[ART] Good, crisp, clean lines with a tablet and Photoshop

Djiem

Hi H/A,

I read a lot of webcomics, and I noted that the lines on comics such as Penny-Arcade, Three Panel Soul, Dueling Analogs, VG Cats, PVP Online, Sinfest and others have much cleaner lines than I ever managed to draw.

I used to draw directly at the dimensions I'm going to get with the final product (I did a webcomic in 600x800 at 72 dpi) then later realised I'd need to at least go to 300 dpi to be able to print it.

Now, I've started inking directly in Photoshop with a Intuos³ 9x12 graphic tablet. I usually do the comic at 300 dpi, 8.5x11 inches (at 72 dpi it's the exact size of an Applegeeks comic strip).

However, when I resize the image for display on the web, it seems to blur. For example, I draw a guy (black lines on white background) and he looks ok at 25% zoom at 300 dpi. If I do an Image Resize > Change 300 to 72 dpi, it looks like the lines are blurry. Not a lot, but enough to not be as crisp as a good webcomic.

My question is: If I'm aiming at making a strip that can be printed in 8.5x11 and showed on screen at 600something x 700something (the 72 dpi equivalent):

- How many dpi should my original be? 300, 600, or even more? What do talented webcomic artists use?
- How far in should I zoom when doing the lines?
- Is the normal brush from Photoshop right or do people use a special brush that doesn't leave that blurry effect when reducing the size of their comic?
- What is the way to reduce the size of the picture without getting the blurry effect?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: If you want an example, look at the blurry shit that I dare call my avatar. The original was very crisp. The lines weren't clean since I purposely took my sketchlines, but it was still crisp. Now, I realise this is a 100x100 picture so it's gotta be smaller, but it still sends me a blurry vibe that I don't like. It's not sharp.

NightDragon

1) 300 dpi is usually sufficient for print. You shouldn't really need to go any higher than that.


2) I would suggest leaving the picture relatively zoomed-out when you're doing the initial lines...and maybe zooming in a tad for clean-up, if necessary. Keeping the picture zoomed out helps your lines stay fluid. If you're working really close-up, they've got a higher chance of looking squiggly.


3) I don't know what you mean by "normal brush". There is no "normal brush". If you're talking about the default brush, well that's probably either a soft round or a hard round. Soft round is fuzzy on the edges, and hard round is a solid circle.

You shouldn't be getting a huge blurring problem when you make the size smaller. Sometimes, I'll lightly sharpen the original image before scaling it down...that tends to help quite a bit. Sharpen it lightly afterwards too if it's really a problem. The trick is to not sharpen TOO much, though (after you sharpen, go to Edit>>Fade Sharpen).


4) There really is no way to completely stop it. You're trying to squeeze a heck of a lot of information into a smaller space.
It's like taking a rainbow of pixels - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple pixels, all in a row. That's 6 pixels. Try to fit 6 pixels into 2 pixels...and the two pixels are going to blend together to represent the 3 pixels that got combined. Same thing with going from 300 dpi to 72 dpi. That's what, 1/4 the size? There's no way for the computer to retain the exact same information in 300 dpi as in 72 dpi. Less definition is just what happens!



[by the way...have you tried using the pen tool?]

Djiem

Thanks for the help. I knew that compression was somewhat inevitable, but I wondered about ways to diminish the effect. I'll try your sharpen tips and mess around some more.

Also, no, I've never really used the pen tool. I just didn't "get it", I guess.

EDIT: Regarding zooming in and out, you sure out is the best way? I'd have figured that if I did very small shakes and squiggles while zoomed in, it won't show that much once I'd zoom out. I kinda recall Gabe saying that to Scott Kurtz in one of the podcasts: "Zoom in, like, real close, then do a long line, in one stroke."

Pheezer

175 dpi is sufficient for print. Newsprint is even lower. It depends entirely on what you want to do.

Djiem

DrDizaster wrote: »

175 dpi is sufficient for print. Newsprint is even lower. It depends entirely on what you want to do.

Pretty much what every other webcomic does: Making comics on the net, and possibly putting them on paper. It's mostly for my own pleasure. But I'd like it to look good.

aesir

They have clean lines because they're careful?

I dont know what to tell you. I've inked a fair bit in photoshop and you've just gotta zoom in and make it perfect. Draw and erase.

Either that or you can work with vectors which will always be perfectly smooth.

Pheezer

Djiem wrote: »

DrDizaster wrote: »

175 dpi is sufficient for print. Newsprint is even lower. It depends entirely on what you want to do.

Pretty much what every other webcomic does: Making comics on the net, and possibly putting them on paper. It's mostly for my own pleasure. But I'd like it to look good.

If you take it to a place that does digital photo printing, you won't be able to have anything printed above 175 dpi unless you're dealing with a professional print shop. And I don't mean professional like Black's Photography, I mean actually professional. So 175 dpi is a generally acceptable resolution for photo printing for anything but the most exacting standards and even then there's only so much difference you'll be able to tell with the naked eye when it comes to most photos.

Now obviously the standards are a weeeee bit looser if you're just doing prints of a web comic. 175 dpi is a good mark to work at though, if only because it means you'll get more or less exactly what you have on screen when it comes out in print. When you're resizing to post online, you can just knock the resolution down to whatever size you want it to display at.

cooljammer00

there have been videos showing Gabe's drawing process, and he essentially zooms in real close, draws a smooth line, and that's it.

Belruel

i haven't used photoshop in a long time, i now use opencanvas (which is oh so good for drawing/painting in) and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg. but the concepts are similar. draw with the pen tool, its what i use to line/color in most applications because it has a nice crisp outer line.

when i doodle i draw at size, but if i am doing something serious that i want a better picture of, i work huge. and i mean huge. the last one i did i worked on at around 3000 pixels wide and 2000 tall, and it eventually got sized down to about 800 wide and 600 tall (ish) i use the huge file to make adaptions (like wallpapers) and when you condense it drastically, it helps with overall smoothness.

also, there's a nifty little thing is the vgcats 'misc' tab under fq's i believe where the artist shows exactly how he draws his comics and explains programs and everything.

Djiem

Cool, thanks for the replies, guys!
Off to draw some more, I guess.