How to Create Anime Characters in Photoshop

Getting to grips with Anime-fashion coloring
Prune Studio Paint'due south tools & how to gear up them upward
Walkthrough

Office 1: Getting to grips with Anime-style coloring

Anime-way or Cel Shading coloring is a fashion that mimics how traditional anime was animated. It applied simple shading without blending to make it easier to breathing.

To heighten this kind of coloring style, yous can use other tools like gradients or effects. You can even use filters to give an illustration a particular atmosphere or feeling. Since this coloring fashion is very eye-catching, it is not only used in animation but likewise in illustration.

Advantages:

Low difficulty level
Doesn't take a lot of time
Easily practical and inverse
Easily adapted to other coloring styles

Office two: Prune Studio Paint'due south tools and how to fix them upwardly

In Clip Studio Paint, tools are organized by type. Each Tool has sub tool categories. The drawing tools are all in the same category in the sub tool palette.

Tip: Effort out different Pen and Pencil tools to find the ones that adapt yous. Y'all can utilize Pencil tools for sketching and Pen tools for line art. At that place are also lots of other brushes you lot tin can use, such every bit airbrushes for simple gradients and decoration brushes for making patterns. Additionally, you lot can also download more brushes from Clip Studio Assets.

In one case you've finished your inking, use the pen tool and the make full tool to colour. For this tutorial, we will exist using the pen tools that produce more of a solid, opaque line, similar the Grand-pen, for example. With the Fill Tool, we will mainly be using the Refer simply to editing layer and Refer other layers options.

Let's have a look at the Fill Tool's settings:

Apply to continued pixels only: if this is checked, it volition fill the connected surface area. Just if you uncheck it, it will not make full the connected area, just instead, it volition fill all the areas that are the aforementioned colour on that layer in the color you lot are filling with. For example, if yous click on a blue area, it will fill every blue area in the layer with the color you cull.

Close Gap: if set to 0, if you try to fill in an area and there are gaps in the line art, the color will fill areas that aren't enclosed. All the same, if you increase the value, it will become less sensitive to small gaps in the line art and won't spill over as easily. Then again, if set up besides loftier, it won't evenly fill small areas.

Area Scaling: this will allow you to fill up a footling flake closer to your line art and help embrace the edges between the fill and the line art. But if you lot gear up information technology as well high, information technology will fill by the line art, so please be careful.

Scaling Manner: There are many options here. You can play effectually with them to see what best suits your piece of work.

Refer Multiple: this will allow yous to refer to other layers when filling. Use this setting when you desire to keep the line art and colors on separate layers.

There are four options here:

All layers: volition refer to all layers on the sheet.
Reference Layer: will only refer to the layer that you set as a reference.
Selected Layer: volition but refer to the layers currently selected.
Layer in folder: will refer only to the layers in the current folder.

Please utilise them equally needed.

With the default tools that Clip Studio Paint provides, the only difference between Refer merely to editing layer and Refer other Layer is the usage of Refer Multiple. When you sympathise the differences between these tools, they will exist easier to use. So there'south no need to alter the setting each time; instead, you'll be able to cull the right tool for the job.

Opacity: this is how opaque or transparent the colour is when yous fill up.

Anti-aliasing: this will soften the edges of the lines and make them look less jaggy.

Motorcar Select: otherwise known as the Magic Wand tool. This tool allows you to select a specific area of the aforementioned color. The settings for Auto Select are similar to the Make full tool.

Making Custom Tools

This time the goal is to make a make full and colour choice tool that ignores the threshold. For example, if you want to change a specific color in the whole image or select a specific color to draw in.

To make your own custom tool:

Commencement by selecting a default tool to utilize as a base.
Click Create a re-create of currently selected sub tool (the small icon with two squares and a + symbol at the lesser of the sub tool menu), and you volition be able to brand a new tool.
Rename and change its icon and colour so you lot can easily find it.

Now you've got the base of your new tool; you can modify its settings by clicking the spanner icon at the bottom of the Tool holding tab. This fourth dimension, we want to fill all the specific colors in the prototype, so uncheck Use to connected pixels simply. To save the changes you've made to the tool's settings, click Salve all setting as default in the Sub Tool Particular dialog box. Later on saving, if you lot accidentally modify the setting, yous can easily revert to them by clicking Reset all settings to default.

Part iii: Walkthrough

1. Sketch out your idea

2. Paint on the shading guides

Considering the sketching phase is simply a rough outline of your idea, yous don't have to spend a lot of time on information technology. This gives you time to focus on the direction of the lite and where to put the shading. For at present, don't worry about the colors.

3. Inking

For the line art, let's use a vector layer. Vector layers are different from raster layers. See this article for a good explanation about how they're unlike: https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/manufactures/600 You tin use any pen, pencil, or brush you like to practise line art. This time I used the Yard-pen and Real Pencil.

If you lot want more of a hand-fatigued look, information technology's best to apply a pencil tool. But if you lot desire information technology to be sharp like in anime, the K-Pen will aid you achieve that effect.

4. Base of operations Color

Begin by creating a raster layer and place it below the line art layer. Then use the fill tool to lay downwardly your base colors. Use the Refer other layers sub tool to fill in the line fine art layer. To terminate white pixels appearing in between your lines and the base colors, use the Make full upwards to vector path option in the Tool Property tab. Instead of filling upward to the edge of the line, it will have the vector line into consideration, which means it will make full in all of the anti-aliasing parts of the line also. If you go further into the tool settings, at that place'due south an Include vector path checkbox likewise. If checked, it volition fill to the eye of the vector line.

If you're drawing a character from a reference prototype, yous tin can use the subview to show the reference image and the color picker to make sure you are using the same colors as your reference.

This is a very handy characteristic you can utilize instead of opening multiple reference images and switching through them.

If you lot want to change a specific color, you lot tin can employ the newly created fill tool to easily alter the color.

5. Shading

If you lot make up one's mind your light source when sketching, you lot tin and then do your shading accordingly. First, create a new raster layer. And so select an opaque pen tool such as the Grand-pen so that you can fill the colour the shadows in evenly. Then draw lines to create the shape of the shadows co-ordinate to your sketch. Although we are using our sketch as a reference, if you see room for improvement when drawing the shadows, and so make adjustments as you run across fit. Likewise, exist sure to use the newly created selection tool, so y'all don't go over the line art's edges. Now, find the color you lot want, and and so use the pen to depict the shadow's edges. Or if you see some areas that can be colored completely, practice it.

You can also use the fill up tool for this footstep. It'south best to keep the sketch layer, the line art layer, and the fill layer in separate folders. And change the fill tool setting from refer multiple to layer in binder. This will be super helpful for filling in the colors!

6. Highlights

The procedure is the same as shading, but make sure you create a new layer for the highlights and then they're easier to edit.

7. Layer Management

Anime-style coloring is non complicated. So you shouldn't take too many layers. Even and then, it'south a good idea to proceed your layers organized and named and so they're easy to find. Since you lot're non juggling too many layers, and you'll only be blocking in color, you lot can use the selection tool to easily select any areas you want to arrange. If you lot want to make a piece of work with more than detail, yous can always create more layers afterward. Today, however, nosotros are going to take it easy.

8. Add more details to your illustration

For case, add some blush to those cheeks!

For this pace, select the pare color, so create a new layer and lightly use the airbrush over the cheeks to add a bear on of pink. If yous want to add some gradient shadowing with the airbrush to other parts of the character similar the hair or clothing, don't get overboard – just add a light bear upon. Less is more here!

▼Animated GIF

9. Background

If you're non familiar with or certain how to describe backgrounds, a simple and constructive way is to use patterns or decoration brushes.

There are some materials pre-loaded in Prune Studio Pigment in the Cloth palette. You can also download more from Prune Studio Assets.

After downloading, yous will detect it in the Download folder on the Cloth tab.

If you want to use background or pattern materials, just drag them from the Material tab and driblet them onto the canvas. Then employ the object tool to adjust them as much as you like. In the instance of brush materials, simply drag and drop them to the subtool tab of your choice. Then you lot can utilize them as you would any other castor.

10. Decorations

Other than calculation the background, you can add other details to the foreground of the epitome, similar sparkles, petals, or patterns.

11. Adjusting Colors

When you add the background, you lot might need to adjust its color to compliment the characters. Instead of recoloring the whole background, y'all can make utilise of Correction Layers.

The unremarkably used options are Tone curve, Colour Balance, Hue/Saturation/Lightness, etc. This time we volition conform it a little so they don't contrast also much against the background.

In improver to Correction layers, you lot can easily accommodate the color of your characters using the Clipping Layer option.

Furthermore, y'all can as well modify the Layer blending modes (the drop-downwards card on the Layer palette) such as Overlay or Soft Light, to accommodate the color. Then use the airbrush tool to smooth things over and requite the illustration a softer wait.

Extra Tips: Diffusion & Glow

Utilise the Merge Visible to new Layer command to merge all the layers to a new layer. So, make a duplicate.

By applying Gaussian blur on the meridian layer (spend some time playing with the settings to find the right level for your illustration) and decreasing the opacity by about 20 – 40%, you can soften the analogy even more.

To become a glowing effect, select the duplicated layer, and modify its blending fashion to Screen.

Use the Tone Curve command and adjust the curve down.

And so utilise the Gaussian blur I explained earlier and decrease the opacity by about xx – 40%. Et voila!

I'll share one final secret with you lot to brighten upwards the feel of the analogy. If you lot create a new layer to a higher place all your other layers and change the blending mode to Screen, and then use the airbrush to add a light color around the border of the sheet, it makes the epitome bright and shiny equally if there is light shining through the air!

Take a look at the concluding illustration and download the file hither.