How to Flat Comics Properly: A Flatting Tutorial for Photoshop (Used in Digital Comic Book Coloring)
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- In this flatting tutorial video, I'll show you to a correct way to properly flat comic book art for coloring! Flatters, if you are used to only getting hired once and not again by the same colorist, this video is for you!
There are a lot of wrong ways to flat! Make sure your lasso tool, bucket, and magic wand's anti-alias is OFF. Feather should be 0px.
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To answer everyone asking about the settings on the tools... they are at the top of the screen. Uncheck all the settings on the lasso and bucket tool.
Question... can't you just use Medibang Paint or ClipStudio Paint Bucket Fill tool, which lets you expand your fill over lineart by couple pixels, and doesn't escape through gaps? Just remember to on a new layer below your 'main' flats also fill empty space 'within' the thicker lines/blacks to create rich black?
There are a lot of ways to do all of this in various apps. In my experience, most professional art isn't drawn in a way that makes "special" fill tools like that faster.
@@colorwithkurt Another question: does the color of the flats under the lineart matter? I mean, actual colorist will not actually touch that in the end, it's just there to create rich black as far as I understand...
Rich black doesn't have anything to do it as far as I know. The flats layer is there for selections only.
@@colorwithkurt Oh, okay. Interesting. I guess I've been misinformed.
I cannot like this enough. Been going through several dozen videos about digital colouring and no one was showing useful flatting info. They all skipped that to get right to the fancier stuff and it's pretty critical when you're brand new. Thanks so much for this!
So glad I found this video. I'm not a flatter or colorist, but trying to do flatting for myself on my own comic and I see where I'm messing up and wasting time. This is such a time-saver. You're very good at teaching as well. Subscribed now, thanks!
Psh, I know how to flat...
*watches video*
So much more efficient than what I've been doing Dx
Still the best flatting tutorial on RUclips
An oldie but a goodie. :)
I'm glad I found this. I was looking for a way to shorten (imo) the most boring part of the process. Hand-coloring everything made sense when it was all traditional, but now I'm working digital. Might not do the same approach of making everything a different color. I'm working with a limited palette, so a lot of things are just going to be the same color.
I use flats of different colors even if working in black and white. :) It saves a lot of time.
thanks for the vid, i’m planning on getting back to being a flatter this is a good refresher for me. I used to flat for a studio where i did my internship. I did the flats for Street Clothes by Travis Holyfield and some Marvel and GI Joe comics mostly by either Harvey Tolibao or Von Randal.
Ah yes, I remember flatting for about 7 different colorists. Most time-consuming part of the process. Actually got my mom to flat with me and we could turn books out pretty fast! :-)
Hello I know this is 3 years ago but is there an efficient way to find work as a flatter?
@@telavia577 Unless you like working 6-8 hours a day for $5-10 a page, forget it. Fast way to get burned out. But if you DO want to pursue it, reach out to comic colorists and offer to flat for them. Audition. Then go from there.
Sounds like the flatting experience! Thanks for your time in the trenches. :)
I've colored a lot of stuff, but never knew the bit about going from big to small in making the selections for the flats. Duh. Hugely sensible. Thanks!
I’ve fallen down a colouring rabbit hole here. You’re awesome. (Ps, it was nice sitting next to you at Thought Bubble! Thank you for the tips.)
Finally someone who knows what they're talking about. lol
I really love your classes. I started coloring and sometimes i get confused with it, but you explain everything so good i can't have doubts. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge^^
I started doing my own flats recently and after some experiments discovered that I preferred going into Inkscape and using vector lines to make cuts and then using the bucket tool over it - vectors can overshoot more than lasso selects and get the same result, since the gap is predictable and the fill bucket can be set to cover it completely - you can still do things that create errors but you don't end up with a slurry of stray pixels like in raster fills. The AA can be turned off in the document settings for export. Vector lines can also be selected and copy-pasted, which helps with certain repetitive elements. Occasionally the Inkscape autotrace in "centerline" mode can even get enough of a shape to be able to fill it directly.
Flatting technique:
Go from the biggest shapes (like the whole panel) to the smallest (the eyes) to make sure there are no ways for white gaps.
That was a great tutorial straight to the point with good info, I am a Penciler and the way the market is I am needed to do more and more of the work. You are very on point and that is great.
thank you so much.. ive seen other tutorials but you went into a true lesson.
＊ This is really useful! I’m making a comic right now and I’m mostly using flat colors (since I’m doing it mostly by myself). I wouldn’t have known to do a lot of these things, so thank you for making this video!
This seems so much easier than the channeling method. Flatting always seems so daunting because I couldn't understand how channels worked, but this is much easier to understand
if I ever finish my comic idea I'm going to give you a special mention, I learn alot from your vids....I've only managed 6 pages in a year though so don't get too excited lol.
What tool settings did you use so you didn’t have to reselect?
not a comic book flatter, but a newbie illustrator here, I'm used to flat with magic wand before and playing with its tolerance, then part by part i have to clear the white pixels for each edges after..which is tiring and time consuming.. I'm always having a trouble for the left out pixels under the lines. that why I came here to see how professionals do it properly, thanks man helps a lot,saves my time.
You can use the magic wand tool. You just have to expand the selections by a couple pixels before you fill so the colors sit behind the lines.
That makes sense. I only speak from experience coloring my own work.
Hi there. At around 8:15 you say you dont need to trace the entire outline because of the way your tools are set up. Do you mind talking about what settings you have to have in order for this to be the case? Thanks!
same problem. Did you resolve this trouble?
Hi !
Thanks a lot for this video.
I'm flatting a lot and I use quite the same method.
2 principal differences are :
- I use the polygnal lasso and press alt to switch to the free one. In this way, the selection doesn't close if your pen has no more contact with the tablet.
- Futhermore, by default, I check the "additionnal selection", so I can select several parts and fill them in once. (contiguous must be unchecked)
I appreciate a lot your channel. Thanks a lot for this share.
So...Like how does he separate the colors so even when he selects over a different color on another part it does not change it when he uses the bucket tool?
See the pinned comment on this video.
Best, most professional flatting tutorial I’ve seen. Thanks!
Great tip about the alt (opt) and space bar - Thanks
Oh WOW - I've just sussed (worked out) how you did the selection
and only part of it changed - You locked the paint layer pixels ! That's huge.
Hmmmm ? Looking at it again you didn't - now I am confused - sorry
whatever I'm doing it's working but then I am only on CS3
Great Tutorial !
Hey sorry if it's a dumb question, but at 8:01, how do you fill the haircolor without affecting the background color when though it's included in the lasso?
yes, can somebody help? i still confused here :(
If you look at his fill bucket settings at the top bar, the tolerance is set at 0, which means it will only fill the adjacent pixels if it is the exact same colour. The background colour and the skin colour is different, so it acts as a barrier and will not bleed into the background. The tolerance setting for the fill bucket tool ranges from 0-255, and as you increase it, it starts filling colours that are similar as well. I hope that helps and a good way to see how it works is to experiment with it yourself :)
@@CtCookie for me doesn't work. I deselected everything from lasso and from bucket and tolerance is 0 but nothing changes.
I have been working as a flatter for some months and now I've discovered that I was making a lot of mistakes xD Thank you very much!!
you're so cool. and it totally looks like you love what you do! thanks for teaching me and a whole lot of other persons how to color a comic book in a proper way!
Really helped now i learned how to do flats , thank you very much sir. I've done my flats, and duplicated flats layer renamed it to colors, changed the colors that i will use for final look, but still need to know what to do next, i wold like to see a complete page process on how you do light/shadows etc... and what should be done first and what last that would be good to see, thank you!
Saving money to do your course. Thanks a lot for the tips, Mr. Russel! 😊
can you explain your tool setup? are you talking about unchecking anti alias and contiguous?
what about new selection vs, intersect, add or subtract selection. are those all unchecked?
Man ! I have landed upon gold !
Subbed instantly. Thx.
This was a game changer for me. Do you have anything in Procreate.?
I'm a complete novice to this so this may be a dumb question but why not make the initial selections from B&W line art using the magic wand with contiguous unchecked & save yourself all that tracing? It's what I do & I've not found any problems? But there must be a reason the experts don't do this? Thanks for all the video's KMR, they were entry into digital colouring but I didn't continue with it. Until now, hence I came here for a refresher.
It just doesn't work as well as you might think -- especially on anything other than perfectly crispy clean line art with closed shapes--which is pretty rare to be honest.
@@colorwithkurt Yeah, I'm sure it has it's limitations. As I said I am just starting out & bowing before a master. Thanks for all the stuff you share with us though dude. My only motive for commenting really was in the spirit of sharing thoughts & ideas as you & others so generously do. You & others like you have saved people like me years of frustration with the things you share with us so many thanks as always.
No problem at all. Thanks for asking!
how are the settings set for the lasso tool? would really help and make things faster. Thanks
Everything is unchecked on the lasso.
I'm kinda glad I use Krita because it has a color auto-fill option. Still makes mistakes, but it's better than doing everything by hand IMO.
Cainmak photoshop also can auto fill, I used to auto fill but then you get uncolored parts under the inks which can cause issues, that’s why you should do it by hand
Thank you so much for your help and thank you for giving us tutorials
How do you color two different color objects over a background? I get background color showing up between the two.
Do you have any tips for flatting comics with traditional mediums, namely (in my case) alcohol markers and ink?
awesome, pretty much the way I ended up doing em for myself. (although im starting to get antsy about the time spent flatting lol. I'm drawing the pages and working in BW + tone) The only other thing is I'll keep copies of the flat layers at varying complexity to allow me to select large areas quickly, max 4-5. so the first one is prob just whole figures and bg, and the last will be full complexity with small details. I like to be able to grab bold elements of the composition/scene as quickly as smaller parts.
My number one question about flatting:
It's the flatters job to differentiate the characters, so characters with the same skin tone or hair color will have different colors right? But what about uniforms? Like the Fantastic 4, in which they all wear the same blue jumpsuits? Or Johnny Storm and Sue Storm are designed to have the same exact skin and hair? Should the flatter really choose different colors to represent each jumpsuits in the team? Or can they rely on the colorists knowing that they all wear the same color? Or would that tick them off.
Where can I go to get a job as a flatter? I"ve been practicing it for about two years or so now and I think I've gotten good enough at it.
How do I set up the layer so that when I make a selection and fill it, it doesn’t go over the selection of the character?
Thank you very much Mr. Russel, your tutorials are very helpful
Great video! Thanks.
(I've edited out my dumb questions, so I look smarter).
Somehow this process seems very satisfying. I'm gonna find me some digital coloringbooks to mess around with. :)
I'm guessing this is done in 300dpi for printing purposes?
For the actual artist, does every selection have to be in a different color? For example, does the eye-color from one person have to be different from the other so you can individually select them? (I guess that would make sense).
Thanks again man.
Would you happen to have any advice on how to find work as a flatter?
Combining fill bucket and lasso tool is not something I'd previously considered. Need to think about how to inject this into my shortcut set up... will want to quickly flip between lasso, fill bucket and lasso fill on the fly. (I have no idea why clip hides a fill tool away in the vector lines tab where NO ONE is going to look for it.)
All of those tools are mapped to shortcuts on my left hand. I never have to leave the canvas to select them.
and thanks a million for you marvelous work on spiderman! pages are sparkling 😍😍😍
That's one part, yes. I guess where I was heading was that if you do everything yourself, and would make only digital version, and wanted to save time, would it be possible to just fill with bucket, since the size is so small,that one couldn't see the edges.That said, I AM flatting.
I just understand. I unchecked all the setting for the lasso but I still have to trace when I specifically want to color something.
I think I got confused. You changed the color of the figure and that's why you don't have to trace it again. Okay, got that. I'm practicing with a random commission. But I haven't been able to successfully trace it. I keep messing up. Every time I use the lasso and press the alt key it doesn't turn into a straight line. It just stays the same.
@@cameronshrader1223 same problem. I have to retrace all the sections. Did you resolve this issue?
thanks for this tutorial. how did you set up your tools for selections without having to retrace?
+K Michael Russell thanks for the response and helpful videos! I will watch tonight!
Just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for this trick.
what is the answer?! :)
I really appreciate the videos you're making. I don't check them all out, but the ones I've seen have been very helpful. I have some questions about flatting though, based on what I've seen.
When you're getting something ready for print, don't you flatten or merge the layers? Wouldn't this eliminate any issues with white spaces appearing?
When I've watched some videos (not necessarily yours), people tend to overlap their color flats. How do you clean this up? No one seems to cover this in any videos I've seen.
Thanks for your help!
It seems like a lot of people do it the way you explained it. So, that either means it's the right way or, as you mentioned, an old way that people haven't let go of.
I'm trying to do my own comic and I have the whole thing colored. But then I watched a number of videos and thought I might not be doing it right. At the very least, it seems the colors are better when doing it the way I've seen in videos.
By overlapping, I mean they'll "color outside the lines" so that, if you were coloring Superman, the blue of his costume will go outside of his figure. These videos never explain how to clean that up. I'm assuming it would be the eraser tool, but a lot of what I thought would work is being questioned now.
Also, why can't you use the want tool and then just fill in? It seems like it gets the same results as using a brush, especially if the layers will be flattened into one for print.
Another thing that came to mind is the issue of working in cmyk. I think you mentioned in one of your videos to use that, but I was wondering about a couple things.
It's been awhile since I colored my comic, but I think I recall going straight to RGB. Videos I've seen have converted to greyscale first, and then either went to RGB or, in your case, to CMYK.
Is there any reason why you do greyscale first and then another mode? Also, if you start out in RGB, have you heard about using to option to convert to profile instead of changing to CMYK by going under image/mode?
I know that's a lot, and I appreciate any insight you can give. Thanks again.
What about people using the lasso and brush tool vs using the wand and paint bucket tool? Why do you use the former instead of the latter?
I just thought of a great idea! Maybe it’s been done before. I’m new to comics and have never made one, so I’m speaking with great authority here. 😒 If you do your own flats, you could totally use them as a color script for your whole project, to set the mood of your scenes before getting into the details of the color and rendering!
Flats are not a creative part of the process. The colors are irrelevant at that stage since the flats are intended to be used for selecting things only.
Whether you do them yourself or not isn't relevant. The colorist must set the base colors themselves in any case. The colors the flatter chooses don't end up on the page.
@@colorwithkurt thanks for your reply. You explained flats really well in your video, so feel I have a good understanding of what they are for, I just thought it could be used in the way I described to kill two birds with one stone. I know that most comics are serial, so maybe setting a color script for a whole comic story line isn’t necessary or even possible, but when you color your projects do you think of the color mood throughout every scene for the entirety of the story? Or do you color one page at time without thinking of how it relates to the story as a whole? I know they do color scripts in animation so the color of each scene contributes to the story telling, just wondering if comic artists use that same process and where it fits in the work flow, do you have any thoughts on that? I think I may use it that way in my projects.
It's a standard part of the colorists job to have a color plan based on the story.
@@colorwithkurt yeah I figured, just was wondering how that worked its way into the workflow of a colorist. Thanks man! Your videos are super helpful!
I designed a piece on my laptop and when I viewed it on my mobile it was warmer and had more contrast. I've asked this before but no one gave the solution instead explained the problem. How can I get accurate colors while designing it on my laptop?
The only thing I would know to do is to buy a monitor color calibrator. I have a Spyder 5.
I'm curious how you managed to select her shirt and yet it selected every panel that shirt was in. That's super helpful. Is that another action you made?
Make sure your wand settings are like mine. Uncheck contiguous.
+K Michael Russell and one more question. In PS CC, when I am using the lasso, and I press space bar hoping to get the hand, I'm getting the magnifier. Is this a setting I can change? I can't move around when zoomed in. I am using option to make straight lines, but I don't think that matters...
Thanks for the video. Will this technique work as well with earlier versions of Photoshop?
Thanks for all your videos! They are great!
I have a question... I am not able to do the changing between the polygonal lasso tool and the free hand lasso tool... Although I press alt..it just remains the same as before...Do I have to work with some settings? In my photoshop, I can see the sign of the lasso tools when I make the selection, not the cross, as in your video...
Does anyone know how you get the bucket tool to fill in two separately selected ares at once? Like with the eyes, and the phone, how he only clicked once, but both of the eyes were colored at the same time?
Is this the same way in Clio Studio or can you link a video to the clip version.
14:20 he says something about Tool Settings, I dont understand what he meant. can someone explain?
Kurt, before the artwork is printed, the file is flattened right? So there would be no white colour behind anything. So how would the issue you talk about occur? I'm not saying you're wrong of course! I just can't figure it out.
And thank you so much for your videos! They're amazing! Saving money to take your course for the full experience! Can't wait!
This might be less of an issue these days. It's what I was taught but may or may not be an issue for modern printers.
should the flat colors be in one layer only?
That's pretty normal for production comics.
@@colorwithkurt oh, okay i'll put that in note, thank you so much for posting this tutorials!
Whos the artist that made the line art which is excellent and what comic is? thanx in advance great tutorials.
Why not just set the inks layer to reference and use the color fill instead of the selection tool?
That works great on clean line art but most of what I see isn't sharp enough.
Awesome!.. around 7:45 he works on the guys hair and he says theres already a seperation established because of how his tools are set up......Im fuzzy on this..
+K Michael Russell You literally just blew my mind with this tip. lol
+K Michael Russell no joke: all my classmates gathered around my computer to see and they freaked too lol!
+K Michael Russell graphic design, but they only teach you superficial photo touch up garbage which is no fun
Is there a certain website you use to get flattening jobs and to set up like your portfolio
Questions:
1. Is ti ok if I use pentool instead of the lasso tool?
2. Is your style of selscting only works on CS6 or higher version of Photoshop?
I flat using the pen tool sometimes, but I find it to be more time consuming, and all I gain is the ability to make multiple selections and not have to worry about accidentally erasing them by forgetting to hold down shift, (although ctrl-z alleviates that worry as well, so idk)
Hello Mr. Russell!
I was trying to follow your tutorial but I found a different setting out of my lasso tool: when I press the space bar it doesn't go straight but turns into hand tool.. Is there some setting I didn't set properly, or there some step I missed?
Thank you for your helpful tutorial!
this might be SUUUPER late but check the shift button!
Same happened to me. I Googled and I found this: To switch between freehand and straight edge segments, Alt-click (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click where the segments should start and end. Good luck!
Thanks for the great tutorial, but Who is the penciler of that page ?
Jonathan Brandon Sawyer
Kurt.How do you arrive at the hue value and intensity for a base/flat?
I'm working on a video to explain that now actually. Too involved for a comment, but I will say I tend to start toward the middle of the color picker to make sure I've got plenty of headroom to go brighter or darker or saturated or less saturated.
This is pretty easy! I have a question. For other programs such as correl paint and medibang does it work pretty much the same way?
no trapping layer?
I've never done trapping. I don't know if it's even a thing anymore. It's not part of my process.
Thanks! Exactly what I need to know.
"Do her", hehe.
One question: As a colorist, do you ever fix errors in the line art? For instance, the guy you flattened first had a large gap between his neck and ear. Is it up to you to fix that, or do you ask first, or just leave it alone?
how could I have not seen this channel before?
Hey K Michael Russell, great tutorial! Thank you so much.
In time: Do you have any tutorial about how to scan and clean up the lineart before coloring?
+K Michael Russell, thanks for the reply! I'm going to check it right now!
How long should flatting typically take?
I'm 4 and a half hours in, and I've only managed to flat half of a full body character, I do use photoshop lasso and fill bucket, but half the time I have to erase/clean color areas 'cause I can't do lasso selections as precisely as I'd like, and my style calls for transparent line opacity rather than solid black lines, am I still doing something wrong?
Most colorists probably expect 3-5 sequential pages per day from flatters. Everyone starts slow. :)
@@colorwithkurt Is it normal to get progressively slower, though? It's not my first time flatting
Why it Doesnt color the area when u use select tool cuz u are selecting what is outside the thing ur color
It only fills the one color. Uncheck all the settings on the lasso.
@@colorwithkurt I just tried it once it fill outside the drawing
How does your lasso tool work, to only select that lighter blue? You're doing it all on the same layer, right?
Ah--I see it explained here: ruclips.net/video/fGoAeMkv4sA/видео.html
Thanks for the tutorials!
Hi this might be a super newbie question but it would be most appreciated if you could answer it. I want to start flatting for other artists but I don’t have photoshop I have an iPad and procreate. Will I have to use a special file specific to photoshop or does the file type even matter? I really just want to know if using 2 different apps will affect file compatibility.
Is it acceptable to do flatting using color channels instead of layers?
how much do you pay flatters? never knew that was a thing.
whos the artist that made the drawing line art? ps dont know if its yourself I have to say its great
Do you use the mouse for the lasso tool?
Nope. Tablet. I mean you can, but it's way harder.
How can I get the word out I want to flat and only flat comics?
I´ve just learnt something new thanks to your video.
1- We share a similar name mr K Michael Russell (K Michael Rowsell)
2- That flatting exists and how to do it porperly!
youre a wizard man! dig it!
I'm a wizard?! I always wanted to be a wizard. :)
@@colorwithkurt Well the way you work that lasso and magic wand I'd say you're a cowboy wizard
Great tutorials, thank you! I was wondering- if you would do a comic only in digital format- would you still do the flattening?
+K Michael Russell righty right..i wrote that with my morning coffee.. I've read in couple of places that, it's basically done for printing only?
no, i know what flattening layers is. : )
do you have a link to set the tool settings to be able to do this? please :)
This was so flippin usefull omdz thank you
so is it best to turn off antialiasing? ((I generally use medibang paint so I guess I"m not sure if the options/etc. work the same on photoshop but basically-- in the end, at least, it looked like it was all-or-nothing on the pixels, which makes sense for optimized selection, is that recommended? It doesn't end up causing any problems?))
I always keep AA off for flatting. It's a must there. For rendering, it's a preference, but I still would prefer AA personally.
I have Procreate on my iPad. Can this method still be used on Procreate?
I see the benefit of the lasso and fill method, however is it ever ok to use a brush? I'm practicing on a really detailed with a lot of flying spit. To use the lasso takes FOREVER. I know the brush leaves a fuzzier edge, even with AA off. I didn't know if this was a deal-breaker.
Turns out I just needed to switch to the regular lasso vs poly. lasso. Much, much faster.
Thank you so much for this! This is incredibly useful!
Anyone some help please... I've havinng problems with my settings for the flats in PS CC 2019. Pixels or lines of pixels keep appearing in the surroundings of where I put a color. I already moved all the settings trying to eliminate that but I can't find the correct one :c
Awesome man you helped me a lot but just one question and I'm sorry for my ignorance. When you have the panel all colored with one color, why don't you just pick the bucket and paint all the parts with the color you want?
I see, thank so much. I'm a penciler and inker for comics and I wanted to learn how to color my pages as well, your videos are great. I'm a fan of your work.
Heya, I have a question. Been following your videos and Im in the process of flatting a number of pages, but Im running into an issue. I put one big flat on the whole page, then I put flats on each of the panels. Then when I go inside a panel to drill down and continue flatting, and I use the lasso tool and go outside to boundary where there's another color and I fill, it overlaps that color. What am I doing wrong, because as of now I have to basically retrace the edge so Im wasting time I thought I had saved. Thanks.
Hei, I have the same problem. Did you resolve it?
Yah just dont put a flat on the whole page, just do panels and drill inside each of them. Then when page is fully flatted you can magic wand the empty space and give it a color if you want.
@@Flo-cw2we ok, but maybe my problem is quite different. I'm talking about flattering a single panel. I follow step by step the tutorial, I put a color on the whole panel (from biggest to smallest) but this I try to select the caracter (that's already covered with the background colour) to change its color and If I don't rectrace its line, the new color will cover the first one. So I have to retrace all the shapes.
Fantastic lesson, thank you!