Thursday, January 22, 2009

Making Cool Vector Cartoon Character with Adobe Photoshop

First step is to make a new document sized 280px on 230px.

Then, paint it in gray: #888888 by using the 'Paint Bucket Tool'.

document setting in photoshop

Making the cartoon head of the character

Important note: whenever you make a new object in photoshop- choose the 'Shape layers' option so it will be vector and you'll be able to edit it later.

shape layers option in photoshop

First thing you need to do is to choose the 'Ellipse Tool' (U) and make an ellipse in the general shape of the head.

Please note that you need to change the Foreground color to #FAD1BB before making the ellipse(one click on the currect foreground color, and then paste the desired color in the '#' filed)

foreground color color code in photoshop

Here's the result you need to get at this moment:

currect step result

For making it a bit more human but still cartoonish, go to 'Edit-Transform Path-Warp' and choose the 'fisheye' option from the list:

.warp in photoshop

Don't change anything in the parameters in the top bar- 50% in the Bend and 0 in the rest.

warp top bar in photoshop

Currect result in this step should be like this:

currect result after warp

Now, go to the 'blending options' of this layer and add stroke effect of 3px in black (#000000) color.

stroke values

Click on the 'new style' button in there because we'll use this style again.

Choose the 'ellipse tool' again and draw a new ellipse, paint it in the same color like before, change the mode to Multiply and make it 50% opacity.

ellipse

Next, choose the 'Path Selection Tool' and select the new ellipse path.

A new top bar will be shown in front of you. choose the 'subtract from shape area'option:

subtract

One click on the layer and then click 'ctrl+alt+g' for making the clipping mask.

result 3

Choose the 'Pen Tool' (P) and start drawing the hair. after finishing- click 'ctrl+alt+g' and add this shape to the clipping mask. Paint the hair shape in black (#000000).

pentool drawing

Next thing you should do is making the eyes shapes. this will be done with the next method:

1. Choose the 'rounded rectangle tool' and change the 'radius' to 10px.

radius

2. Change the shape color to #B91919.

3. Go to 'edit-transform path-skew' and change it so it will look like below image.

4. Choose the ellipse tool and make a perfect circle by holding on shift and dragging the mouth. do it 3 times in different sizes and paint those circles in white (#ffffff).

eye drawing

5. Select the red eye layer, duplicate it and then make it smaller but still in the same ratio as the right one. then go to 'edit-transform-flip horizontal' and move this layer to the left area of the face.

warp values of the mouth

6. Select again from the layers group the 3 white circle layers (hold ctrl and click on each layer), duplicate them and transform them a bit so they will fit into the left smaller eye.

warp values of the mouth

And you're done with the eyes part. here's the desired result you should get after doing the above steps:

result 4

Last part of the face you need to do is making the mouth. This will be done very easily..

All you need to do is to choose the 'Line Tool' (U) and draw a simple 10px horizontal line. then, go to 'edit-transform-warp' and then choose the 'Arc' option from the list.

Change the values to the ones in the next image:

warp values of the mouth

Then rotate it a bit: go to 'edit-transform path-rotate' and change the values like below:

rotate

Congrats! You're done with the whole face part. the result till now should be like here:

result 5

Hands part with the message.

First thing you should do in this step is to make a bourdeaux rectangle (#7b0d0d).

Duplicate this layer, paint it in a bit lighter color (#b91919) and transform this layer to 60% height.

height value

result 6

Now, you need to make your message. I chose 'futura' font colored #fdffce and wrote "TUTORIALSHOT".

And now to the hands making part:

1. Choose the 'rounded rectangle tool' (U) and leave the values at the top bar like before (10px radius).

2. When the path of this rounded rectangle is selected, choose the 'rectangle tool', choose the 'subtract from shape area' in the top bar:

subtract option

And "remove" the right rounded side of the rounded rectangle.

Paint this layer in #f7bea2.

Apply the style we have done in step two with the stroke.

apply photoshop style

hand draw

Next, duplicate this layer (right click on the layer > duplicate layer), go to 'edit-transform-flip horizontal' and move it to the left size of the message.

Select the whole message layers (I count 5) and rotate all of them (edit-transform-rotate) with the next values:

rotate values

Last nice effect is the message drop shadow on the character face. this will be done by the next steps:

1. Duplicate the bourdeaux colored layer.

2. Move the duplicated layer to the clipping mask you made before.

3. Paint in #fad1bb.

4. Change the mode to Multiply.

Here's my final result:

Making Cool Vector Cartoon Character with Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Final Result