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Adobe Illustrator for cartooning

I

Inkmonkey

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 2, 2003
436
1
Calgary
I work part-time as a cartoonist. I draw strips on paper, scan them, and then color them with an old version of Adobe Photodeluxe. I'm thinking it might be time for me to join 2004.

I'm interested in adding a professional touch to my work. Maybe even create some logos for myself and others. Kind of dabble in graphic design, if you will.

Would Illustrator be of value to me? What can it do and not do? Is it difficult to learn? What's the best way to learn?

Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated as I know zero about the program.
 
illustrator is useful on many levels
for a graphic designer it can be used for logos, but it is also very useful for creating brochures and small pamphlets (larger booklets and such are usually done in indesign or quark)
for a cartoonist you can make vector art from scratch, or you can scan what you have into photoshop and create paths from that and import them to illustrator to tweak them
i would say that it's pretty easy to learn well enough to draw
your main drawing tools are:
-the bezier curve/path tool which can be tricky sometimes; this is probably what you would use for corporate type logos
-the normal paintbrush tool - it's kind of weird in that it smooths the lines and makes paths out of them, but it can be pretty cool...if you have a wacom tablet it works pretty well with it
-then you have the normal make a square/circle/polygon and line tools

one of the coolest things about illustrator is that the files you create can be scaled to virtually any size with no loss in quality, and the printing options are very nice (illustrator does post script whereas photoshop does not)

overall I think illustrator is my favorite adobe program
 
Is Illustrator or Photoshop better for cartooning-type drawing? Any advice on how to go about that sort of thing in those programs? I've got Photoshop Elements, but haven't been able to get it to do what I'd really like to do, which is use it as a digital sketchbook.
 
I was wondering if you were planning on using illustrator for cartoon creation, or if you were planning on using for more graphic work?

If you are't sure yet check out this program, if you haven't herd of it, it looks like it is used in alot of cartoons.

Toon Boom Studio

My brother used it once to create a 15 sec. cartoon, however i'm not sure how diffucult it is to use.
 
Megatokyo

The artist that draws the megatokyo web comic (www.megatokyo.com) uses illustrator on his mac. I think he does some sketches, scans them, cleans lines then adds dialog. Check out the site and ask some questions of him on the forum.
-jim
 
Xenious said:
The artist that draws the megatokyo web comic (www.megatokyo.com) uses illustrator on his mac.
Click to expand...

cool stuff. its interesting to see a manga artist with a very unique look. unique as far as i'm aware of though. i've been doing that awful southpark animation look with adobe after effects. which does the trick for low budget tv spots! i would recommend the adobe illustrator cs classroom in a book series. for your illustrator needs
 
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Inkmonkey said:
I work part-time as a cartoonist. I draw strips on paper, scan them, and then color them with an old version of Adobe Photodeluxe. I'm thinking it might be time for me to join 2004.

I'm interested in adding a professional touch to my work. Maybe even create some logos for myself and others. Kind of dabble in graphic design, if you will.

Would Illustrator be of value to me? What can it do and not do? Is it difficult to learn? What's the best way to learn?

Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated as I know zero about the program.
Click to expand...

I do the exact same thing you do: Ink on paper, scan, color in Photoshop. Personally, I've found that drawing it by hand on paper is generally faster in the long run unless you're working with mostly straight lines (and I'm pretty fast with the Illustrator pen tool).

The downside is, of course, that you're working with pixels instead of vectors. So once you've drawn something, that's it. With Illustrator, you have the benefit of changing anything at any time with relative ease. But it's the time-saving and custom brushwork with pixels in Photoshop that keep me from using a vector-based program for comics.

I'm a traditionalist by nature. While I design logos in Illustrator, I still like being able to fall back to pen and paper when doing comics. But that's just me! :)
 
Most Cartoonists create their work using both programs.

SHop and Ill, but with the two converging so much of late.

I would venture a guess that Shop IS the Proggie for Comics coloring, Period!

If you are going to create only flat color then perhaps you would color in ILL. But there is a method of scanning pencil or ink work and creating a clean foundation of Pen line work for further layers of color.
This process is really exclusive to Shop, anyone that thinks different can attempt to correct me.

Shop creates a particular look and Ill, is another method and another look.
I think that SHOP is your Best bet.
 
I think I could really benefit from Illustrator based on what many of you are telling me. Don't think I'd ever stop using paper but I like the idea of being able to edit my mistakes on the computer. It's a lot cleaner than a dirty eraser.

Maybe I should pick up a book and the program and play around with it? Sounds like my best bet.

Any of you use Illustrator and a tablet for cartoons? Or any art for that matter?
 
Would you guys equate Illustrator as similiar to CorelDraw?

I used CorelDraw ages ago on the PC and it's something I can asssociate with.
 
Inkmonkey said:
I think I could really benefit from Illustrator based on what many of you are telling me. Don't think I'd ever stop using paper but I like the idea of being able to edit my mistakes on the computer. It's a lot cleaner than a dirty eraser.....
Click to expand...


when you talk about editing your hand drawn "mistakes" and using the program as an "eraser", I think that really you should look at PhotoShop first as it's a great program for editing and erasing your scans ....Illustrator is a great program for creating new drawings but not really for erasing the scans of your hand drawings. With Illustrator you can definitely add new line work but think of it more as doing overlays on top of your original rather than actually changing the scans.

and definitely get a tablet! you'll be much happier drawing with it than with the mouse
 
If your scanning then Shop is a must, not illustrator.

Ill is great for other uses but for comics, its predominately SHOP.

Ill was used in conjunction with SHOP to create words ballons etc, but with the new additins to Shop of vector tools, that isnt really done anymore, or less than the past.

You need Photoshop and a tablet.

Work in progress all done in Photoshop and a tablet, nothing else comes close, period. :cool:
 

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Grokgod, nice stuff. it looks like you've just grabbed the airbrush for those highlights. have you ever tried to do cuts with PhotoShop? i've tried, but can't quite get it right... perhaps it's just practice. :)

anyway, just thought that i'd mention Painter as an alternative app. it's most definitely the best natural media app out there. you've got alot of options for pens, brushes and pencils to name a few. you can get pencils looking like the light blue lead pencils used for layouts, and with a tablet it really does look like it was drawn by hand on paper.

but i've also used PhotoShop with the brush tool and a tablet to do a couple of strips. i reckon it turned out pretty good, looks kind of like it was inked with a brush. you've just got to play with the settings and you can get a really good look. :)

just remember to scan at 300dpi, and colour it at that dpi, so then it will at least be suitable to print, if that's what you want.
 
my two cents.......

Photoshop for pixel editing (eg - working with scanned artwork or digi camera files)
Illustrator for vector work.

i am a huge fan of photoshop (been using since 2.0) and have only recently gotten to grips with illustrator. both are very intuitive and learning one will help with the other.

i reckon you'll wind up using both, just remember that there are strengths and weakness to each, but thankfully the weakness' don't overlap much.

it's worth remembering that Photoshop has a built-in "softness" factor. this was added by adobe after many photographers whinged that using brushes/paths etc led to unnatural looking images (thanx for listening Adobe btw ;)), so to re-cap, use Photoshop for pixel editing and illustrator for vector work, the two combine very nicely, so just learn both.......... :cool:
 
Yup, I grabbed the paintbrush for the highlights, or i usually use the Dodge tools, but can sometimes create additional colors but it is fun to use.

In what manner are you using a CUT out method.

I don't really get it, are you cutting out the color layer to reveal an undercoating of white? :eek:
 
well, what i mean is that you use the Lasso or Marquee tool to select an area where you want the highlights to be, then you use a gradient to fill that area, then select even smaller parts of that area to add sharper highlights. if you look at professional comics you'll see the way that they're coloured is really sharp and clean.

here's some 'cuts' tutorials:

cuts on a ball
cuts on chrome
cuts on a leg

they're some basic tutorials. if you search for 'comic coloring cuts' on Google or something i'm sure it'll turn up alot more. :)

i think it just takes practice. i've gone through all those tutorials and i still can't get it right. just remember not to make it too overpowering, try and keep it subtle i think that works better.
 
Interesting stuff, i never really thought of doing that wya, I think that I never really wanted such a sharp edge,I have mostly been trying tryting to blend.

But i can see where it would be useful!

Thank for the URL, the web site looks intersesting.
Do you have any other cool coloring site to pass on?

thanks
 
go to these addresses:
adobe.com/photoshop
&
adobe.com/illustrator

download the demo/trial see if it does what you need easily enough
buy it
make cartoons...

:)
reality
 
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