"Screen Tone" (under construction)

[koro]

Greatings fellow Conceptual Citizens,

-I guess this is going to be quite a long post, and I must first off appologize for the length of images, but with out taking even more time to post this in an effort and time binding PDF doc for you, I've resulted to this for the moment.

I'm going to objectify my own personal method of not only doing Sceentone work (as done here in Japan), but a method of scanning and getting that onto the digital prepress platform and how to set it up.

This is in theory the same way many a manga publishers (more than likely, unless I haven't figured out something) get pages from Samura, Shirow, Ohtomo, or any other into the prepress layout of Quark or InDesign. This solves Moir…~ pattern problems, and insures clear printable, and repro-quality of Halftoned Manga and comics.

*Go get your coffee, cigarettes, and or snacks.. this is going to take some reading..

Step (1)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_01.jpg

-The first step, as in all with comics production, is having the pencils.
I have made a penciling sample from a sketch some of you may recognize from the Mono C-1 sketches.

Step (2)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_02.jpg

-I've moved into inks quite fast, blocking out the linework and heavy lines with contrast. This process although can be done quickly takes care. It is the base of the finished production quality. even when thinking of the inks, then thinking of tone, optimizing the ink work to need less or simplistic tone is key. Remember, tone is a tool for making the final definition of contrast, effects are a final resulting by-product based on good linework.

Step (3)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_03.jpg

-Further detail is added to the Sub. Light cross hatching made with pens like the *Spoon pen and *Maru pen.

Step (4)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_04.jpg

By this point, Inks are pretty much knocked out. The pencils are erased in full and the entire page brushed off of erasure. I know this may be an over-statement of mention, but a necessity, as small bits of debris and erasure can get stuck under the film by static cling attaction. Debris can also find it way onto the surface when Burnishing the work and cause blotches on the paper.

Step (5)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_05.jpg

-Now ready to start the tone work,
I've laid out the tools that will be needed. A hard eraser (white or pink depending), various range of x-acto knives (pointed; scalpel; chisel shaped). The greater use of these tools will also include an Olfa snap-blade knife, and an electric eraser with soft nylon refills.

Step (6)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_06.jpg

-Next, I often use a light box to varify the cut I'm making to minimize waste. Conventional tone can be costly, so it's best to conserve.

Step (7)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_07.jpg

I entered the tone work from the base gradients of the bg first, laying in a gradation of 42.5 lines per inch at a 0-100 percent. It's a bit big, but, I know it may not be so wide when reduced down. The trick of using tones is to really think ahead like a copy machine. You have to judge pecentages, and generally think how it's all going to shrink down. Overall, I've used 3 tones in this composition that represent 95 percent of the page. Generally good to stick with 2 - 3 tones (tops).

Step (8)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_08.jpg

-Here, I begin the trim off of areas that will overlap areas in which I will be adding other tones. I finger it down, making polite but firm cuts .. Not too deep or this could result in cutting the artwork. Use a newer blade, and mind the touch of the tip to surface.

Step (9)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_09.jpg

-Peeling up the trim, I take this unused portion (if this big) and stick back on the now blank area from the sheet which it came.

Step (10)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_10.jpg

-The pattern is flush and positioned..

[koro]

Step (11)

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_11.jpg

-Now I can Burnish the tone down to the surface fixing it into position and pressing in the Adhesive that is on the rear side. *Do this until linework turns darker under film, going from center out (As not to cause ripples or air bubbles). Most importantly, I use a sheet of canson transparent vellum as an overlay while burnishing. This also Insures less damage to the art work initially.

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_12.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_13.jpg

Step (12)
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_14.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_15.jpg
-This is where I start in on some erasure highlights of the area, I use a Sakura electric eraser to start in on the bubbles. when applied to the tone, a slight touch will take the pattern right off. *Caution is best advised as you should beware of each area you take off.

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_16.jpg

-I also erase the overlap and edge of the top edge which may have excess tone from the next gradation step from sloppy cuts, etc. Erasing the 0% edge also help less of it show up in contrast on the scan later on..

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_17.jpg

-The "BrushOff", keeping it clean:)

[koro]

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_18.jpg

Snapping off a spent blade, I continue now with the Olfa knife..

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_19.jpg

At almost a 25-45 degree angle to the dots, I begin scratching off tone to areas of the highlights in the BG (Sea Water), not unlike crosshatching, but in the minus effect..

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_20.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_21.jpg

-I use a hard or grainy eraser at times to smooth out areas, in effect making smaller gradations in a sense.

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_22.jpg

-Further scratching made in with a smoother scalpel blade
I repeat scratching and erasing for desired effect in areas ..

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_23.jpg

-After finishing the Bg, I go now to the sub itself.
To make it stand out in contrast to the lighter area, I then put in a tone of 42.5Line 40%. I cut overlap and trim to flush tone and image area..
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_24.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_25.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_26.jpg

-I removed the tone over the Sub's emblem to lay in another tone (the 4th tone) in the small area that remains later on..

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_27.jpg

More burnishing..

Step (13)
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_28.jpg

-About step 13 here, I begin some of the later to last touch-ups and highlights (Which I think now should be less extreme, but..).
erasing here and there and touching areas up with correctional white..
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_29.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_30.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_31.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_32.jpg
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_33.jpg

-AND Done! Bling!
Now we're ready to see this paper onto the prepress setup going digital..

[koro]

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_34.jpg

-My Scanner is pretty work-a-day, even for it's time. It does the job however. B4 pages are larger than most scanners Unless you have a full-sized tabloid scanner to A3 size scanner for grabbing the whole thing. With this in mind, I have to scan the whole thing in 2 parts, and then move the art over from it's shown position to the right to get the other half.

*Althought you can't see in this photo, I have my own registration marks in light pencil marked on the edge of the scanner.

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_35.jpg

*the settings I use for this peticular method require scanning at nothing less than 1200DPI at greyscale (black and white photo).
Anything less with for sure cause a Moire pattern and ruin output.
the theory is to scan and twice the res, 1200 being the most optimal.

Scanning each half, and pairing it together by matching the pixels in a new layered doc (oversize slightly to make sure PS does not skew the image, copy and paste each half onto a slightly larger than b4 doc).
then you can pair up, flatten, and crop to it's true edge.

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_36.gif

*Important - Before editing the art work, you can still see the nonprint guides in the paper. these guides will later disappear when setting up the file and cleaning, but now is the time to lay in the guides with the prepared crop and registration marks.

these are typical marks that Japanese "Genkouyoushi" or Comics manuscript paper have in them, allowing you to set these defining areas. Indesign users will find this of use for keeping the ratio to the printed comics page (same as western format even with the original source being smaller than 10x15 size).

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_37.jpg

Next, You can apply (and I only recommend) running AUTO LEVELS to the art. this should bring out a bit of the contrast and balance out the darks and lights a bit between the scanners scan, and your working file.

-Then run curves.
I have been using about these values here, but you have to generally eyeball it in some cases..

lwr point of curve going up: 21/6 56/35 80/86 *See figure above.

-After running the curves, the page should be pretty clean initially.
Now would be the time to take the small eraser, and take out bits and dust, what have you
http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_38.jpg

*Last but not least is the Threshold.
this is the last important step in the scheme, because it takes the greyscale art and forces the greys out leaving only the black and white. It also cleans the line and dots in a uniformed fashion without distubing the shapes and weight of line. The dots and line, all clean as if you were doing regular bit map mode. I do not use bitmap mode for this process, as it blotches the dotshades together, and does not read the art well. It would do if this was a coloring piece without tone.
Try it, you'll see what I mean..

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/tone_tutorial/tone_39.jpg

-After finishing, as a trial, I Dupped the file and image sized it to 350 dpi. The dots and printout came out just as it should. Black, perfect and clean. No Blotches of moire.

http://www.tonikoro.com/digibon/sub9_final_tutorial_img.jpg

And finally, your set.
you can then make sure of all the crops, and take this into layout as a saved tiff file, ready to go.

-I finally figured this process out when I had to get pages to the LA Weekly and scan and prepare them. It all worked, but I didn't resize them so I ended up sending the full 1200 files in a .Zip per page. Unzipped @ 1200 is about 196 MB, in which .Zip'ing the files crunched to 5 - 8 MB.

good luck:)

*Finished illo to be posted in the Finished works.

[koro]

Q: Why the glove with all the fingers cut out? i also use a glove, but keep the fingers on the ring and pinky so as to not deposit any oils on the surfaces i'm working on. just curious.
A: I usually cut just to the knuckles because on the ring and pinky finger, I have at times gotten ink that stays wet on the edge of the cut cloth without knowing. But the palm of the hand seemed the most threat to the surface, so the fingers I have not been as concerned with.

Q: Could you be so kind as to explain how you set up to shoot the pics for the tutorial? Did you use a webcam, 35mm scanned? What about lighting? Did you have someone else shoot the pics (I assume you would need someone to do it), or did you set up a tripod and timer? It would help others to do 1st rate tutorials.
A: It didn't take too serious of an effort, but I did it alone, here in my studio room, with a small digital camera (cannon powershot S40), placed on a tripod mount, looking down over me and my desk surface. I'd charge it to full and then place it on a 10 sec timer. Then, I would turn it on and take shots at an interval of progress. Just the reach around and push the button sort of action. Then at the end take a few notes and import through iphoto and or PS - all of the shots in sequence.

One day, when I have time, I plan to make a follow up to this tut. But for now I'm waaaaay too busy.

Cheers :beer:
thanks again all!

[matesch]

Great Job KOro

realy impressive work / great Tutorial about using Tones

i found a onlineshop where they sell them they are not the cheapest
but i think the effect you get is worth it

http://www.polykarbon.com/Store/index.htm

also this Polykarbon network supply Manga Tutorials for the ones who are
not yet that professional Koro is.

http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.htm

or do you know a Onlineshop where they sell them cheaper ?

thnx Mat

:yayca:

[Vaejoun]

Hi, nice tutorial.

Im working on Mangas too, but I live in germany and it seems to me that nobody is selling "good" tones. And shipping them in is quite more expensive than its worth.

So I prefer the method to simulate the tone effect with photoshop. Not that easy as if you make it your way but in most cases nobody mentions something.