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Getting rid of "stray" pixel lines between lineart and color


JadedKitsune

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Hi, I've been using Photoshop 7 for a few years now and one problem that has been plaguing me off and on is whenever I go to color lineart I almost always get this little line of pixels, maybe 2-4 pixels wide between the color section and the line art. I've attached a picture to show what I mean. Please forgive me, I know this is a bit lengthy, but I want to detail what I do so that if I'm making a mistake hopefully someone will catch it. When I scan lineart, I scan it at 600dpi in color mode (I've tried grayscale and black and white also but it seems to make no difference). Once I import it into PS, I go to image size and set the dimensions to percent instead of pixels. I then resize the image to 200%. Next, I create a transparent layer above the background and proceed to use the pencil tool to trace the background onto the transparent layer. This shouldn't cause any problems since its using black pixels only, but nonetheless once all is said and done the stray pixel lines are still there.
After the lineart is scanned I'll add a white fill layer underneath the lineart layer and then I'll click on the create new fill or adjustment layer and select solid color. I'll choose the color and then use the paint bucket with black selected to make the color disappear. Then I'll click on the transparent layer and select the magic wand and select an area on the transparent lineart layer. Then I switch to the color layer and select the paint bucket and press x to set the foreground color to white. Then I fill the selected area on the solid color layer to color in that area. I'll continue to create new solid color layers until the image is colored in. Next I add shadows by creating a hue/saturation adjustment layer right above the color layer I want to work on and I'll drag the lightness slider to the left, making the image darker and then I'll drag the saturation slider to the right. Then I'll use the paint bucket to fill the layer black. After that I'll create a clipping group between the color layer I want to work on and the shadow layer I created by adjusting the lightness and saturation. I pick the brush tool and set the foreground to white and I set the opacity to about 30%. After I've added the shadows I'll use the gausian blur. After I've added shadows to all the color layers I'll add highlights by basically doing the same thing I did to make the shadow layers, except I increase the lightness slider and decrease the saturation slider. I'll add each highlight layer to the proper clipping group and finish that up. To finish up coloring, I'll create a transparent layer right above the lineart layer and clip it to the lineart. I'll then color the lines to appropriate colors. Finally I go back into image size and again set the dimensions to percent. I usually resize down to 25% and then I'll resize as needed until its the size I want when zoomed out to 100%. Then I'll save the file as a .jpeg and find those annoying lines.
When I use the paint bucket, the settings are: mode: normal, opacity 100%, Tolerance: 75, anti-aliased is checked, Contiguous is checked, and All layers is unchecked.
Is there any way I can get rid of those pesky lines? Do I have messed up settings perhaps? Please help me as this has been driving me insane! I've tried many different methods of coloring and I always end up with the same results. Thank you in advance and if anymore information is needed, let me know
 

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Sorry if you mentioned this, I stopped reading the post after the first few sentences.

If you trace over the scanned artwork with the pencil tool, what do you do with the scanned layer?

Are you separating the line art layer from the color layers?
 
The original scanned layer just kinda sits at the bottom of the layer pile covered up by a white fill layer just above it. The Transparent layer with the traced lineart on it sits just above the white fill layer.
 
Are you separating the line art layer from the color layers? Or do you fill in the line art layer with colors?
 
I agree with Iam Sam. I only got about halfway through.

The initial time you see the problem occur is what we need to know. Was it right away or what step did you take before it happened. What I did read included actions that should have no effect. Assuming I understand the problem.

Enlarging an image x2 is a risky business. Unless it's a pure vector image (which I'm sure it isn't) Photoshop will guess at where the added pixels need to go and any curves and edges will lose their crispness. Why is 600 dpi not enough? I've made fairly large posters at that resolution.

Also, it would help if you would upload an image at a size we can actually see, lol.

The best way to clean this up and insure sharp lines is to use the pen tool for tracing instead of the pencil tool. This will give you the Photoshop vector lines, but enlarge your drawing first.
 
@OP - Just a suggestion: If u really need to convey so much detail, use many more paragraph breaks and label groups of paragraphs (eg, "Initial processing", "Selection of the blahblah.",etc. Also, don't write in stream of consciousness mode. Instead, use short phrases / bulleted list / etc. Post your PSD file. We can tell more from that than from most text descriptions.

T
 
If I unchecked the anti-aliasing check box when using the paint bucket would that mostly fix the problem? I've seen many people successfully use photoshop for both lineart and coloring so I'm inclined to believe that I'm doing something wrong.
 
Just a suggestion, if you're still having a problem.

I often scan hand-drawn art (cartoons in my case), and color them in Photoshop.

My routine is always the same.

I open the scanned drawing and crop as needed. I then immediately copy the layer twice, so I have three layers all exactly the same.

On the top layer, I select the magic wand tool, set tolerance at 35 (to allow for gray pixels from the scan), UNCHECK Contiguous, click on a white portion of the image, and hit DELETE. This basically gives me the black lines of my drawing isolated on a layer.

When I use the fill function, or just paint on the layer(s) below, the top layer tends to "cover up" that aliasing on the inside edges.

Additionally, using the paint bucket or ALT+BACKSPACE seems to create that more than just painting with the brush.


Agent Moeller
 

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