Multiple Focuses Cleaning and Typesetting Tutorials (especially Beginners)

[chiresakura]

This is a site with a compilation of cleaning tutorials that were originally made for training M7 cleaners. These tutorials are generally aimed at MQ to HQ Edited Mangas, however there are a few techniques that speed scanners can hopefully take away that may improve their quality.

Many of these tutorials are for beginners and include basics like leveling, borders, redrawing, and filling blacks and whites. Focus on the beginners section if you are new to Photoshop and are feeling overwhelmed

Also there are some introductory guides to Photoshop Tools with an emphasis on how they apply to cleaning (pen tool, polygonal lasso, clone, etc).

Last, there is an Advanced area where experienced cleaners can find different ways to do things like borders and redraws. Beginners don't need to worry about stuff like this until they are more comfortable with their cleaning

The whole site is currently a work in progress, so any feedback is appreciated!

EDIT: I just added a typesetting tutorial as well.

 

[Leen]

Re: Pen Tool Tutorials

Nice. I actually learned something out of it. Thanks for tutorials. Appreciate it.

 

[chiresakura]

Re: Cleaning Tutorials (especially Beginners)

Glad to hear it!

I updated the site with all of the beginner tutorials we used for the M7 training, and I made a slight change to the Beginner's Borders Tut.

 

[kirimi]

Re: Cleaning Tutorials (especially Beginners)

Your tutorials are easy to read and follow. Thank you so much!

Having read several different tutorials for levelling now, they all say different things, so I'm quite confused now. -_-

 

[chiresakura]

Re: Cleaning Tutorials (especially Beginners)

Thanks for checking out the site ^^

What do the other leveling tutorials say? Maybe I can help clear some things up.

 

[TheGenius]

Re: Cleaning Tutorials (especially Beginners)

The thread is dead but thanks! I'm gonna try out your techniques!

 

[THE KING]

Re: Cleaning Tutorials (especially Beginners)

I love the tutorials on this site, Have around 3.8gb of tutorials on my hd, but the ones by u are totally awesome man.

 

[chiresakura]

Re: Cleaning Tutorials (especially Beginners)

It's been a while since I added anything new, but finally, after a year of sitting on my to-do list, I posted a typesetting tutorial to the site. It's nothing ground-breaking, but I wanted to make a tutorial that had plenty of examples and images

I'm by no means a great typesetter, so any and all suggestions are welcome :P

(Updated the first post to reflect this new tut.)

EDIT: Yikes, thanks for picking up the typo, reinen!! I have no idea how that could have happened in a simple copy paste XD

 

[reinen]

Thanks for the info! It helps a lot.

Bwt, the link in the post above is mistyped, this should work. Thanks again, chiresakura!

 

[SlayerJr]

Domo Arigato for all those tips. I've been considering doing a volume or two myself so your guidelines were very helpful. Although I must say I am blown away at the effort that goes into Editing. I'm also shocked that you guys would actually re-draw entire volumes. Personally I think that is going too far but I do admire the dedication.

I've been considering the best way for myself to go about this process and decided to analyse my own reading habits in order to produce a viable Edited Manga without getting bogged down in the details.

I realised that even though I have a sharp eye and can spot when something is out of balance I also swallow volume after volume very quickly, spending seconds on each page, racing towards the conclusion. I also enjoy reading Japanese RAW's even though I cannot speak or read the language. The visual cues in the pictures are usually more then enough to let me know what is going on. That being the case I cannot see the point in re-creating perfect reproductions of all this great art.

Sound FX are another area that can be left alone and those Kanji characters look way cooler then any Ka-Blam or Whoosh or Stomp etc. What is most important as far as I am concerned, is good snappy dialogue and story line. I must say that I have read some amazing translations over the years. Its that sort of stuff that makes Manga stand head and shoulders above Marvel and DC and keeps me fascinated with Japanese culture.

Of course I also realise that there is another aspect to all that effort and those involved take great pride in taking their Editing to the level of re-creating every line. That is part of being an artist and its also great training in computer design tools and techniques. First you get good, then you get fast and then you get good and fast, isn't that so? You also know that you've gotten there when it becomes a chore and an exercise in tedium. That is when you stop admiring every line and curve and shade and instead start thinking along the lines of 'This is acceptable' instead of looking for perfection.

Anyhow thanks again for the general guidelines, I'm off to look over the RAW I'm considering working on. If I do decide to release it, I hope to make it worthy of the scene. It's the least I can do.

 

[chiresakura]

I definitely don't recommend redrawing ALL the lines in a manga, and I hope you didn't pick that up from my tutorials. For Bleach, we redraw the gray sections because the Jump scans are so terrible, it's difficult to see the lines art.

I think you're on the right track in terms of leaving the SFX and making a good script a priority, however let me also encourage you to pay a lot of attention to the typeset as well. Poor typesetting can ruin an otherwise amazing Edited Manga.

Good luck with your projects, and I applaud you for focusing on the quality of your work. I wish there were more new Manga Editors like you out there ^_^

 

[goldb]

I've been interested in trying my hand at Editing for a while since I wanted to clean OP databooks( yes they're long but heh...), so thank you for the tutorials, I haven't started them yet cos these next 2 weeks are quite demanding with uni but once I do I'll come back and let you know how it's going.

I'm also gonna talk to one of the translators for OP and see what they say,
Arigato sakura-chan

 

[SlayerJr]

Well, I put my money where my mouth is and I released the first chapter of Oyaji. I hope it will meet the standards provided here so thanks again for the tips.

And I'm glad to hear that you guys don't re-draw ALL the releases, as that would be massive overkill. Now All I need to do is find a regular translator for the rest of Oyaji.

 

[ciMpul]

I gotta hand it to this tutorial, it has given me a lot of help with my learning. There's still quite a few that I'm unclear about... I hope more things get added to it, even if at the state it's in right now is still great!

 

[goldb]

@chiresakura: i'm trying a few of the steps so i can get a hang of it...but i've got a question..how do i apply all these steps to for example a tankobon or databooks that already black and white?? cos i dunno what steps to leave out and what....

thanks

 

[chiresakura]

I gotta hand it to this tutorial, it has given me a lot of help with my learning. There's still quite a few that I'm unclear about... I hope more things get added to it, even if at the state it's in right now is still great!

Most of these tutorials were written as the issues came up in M7, which is why they're a bit haphazard. There are some gaps I've been meaning to fill for a while like Burn/Dodge and to elaborate on selections and paths...

When the moon turns blue and I actually have time to work on some more tutorials, what would you like to see?

@chiresakura: i'm trying a few of the steps so i can get a hang of it...but i've got a question..how do i apply all these steps to for example a tankobon or databooks that already black and white?? cos i dunno what steps to leave out and what....

thanks

For a grayscale tank, you don't have to do nearly as much work as what is on the site. You can get away with simple leveling without using filters or denoise programs since the grays are already high quality.

You may have to crop and rotate a little, but you probably don't need to do borders. That's the beauty of doing scans from tanks - they already look so good!

I would use this method for inking the blacks, since they probably only have a few specks: http://senbonzakura.kageyoshi.net/2008/01/11/inking-for-speed-scans-burn-tool/

If you have any dust left in your whites, brush or dodge can clean that up fast.

That's probably it! Make sure you have a good script and typeset well, and you're set

 

[goldb]

thanks a lot i'll get back to you if i have any more questions. I'm also gonna look at the site and see if there's anything that needs to be added, but maybe off the top of my head something on cleaning colour pages, spreads, even include tankobon clean tutorials,; there may be people out there interested, you never know...

again, thank you chire-chan

 

[ddadain]

Meh...

chiresakura, Isane died Lolz -_-

 

[chiresakura]

I know, I'm still sad. You guys were amazing!!

Sarada colored a few pages for M7, but I think she got bogged down over the weekends. This one was amazing: http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/bleach/1/346/8

Give me a holler if you have any colorings you'd like to include with our releases

 

[goldb]

Hey sakura-chan,
Does the program Neat Image help in any way with a clean and if yes, then how?

Thank you