The final step is retouching
This makes our work shine
Retouching is something only possible in digital painting
Because it adds another layer to the existing ones
Calculates mathematically the RGB value of each pixel
And sets it
This allows for those who are not comfortable with coloring
To have a complete-looking image
So here, the left only has the background image
And let me show you how to make the final version
As you see on the right, with the sunshine at the back
Retouching Using Layer Property
For digital painting, at Photoshop or Clip Studio
There are various layer properties
And we will be using these properties to add
Light and darkness to our work
In 'Detailed Coloring' part, we added shadow to figures
And for retouching, we will add light existing in the work
See how we have layers for pen, color and background, respectively
I will be showing you the retouching process
First, make a layer
And without adding anything
Let's add this coral color
And let's drag in the layer window
And on the top we have a dropdown tab called Layer Property
And see how many layer properties there are
I don't think you need to know everything here
The four: multiply, screen, overlay, soft light
These four layer properties are very useful to know
The first property is called multiply
As we change this coral into multiply, it got darker
Because, this property called multiply
It multiplies the alpha values of the layers, on top and below
So darker areas become darker
So we use a multiply layer when we want more darkness
If any of the layers above or below is black
Because it's a zero, with multiplying it becomes another zero
And if any is white
The other value will not change
So if the layer above is 06 and the layer below 03
It multiplies into 018, which is darker
So multiply layer is for darker colors
For example, for shadows, a cloudy sky
Or some dark night
Second, it is called screen
And screen is the opposite of multiply
Notice how bright it became with screen
It's the opposite, between the layers above and below
It's the opposite of multiply
So it combines the values above and below to make it brighter
Notice how different these two properties are
We also had overlay
And overlay is very similar to hard light
But the difference is
The biggest difference is how it processes black
See, using overlay for the coral looks like this
And hard light looks like this
Overlay changes the color of the layer above based on the layer below
And hard light swaps the order, so the layer below changes
Based on the color of the layer above
So it's almost the same, but with black
Meaning, with a layer with value zero for brightness
These two properties react a bit differently
In my own experience
I use hard light for some stronger lighting
And overlay for some weaker or dimmer lighting
I more often use the overlay property
See how only black changes here
The rest looks pretty similar with the two
So that was the four, multiply
Screen, overlay
And hard light
These four consist of the most of the retouching process
Let's begin adding changes to this image
See how the background color is there
And the pen line
One for vector pen line and another for detailed pen line
Like this version here
I will add some light source from the back
So for that, let's first add some shadow
Add a layer, change the name
And add multiply property
And this is my go-to lasso tool
It's called Lasso Flil Tool, and use this to
Select the areas where shadows are cast
And it automatically fills the color
We will come back to this, so no need to make it perfect now
I added some rough shadow for the light
This looks different already, right?
This shadow makes a very big difference
I often end here for the draft
But for something more dramatic, I add more
Remember how I used purple with low saturation for shadow?
So, why purple?
It's because purple is a mixture of red and blue
It's neither advancing or receding
So in my opinion, it suits with red colors
As well as blue colors
So it's a very nice color in between for shadow
And one thing to note is
Be careful with using black for shadow
Because for black or gray with zero saturation
The color will look very murky
So I do not recommend that
I instead recommend this low saturation purple
High saturation will make the color pop out too much
So I used purple that has as low saturation as possible
Now that we are done with dark areas
Let's now move on to bright areas
We used multiply property for shadow
And now, for light, let's create another layer
And use overlay
Let's name it 'Sunlight'
Choose a bright yellow
And let's use Airbrush Tool for a bold stroke
We don't have any background here, so let's add one
For the background
Let's add a solid color background
And I added some clouds
Using some shadow brushes I have
And now let's change the background color
How do we change the color?
Go to the tab where you can adjust HSL
Let's move the color wheel a little
That was too much
Move little by little, and you will get the desired color
Select okay
And for our overlay layer
Let's add some rough strokes using Airbrush Tool
Add some like so
See how different it is with the strokes
The one without, the one with
If you want more lighting on areas like this
You can add some
This looks much better now
As we can see with and without
I may not have done anything big
But this looks complete enough for me
If you want to do something more
You can add more details
You can add more redness to the lips
Or some blushing cheeks
And see this shadow
The boundary is looking too harsh
Compared to here, where it's more sheer
For this harsh boundary
We just need a filter
Click on Blur
Use Gaussian Blur, add around 6 or 8 pixels
And blur the harsh boundaries like this
And if needed
You can erase some using Eraser
And if you think there should be more light in areas like this
You can add some with Eraser
By adding harsh boundary to the shadow
This represents the shining areas on the hair
And this is something I use very often
Go to our overlay layer
And add bits of texture
These are the textures I use
Here, I'm adding the thick pencil brush
To add some texture
This really adds to the outcome
Adding this texture
It almost looks like shimmering light
Good
How does this look?
Fine, right? Notice how I haven't used anything complicated
One overlay layer, one multiply layer
And add some strokes, that's all
This is a simple procedure
That really adds to the outcome
And to add something here
As in, if you want to adjust the overall tone
We need hard light, not overlay
And create another layer for that
Adjust with hard light
Change the name, and what color should we use?
If you'd like, choose blue
And then
If needed, use Gradation
And blue again
See how sheer this blue is
I mean, it's not sheer yet, but it will be soon
We can add that gradation
If this is too much blue
You can adjust at Transparency
Try dropping it at around 40
Or try bringing it up
If you don't like how blue looks on this
You can go to that color adjusting wheel I talked about
And move around the wheel bar
Oh, I like this, what is this? Pink
You could use some light pink like this
With this, I think
I will change the color of the sky
Let's change the sky like this
And this will be a turn to the overall atmosphere
Okay, that was using overlay, hard light and multiply
For the retouching process
We could end here
I keep saying that, but
I sometimes do something else
I sometimes add some highlights
So, in order for highlights
Add a layer
Name it 'highlight'
And for highlight, I go with the default layer property
I usually use Pen here
I add some sparkle in the eyes
And sometimes more highlight to the hair
I use some bright color, using G-pen
Because, when we have a human face
The first thing we look at is the eyes
That's why the eyes have the shimmer
Eyes are what sparkles the most on a human face
And for that, I use white
It's because white is the brightest color
And next, hair sparkles
But I do not use white for the hair
Because hair has its own color
I use that color of the hair
And make it brighter for highlight
And that's how I complete it
If the highlight looks too strong
I use Airbrush in Eraser
To blur the boundary, which now looks natural
And then, where else do we need highlight?
One thing is, do not overuse highlight
It will really do its job only when you use it where it's absolutely necessary
This is the beauty of retouching
All I did was add some strokes
And some layers
And look how the outcome looks so alive
So retouching is often like casting some magic
So, now that we're done with retouching
We're finally seeing our destination
Final steps include adding effect line, sound effect, and speech bubble
So let's look at how we finally complete this
Adding Effect Line, Sound Effect, and Speech Bubble
Let's add effect line and sound effect
First of all, why do we need effect line?
Even without effect line, we can understand the content
But by adding some effect line
It really brings out the dynamics, the sense of movement and speed
Because this is a medium of static images
It cannot visualize the directionality of speed and movement
So this is a mimicry of motion blur which we find
In a photo of a fast moving object, taken with
A slow shutter speed; this is effect line
Let's say a person is moving fast
Then their hair or accessories on their clothes
The faster the character is, the more behind they get due to inertia
So the hair and the fluttering clothes
They extend to the opposite direction of the movement
So by adding effect line towards that movement
The image now gains some dynamic, as if it is actually moving
So this adds to the place where the figure would've been a second ago
And it's an afterimage-like blurring effect
In fact, for action scenes we often add
Effect line as well as motion blur effect
The bigger the effect, the faster the movement seems
Therefore, effect line and blur effect
Must only be used for areas of fast movement
Let me demonstrate its use
Is this a sort of an action scene?
It does have some movement in it
A figure is lying down and he is
Spewing up some water
And I'd like to add some effect line here
When effect line is used to draw attention
It is called focus line
This focus line has a similar context
For a movie, it's like a zoom-in camera blur effect
Where a camera approaches something quickly
And gives it the focus
So by using focus line
It visualizes how we're focusing on it
Based on the line spacing, we have some dense focus line
And some wide focus line as well
And you can save them for future use
Clip Studio has its builtin focus lines
So just click it, drag it
And adjust it for use
If this doesn't suit your style of need
You can draw it on your own
There is a tool for drawing your own effect line
You could use this
See here
We set the circle
And it will create the focus line automatically
Notice how thick the line is
It's because I've set it to be thick
Notice how the brush size is too big
So let's make it smaller and try again
Let's set brush size to around 10
And now, see how it's much thinner
Even for color, I have yellow selected here
But I prefer brown
Let's choose brown and try again
Setting brush size to around 30
And setting the focus area
Now we have the right focus line
If you need more customization, there are more properties
So adjust each of them
To create your own focus line
Shall we make one now?
You can reduce grouping
And like this
Notice how this is a little different
So it's a way to set all the properties to your
Desired sizes
And if you don't want this
You could just draw it on your own
So I'll change the name to 'focus line'
And here's a new layer with its name changed
And select your desired tool, pencil or pen
I will go with pencil
And you can use Ruler
It's the same tab where we used Perspective Ruler
There's Special Ruler
So go to Special Ruler and choose Radial Line
Click and drag, and though we don't see it now
It's setting the radial line guide
All you need to do is to add strokes with your pen or pencil
And it will snap automatically to your desired direction
It's very convenient
It takes not that long
And it allows for your desired color, your desired pen type
Or pencil type, any type of line that you want
So this is very convenient
It looks fine, right? That's how it works
And if you like this line, you can save it
You can save this material
Save it to an image
And let's delete this
You can click and drag to bring it in again
Convenient, right?
That's how focus line works
Shall we add some sound effect?
Sound effect is, because Webtoon has no sound to it
We replace the sound element with letters
So sound effects such as thud, plop, or flash
These sounds are recreated in onomatopoeia
And sound effect really brings out the situation
By expressing that sound
Sound effect is not something required
But it will be missed if you don't have it
So it really brings out the liveliness of the work
That's the role of sound effect
One thing is, you need to place it well so that
The letters do not mix up with the image below them
When you add some sound effect
Let's create a layer
I prefer to hand-write it
I have my favorite Caligraphy Pen
Let's choose brown
For example, because this person is spewing some water
Let's add the sound effect saying 'blurk'
So I wrote the letters for 'blurk' myself
But notice how brown isn't popping out too well
It sort of blends into the background too
For this, I have two solutions
One way is to make this black
I could simply make this into black
This is more visible
I think white will be visible too
Let's set this to white, and it looks nice
But my usual choice is, though black or white is nice
I just add some outline
Usually in white
So adding some outline of around 10 to 15 pixels
It really highlights the letters
So this is what I usually do
I used my own handwriting
But you could type it out with some font
You can check out Assets or
Or any website that publishes free fonts
There are many fonts available
So you can search for some and download any font that you like
For me, I recommend this Caligraphy Pen
I think I also recommended this for storyboarding
I like Caligraphy Pen because
It's very easy to use
The letters look like this
Thicker to the sides and thinner vertically
When you purchase Clip Studio
This is one of the default pens
So I just resize it a little bit
To customize it as my own Caligraphhy Pen
And I recommend adding sound effects using this pen
Or you coud use fonts
But there's a principle with sound effects
Louder sounds are bigger, softer sounds are smaller in size of the letters
The same 'thud'
If the letters are bigger, it feels louder
If the letters are tiny, it feels softer
So if you want it to be a loud sound, make it bigger
For softer sound, make it smaller
Now it's time for speech bubbles
Actually, rather than saying speech bubble
It's more accurate to say speech balloon
If you're using Clip Studio
It's very simple to use their speech balloon function
Because this program is aimed for making comics
This speech balloon function is very convenient
For example, let's say that the line is here
I wrote, 'where am I?'
Let's put it to the top
The top of the layers
And with this line
Click Balloon at Clip Studio
And choose Rounded Balloon here
Now, click and drag on the text
And it makes the balloon automatically
It doesn't create a separate layer
It sticks with the text, so it's convenient to move it around
With the speech balloon, now we need the tail
Choose Balloon Tail
And set the starting point
And let the mouse go where it should end
And this automatically shapes the speech balloon
It's very convenient
If the bubble is too small
Use Operation tool
Let's use Operation to move it around
If the text isn't centered
You can only select the text and move it around
If you think the speech balloon is too small
Select the balloon and resize it
It only extends the size of the balloon without resizing the text
Or it can shrink it down
And same thing with the tail, it can freely move around
So this is such a convenient tool in this sense
I think oval shape is the default
This oval shape is the default
In fact, it's not really an oval
It's more like a rectangle with some very rounded edges
I think this is the most effective shape for a speech balloon
Because, if it's oval or just round in general
It has a lot of dead space
This will waste a lot of space
So I prefer using rectangular speech bubble
That has rounded edges
And we can also have a thought balloon
Notice how Hyang-Mi is thinking, 'where am I?'
I mean, now she's saying it
Because this shape of the tail is for speeches
So instead of this, if a figure is expressing something in their thought
We also have the thought tail
Here at Balloon Tail
Below Balloon Tail, we have Thought Balloon Tail
And select it the way we did before
So now it is some collection of circles
This is the thought balloon tail
And we can skip on having a balloon tail
When the direction of the one speaking isn't clear
And we may have situations where we need
Something other than this rounded balloon
Sometimes we can require some shape for shouting lines
Or that for some robotic sound, like from a radio
And these speech balloons are trickier
I usually download them
But you can make your own too
Let's delete this speech balloon here
Let's delete it
This is my usual speech balloon
When a character is shouting out loud, I use this spiky shape
So this does look like she is shouting it out loud
What other shapes do we have?
We have some similar ones
Or something like this
This polygonal speech balloon
This is for some robotic sound
Or when someone is on their phone
Or sometimes when it's some ghost that is speaking
For these, we can use some unique shapes
Also, we can choose the color of the speech balloon
For this medium of Webtoon
Color is one of its biggest advantages
So with this speech balloon
It doesn't have to be in black
You can add more colors
For example, let's say that
I want red to be Hyang-Mi's color
For that, I can simply select red
And add it here
Now it's the red speech balloon
And some artists like to set
Different, designated speech balloon colors for each character
But the downside is
That it takes a lot of work
So I actually advise that you use one color, black
So why black?
I even use brown for the cut lines
And even for my pen lines
But for texts, I use black or white
And the reason is
Text is something we see most quickly
And something we see the most, and something we consider as the most important
You may think that character figures are the most important
But I actually think text is more important than character figures
Of course characters are important too
Anyways, that's why I advise that
You use black text against white background for speech balloons
And we also have balloons for narration
Narration balloon should be different from speech balloons
Because, without any difference
It will become confusing whether the voice is diegetic or not
So for narration balloon, I make sure that
I use this rectangular balloon
Or I sometimes do not use any balloons for narrations
Which is a possibility
But make sure that the background isn't too busy
Or that it isn't so dark that you can't read the text
Because, then you won't see the narration
So for me, I do this
I add one rectangular balloon to cue that
This is the narration; I think this is the best way
Also, it's good to have consistent thickness for speech balloon lines
If not for some special circumstance, have consistence thickness for balloons
Notice how this line is
Around 6 pixels thick
But what if I make it a pixel thick?
That will be too thin
And that looks like a mistake
So make sure all speech balloons have the same line thickness
And for the font
Now that more people read Webtoon on their phone
The font size is getting bigger
Therefore, for mobile devices, make sure that
The fonts are not too small
I think speech balloons decide the narrative dynamic of the work
It's because when we are reading Webtoon
The first thing we look at is text
Meaning, we look at text first, and then the image
So the location of the speech balloon
That's what decides the pattern in which eyes move
So notice how I, without intending it, added the balloons to the top left
This is where we tend to look at first
So if there is no special circumstance
Place the first line on the top left
And the next lines could be freely placed based on context
But it is advised not to place them to the far margins
Too close to either sides, vertical or horizontal
Which will evidently cause
Some eye-straining movements
This may interrupt the flow of the readers
So with the speech balloons, this completes our work
Before that, proofread for any typos
And save a copy of this file and adjust it for any appropriate size
How do I adjust it?
Let me show you the work here
Here, see how I have the complete files, from file 1 to 13
Shall we take a look?
So, file no.3
Lines, characters, backgrounds are all in there
So it is complete
So these files
Let's export all of them simultaneously, from 1 to 13
How do I do it? Go to File
One great thing about Clip Studio is that it has features for Webtoon
So it has a lot of tools needed for Webtoon production
Notice how there's the 'Export Webtoon' function
Click it, designate the folder
As well as the name
I named it as 'episode one' and this will make
Each file's name as 'episode one_001'
'episode one_002' and so on
And what would be the size?
I will set its width as 690 pixels
And decide whether you want this for all pages or some pages
Here, choose 'export pages separately' and press OK
This finally exports the copy of my work
To the designated folder
Shall we?
Notice how we have jpg files, from 1 to 13
And this is how the final outcome looks like
For Naver Webtoon, the sizing is 690 pixels width
For jpg setting, the quality is around 80, though I set it as 100
I forgot to mention this
If you set File Quality as 80 here
It will drastically decrease its file size
And honestly you can't tell much difference
So I usually go with around 80
It's optimal for each file to be under 2MB in size
Here, this file is 571KB
Which is a small file size
And you hand over this small file size version
So set it like this, export
And all these jpg files that we saved
I will send these to the designated PD via email
And after I send the email, that's the end of the work
Now I just wait for my Webtoon to be uploaded, do some chores, get some rest
You did a fantastic job, everyone
Everyone, see how an episode of Webtoon requires so much work for it to be completed
Writing and drawing storyboard, sketching, pen lining, flat coloring, details
Background, and finally retouching
A Webtoon artist isn't someone who only specializes in one thing
They should write well, even lines, and have great ideas
And they should also be able to visualize that idea well
They should be great with production, human body depiction as well as emotional depictions
They should have understanding of colors and light
And they should draw great backgrounds
No Webtoon artist can do all these 100% well
We are able to simply do a bit of each part
So do not try to be a perfect person from the beginning
Give it a go with the mindset of 'doing its 5% well is enough'
And by jumping in without too much pressure
In a few years, you will realize that
You now can do more than 50% of everything well
Creating completing an episode may seem like such a big work
But one day it will become part of your routine
And you will be able to complete your work well in due
It really isn't too difficult
If it feels so, it's because you're trying to do it too well
There's one thing I always remind myself when I open an empty canvas
'Let's fill it in, with something, with anything'
By doing so, sometimes it will be filled with great things
And sometimes, with really bad things
But as I keep filling in each canvas
I will have 10 canvases a week, 550 a year
And in 5 years I will have a few thousand
And that's what forms me as an artist
I really hope that you get to fill in
A lot of empty canvases with your own colors
Thank you
Retouching Using Layer Properties Layer Property Multiply: For darkness Screen: For light
Overlay: For shimmering, soft light Hard light: Similar to overlay, but the value for black will look different
Adding Effect Line, Sound Effect, and Speech Balloon Effect Line Adding effect line to the direction of movement visualizes the sense of speech, movement and dynamics
Sound Effect Adds liveliness to the comics, where sound should be expressed through letters Sound effect letters should not blend in with the image Louder is bigger, softer is smaller in size
Speech Balloon Click and drag can easily shape a balloon tail; it is easy to resize and move Advised: black for speech balloon line, white for background, black for text
Speech Balloons must have consistent line thickness