How to make real photos look like comics in PS

1. Early preparation

Prepare the photos to be processed (the resolution should be large! The resolution should be large! The resolution should be large! Important things must be said three times) and animations style sky material. The original image used here is:

Note: This tutorial is only suitable for processing landscapes, not characters (this is very important, but was missed in the first version of the tutorial). Moreover, the processing of scenery is not suitable for dynamic objects such as vehicles and running water, so it is actually quite picky about photos. As for why, I won’t go into details here. Please refer to the "FAQ".

So what kind of photos are good photos? Deserted streets, railways and stations, campus architectural scenery, alleys with cherry blossoms in full bloom, pavilions and red maples all over the mountains, no passers-by, no water features, no hard-to-cut sky. Before proceeding, it is recommended to resize the photo to 1920×1080 pixels (yes, that’s 1080p).

2. Oil Painting Filter Now I feel that the "Dry Brush" filter in the original tutorial is useless, so I only use the "Oil Painting" filter. The "Oil Painting" filter is located in the "Filter" menu. Photoshop CC 2014 may not have this filter.

The six parameters currently used are "0.1", "5", "10", "0", "0", and "0". You can use the parameter values ??I gave you as a reference first, and you will be able to grasp them yourself after you have done more. If you feel that the effect of the filter is not strong after using it, you can double it with Ctrl+F (?F on Mac).

3. Camera Raw filter Although the "Oil Painting" filter is crucial, you may not be able to detect any obvious changes at this moment. Don’t worry, you will see the effect after using the “Camera Raw” filter. This filter is located in the Filter menu in Photoshop CC.

As shown in the picture, exposure +1, contrast to the minimum, shadow, black, sharpness, and natural saturation to the maximum,

4. Change the day and night

< p>Cut out the blue sky and replace it with the prepared anime-style sky material (continue to be lazy and use Makoto Shinkai’s clouds). There are many ways to cut out pictures, so I won’t go into details here. If the sky in your original photo is very pure blue or very gray (that is, there are no clouds), it only takes 10 seconds at most to use the "Magic Wand" tool.

After replacing the sky material, remember to use "Curves" or other tools to adjust the exposure of the sky to make it more harmonious with the foreground. In fact, up to this point, for most people, a good work has been completed.

5. Final Renovation

Compared to photographic works, the contrast of cartoons and movies is relatively low, so in the final revision I often add a " Adjustment layer. In addition, you can also observe the use of low-saturation blue-purple (dark parts), warm yellow (bright parts) and other colors in Makoto Shinkai's works, use "color balance" and other methods to process your work, and then add some light to the bright parts. A little warm yellow fleck.

Subsequent adjustments can be made according to the actual situation, such as adjustments to lens flare, light, and light and shadow. The completed picture is as follows: