Hey Paul, this is pretty cool. And you know what? Every thing you listed
below sounds awfully familiar. I mean, for years, I did steps 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6
but I think somewhere along the way, I forgot about the bitmap 50% threshold
and back to greyscale conversion steps.

I believe this might indeed have been the way we set things up when we were
coloring cartoon strips for the newspaper 'cause it does sound REALLY
familiar.

I might also try taking this technique and seeing what happens when you
apply it to channels as well. Although, you know you don't have to worry
about going through so many steps when coloring line art in Fireworks,
right? Fireworks recognizes the color area much more intuitive then
PhotoShop does, but PhotoShop is easier to "push the pixels around" then FW
is. Too bad 'cause if FW could get a little bit better at emulating how one
can paint or draw as easily as you can with its cousin Flash, I probably
wouldn't ever touch PhotoShop ever again.

:-)

-Chris


--
Chris Flick
Direct Response Consulting Services
6849 Old Dominion Drive #320
McLean, VA 22101
Phone: 703.749.3100 Fax: 703.749.0967
chris.flick@drcs.com




> This is great Chris, - it's great to have people to share ideas with.
>
> OK I went back through my steps because I forgot some. Here's how it goes:
>
> Draw lineart in B/W.
> Scan lineart (at very hi-rez) in greyscale.
> Convert (image - mode) to bitmap (50% threshold)
> Convert (image - mode) back to greyscale (size ratio: 1)
> Double click the "background" layer to unlock it.
> Select - colour range (click on a white part) fuzziness: 150-200
> Delete.
>
> Now you have a lineart layer with a transparent BG.
>
> At this point, convert back to rgb and create more layers underneath to
> paint on. My daughter loves this because she can colour numerous layers in
> different ways all in the same file. Then we experiment with blending modes,
> transparency - it can go on and on.
>
> The one step that I think is critical in making your lineart black (as the
> ace of spades) is to either scan as bitmap or change the greyscale image to
> bitmap at a 50% threshold. This effectively produces an image that contains
> only black or white pixels so the halo effect should not enter into it.
>
> As you say, the hi-rez scan is critical to try and keep the edges smooth.
>
> It sounds like a lot of steps but I can do it in less than 15 seconds. Might
> be worth recording parts as an action if it produces good results for you.
>
> ttfn
>
>
> ::pd::


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