels and colour with the brush of your choice or with a gradient effect, as usual, let your imagination run wild!

Display decrease color

(Only for layers [Image material] and [3D])

 

To use the ‘Display decrease color’ effect, import an image from the File menu by selecting Import > Image, or right-click on a layer and select ‘Convert layer’, then choose from the menu Type > Image material layer. Once we have done the previous steps, we will see the Display decrease color appear in the layer property panel. We can use this effect in various ways. I use it mostly for backgrounds, but as we will see in the next section, it can also be used to extract lines from a photo.

However, to obtain the result we are looking for we need to act on the parameters, let's see them in detail:

In the image above I have highlighted two icons, with those two icons we will be able to choose between Grey or Monochrome, the first will convert the imported image to black and white including all grey variations, and the second will use only black and white as values, furthermore, when we select Monochrome various parameters will be shown, as you can see in the image above.

I would like to remind you that the Grey and Monochrome option is also available in the layer property panel for the other effects, or if you want to activate it without any effect, under Expression color:

The main value we have to act on is ‘Color Threshold’; in fact, by varying this parameter we will notice how the photo changes, the higher the parameter is, the more we will see black areas appear on our image. It is important to find the right balance in which the black areas define the points of the photo that interest us without overwhelming the other areas. This is the effect applied to a photo of a landscape that I took:

You can see the grey effect and the monochrome effect in action, by acting on the Color Threshold I tried to find a balance between the details of the sky and those of the rocks and the grass.

Reflect layer opacity

The box marked with an orange circle in the image of the parameters above, ‘Reflect layer opacity’, allows us to act on the layer's opacity. When it is unchecked, the layer's opacity will behave as we are used to, it will lighten the layer as we lower the opacity, gradually making it transparent. If, on the other hand, the box is checked, acting on the opacity we will not notice any difference until we drop below a certain opacity value and the image will disappear completely, this value is related to the Alpha threshold parameter. If the Alpha value is maximum, 255, the layer will only be visible at a maximum opacity of 100%, and if the Alpha value is lowered, the layer will also be visible at lower opacity values.

Let's play with the Monochrome effect!

There is yet another detail in the menu to pay attention to and which can be very useful; in fact, if you look closely at the panel there are also two squares, one white and one black:

In the image above these two switches are on as you can see they are colored blue, but if we click on either one of them we can turn it off. At first glance, nothing will appear to be changed but by switching off white we are making all white pixels transparent and by switching off black we are making black pixels transparent; you can see this difference in the following images where I have put the colored image layer under the monochrome image to highlight this variation:

In the first image, I turned off the white switch and so the white pixels are transparent in the second image I turned off the black switch. In the third image, I wanted to create a particular effect, I turned off the white pixels and put the monochrome image layer on the one with the grey effect to recreate an effect that reminds me a lot of the old screens of vintage portable video games. You can create many effects by combining the ‘Display decrease color’ with other effects on the images. The limit is only your imagination have fun experimenting with the images to create incredible effects.

Simulating the Extract line effect of Clip Studio EX in Clip Studio Pro

In the previous section we saw the Display decrease color effect, this effect in addition to rendering black and white and monochrome images can be used to simulate the Extract line function.

In fact, within the Layer property panel, those who use Clip Studio EX can also see another effect to apply to an image, the Extract line. This effect is very useful because it allows a photo to be simplified to generate a kind of simulated lineart that can then be traced or used in some other way. This function is not available for the Pro version; however, it is possible to use three combined effects in the Pro version that can give us a result very close to the Extract line. We are going to combine the Tone, the Display decrease color, and the Artistic filter, let's see how to use them in these steps:

Import the photo you want from the top menu File > Import > Image.

Firstly, we create two duplicates of the photo so that we have three separate layers with the same imported image, just right-click on the layer and select duplicate layer from the menu.

We will use the effect from the menu Filter > Effect > Artistic on the top layer, in this way, we will see that lines will be drawn, let's also change the values of the parameters in the panel that opens to find the result we like depending on the type of photo, whether it is a background or an object, and whether we need thicker lines or not:

In the parameter window, we select ‘Lines only’ so that everything else will be transparent and allow us to see the other effects we will apply on the layers below. Adjust the thickness and other parameters until you find a result where the lines are clear, it will depend very much on the type of subject the photo portrays.

We will now use the Tone effect on the layer in the middle:

Select in the parameter panel of the Tone effect ‘Use brightness of image’, at this point in addition to acting on the Frequency parameter, that I explained in a previous paragraph, we will check the ‘Posterization’ box:

As you can see in the image above, there are values under Posterization that slide on a bar, these values also have different grey tones, and if you move the cursor to a point on the bar where there is no value you will notice a small plus sign appear, clicking on it will generate a new value and thus a new gradation. By moving these values on the bar you will notice changes in the image and can adjust the tone areas. However, in order to find the result we are looking for I recommend first activating the monochrome effect on the lowest layer, and then going back to adjust the values on the layer with Tone, this will allow you to have an overall view, and in addition the transparency will be filled by the layer at the bottom.

On the layer with Tone, I also used the Soft Eraser to lighten some parts. As you can see the temple looks as if the lines are drawn by hand and also the lines are clearly distinguishable, the Tone creates the screen effect, and the Monochrome gives us nice dark areas. This is a great way not only to simulate the Extract line effect but also to create backgrounds for our manga from photos.

Layer color

(All layer types)

 

The ‘Layer color’ in the Layer property panel allows us to apply a different colour to the selected layer, but it will not permanently change the colours of the layer.

Therefore, this effect can be useful for temporarily highlighting a particular layer, which will appear in the colour we have assigned. If we then decide that we no longer need this colour distinction, thanks to the fact that the effects in the Layer property panel are like switches, it will be possible to remove this effect with a simple click, returning the selected layer exactly as it was before.

I find this particularly useful for tracing scanned drawings made with pencil or pen, in fact, I often used to lower the opacity of the layer in the past and then with a new layer created above it, I traced the lines. However, it often happens especially with pencil sketches that the strokes are already barely visible then this effect is very useful because we can quickly assign a colour to the layer to distinguish them, I often use blue but you can use whatever you prefer. Let's see the options in detail:

In the image above you can see how the effect can be applied either from the Layer property panel or from the Layer panel by clicking on the small icon that shows the two colours, in both cases, we can choose two colours one main colour that will replace the black colour and a sub colour that will be assigned to white. As always, experiment by trying out different colours depending on the type of layer you want to highlight, whether it is a background or a pencil sketch or whatever. Let's look at two practical examples where the use of this effect comes in handy:

In the first example, I have assigned the background I have created, a blue and cream color so that I can draw the characters more easily. Not only does this effect allow me to visualize them better, but the black lines of the background and the Tone effect would be confusing if I did not activate this effect.

Let's look at another case where it can be useful:

In this case, the pencil used for the draft is already very light, by using a blue color not only do we see the stroke better, but it does not blend in with the black strokes we draw on it, moreover, if you like digital painting, you can paint directly on the draft and still see the initial sketch clearly.

Overlay texture

(It applies to [Image material] layers)

 

The ‘Overlay texture’ is activated like the other effects from the Layer property panel, it appears when we have selected an ‘Image material’ layer. In fact, this function renders the images contained in the layer we have selected as textures. It is indispensable when we apply a texture to our design, let's see a practical example:

I applied a texture from the 'Material Texture' folder on the background I created previously. This texture gives the design a grainy look. However, the ‘Overly texture’ allows us to adjust the intensity of the texture by acting on the ‘Strength’ bar:

In the image above, you can see the bar that adjusts the intensity, highlighted and the texture effect taken from the materials. Once you have dragged the effect you want to use into the layers panel, simply select the texture layer and activate the Overlay texture in the layers property panel, adjust the ‘Strength’ value to find the result you want.

As I mentioned earlier, this effect transforms any image contained on the layer into texture; therefore, it is very useful for creating custom textures on the fly, for example in the next image I created a hexagon pattern as a dress decoration for my character, after drawing the hexagons on a new layer, I converted the layer by right-clicking on it and selecting Convert layer > Image material. After the conversion, I activated the Overlay texture and adjusted the size of the image to fit the dress:

Outro

We have seen many functions that can be activated from the Layer property panel, their particularity lies in the fact that they can be activated and deactivated in one click without permanently modifying our work. Definitely. my favourites are the ‘Tone’ which allows me to create customised screens on the fly and the ‘Display decrease colour’ which combined with the Tone allows me to create backgrounds for my manga. What is your favourite effect?

I hope this article has been comprehensive and will be useful in your work.  See you later, Bye bye!