Glows in CMYK not working right

[Laura]

I've been at this damn job for over twelve years, and I am still stuck on a basic thing.

Why can't I get glows to look awesome in CMYK?! I can't even get them to look acceptable in CMYK. They look like ASS. Why am I getting washed-out, weak, colorless glows? What can I do to make glows pretty without switching back and forth to RGB?

Awesome glows, RGB file =


Crappy, weak glows, CMYK file =


I'm trying to use Dave's CMYK setup, but gawd if this doesn't make me want to throw out what I've done and re-do everything in RGB.

Halp?

-- Laura

[Sweeney]

Hey Laura - can you send me that cropped section, with all the layers/channels?

I'd try to explain how to get better glows by typing it out, but it would probably be easier if I just did a movie screen capture that shows it instead.

[Hollingsworth]

It looks like your grad is blending into your trap color, which is gray. You can select your trap, then blend in a color like orange on the trap (deselect the black by shift selecting it if working in channels.). Then when you grad white or whatever over everything, under the lineart is a color that it will blend into.

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

Yeah, you have to anal-retentively adjust the trap color underneath.

You know, while typing this out, It occurs to me that it would be possible to write an action that would copy your glow layer to a layer above the trap, expand it some, and use the line art to mask out the necessary area. Hmmm. I'll try that out on Tues. after my "Help! help! Oh my god!" deadline.

[Sweeney]

Quicktime movie to show how to trap glows in CMYK...

Wish I could figure out how to embed quicktime movies into threads...

[Laura]

Ah-ha! I think I get it. Question on your video, Sweeney: is the line art layer filled with 0/0/0/100 and set to Darken like Dave's CMYK method?

-- Laura

[Sweeney]

Lineart is 100K, set to Multiply, which, for inks is the same effect as setting it to Darken.

Trapping Layer is 60C40M40Y, set to Normal.

Glow Layer is set to Screen.

[Laura]

Yup, okay... I have mine on Darken.

When I mask out the area of the trap that's under the glow, then I see the flats through the line art. That's no good, so what i did was I loaded the glow layer as a selection, expanded that selection by 20px, then constrained that selection to just the line art. I went onto my trap layer, filled it with 60/40/40 (which means there's no 3-pixel choke anymore), then "painted" a rich orange-red inside that area, blending the orange into the trapping gray at the edges. When I turn my line art layer back on, I see a nice rich glow now.

Which is kind of like deconstructing the old trapping method I had, and making it work in situ, rather than at the end.

Cool. Thanks, I think I get it. I'm GOING to learn how to work in CMYK, dammit!

-- Laura

[ACrossley]

Laura get a hold of Justin he told me he has a method for preserving FX from RGB to CMYK. Not sure if it will help but he might have a idea of how to help.

Andrew

[Sweeney]

You do something similar to what I would, but I do it on the Color layer underneath, leaving the trapping layer intact.

Quicktime movie showing how to compensating for edges of flats showing through

I picked the orange as it blends the glow with the larger color area affected. If I had filled that area with purple, the glow would change to some godawful Mauve color.

[Laura]

Laura get a hold of Justin he told me he has a method for preserving FX from RGB to CMYK. Not sure if it will help but he might have a idea of how to help.

Cool, I'll check with him -- except I'm only working in CMYK on this project, so there's no transfer from RGB to CMYK.

-- Laura

[Laura]

You do something similar to what I would, but I do it on the Color layer underneath, leaving the trapping layer intact.

Quicktime movie showing how to compensating for edges of flats showing through

I picked the orange as it blends the glow with the larger color area affected. If I had filled that area with purple, the glow would change to some godawful Mauve color.

Aha! That works too.

Man, I need to get a microphone for my computer, so I can narrate quicktime videos.

-- Laura

[Sweeney]

Man, I need to get a microphone for my computer, so I can narrate quicktime videos.

-- Laura

As long as you're just narrating, and not singing along with your favorite tunes...

I have a separate USB microphone, a Griffin iMic, which plugs into the USB port while allowing older style jacks to plug into it, but when I'm too lazy to dig them out, I just use my iSight microphone - as in this case.

I also have similar techniques for getting glows in RGB to look good in CMYK.

[John Rauch]

Man...I remember dealing with this stuff on a regular basis back at Heroic Age. I'm glad no one makes me work in CMYK anymore.

[Laura]

Ah, no one's making me work in CMYK but me. I just want to try it, to see how the results hold up when I keep my K percentages down. It's like, "I know I can cook a gourmet meal with a fully-stocked kitchen. Can I do it with a wooden spoon, a whisk, a tin can, and a camping stove?"

-- Laura