Tuesday Tutorial Re-boot: To line or not to line


















Published in Blog


  1. Nice tutorial.

    One method I typically use now is to just put all your color on one layer and select each color and create alpha channels instead of new layers.

  2. One other thing I noticed, and may have missed-

    why not just put your linework on ‘multiply’?

  3. I hadn’t thought about setting the ink layer to multiply, That is one of the blending options that I am less familiar with.

    As far as the colors go, each one of my textures is made of two patterns and a masking layer, so while I might be able to pull it off with alpha layers, it would probably get way to messy in my channels tab.

    Thanks for the feedback!

  4. Yeah Multiply would save a bunch of steps, any black line is saved and any white space becomes transparent color behind it and you have no issues… also if you bring you line work into Photoshop from Autocad run another filter… “spatter” it will give your autocad line work an instant “hand drawn look”

  5. you can also look into the “Squiggle” Program for Autocad to produce a hand drawn effect.

  6. This is a really nice tutorial. Thank you. I wish my school would expose us to different techniques like this instead of the “go figure it out on your own” technique.

  7. Donal,

    That seems to be the way many universities operate. Mine was the same. Check out videos as well for more help like this.

  8. Donal,

    I think the problem is two fold. One: having a unique rendering style can be really beneficial, so professors push students to go off and figure out their own methods.

    Two: I think most universities are lacking a staff member who renders more in cad than by hand. Speaking in generalizations, Professors went to school 15+ years ago, when the only real method taught was hand rendering. They were taught by well practiced hand renderers, and were able to take that experience and put their own spin on it. Now you are in the gap where there are no real existing experts on photoshop rendering other than people still actively rendering in firms. Its hard to find someone with the expertise and experience to show students how to render not just passibly in photoshop, but well.

    My “free agent” status has allowed me the time to really work on my technique, experiment, and adjust my output greatly. If you look at my original tutorials, they are less than a year old but yield WILDLY different results. Not bad results, but more time consuming and not QUITE as crisp. It took a year on my own to build between those. It took another 2 years (half in a firm, half on my own), to move from the basic techniques that schools do teach to where I was at my first tutorial.

    And I’m sure I still have a ways to go. Thats why I want to put these out. So that I can save you 3 years of trial and error, get you to where I am now, and then you can screw around for another couple months and evolve the techniques even more.

    As people working on the bleeding edge of technology we unfortunately don’t have the luxury of a lot of mentors… its mostly a group of peers. Working together is the only way we can really solidify photoshop as a viable alternative to hand drawing in the minds of many firm principals.

  9. Nick
    -You might have to go into your own tutorial on that one… I remember they were teaching that as we left the university.

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