Animation Source Forums

A lot of you guys have asked me how I render, so I figured I'd make a tutorial. Keep in mind, there's no "right" way to render, but (providing you have the right programs) I think my way is easier.


I've been using MS Paint for a while and this is what I use mostly for my drawings, but for images we're also going to use GIMP. If you don't have it, you can download it here http://www.gimp.org/. It's a free program and its worth the extra ten minutes of sitting there waiting for it to install.


MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN


Step 1A: Selection and Cropping
KIrada's tutorial pretty much has this covered. If you haven't read it yet, go have a look viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21585


Step 1 B: Preparations
Cat's tutorial explains this. I use the same method of increasing the image before rendering and decreasing after its done viewtopic.php?f=13&t=25070



Now we can get started.

NOTE: Make sure you keep a window open of the original file. You'll find out why later on.


Step 2: GIMP
Now what I do, is open the file in GIMP and add a new layer to it by going to Layer at the top, and clicking new layer. Make sure this one's transparent! That's important.



Step 3: Line Art Preparations
This part's really easy. Click the black square and choose a lighter color ( I usually use red) and take the Pencil tool and trace over all of the lines you want to use for your render. It's ok if your lines are a little thick or messy. We'll be correcting that problem later in Paint.




Step 4A: Filling it all in
Once you have all the lines you want traced, fill everything in white by clicking the little arrow tool and switching colors and then filling in your lineart with white INCLUDING THE BACKGROUND.



Step 4B: Delete the Background Layer

This is very simple. Right click on the layer that says 'Background and hit delete layer. Simple as that. When you've done that, save your picture and reopen it in MS Paint IN A NEW WINDOW. DO NOT OPEN IT IN THE SAME ONE YOU HAD OPENED IT THE FIRST TIME. You need the uneditted screenshot.




Step 5: Lineart
What I do here is take the curvy line tool and use it to outline the lighter lines in black.




Step 6: Cleaning Up

Using the eyedropper tool, click on a lighter colored area. Then using the paint bucket tool, fill in all the white. When youre done filling in the lineart with color, right click all of those spaces. It should fill them in with white and you'll be ready to color it in.




Step 7: Coloring it in

Again, I look back on Cat's tutorial for this part. I stretch out my canvas and paste and already finished picture in the white section of the character I want to render.Then I use the eyedropper tool to pick the colors I need for my character.




For the markings, I use the curvy line tool. It's quicker than the pencil tool and the effects are prettier x3




Step 8: Putting the Background Back

After saving in MS Paint open your file in GIMP again. Use the Fuzzy Select tool and click on a white space behind your character. Remember what I said earlier about keeping an uneditted copy of your original screencap? Well here's what we're going to do with that! Copy the picture and right click the space you selected. From the drop down menu, go to Edit and Paste Into. This will paste the background into your image and leave your character completely untouched. If you didn't keep the original screencap on hand, don't sweat it. You can use another background.




Kepp using the fuzzy select and pasting the background into the image until it's completely filled in.



Step 9: Finishing Touches

Once you're done with your background, open your image in paint again and shrink it down. The lines will look cleaner and it will look more like it came from the movie instead of a screencap you colored over.



Now you're done. And this is how I do my renders. It's a fairly simple technique, but it gets the job done. I hope I helped some of you guys out and feel free to ask me any questions if you have any difficulty if you use this method ;P

Grey (c) Wicked_Innocence

Great tutorial! That's a very neat way to make renders

Ha ha...that's exactly how I render. x] Its so much easier to edit than with Paint...Anyways, nice tuitorial, Wicked.

Oh great tutorial Wicked xD I'm going to try this

Nice way. I might use this way.

I'm using your way now. It seems a big and honestly, a bit easier way than Cat's one.

Thanks for posting this. ^^ I tried it out, and I can't exactly get it right. But it's my first time, so I expected that, and also it's 2:00 am, so... XD

Kiradas link wont work so i have no idea how to select or crop images so how do i do THAT?

How do i get the lineart preperations side bar/box thing come up? it doesnt pop up automatically


Moderator edit: Please use the edit button in your previous post in the future. Double posting is pointless and not allowed.

Yeah, just save it as a PNG or GIF.

That's amazing! Hmmm, I wonder if I would be able to get GIMP.

Aww. It sucks that I don't have GIMP. Otherwise I would use this tutorial to make my own renders. But for now I'm stuck with MS Paint.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who renders/draws/etc. in a mix of MS Paint and Gimp. ^_^ Great tutorial Wicked! (Personally, another thing that I think helps is also if you have a tablet. This is how I do my drawings, actually.)