How to Clean a Scanned Lineart

[MartyrNinetyfour]

It still has though fuzzy pixel like things :/

[BulletFoxx]

ahhh! oh my gosh thank you so much!!! :D

[ZokumaIzuka]

Better idea... use gimp, select the color you want in the picture, revert the selection, hit delete.. then re-revert the selection, copy, new layer, paste, soften the edges with the blur tool. Tada

[dooshahn]

Or you can set blend mode to "multiply" for the top line art layer (in layers panel) so you don't need to use magic wand to remove white from it.

[LadyAutocon]

OMG!!! THANK YOU!!!!! -hugs you tight- I just got PSE 10 and I had no clue how to do any of this now I can do layers!!! >W<



[DEKU97]

thank you soooooo much :D

[themykkee3]

thnx and congrats for being the firts person to show me what im looking for

[ninchick01]

Thank you so much!

[Noodle6096]

nice! helped me out a whole lot! thanks! :D

[watchmyshoes22]

You explained the exact opposite of what I wanted to do

[DreamPuddle21]

@watchmyshoes22 So you'd like to add a BG to a picture? :) All you'd need to do is make a new white layer under your picture and merge the two. Or, if you'd like to make a picture look fuzzy or dirty, mess around with the filters. I think there is one that adds little grains and such.

[DreamPuddle21]

@watchmyshoes22 So you'd like to add a BG to a picture? :) All you'd need to do is make a new white layer under your picture and merge the two. Or, if you'd like to make a picture look fuzzy or dirty, mess around with the filters. I think there is one that adds little grains and such.

[watchmyshoes22]

@DreamPuddle21 omg it worked!!!

[DreamPuddle21]

@watchmyshoes22  :)

[nfarnham2008]

Question, I have a LOT of sketches and pencil drawings. I want to clean them up and make nice, dark, clean line art. How would I do that? I have photoshop and no tablet.

[DreamPuddle21]

@nfarnham2008 If they are fairly clean sketches, you should be able to follow the steps in the video. You could even ink them by hand with a pen or marker, then scan them in and follow the steps.

If you'd rather try and do it on the computer, the easiest way other than my method would be to trace everything again on a new layer. Since you don't have a tablet, the pen tool would be your best option. If your version of Photoshop doesn't have it, you can download GIMP for free (opensource).

[nfarnham2008]

@DreamPuddle21 Most of them are clean, or can be cleaned. My only concern is the pencil is jagged in some areas, and the hue/darkness of the pencil varies. So I am trying to get clean lines, with an equal darkness. I was trying to use the pen tool in CS5 but I can't get it to curve, or make it thicker, I am a noob when it comes to photoshop.

[dooshahn]

@nfarnham2008

Starting with b&w line art

Open Channels panel hold CTRL and click on RGB thumbnail (it will load it as selection)

Go to menu Select>Inverse (because now you have white selected and you need black)

Open Paths panel > click on the top right menu, select Make Work Path and set tolerance (experiment with the value) it will create path (select that path if it's not)

Go to menu Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color click OK then choose black color

Deselect path in Paths panel

*continue*

[dooshahn]

@nfarnham2008

*continue*

Result: vector masked solid color layer (now you can remove the original layer)

If you want to make touch-ups to it:

Select that vector mask of that layer (in Layers panel) and use pen tools or direct/path selection tool

OR

Right click on layer's name and click Rasterize layer. Now you can use brush and eraser.

And also you can use lasso to select area of that layer and then use Filter>Noise>Median to smooth it a little bit

[dooshahn]

@nfarnham2008

I've forgotten to say, that I assume you are starting with line art that has adjusted contrast. So the lines are black not gray-ish and the background is white. (Just wanted to mention that.)

[nernerman]

how come when i wanna color it, there are a bunch of black dots all over it? if you know what im talking about, can you tell me how to get rid of them? Please

[AnimeloveFool]

This is really helpfull! but how can one switch off the greyscale mode? :S

[DreamPuddle21]

@AnimeloveFool There should be a section under a tab that says "mode". Switch it to RGB. I think it's under edit, or settings, or colors... it's different for different programs. :)

[DaPuddingMonster]

I did another tutorial similar to this one, and I think it's cool to know that others do just what I do. I've been messing around with Photoshop and SAI and I've tried the whole 'multiply' thing and color on a bajillion layers but this is pretty close to what I do. Only, I color on only one layer. Also, a tip when changing the levels, don't move anything past the big black part of the graph. I saw that it put a lot of gray into your lines.

[MrKtran13]

I'm a total beginner.. Found it VERY useful! Hope to see more!

[raichann]

THank you so much!

[BoredMuffin]

you have saved me

O_O

[DreamPuddle21]

@BoredMuffin Glad it helps ^_^

[Gotchicat]

thank you so much that helped alot!

[DarkLiteFilms]

Very nice tutorial. Well done. Thanks :D

[KimukoCat]

Thanks so much!! Just what I'm looking for. It worked great!

[TeiohApolux]

Great! Thanks ^^

[MervinsShortFilms]

Marry me when you're 21.

[DreamPuddle21]

@MervinsShortFilms

uhhh o.O I guess you found this useful? haha

[MervinsShortFilms]

@DreamPuddle21 This was by far the best line art cleaning tutorial I've ever encountered. I had to wade through a bunch of useless ones before stumbling upon yours. Great job! Plus you have a good voice. Sounds like a Michigan accent.

[DreamPuddle21]

@MervinsShortFilms Thanks! I'm really glad it helped :) And actually, I'm from PA. That's my "I'm tired and can't talk right" voice. Haha

[MervinsShortFilms]

@DreamPuddle21 You need to replace my CSS instructor. He's good at putting people to sleep.

[DreamPuddle21]

@MervinsShortFilms haha, not sure how good I'd be at that :P

[Toky0tikkle]

Omg this helped so much thank you

I also have a bamboo fun and I was getting so frustrated with trying to make my lineart layer be ONLY lineart haha

This was very helpful thank you

[KurtdScared]

Thanks.

[Demonicii]

this is cool ^^ i teamed this up with defragmenting and viola! a perfect outline! helped a lot~

[palmist81]

Helpful:)

[hopefullullaby]

This is helpful :)

[DreamPuddle21]

@hopefullullaby Thanks for commenting :D

[IcyMysticWarrior]

This was awesome, now I can actualy use this for dA and not draw just traditiional anymore.

(P.s. I lurfs our pic..)

[IcyMysticWarrior]

Gwah, I meant to say 'your'

X.X

Sorry.

[DreamPuddle21]

@IcyMysticWarrior Thanks! :D

[IcyMysticWarrior]

You're welcome :D