Build your character s back story

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80 Adobe Photoshop Build your character s back story Danilo Brandão reveals a simple yet effective way to breathe life into your characters by developing personality and creating their environment It

Without a sense of personality, your character is just an image on a page, but by thinking about its motivation how it behaves and moves, its facial expressions, what it does, its sense of style,

1 80 Adobe Photoshop Build your character s back story Danilo Brandão reveals a simple yet effective way to breathe life into your characters by developing personality and creating their environment It s relatively easy to create a simple 2D character, but much harder to bring it to life. Without a sense of personality, your character is just an image on a page, but by thinking about its motivation how it behaves and moves, its facial expressions, what it does, its sense of style, what it likes/ dislikes and the environment in which it lives you can make the character you create much more believable. It s all about the planning. From the very start of the character creation process you need to think about the clothes, objects and props that could be used to bring your character to life. This will help you transform your ﬂat pencil drawing into an image that really jumps out from the page. Here I ll show you how to create a character from scratch developing it from a simple pencil drawing into a layered Photoshop ﬁle, adding colour and using light and shade to turn your 2D line drawing into a 3D image. You ll also discover how to use handmade textures and Photoshop effects to give your ﬁnished image a rough, organic feel. Danilo Brandão This enthusiastic 25-year-old Brazilian artist graduated as a graphic designer. He works with cartoons and collage, mixing handmade processes with digital ﬁnishing. carbonmade.com Skills Create your characters from scratch Integrate characters into their environment Add textures and effects to give a handmade look CAP116.tut_environ 80 19/9/08 2:54:18 pm

Character building made easy 02 01 The ﬁrst, and perhaps most important, thing you should think about when creating a character is how to develop its personality how does it behave and move, what

Once you have your character s whole story in mind, you can go back to basics, using pencil and paper to sketch out your initial ideas.

Here you can make adjustments to the Levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels) to boost the contrast, making the outlines more deﬁned and further enhancing the image s imperfections.

2 Character building made easy The ﬁrst, and perhaps most important, thing you should think about when creating a character is how to develop its personality how does it behave and move, what does it do, what does it wear, what does it like/ dislike? You can then think about the scenes, additional objects and expressions that you could use to enhance your scene. Once you have your character s whole story in mind, you can go back to basics, using pencil and paper to sketch out your initial ideas. Don t worry if your sketches are rough, or you get marks or ﬁngerprints on your page, as this will just add to your character s hand-drawn feel. 03 Open the ﬁle in Photoshop. Here you can make adjustments to the Levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels) to boost the contrast, making the outlines more deﬁned and further enhancing the image s imperfections. Don t be tempted to erase these marks, because the rough, textured ﬁnish will emphasise the illustration s handmade feel. You now have the heart of your character. CAP116.tut_environ Once you are happy with your basic character design you can begin to develop it further. Using a good black marker, a felt-tip or a technical pen, start to work on your basic outlines, re-drawing the entire ﬁgure using thick strokes for the main outlines and thinner lines for the smaller details. Follow the lines of your initial sketch, and make adjustments where necessary. Once you are happy with the outline, erase the pencil lines to tidy the image a little and scan it I like to scan a greyscale image at 600dpi. 04 With the basic black outline completed, you can now start to build up your character. Create a new layer above the ﬁrst one and select the Brush tool from the Tools palette. Use an appropriately sized brush to start colouring each area, creating a new layer for each new element you work on. This will make it easier to go back and make adjustments to individual parts, should you wish. Remember to choose colours appropriate to your character; here I ve created a joyful child, so strong, lighter tones work better than dark and creepy colours. November 2008_ Computer Arts Projects 19/9/08 2:54:19 pm

82 05 When you have carefully ﬁlled each block with the appropriate colour, choose the Multiply Blending Mode from the Layers palette so that each of the layers merges into your original line drawing.

First decide on the direction of your main light source, and then ensure that you keep the lighting consistent (unless you re using more than one light source).

You can now adjust the settings as you wish here we selected Inner Shadow, set the Blending Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 82%, Angle to -25, Distance to 67px and Size to 92px.

For example, the character here is playing with a rocket and a toy aeroplane as this character loves anything that ﬂies.

3 82 05 When you have carefully ﬁlled each block with the appropriate colour, choose the Multiply Blending Mode from the Layers palette so that each of the layers merges into your original line drawing. You can now take the opportunity to correct any mistakes with the Eraser tool. 06 Now s the time to introduce light and shadow to your 2D image, which will instantly lift your character from the page. First decide on the direction of your main light source, and then ensure that you keep the lighting consistent (unless you re using more than one light source). Open the Layer Styles window by double-clicking on the individual layer you want to work with, or clicking on the icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. You can now adjust the settings as you wish here we selected Inner Shadow, set the Blending Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 82%, Angle to -25, Distance to 67px and Size to 92px. Develop your scene The props you use to blend your character with its surroundings will really help to tell the story. For example, the character here is playing with a rocket and a toy aeroplane as this character loves anything that ﬂies. To develop this idea I have included elements linked to the sky, such as clouds, a bird and a tree. The movement in his legs and arms also suggests that he is an energetic, playful character. 07 You can now merge the coloured layers together by selecting each of them and pressing Ctrl/Cmnd+E. You can now make adjustments to the overall image. To ﬁne-tune the image s colour and tone, ﬁrst call up the Colour Balance window (Ctrl/Cmnd+B) and tweak the sliders until you are happy with the result. Next hit Ctrl/Cmnd+U to summon the Hue/Saturation window. Here you can use the sliders to make adjustments to the Hue, Saturation and brightness of the entire image, or target individual colours. CAP116.tut_environ Create a new layer above your character layer, select the Paint Bucket tool from the Layers palette and choose a colour you would like to use as a background. Next, apply a Multiply Blending Mode to the layer. Here I used a soft blue colour to represent the sky. Try to use a neutral background that does not interfere too much with the main focus, which should be your character. 19/9/08 2:54:20 pm

Character building made easy 83 10 09 Once your character and background have been fully coloured, you can start to add more texture and defects into your illustration.

Alternatively, keep an eye out for textured or scrap paper you could even use paint, ink or coffee to add a wash of colour and scan these onto your computer.

To enhance the textures, use the Colour Balance (Ctrl/Cmnd+B) and Levels (Ctrl/Cmnd+B) windows to adjust the colour and contrast.

4 Character building made easy Once your character and background have been fully coloured, you can start to add more texture and defects into your illustration. Search for old, cracked walls and textured surfaces around your home or on the street that you could photograph. Alternatively, keep an eye out for textured or scrap paper you could even use paint, ink or coffee to add a wash of colour and scan these onto your computer. See the image above for some good examples. Take the pieces you have found or created, and scan them onto your computer at 300dpi. To enhance the textures, use the Colour Balance (Ctrl/Cmnd+B) and Levels (Ctrl/Cmnd+B) windows to adjust the colour and contrast. Go to Image>Adjustments and you ll ﬁnd a range of interesting effects you can apply. Just play around with effects until you are happy with the result. Sunlight and shadows If your story happens at night, use more shadow and a smaller amount of intense delineator light in the character and other objects. If sunlight is involved, use more light with less shadow. Experiment with effects In steps 13 and 14 it s important that you exercise some creativity. There is no right or wrong, so experiment with a range of effects until you are happy with the way your image looks. The overall effect should ﬁt the style of the overall image, but feel free to experiment with a number of textures and image adjustments until you discover the best combination. 11 You can now experiment with the textures you have created to see which looks best when added to your background. Create a new layer on top of the layer stack (Ctrl/Cmnd+Shift+N) and insert your texture. Now click on the Blending Modes drop-down menu and try out some of the effects to see which works best for your composition. For this image I used the Multiply option. CAP116.tut_environ 83 November 2008_ Computer Arts Projects 19/9/08 2:54:20 pm

84 12 When you are happy with the result, call up the Channel Mixer by selecting Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer and use the sliders provided to alter the image s red, green and blue channels.

13 Repeat steps 11 and 12 with new textures and effects until you are happy with the result. You could also ﬁne-tune adjustments to the colour, contrast and opacity of speciﬁc areas.

Try something different When the whole illustration is ﬁnished, save a copy before experimenting further with visual effects converting the image to black and white or applying one of Photoshop s

14 It is interesting to mix additional elements with your character and textured background, so try to ﬁnd a few bits and pieces that will add to the personality and story of your character (text,

5 84 12 When you are happy with the result, call up the Channel Mixer by selecting Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer and use the sliders provided to alter the image s red, green and blue channels. You could also alter the layer s opacity or use a Levels adjustment to boost or reduce the brightness and contrast. 13 Repeat steps 11 and 12 with new textures and effects until you are happy with the result. You could also ﬁne-tune adjustments to the colour, contrast and opacity of speciﬁc areas. These random effects add an essential organic quality to your image. Try something different When the whole illustration is ﬁnished, save a copy before experimenting further with visual effects converting the image to black and white or applying one of Photoshop s impressive photo ﬁlters, for example. You might be surprised by the results and inspire yourself to create something completely new! 14 It is interesting to mix additional elements with your character and textured background, so try to ﬁnd a few bits and pieces that will add to the personality and story of your character (text, images, photographs or graphic shapes), mixing modern shapes with vintage designs. When you ve found the pieces you d like to add, copy and paste them into a new layer and change the layer s Blending Mode to Multiply. Here I added olive leaves into the tree to make it more attractive, and found a ﬁgure to sit on the cloud. CAP116.tut_environ Finally, ﬂatten all the layers by going to Layer>Flatten Image and make a ﬁnal adjustment to the colours using the Colour Balance (Ctrl/Cmnd+B) and Hue/Saturation (Ctrl/Cmnd+U) windows. Alter the channels once more by selecting Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer. These adjustments will unify the textures and colours, and enhance the overall effect. 19/9/08 2:54:21 pm

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