D'inking question...

D'inking ( Digital Inking ) .. dose anyone have any set way they go about
turning there pencil lines into inking lines?..

..what do you consider to be the fastest way to do it?..
..what do you consider to be the best way to do it?...

I think my art would look better if I focused more on proper lines
and inking of the art...

anyone have any tips or steps they would like ta share?...

I would say : you pass it on photoshop, double the layer and use the "multiply" fusion on the layers, duplicating the layers until you have a black line.

You can also modify the contrast of your pic to obtain some result.

For my part, I also use this method : livetrace in Illustrator (because my lines are not very clean).

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9496/30760468.jpg

(left : my horrible hand inking, right : livetrace of this same horrible hand inking).

Now, the best way ? I don't know. The fastest way ? I know I can take many days to do a simple pic, so I never consider it. What only matters is what I prefer to do...

A digital tablet is very useful for inking but the learning curve is steep at first. You can get the most basic Wacom tablet for about $50-70 USD I believe. The pressure sensitivity is better on the $100-200 models but you'll have to decide what your budget is and whether or not you are motivated enough to learn to use it.

If you can force yourself to use it.. alot. it eventually becomes familiar enough to use for inking, drawing and digital painting.

Soooo much better than a mouse! You can get nice curves and line widths from a tablet that you can't get with a mouse.

I usually ink at 400 DPI at the finished comic book size.
I use the pencil tool which you might expect to look a bit jagged, but at 400 dpi it prints nice and smooth.

coloring a pencil-inked page is MUCH easier than coloring a digital brush-inked page, because your color fills are not affected by any antialiasing.

Here's a little micro tutorial I did a while back. It doesn't show a whole lot but you can see the pencil tool inks up close and how they look smoother when they are reduced.

Hope that helps!

Nice progression, Psi! I was thinking Calvin and Hobbes at first...

Psibug! I love your style! SHOW US MORE!!!

Thanks DarkEther!
Thanks VexXxa!

Here are some critters for you!

Your artz makes me smile...keep 'em coming!

I really like your style and the quick How-To is very helpful. BUT as a noob at inking, heck digital art entirely, when you say you go from the "pencils" to the inked image are you actually tracing a new layer using the pencil tool?

I ask because I too have a hard time getting nice clean lines from sketches and such. I usually play with the contrast and brightness levels and then using the magic-wand select (which is so inaccurate at times) to select my lines and then create a new layer with that selection. This is time consuming and very often I lose a ton of detail that I would rather not lose.

Hi again and thanks again.

After I do my pencils, I scan them into photoshop and scale them to comic book size which is about 6.875x10.438 inches at 400 dpi (2750x4175 pixels)
The image size above includes some extra image that will usually get trimmed off after printing. The main drawing area is 2450x3875 pixels.

I make a layer to define the size and layout of my panels. I use the rectangular marquee tool to make nice clean white panels and space them evenly. I use the layer properties to create an 8 pixel black inner stroke for the outline. This goes underneath the pencils.

The inks go on a new layer above the pencils. Then I duplicate that layer and use color fills to make my "color flats" layer. Then i duplicate THAT layer and use the new one for finished colors. You can google "comic color flats" or "flatting" if you arent familiar with the term.

Whatever section tools I use (lasso, marquee, magic wand..) I turn off "antialiasing"
At 100% magnification it may look a little jagged but at 50% or when printed, it should look nice and smooth.


So from top to bottom the layers look something like this:

Text Layer is usually my top layer
Word Balloons layer
Special effects layer
"finished colors" layer(using the panels layer as a mask)
"color flats" layer (using the panels layer as a mask)
Inks Layer (using the panels layer as a mask)
Pencils Layer with my pencils (using the panels layer as a mask)
Panels Layer with all of my panel sizes (white rectangles with black borders)
Bottom layer: blank white background


Hope that makes sense!

PsiBug

Wheee!

Very useful stuff, PsiBug! Thank you!

and cool art, too!!


and soulasylum! Dang! That really makes me wish I could afford Illustrator! Very handy tool! (but I'm just too broke)