Need help with screentones, moire and canvas size in CSP/MS

[guilhermecahu]

Hello, do you use Clip Studio Paint (aka Manga Studio) and do you apply screentones to your comic? I need your help.

I'm currently working on my comic using a B4 size sheet on CSP (considering I might print it in the future) and on 600dpi (to help with the screentones), which makes me work on a 7016 x 9921 px canvas. For publishing in Tapastic, I would need to resize it to almost 10% of original size which causes, of course, moire. I've heard that it's better to first resize the canvas, then to apply screentones, but working this way means I would need to work on everything again to make a printable version - and that'd be really time consuming.

So, this is what I'd like to ask: is there an alternative to solving this moire problem? Or the only way is to first resize my canvas to work with tones then? Is there at least a recommended maximum canvas size to work with this without causing too much moire problems when resizing it?

Thank you in advance

[Doubtcent]

I really don't like to use the screentones they have unless I really need to. I make a gag-a-day and have just started a longer-running series, both of with just use plain old color. I'm more of a One Piece sort, the kind that uses screentones sparingly, and do most of the work by hand. Patterns? By hand. Colors? By hand. Shading? By hand. I've convinced myself that screentones are to only be used to differentiate between background and foreground characters, say if one person was closer to the camera they could be darkened so that less attention be given to them, while the further character does not.

[ghostnxs]

Isn't moire inevitable even if you didn't resize, because of different screen sizes? I'd suggest following @vincentprendick's advice.

[guilhermecahu]

Using screentones or not depends on who's illustrating. Oda may not use them, but take Shiori Teshirogi's work for example, like in Saint Seiya - The Lost Canvas, and you'll see tons of screentones.

Screentones are a way of applying grayscale by using reticules on a media that only accepts B&W. And it is possible to do it on digital comics as well, I just haven't found any resources on the web indicating what's the best canvas size and more useful tips to work with this.

I understand your points but to quit using tones is not what I'm looking for.

[Doubtcent]

For digital, especially for Tapastic sizes, you want to go big then downsize when you're done. You can always properly shrink an image, never grow one. As for screentones, they can change from full screentone into just a solid color. You can't always tell though when you're done.
The method Oda uses I can say helps with the digital, because lines are easy to see while tones change a lot. It's a safe method, at least as far as I can tell.

[ghostnxs]

Try exporting your jpegs in RGB.I think It will make your tones grey I think but it won't effect the print quality. I don't Have CSP installed so I can't check. You can also manually paint in the greys and then convert to tone only for print. I also think you should keep your tones set to 60 lines. Not sure this helps. Also I suggest looking at the tutorials on their website and just mess with all the settings http://www.clipstudio.net/en/howto/hiroki_haruse_07 I'm pretty sure on digital you can't avoid moire, unless it is viewed at the same resolution it was created in.

Here is a previous thread about it http://forums.tapastic.com/t/manga-studio-screentone-guide/

[Oreoma]

Screentones with Loom #4: Moire and Overlay

[guilhermecahu]

OK I quit using screentones and decided to use grayscale. But I had forgotten about that feature that transforms grayscale to screentones. I'll paint the comic this way and then see what I can do (transform to tones or keep the grays) if I decide do print it. Thank you for this tip, @ghostnxs.

And thanks for this tutorial, @Oreoma!

[Menbung]

Yeah, moire is a bioch, I have had to retone whole pics coz of moire, so I'm thinking really seriously of making shadows with just plain, solid greys, it probably is the most optimal way for digital comics, cuz when resizing it's kinda impossible not to get some kind of moire, there are ways to minimize it tho. I should advice on following Loomie's advice (the one Reoma posted).

I love tones, but the truth is, when the pic is resized it's pretty difficult to tell what is a solid grey and what is a screentone. Wait, there is, the one with moire is a screentone (I'm just joking).

There was this article back in our inkblazers days, I think the title was: No more moire!, darn I wish I read that and saved it, from what I could tell it had pretty good reviews =S. Sadly I don't know where it went since IB's shutdown.

Anyway, good luck fighting the moire. Fightin' ! oo.oo

[ghostnxs]

You're most certainly welcome! Well I'd like to see how your comic turns out.

[guilhermecahu]

Dammit I think I'm creating too much hype. Well I can say the poses will be a bit sh*tty in advance xD
Anyway, I need to make mistakes. This is the time.

[mg78]

i love use tones!
if u have problem with scale & so on, i would use PS, it's easier... there u can scale them as u want.

i've got the same problem, because here in tapastic the size it's quite small and the tones looks like just anonnymous gray

[pixelsnplay]

Thank you for this! This was really helpful. On my last page I tried out using more screentones too and almost gave up when I resized from around 3000 pixels to 920- it wasn't pretty no matter what I did. But then I tried the tips from @Oreoma (thanks!) and a few more steps. First the difference.

The one on the left looks almost identical (the background is a little darker) to the original at 3300 pixels.
First I rasterized each tone layer and blurred them on the STRONG setting.
Then I merged everything.
Then I resized that merged file.
The results were much more pleasing in my opinion. I hope that helps someone else maybe struggling with screentones and downsizing! This is one method that worked for me this time- hoping it continues to work!
Happy screentoning!
*Small edit- I was using Manga Studio 5

[Oreoma]

Im glad that helped ^___^
all credits to LOOM
check out more of her stuff,shes got plenty of tutorials there that are very detailed and informative OvOb

[guilhermecahu]

Hey guys - and gals - (and @ghostnxs), the webcomic is here, up and running! =D http://tapastic.com/series/Badger-Badger

This is a prologue, actually. More like a teaser. Normal serialization will begin in september (that's why I still haven't announced it loud and clear here on the forum).

I ended up using only grayscale for the art but, anyway, I hope you like the story at least.