Cleaning Images ~ Tutorial ~ http://www.endlessrain.org/

This Tutorial will teach you how to Enchance an Image's Quality. Learn how to Define Borders and Re-Color images in a simple way. (Simple, doesnt mean it wont be time consuming.)

Selecting the Image

To the left you will see my starting image. Its grainy and pixelated, but thats because its fresh off the scanner.

Editing the Image

To the left you will see my image altered a bit. I cleaned the image as much as I could without killing the definitions of the lines between colors.

I cleaned up this image using my own techniques and a mix of a tutorial I know of. Visit Shinta's Imanimations for the "Cleaning Tutorial".

If you clicked the thumbnail you'll see this image needs lots of cleaning still (definately since I want to keep the original size).. thats the point of this tutorial ^^

Finally Getting Started - Border Begins

So lets begin, I have my original image as the "background" layer, and "BG 01" as my images cleaned.. what we're going to do is Duplicate the "Background" layer, and place it on top.

With this Layer Selected goto Distort > Artistic > Poster Edges. On the left you can see the number values I used, if you cant read it I used this;

Edge Thickness: 2
Edge Intensity: 1
Posterization: 2

The Border Apply/Define

So now you have a layer of your image with weird looking borders, but we're not done. All we've managed to do is make our image look weird and bold the borders, now we have to really Define them. Now we're going to go to Image > Adjustments > Levels..

Take the Middle arrow and move it all the way left, afterwards take the very right arrow, and also move that left. I didnt take a screen capture, but what you should see is a black outline of your character on white.

Last step for the border is to apply it to the regular image. Play with the layer properties until you get something you like, but make the edges look smooth. With my image I used the layer property Multiply.

If the borders are too thick or too defined tone down the opacity.

Re-Coloring the Image

I bet that looks interesting to you doesnt it? Thats what I've recolored up till this point. Theres no point in me re-coloring the entire image for this tutorial since its the same process for every area.

I have yet to color the hair, and thats where my examples will be. I will update you on my progress using the same type of image you see on the left.

Colors & Work Spot

Choose an area you want to start on first. For me its going to be his hair. There are 3 colors to his hair, so first things first. I'm going to start on the medium color of his hair.

For this were going to need to view "BG 01". With this layer, select the Smudge Tool (). Any circular brush from 5-30 is fine. Smudge the area you wish to retrieve the color from. This smooths out the colors giving you the actual color of that area.

Take the Eyedropper Tool () and choose your color from the area you just blurred. Now find your history tab and go to the last thing before you blurred your image.

New Layer

Create a new layer above your other layers. This layer is going to be for the re-coloring.

Re-Coloring

This is the time consuming part. For this we're going to be using the Polygon lasso Tool (). Make sure you are on your new layer, Zoom in, and start selecting the areas you chose your color from. As mentioned above, I chose the middle shade color of his hair.

A sample is on the left. Double Click for your selected area to go back to the beggining (to finish the polygon/shape).

When your area is selected, color the area using the Brush Tool. Any brush is fine as long as its not transparent, I used a 75px circle brush because the size covers good ground, but its not so big that it goes off screen when I'm zoomed in.

Re-Coloring Cont.

To the left I'm continueing to color, but I deselected my "BG 01" layer and made my "Background" layer viewable. Even tho the background layer is pixelated and grainy, the outlines are more defined, making it easier for me to tell where I should select. This is optional, it was just an easier way of going about this for me.

First Shade Finished

This is how things look for me after I finished the first shaded color of his hair.