Layer setup in CMYK

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

irbilly: Check the description I wrote up in the diagram! If you have trouble after trying it out, ask again?

Basically you load the aliased lineart as a selection, and usually contract that selection by 2 pixels. Then you fill with a nice trap color like 60c, 40m, 40y either on a layer below the lineart set to "darken" or right onto the background layer. This can be a pain if you have corrections to do later on though. Keeping it on a layer makes it easier to tweak the color layer later without accidentally changing sections of your trap color.

TIA: You can just 'save as" and elect to save the file without layers or channels, and save it as a tiff at the same time.

Tibbittz: (shit, this is a year late. I should read this thread more.) I use layers because computers are fast enough now to do so, and it makes color holds a breeze. Believe me, my way is the fast way for CMYK.

The best way is often to start a fresh layer and build it up using saved photoshop "actions" to do all the work for you, that you can assign yourself once you understand the basic methodology.

[irbilly]

thanks dave for responding to my question , i started to read new avengers series and when you started to do the coloring i thought "wow" i want to color like that. you have inspired me to be a colorist. and i thank you for that

[Chris Noeth]

I wonder how the FX is made on top of the trap settings?

Can you explain how to add a (for example) a glow effect to the art which effects the lineart without loosing the trap and lineart layers please? And how do i bring an effect done in RGB mode to the CMYK file... so it will function on top of the other layers affecting the lineart beneath?

Thank you for your help!

Best,

Chris

[SirReal]

Do any of you use the pen tool to flat out the colors. I find that having a set of selections saved as paths very helpful. I also use a copy of the blue channel-load selection-fill-set as multiply.

[John Rauch]

Nope. Like Dave said before, lasso, wand, paintbucket, and pencil. Those are the best tools for flatting. To keep your selections to reuse later, just duplicate one of your channels or the background layer.

[daniel]

I lost all the info on my old Mac, where can I download the tutorials, I remember there was a Lara Croft flatting toot, and I'd like to DL the CMYK one as well.

[Sweeney]

I lost all the info on my old Mac, where can I download the tutorials, I remember there was a Lara Croft flatting toot, and I'd like to DL the CMYK one as well.

http://mark-sweeney.com/Tutotial_PDFs/FlattingTutorial.pdf.zip I think that's the one you're looking for flatting.

I have a few other tutorials on my website as well.

If things go right, links to my website may not work in a week or two, as I finish up the new website, and replace the old, so grab em now while the website works.

[Laura]

I wonder how the FX is made on top of the trap settings?

Can you explain how to add a (for example) a glow effect to the art which effects the lineart without loosing the trap and lineart layers please? And how do i bring an effect done in RGB mode to the CMYK file... so it will function on top of the other layers affecting the lineart beneath?

Hey, I just wanted to draw attention to this question, because I wanna know too. Doing glows over the line art and trap layers...would it cause a 2-pixel halo?

Also, do you do the same thing with greyscale images (images that can't be bitmapped)?

Thanks!
Laura

[John Rauch]

I wonder how the FX is made on top of the trap settings?

Can you explain how to add a (for example) a glow effect to the art which effects the lineart without loosing the trap and lineart layers please? And how do i bring an effect done in RGB mode to the CMYK file... so it will function on top of the other layers affecting the lineart beneath?

Hey, I just wanted to draw attention to this question, because I wanna know too. Doing glows over the line art and trap layers...would it cause a 2-pixel halo?

Also, do you do the same thing with greyscale images (images that can't be bitmapped)?

Thanks!
Laura

When doing glows in CMYK, you have to treat the lines affected like a hold, just filling them with black instead. Having trapping underneath does create a wierd halo, though it may not be super obvious at really high resolutions. Back when I sepped at Heroic Age working with 150 ppi files and then res'ing up to the 600 ppi lines, it looked pretty bad to have trapping under a glow. Not to mention, your glow just didn't blend into that grey undercolor very well if you didn't build up the color underneath the black to take a glow. Man...just thinking of all that crap again brings back painful memories. I love RGB.

[CharlieKirchoff]

I wonder how the FX is made on top of the trap settings?

Can you explain how to add a (for example) a glow effect to the art which effects the lineart without loosing the trap and lineart layers please? And how do i bring an effect done in RGB mode to the CMYK file... so it will function on top of the other layers affecting the lineart beneath?

Hey, I just wanted to draw attention to this question, because I wanna know too. Doing glows over the line art and trap layers...would it cause a 2-pixel halo?

Also, do you do the same thing with greyscale images (images that can't be bitmapped)?

Thanks!
Laura

Yeah, it causes a halo and that always bothered me. Recently, my solution has been as follows:
I have the page broken up in layers. The colors are on the background layer, above that is a layer with the trapping color, above that is the line art, and above that is the glows. I turn off the glow layer, select the line art (without contracting the selection). Then I turn the glows back on, and on the trapping layer I airbrush (at 100% with the trapping color) the areas where the halos are apparent. So far this has worked for me.

I'm curious about how others work with grayscale art as well. So far I just ignore the trapping stage and it's come out fine in print but I worry that maybe I've just been lucky. I especially worry about the when I work on grayscale line art that has areas that are so black that it nearly looks bitmapped but I can't actually bitmap it because it has grays in other areas (either ink wash or pencil rub). I've also worked on artists that want their art kept grayscale because they're afraid of losing the very fine lines. So, if anyone has a revelation in that area, please share.

[Laura]

I work almost entirely on greyscale files (on AXM, John uses a lot of drybrush, and on Thor, Mark inks with a really fine line), and I just flatten 'em down. Haven't seen any problems with it.

I'll fiddle with Dave's trapping thing after my deadlines...

-- Laura

[CharlieKirchoff]

I work almost entirely on greyscale files (on AXM, John uses a lot of drybrush, and on Thor, Mark inks with a really fine line), and I just flatten 'em down. Haven't seen any problems with it.

I'll fiddle with Dave's trapping thing after my deadlines...

-- Laura

Good to know. Like I said I've never had troubles with it either. However, I wonder if thats because every time I've worked on grayscale art its been published on pretty good paper. So I wonder what would happen on cheaper quality paper. Especially when some of the black areas only has one pixel width of gray on the edges.

[Laura]

I don't even wanna know, Charlie. I never wanna go back to the crap paper.

-- Laura

[CharlieKirchoff]

I don't even wanna know, Charlie. I never wanna go back to the crap paper.

-- Laura

Lol, I hear ya. Though you probably will never have to because you're a coloring goddess and can make that happen. I, on the other hand, can't make that claim as easily. In fact, I just finished a Dark Horse book earlier this month that's going to be printed on such crap paper that they actually had to send me a special color profile that I had to use when working on it.

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

Good old Dark Horse!