Help with Photoshop - GTA Styled Retro Images

[mick thompson]

hey lads,

calling in a favor - anyone know where i can find a tutorial to produce images like gta's retro styled cartoon images (see below)

photos of people are taken on a 12 mega pixel in RAW format & i have adobe photoshop CS4 (came with my camera) with its standard plugins etc.

basically i want to retro cartoon style some of the photos, then do some chopping so i can export them as .png's with transparent backgrounds.|

cheers if yall can help sneap army

ross (aka: mick thompson)

 

[bpcrshooter15]

Those pictures look pretty cool.

here's some tutorials I found that were close, but I don't have any experience myself doing these:

http://pshero.com/archives/comic-book-photo-effect (minus the pixelation looks pretty close)
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/stylized-comic-book-effect-tut.html (video)

 

[iamandy]

looks like vector to me.. that could take awhile or there is this way in photoshop using filters:

http://www.invano.com/tutorials/photoshop/quickphotoshop.php

 

[ahjteam]

It requires A LOT of skillz. Ask from Nico di Mattia to do them: http://www.nicodimattia.com

 

[mick thompson]

thanks for the replies back lads - this one is prob the closest one i want (except for the final effect he puts on the photo) http://www.planetphotoshop.com/stylized-comic-book-effect-tut.html and its on mac which is even better for me.

the ones ahjteam posted look very impressive just for what i am after they are just a slight bit too much realistic. im after a slight more cartooned effect which the link above provides for me.

iamandy's link is close too but just doesn't go into enough depth - thanks for the replies everyone, i got what i needed!

steaks n beer all around!

 

[Morgan C]

If you apply filter 'Poster Edges' with everything at max (I think), then filter 'Cutout' with everything at default, it gives a fairly similar look. Might need a blur filter aftewards.

 

[Wolfeman]

I have a program for my tablet PC called Sketchbook Pro that has a sweet tracing function that enables you do draw pictures like that, and it doesn't take extremely long.. Unfortunately you need a tablet PC or digitizer to use it.

 

[jeffadies]

if you have Illustrator you can just do live trace with however many colors you want in comic book style. That would be fast and easy way to do it.

 

[jeffadies]

Im not a pro but i could give it a shot if you dont have illustrator.

 

[~BURNY~]

Alien skin has a comics plugin in the snap art suite if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[kaomao]

I don't think GTA comic stuff is done with a photo as a start, I guess it's done directly that way.
I bet there are tutorial to use particular brushes.
Most of videogames have a lot of preproduction stuff made that way, the gta way, let's say all characters are done that way then they make the 3d model based on that stuff.
I guess they use a brush that gives you the style of an acrylic marking pen.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

You won't get decent results with a plugin or filter-trickery. Create a new layer on top of the photo and, you guessed it, draw it. Of course you won't get it anywhere near as cool as you want on the first try, but as with any other form of art, it takes quite a bit of practice

 

[Notuern]

Use a photo and draw vectors over it.. done! .. well, yeah, sorta atleast!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Heh, I dug up some really old shit I had done in a bit similar way, though obviously nowhere near as neat as the GTA stuff: http://tainted-studio.com/misc/Lapipiirretyt/

 

[mick thompson]

ok so i gave it a shot with the method i mentioned earlier.. not a bad result but not sure if its what your looking for. before and after link below.

before..http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1688927/Gangstavox.wav

after.http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1688927/comicbiotch.jpg

eh... wtf mate? check your before link

im going to give it a stab in photoshop cs4 - if i can't nail it there i'll move on to some other apps to try generate that style

 

[jeffadies]

yeah man i dont know why the before one is showing up like that..hahah oh well.

 

[mick thompson]

lol no bother