Layer setup in CMYK

[megaflowgraphics]

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.

I've been doing lots of high-resolution single-character pictures for Marvel lately, and I quickly found that I work much better doing selections of that size with the Pen tool, myself. But these are more of an airbrush-style thing. I know GutterZombie Scott Johnson does the same sort of stuff for them and I had wondered about that... Scott, do you use the Pen, or the lasso for these?

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

I use the pen tool for licensing work.

[randombeing]

Okay, I just have to thank everybody who's contributed to this thread since its inception. I've had trapping explained to me in brief a few times, but this marks the first time I've understood what it's for and how to do it. I've had issues with plate-shifting affecting my printed work in the past, and now I see exactly why what happened, happened.

I'm a thick-headed, self-taught DIYer, so it takes me a while to catch on to things...

[fade]

Sweeney, I tried to read your PDF tutorials, but I'm getting a "Not Found" error for all of them.

[Sweeney]

Sweeney, I tried to read your PDF tutorials, but I'm getting a "Not Found" error for all of them.

Seems Dreamweaver decided to bugger half the links on that page during my last update. All fixed now.

Thanks for letting me know.

[Scott Johnson]

I use the pen tool for licensing work.

Me too.

-Scott

[glovestudios]

Keeping your basic color ares on separate layers (if your computer has enough RAM) can make your life so much easier in the long run.

The alpha channel approach is similar to the way I work too, but I like to copy and paste the lineart into a layer mask (basically an alpha channel) and fill the layer with whatever black I'm going to use. I can also use that black area to create color holds by filling the appropriate area of the black with the color I need. I like using layer masks for several reasons; it's a quick and efficient process to get started, it allows for the separation of the lineart color(s), it's a non-destructive way of getting rid of the whites and leaving the blacks opaque, and you can manipulate the layer mask as needed to clean up the lines, or fade spotted blacks, for example.

As well as Brightness & Contrast and the other methods mentioned, Levels are a powerful contrast tool to clean up the lines. I prefer to use Levels, then Curves and then maybe an Unsharp Mask. That was the order we used in my printing/prepress background.

[Rob_Smith]

Sweeney, I tried to read your PDF tutorials, but I'm getting a "Not Found" error for all of them.

Seems Dreamweaver decided to bugger half the links on that page during my last update. All fixed now.

Thanks for letting me know.

I just tried to downlonad the .pdf file "the advanced layer masking tutoriual (sue storm)". Is the file working? Because when I opened it, nothing turned up.

[Sweeney]

Both links work (image, and text links), and the zip file unstuffs, and the pdf opens for me.

[Rob_Smith]

Thanks. That's weird, the error must be on my end. I opened up the file in Mac Preview and Acrobat Reader 6.0. A window popped up on Reader saying 'There was an error opening this document. Bad encrypt dictionary'.

[fade]

They're working fine in Preview and Acrobat here.

[Rob_Smith]

I tried downloading and reading the .pdf file again last night and it didn't work on my Mac. So, I tried it again on the PC in the other room. Again, same thing happened...that is until the file said that it wasn't compatible with the the version of Acrobat reader that I had running on my PC. So, I figured maybe that was the problem on my Mac. And sure enough it was. I updated my Reader to version 8 and the file worked fine.

Problem solved, but thanks all the same, gentleman.

[Bill Farmer]

this thread is how to paint in CMYK though!

If anyone wants to post a separate one to help RGB folks, that would be great.

Has that thread been made yet? If so can someone direct me to it. Thank you.

[scottlameany]

Okay,

First: thank you for the awesome image that tells me how the pros lay the holds, traps, glows, etc.. out.

Second: Lets say you have a 600 DPI image-lineart provided, and want to color at 300 dpi to keep your sanity and computer in one piece. If I down-grade the resolution to 300dpi of the lineart, do I re-bitmap it to make it solid pixels again? Do artists ever freak out over this? Their line appearing clunky, etc?? I say this because I know of one artist who is definitely going to freak out if he sees his art bitmapped at 300dpi.

Third: I see much mention of coloring greyscale. I imagine this involves laying solid colors on another layer, but how are they composited? Is there a heavy value restriction on the colors you can choose to coloize grayscaled art?

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

Lets say you have a 600 DPI image-lineart provided, and want to color at 300 dpi to keep your sanity and computer in one piece.

If you're stuck working on an old computer, scale a *copy* of the page down if you must work that way. I'd go down to 300 only if absolutely necessary, because you can sometimes see pixels on really sharp edges at that resolution. 450 DPI would be much preferred. When finished with the color, scale the colored image back up to 600 and replace the garbled line art in the scaled up version with the original 600DPI aliased art. Only add any color-holds etc once you have the high res art to work from. Some people just clor at 450 DPI. It really is a high enough res. for print.

Third: I see much mention of coloring greyscale. I imagine this involves laying solid colors on another layer, but how are they composited? Is there a heavy value restriction on the colors you can choose to coloize grayscaled art?

[/quote][/quote]

Coloring greyscale art usually involves line art that is scanned from pencils or has ink washes. It's best put on a layer set to "multiply", on top of the colored background layer. I recommend coloring "greyscale" stuff in RGB to avoid ink limit problems and ugly colors containing too much black ink when it goes to print.