[marcuslm]

I have seen lots of wonderful clean lineart on the forums here. I was wondering how in the world some people are getting the lineart so clean and sharp? Do most people ink their lines before scanning? I would love to hear how people prepare their work for coloring. Thanks!

Marcus

[Frog]

My top tip for super clean lines: use illustrator!

I rough out my drawings in pencil, scan them in and then "ink" them in illustrator with my wacom and a custom brush.

[Dekard]

Hey Frog,

Do you use the 'freeform' caligraphy pen tool or do you map out the anchor points and then move them around? Are their any good custom brushes lying around out there?

I'm thinking about taking this image back into school and retracing the line art in illustrator. I'm happy with the design, but think the line art needs alot of work. Also I can fix some of the perspective as well.



[ March 06, 2002: Message edited by: Dekard ]

[razzak]

i normally cg trace my pics. gets you a very thin outline. takes time thou

[marcuslm]

Thanks for the replies.

Frog - that's exactly the clean look I want achieve. Unfortunately I don't have Illustrator. Only Photoshop.

Marcus

[Frog]

Dekard:

I use the brush tool, with a calligraphy brush that I customise to suit my needs (I create a few of different sizes). Top tip: go into your illustrator application folder, find the brush libraries folder and open the files Default_RGB and Default_CMYK and open these, define your brushes and save the files. Now your brushes will appear everytime you open illustrator.

As for the method, I have my pencil artwork on a template layer, and do my inking on a layer avove it, freehand with the Wacom. Major advantages of illustrator other than the clean lines: you can set exactly how you want the brush to respond by double-clicking the brush tool and also (as you hint at) once your stroke is drawn you can tweak it by moving the points around.

Marcus:

Photoshop is horrible for clean lines, everything goes a bit jerky, Painter is better but still much harder than illustrator. I know that some versions of Freehand are free nowadays but I've never used it so I don't know if it has brushes, but it's quite similar to illustrator so it might. Sorry I can't be of any more help.

[jesusclone]

I would say the best tip for Illustrator (at least if you have a wacom) is make your brushes pressure sensative, you do thise by double clicking in the brushes pallete, and where it says "fixed", change the drop down menu to say "pressure". Works wonders

--------------------


http://www.twigpeople.com/dmo