Oscraps


Tip: Creating a cartoon effect

Scrappie IreneTips & Techniques

2 Comments

Joanne Brisebois has the fun Comic Collection in her shop and I really wanted to create a layout with it. But everything has this nice halftone comic effect and I thought it would be nices if my photo also has this effect to make my layout even more comic looking!

There are different ways to get the comic effect, but the one I described below works best for me:

Drag your photo into Photoshop (I used Elements 11).
Copy this layer by hitting Ctrl+J.

Highlight the copy layer.
Go to Filter and choose Filmgrain. I have the following settings: Grain 4, Highlight Area 3, Intensity 10.

Go to Filter again and choose Pixelate and Color Halftone. I changed Max. Radius to 6, the others are fine.

Change the blending mode of this layer to Darken.

Now we are going to create a border around the photo. Go to Image, Resize, Canvas Size. Check the Relative box, 1 cm, color black.

Create a new layer and use the rectangular tool, left click to drag a text field at the left top corner of the photo.
Go to Image, Stroke (Outline) Selection, choose Outside, 5 pixels and black. The selected text field now has a black outline.

 

Now we are going to fill this box to make it a real looking text box.
Go to the Gradients and change the angle to how you like it and choose the Orange Yellow gradient.The text field now has these colors.

Create a new layer and use the paint bucket to fill it with white.
Select the Cookie Cutter Tool and choose the Text balloon shape. Hit Shift (to get a fixed shape) and left click and drag the mouse on the white layer to get the shape of the text balloon. Go to Image, Stroke (Outline) Selection, choose Outside, 5 pixels and black (just like the text box). Now also the balloon has a black outline.

Now you are ready to type your text. I used the font Anime Ace 2.0 BB (OT1).

The last step is to flatten your image, by right clicking on a layer in the layer palette and choose Flatten Image. If you don’t do this step and you save for JPEG, the whole cartoon effect will be gone!
Now it’s ready for use on a layout!

And here’s how it looks in combination with Joanne’s kit:

2 comments

  • This is SO COOL, Irene! Can’t wait to try it! The fonts you chose are perfect!!

  • This is just so fun loving. I like the light comic effect that is just right. You have created a happy and colorful layout with a wonderful cartoon effect. Thanks for the tut. 😉

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