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Stylized Comic Book Effect

 

Using this effect, you can transform anyone into a comic book character with a halftone, saturated look.

Corey Barker

Corey Barker is Executive Producer of PlanetPhotoshop.com and is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Corey has also made numerous appearances on the highly rated podcast, PhotoshopUser TV, and is co-host of Layers TV.

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50 Comments

  1. Ja2 a.k.a Rubikmaster911 on YouTube said on — June 6, 2008 @ 8:01 pm

    Awesome tutorial. Best cartoon effect I ever seen. By the way, the gaussian blur can replicate the surface blur.

    P.S. Set the gaussian blur to a radius of 3.5

  2. Rick said on — June 6, 2008 @ 8:19 pm

    Been looking for something like this for a long time! Thanks!

  3. Glen said on — June 7, 2008 @ 2:07 am

    thanks for the comic book effect, fun tutorial!

  4. thuhientnk said on — June 7, 2008 @ 7:01 am

    Thanks

  5. Helmut said on — June 7, 2008 @ 7:45 am

    Danke

  6. Chris said on — June 7, 2008 @ 10:37 am

    Good stuff, but it is a pity about the poor quality of the video

  7. maria said on — June 7, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

    Been looking for something like this for a long time! Thanks!

  8. Bob Murray said on — June 8, 2008 @ 10:35 am

    If there is ever a design war, I want Corey on my side! He never runs out of blammo!

  9. David O'Hara said on — June 8, 2008 @ 10:46 am

    Excellent. Well done! Really like the effect. Keep them coming, I am learning so much by this :-)

    Thanks a billion :D
    David
    :-)

  10. Charles said on — June 9, 2008 @ 8:27 am

    best of the best.

  11. xinyl said on — June 9, 2008 @ 9:54 pm

    pretty good

  12. Jesse Willson said on — June 10, 2008 @ 1:48 am

    I hope you know that you have single handedly taught me a LOT about photo shop!

    I will be away from my personal PC and photo shop for almost 6 months. I am counting on there being a half million tutorials to watch when I get back!!

    Thanks again!!

  13. Website Design said on — June 10, 2008 @ 10:26 pm

    Ah man this is super slick, thanks so much for the tutorial. I’ll be putting this to good use.

  14. Tom said on — June 11, 2008 @ 11:05 pm

    This is a frustrating exercise because the narrator talks so fast that towards the end, when we invert, he says click “command control I” and I think he meant command or control I - he says it so fast I cannot make out what he is saying.

    Also, when you click on the top layer to create the layer mask and he says click control on the layer, I did not get an inverted layer mask unless I dragged and dropped the layer over the layer mask icon and the instructions did not say that so I think for those like me who are new it would be helpful if the instructions were not so rushed and if they were a little more accurate. Also, it is not intuitive for me when I needs to switch between layers and sometime that goes so fast I have to replay the tutorial to figure that out - I have never seen a photoshop tutorial go so quickly - I wish the instructions were printed out - I know, maybe I am too slow but I still love the lessons - thanks

  15. Mike3d said on — June 12, 2008 @ 12:49 am

    how can I fill with black the photo? I don’t understand…pls help

  16. Hanneke said on — June 13, 2008 @ 5:46 am

    As Mike is asking: How do I, after making a new layer, get the inverse picture in the new layer and delete the selection?

  17. Morgan said on — June 13, 2008 @ 1:15 pm

    ok about the command control thing. He is saying command on a mac, and control on a windows based pc. As for the layer mask, you hold control when you click on the image in the layers menu, this will select that layer only. Then you just click on the layer mask icon. Thats all it will create a layer mask with the “inverted” picture.

  18. Bianca said on — June 17, 2008 @ 6:04 pm

    Okay, so I get everything else but the part where he says “option delete” to get the back fill on the photo, I don’t get it. I hit the delete button but a pop up screen says “could not clear because scratch disks are full”. Help please!

  19. J-Rome said on — June 18, 2008 @ 11:50 am

    Far out, great shtuuff. Thanks!

  20. Olc said on — June 20, 2008 @ 2:10 pm

    From Spain thanks, awesome tutorial !

  21. Cheryl said on — June 20, 2008 @ 7:53 pm

    Bianca:
    If you are using a PC - substitute ALT-Delete, that is Windows version of Macs Option-deleter.

  22. Márcio Guerra said on — June 20, 2008 @ 8:03 pm

    Hi, man… Very nice… again… I had already seen, but didn’t left a comment! Nice one!
    Márcio Guerra

  23. Angola said on — June 23, 2008 @ 4:11 am

    hey there , i like all of yours tutorials.they’re very useful . i’m also looking for a vexel tutorial,but an easy one,because all i’ve found are too dificult to me.any help and i would be happy to say thankx.

  24. chesternixx said on — June 26, 2008 @ 5:31 am

    i’ve been watching coreys tutorials for a year now and so far has done so many fun crazy things just applying his techniques to different styles. yes if there is an art war id like corey to be on my team. he likes to use hard light which by far is the best thing to do using layers and blending.keep it up dude

  25. BBoy UNQ said on — June 27, 2008 @ 2:02 am

    What’s command key?

  26. claudio said on — July 2, 2008 @ 7:44 am

    Very nice tutorial mate!!! you saved my life.

  27. photojunkie said on — July 2, 2008 @ 11:17 am

    Very good techniques to create a nice effect.
    Rubikmaster: I believe Corey used the surface Blur so as to keep the edges of the image in tact while smoothing out the surface.

  28. nphillip said on — July 2, 2008 @ 11:43 am

    how can you download planet photo shop so you can customize your pics…

  29. Tutoriales photoshop « LaCARPETA Pingback on — July 5, 2008 @ 3:11 pm

    [...] PLANET PHOTOSHOP Logo Design Stylized Comic Book Effect Stage Lights Wild West Grunge 13. HERNAN DAVOS 25 Tutoriales de photoshop en pdf para descargar [...]

  30. Snowman said on — July 9, 2008 @ 4:56 am

    Damn, that’s awesome!
    This tutorial is just the best tutorial i’ve ever seen!

    Many people just say “do X” or “use Y” but not how to, you do it just great!

  31. Ofer said on — July 10, 2008 @ 5:00 pm

    Thank you very much, this tutorial helped me a lot.

    You should publish more of picture effect.

  32. marvik said on — July 12, 2008 @ 11:19 am

    Corey in the last layer before you finished on the layer mask you said to invert the selection but the invert can’t be selected can you help please and tell me why thanks in advance
    Regards
    MaRvIk

  33. ags said on — July 12, 2008 @ 3:25 pm

    can a download this video
    how i can download?…………..

  34. Sarah said on — July 12, 2008 @ 11:09 pm

    Thanks..that was easy to follow and a lot of fun!

  35. Jen said on — July 13, 2008 @ 12:21 am

    what version of photoshop is this? I don’t see a surface blur.

  36. paulyai said on — July 20, 2008 @ 2:13 pm

    I really don’t think this tutorial is much better than using the posterize effect in one step. Yes’ it’s different, but not enough to go through 4 more filters and 5 layers. Having said this, I love this site and have learned basically everything I know about PS from this site.

  37. nshientluv said on — July 22, 2008 @ 12:22 am

    what the hell is option delete.. i don’t get get it please help..

  38. Mustaine said on — July 25, 2008 @ 4:50 pm

    Very nice TuT ^^

  39. Carol said on — July 28, 2008 @ 7:37 am

    i don’t see either a surface blur. it must be the much updated version. oh well, it was still helpful and I got the effect I wanted from your easy step tutorial. thanks so much. it was a fun tutorial. :)

  40. Jayna said on — July 28, 2008 @ 9:30 pm

    Option Delete is Alt Delete in Windows…delete is usually under the insert button on the keyboard, to the right of backspace

  41. ragdoll said on — August 11, 2008 @ 7:23 am

    tis was excellent!
    i love it!
    ur site is very comprehensive.
    i was just wondering if there is any tutes on how to get rid of backgrd from photos.
    thanks!

  42. Gallery ll .Albert - Page 4 Pingback on — August 14, 2008 @ 4:50 am

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  43. habil said on — August 16, 2008 @ 10:00 am

    this is really nice thank u

  44. =) said on — September 29, 2008 @ 6:48 am

    great!! u are totally great!!

  45. Mia said on — October 27, 2008 @ 12:02 pm

    I agree, best comic book effect tutorial! Video was easy to follow and very helpful!

  46. Jokec said on — November 7, 2008 @ 7:14 am

    I’ve searched the whole web for tutorials on comic book look and this one is really the best. Great stuff. I will be (over)using this technique in weeks to come.

  47. Dirk McFergus said on — November 9, 2008 @ 8:00 pm

    This tutorial rocks! Thanks.

  48. DAnny said on — November 19, 2008 @ 1:09 am

    How come it says Layers Magazine 1/4 of the way through?

  49. Ryan Thrower said on — November 19, 2008 @ 2:28 pm

    my mind was blown. freakin love your stuff!

  50. Jennifer said on — November 27, 2008 @ 7:52 pm

    Oh god. I’ve gotta go start at photoshop, 101. This was very cool… but I was a deer-in-the-headlights because I’ve never dealt with layers. Thanks for a great trick. I’ll get to it in eventually. :-) Thanks for the inspiration.

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