How to Add Cel Shading to Line Art
Cel shading is a style of adding shading to drawings. The name originates from the transparent sheets of cellulose on which traditionally-animated cartoons were painted; because of how the painting process worked and to keep production costs down, shading in traditionally-animated cartoons was kept very simple. Cel shading is also known as "anime shading", due to the fact that Japanese cartoons, also called "anime", still frequently use this style of shading. Cel shading is easy to add to line art using graphics editing software such as Photoshop.
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Instructions
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1
Create a new layer and move it below the layer containing your line art. If your line art is black and white rather than black and transparent, set the line art layer to "Multiply."
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2
Select all the areas you want to fill with a specific color using the "Magic Wand" tool. Expand the selection by one pixel.
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3
Rename the layer you created under the line art layer to match its contents. This will enable you to better keep track of which layer is which when dealing with complex images.
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4
Fill your selection with your chosen color, using either the "Flood Fill" tool or the "Paintbrush" tool. Ensure that the correct layer is selected before you do this. Create a new layer and repeat the process until you have filled your entire image with flat color.
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5
Create a new layer directly underneath your line art layer.
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6
Select a single color and set it as your foreground color using the "Eyedropper" tool. Select all areas of this color using the "Magic Wand" tool. Darken the color with the "Color Picker" tool.
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7
Paint shadows on your image in the darker color you just selected using the "Paintbrush" tool. Paint them roughly at first to get an idea of their placement, then adjust them by using smaller sizes of the "Paintbrush" tool as well as the "Eraser" tool to remove areas where you painted too much. Create a new layer and repeat the process from step six until you have shaded your entire image.
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