Hey guys, In this video I'm gonna teach you how to convert a photo into art Backgrounds suitable for comics using clip studio paint. Any comic artist's biggest stress is drawing the background. It takes too much time and knowledge. But what if i tell you . you can easily convert a photo into your comic background .

 

 

IF YOU WANT VISUAL VERSION OF THIS TUTORIAL WATCH THIS VIDEO :

There are gonna be two sections in this video since I want to cover all forms of comic so If you're a manga artist or a webtoon artist don't worry I got you all.

 

-The first section will be for manga . where i teach you different ways to convert your photo into a proper manga background.

-The second section will be for webtoon , where we will see how to extract line art from a photo to make the perfect background and more.

Ok, lets go.

SECTION 1: Manga

Lines and tones

The first method I'll teach you to convert your photos to manga backgrounds is ‘lines and tones’. This is a feature in clip studio paint that converts images into lines and screentone shading.

Let's go over how to use this feature.

 

> make sure you have imported your photo onto clip studio.

> go to (menu)Layer > convert to lines and tones.

> A dialogue box will appear with a lot of options. you can adjust all these options to get your desired result.

> but first make sure the preview is enabled.

> drag the nodes of the posterization to adjust the grayscale gradient. Adjusting this differs from person to person. Some people like to have more darker values in their comic while some like lighter values.

> Then I adjust the black fill to set the range of areas to be filled in blacks. Increasing the slider will add more areas of black while decreasing it will lower it.

> linewidth to adjust the width of the outlines.

> then i move onto tones. Adjust the tone slider by dragging to control the density of tones.

> choose your desired type of tone and frequency as well as angle and click on ok.

And that's it. You have your manga background from

a photo.

that turned our good. This is the most well know method of converting photo to manga background .

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But there's another method to convert your photo to manga background . That is the monochrome method.

 

 

Monochrome

Monochrome is an expression colour under layer property Comprising black , white and transparent . If I can't find the layer property in your window.

-Go to windows (menu) > layer property.

Now let's get into how to use monochrome to create your manga background.

> First we’re gonna duplicate our photo. We can disable the photo on the layer below.

We're gonna concentrate on this photo on top for now.

> If your photo is dark or dull like mine is , we will have to increase its brightness . because if we convert a dull photo into monochrome ,it's just gonna be all black which we do not want.

> So im gonna quickly go to layer(menu) > new correction layer > brightness/contrast. And adjust the slider to my desire. once im done.i’ll click on ok.

> If you look at our layer palette , the brightness/ contrast is on a separate layer. We're gonna combine it with our photo layer by clicking ‘ merge with layer below”

 

 

> Now we're gonna click on ‘Colour’ under the layer property. And choose monochrome. Now as you can see the photo is converted to just black and white .

> If you want to remove some of the black parts you can just use a white airbrush tool to do that. Or if you want to add more black use a black airbrush. This part of this method is very important since you're customizing the background to your unique style. If you like to add hatching to your background , you can add that now.

> Under edit (menu)> convert layer to opacity. This will make the white parts transparent.

> Able the photo layer below. Convert the photo to grayscale by going to layer palette and under expression colour choose grayscale.

>Now we're gonna apply the tone effect to this photo. Go to layer property once again and click on tone.

> Adjust the tone setting to however you usually do for your manga. With that you're done .

look how good it came out.

 

And these are the methods that I know of to convert a pho

to into manga background.

SECTION : Webtoon

Let's finally move onto the webtoon

This section of the tutorial is for webtoon creators who want to create a webtoon background from a photo.

 

Let's go.

Lines only

The first method to convert photo to webtoon background is lines only. In this method we will be extracting only line art from our background , this is for artists who do not like the colours in the photo Or just want to colour their own background.

So how does this method work? Let me tell you.

> First make sure you have imported your photo onto the canvas.

> go to filter (menu)> Effect > artistic .

>An artistic dialogue box will open up. make sure preview is enabled. Under the process select “lines only”.

> you will see a lot of options in the box , using which we can customize the lines thickness , simplicity , density , opacity , anti -aliasing .adjust line settings  to match your webtoon style. the colour options do not matter since we are processing ‘ only lines’ . Once you're done click on ok.

>  As you can see we have converted our photo to a line art.

> but there's more. If you look at the line art it has some dust , some unnecessary lines. If yo want to remove that go to filter(menu)> correction > remove dust .

> A Remove dust dialogue box will open up. Under which select the mode to be ‘remove dust from transparency’. And adjust the dust size to how much dust you want to remove and click on ok.

> now you can stop here  we have the line art you can start colouring. but there's one more thing that i like to do . which is converting this layer to vector layer. It  gives more options in customization of the line art To fit into your own unique artstyle. 

> for that make sure you're on the lineart layer. Then go to layer (menu)> convert layer . A dialogue box will open up. Under the type select ‘vector layer’ and click on ok. Now the layer has been converted to a vector layer.

> the benefit of converting to a vector layer lies in the fact that we can further customize the lines. Let me show you different customization we can do under the vector layer. 

> if you look at the background line art there are some breaks between the lines. we can go to operation and choose the object. Go to your canvas and Click on that line with breaks. Control points will show up using which we can just drag to close the breaks. Super easy

>  If we go to the object's tool property. We have several options to customize line art according to our art style. 

> for example :you can change the colour of the lines by choosing the main colour and choosing the colour that you want to apply.

> we can adjust our brush size. If you like to have very comical and thick lines , increase the brush size.

> if you like to use a particular brush for your comic to fit your style. We can change the current line arts brush to that. For that select ‘ brush shape’ and choose the brush shape you want to use. 

> if you have a particular brush you want to use for your background . you can add that brush to the preset. For that go to the Tool property of the brush you want to add to the preset. Click on settings below. Sub tool detail box will open up under which select the brush shape. And click on add to preset. Now we have successfully added our brush to preset.

> now back to operation , object’s tool property . under the brush shape select the brush you just added. And there you have it . the line art’s brush shape has been changed.

And this is how you can extract lines for your webtoon from a photo. Its highly customizable and super easy to make.

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Colors and lines

Let's move onto the second method of converting photos to background for your webtoon. This method is called ‘ colours and lines’. Unlike the previous method we will be converting both lines and colours of a photo to our webtoon background. To do that

> make sure you imported your photo onto the canvas.

> go to (menu) filter > effect > artistic. 

> An artistic dialogue box will appear to make sure the preview is enabled. Under the process select ‘ colours and lines’. 

> in this box you have a lot of customization options , you can adjust how thick you want your lines to be. You can customize lines simplicity , density , opacity, anti aliasing. 

> likewise we can also adjust colour options to fit our art style. how blended you want the colours to be. The more you increase the slider of colour blending, colour blur and no .of colours the more it will look closer to a real photo.

If you decrease then it will make the  colour look more 2d , perfect for comics.

> once you're done , click on ok. 

With that we have converted our photo to  webtoon background.

Very easy .Now you no longer have to worry about drawing your webtoon backgrounds.

BONUS METHOD:

Now this is a bonus method. but There's one more way to convert your photos to webtoon background. which is using this material in clip studio assets.

> Download this material.

> Go to your clip studio downloads. The downloaded material will show up here . since it's an auto action .Make sure you have an auto action window on the screen

>if you don't then go to (menu) windows> auto auction.

> Drag the downloaded material and drop it on the auto action window. As you can see two new auto actions have been added.

> Now make sure you have imported your photo onto the canvas.

> Now select ‘ the style’  auto action and click on play.

> The auto action will perform its action. Few dialogue boxes will show up , adjust them to your desire and click on ok.

> once the auto action is performed. You can see some changes in the layer palette. One of them being a folder. Select the folder and go to auto action and select the Second auto action and click on play.

> auto action will perform its action and it's done. I really love this material , it creates super webtoony effects. 

Hope you try it out too.

And that is how you can create art with photos. Thank you for reading.