smadell Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Based on a recent thread started by user Steps, I have finalized and am attaching a macro called "Graphic Novel Effect." It is similar to the "Paint by Numbers" macro I created a while back, but offers better control of the black outlines that are needed in a cartoon or a graphic novel illustration. The attached file is a macros category (not a single macro) and can be imported through the Affinity Photo Library panel. Once inside Affinity Photo, the category contains a single macro which can be moved into a different category (by dragging it) if desired. Since it is provided as a category, it can also be imported into the iPad version of AP. When you use the macro, it creates a number of layers inside a group (which can be turned on and off to show or hide the effect entirely). The user is presented with 5 options in a dialog: 1) Posterize - How Many Colors? The macro is preset to 5 color levels, but anywhere between 4 and 6 generally gives a decent result. 2) Outlines - Adjust Black [line thickness] This option is preset to 50%, but changing the value will make the black outlines more or less prominent. 3) Outlines - Adjust White [fill smoothness] This option is preset to 90%. Changing the value will affect the fill (inside the outlines). Keep the value above the value set in option #2 (line thickness). 4) Finish - Adjust the Brightness 5) Finish - Adjust the Contrast These are preset to Brightness = -15% and Contrast = +30%. Changes made here will have the obvious results, and should be considered a finishing touch. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * As always, I am one person with one computer and have not tested this in every possible scenario. Try it and, if you like it, keep it and enjoy it. This forum has provided me with so many good ideas and answers to questions; this macro is another attempt to “pay it forward.” Graphic Novel Effect.afmacros Michael Bobarev, etiennepisano2862, HVDB Photography and 11 others 9 5 Quote Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steps Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 @smadell Wow, thank you. I'm impressed how complex this macro is. In my opinion this is the best cartoon effect macro so far seen in this forum. At least a one where Compared to the other suggestions how to achieve this effect this one has the cleanest result and is the best starting point for manual work. According to @Callum this may be the most you get out of Affinity as long as artistic filters are in the making. Here is my result: And this is what I want to achieve some day with Affinity Photo as a basic result (filter #1): And after having reviewed many many photo filter tools this one is simply the best (filter #4): After studying your macro I can only imagine how much work must go into developing this filter. In fact that company even started a new tool just for this one filter. But as stated in another thread this FXCartoonizer desktop tool is very slow, instable and has no options. It just has one really good algorithm for one effect. I hope Serif finds a way to provide a filter going in that direction with more manual control. This would be soo awesome for everyone here looking after cartoon effects. Many tools have even bader "cartoon filter" than what's possible with Affinity Photo. I laughed as I saw that one of the paid tools has a filter called "Neon" which is just edge detection. My conclusion so far is that many tools advertise the amount of filters, but 90% of those filters just change white balance or colors and are therefore useless. Really good filters that make a difference to a photo are rarely seen. On a site note I'm not very sure about the "cartoon effect" because some other tools call it "oil painting" - looks similar, but not that good. --- This is the original photo: etiennepisano2862 1 Quote Windows 10 Pro x64 (1903). Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.60GHz, 32 GB memory, NVidia RTX 2080 Affinity Photo 1.7.2.471, Affinity Designer 1.7.2.471, Affinity Publisher 1.7.2.471 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltop Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 @smadell Thank you for this effect. Looks pretty good. @Steps I looked at the Cartoonize site but couldn't make sense of their product offerings. What is the difference between the various versions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steps Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 @Hilltop Yes, totally confusing. I already mailed them for clarification but still no answer. "FX Cartoonizer" seems to be the latest product. I use that for my photos. Don't ask me why they sell it in Bundle with the precursor product. That makes no sense. It's really crappy software overall. It's just this filter effect #4 they got right. Quote Windows 10 Pro x64 (1903). Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.60GHz, 32 GB memory, NVidia RTX 2080 Affinity Photo 1.7.2.471, Affinity Designer 1.7.2.471, Affinity Publisher 1.7.2.471 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltop Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 22 hours ago, Steps said: It's really crappy software overall. It's just this filter effect #4 they got right. I agree, it gives a nice effect. Steps 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HVDB Photography Posted October 1, 2019 Share Posted October 1, 2019 Thanks @smadell Very nice effect. Great job. Hubert Quote Affinity Photo 2.3.1 Laptop MSI Prestige PS42 Windows 11 Home 23H2 (Build 22631.3007) - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz 2.00 GHz - RAM 16,0 GB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lillias Posted December 1, 2019 Share Posted December 1, 2019 Thank you @smadell for sharing this effect. I like it very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edulofter Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 This effect is so nice. Thanks Bro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 Had a spare hour to kill so thought I'd have a doodle. baby to cartoon.afphoto Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. History is a bit messy because I was trying all sorts of combinations, maybe you can work it out and get something closer but I've run out of time. Steps 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stitches Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Thanks @smadell. Looking forward to taking this for a spin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeEmotion Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 I'm trying to achieve something like that aswell. Just turned a photo that way with Photoshop, but since I'm nearly at the end of my Adobe subscription and not extending it anymore, I wanted to see if I could achieve the same with Affinity Photo. I did this picture throught this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_654r3-RDw. Obviously there is no Oil Paint filter in Affinity Photo, so I know that part isn't going to work. So I looked for a tutorial that did this without the Oil Paint filter and came accross this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phl48dTE1KI But I get stuck at the diffuse filter, because apparantly it works differently in AP than in PS. I also noticed that some filters in AP are way too sensitive (with the use of the slider). PS has some options to the diffuse filter that AP doesn't have. I'm also trying to mix and match the 2 tutorials and filters, like where PS has the filter Poster Edges (1st link), I tried to Posterize first and then detect the edges. Posterize gives me several problems to start with, beginning with the amount of "level" of banding (slider here is way to sensitive over here if you just want a few levels). But it also creates unwanted colors, probably because of being too precise? It also diffuses the edges from one band to the other. Which in my case is unwanted. I've also seen a solution on the forum having to do with brushing a "paint effect", but that is not what I'm looking for. Too time consuming and actually not the effect I'm looking for. This is the picture I'm referring at and what I'm trying to achieve with Affinity Photo. So I don't need other software presented. I want to see if this is possible to achieve with Affinity Photo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 3 hours ago, eyeEmotion said: I want to see if this is possible to achieve with Affinity Photo. You can try out what is shown in this video here by painting over ... https://vimeo.com/200846556 Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeEmotion Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 (edited) 47 minutes ago, v_kyr said: You can try out what is shown in this video here by painting over ... https://vimeo.com/200846556 I've seen that one. That is what I was referring to for what I was not looking for. "I've also seen a solution on the forum having to do with brushing a "paint effect", but that is not what I'm looking for. Too time consuming and actually not the effect I'm looking for." I currently got this (image on the left) with AP through filters and adjustment layers. I've also got sketchlines prepared (image on the right) on a seperate layer, but I'm not able get the white color blend through all the other layers through the blending options, so only the black lines are still visible. I seem to get there in bits, but it still ends up too much like photograph and smaller highlights disappearing. I haven't used AP that much yet, so it's still learning how to approach things to achieve the effect I want. Edited December 25, 2019 by eyeEmotion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 1 hour ago, eyeEmotion said: I currently got this (image on the left) with AP through filters and adjustment layers. I've also got sketchlines prepared (image on the right) on a seperate layer, but I'm not able get the white color blend through all the other layers through the blending options, so only the black lines are still visible. Well, if you start by eliminating the white background in your sketchlines image (Filters > Colors > Erase White Paper), then copy that layer and paste it over the one on the left, you'll get this: Is that closer to what you want? Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smadell Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 Or, to be completely non-destructive, put the “outlines” layer above the posterized photo layer, then set the Blend Mode of the outlines layer to Multiply. This will get rid of the white entirely without erasing anything. walt.farrell 1 Quote Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeEmotion Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 4 minutes ago, smadell said: Or, to be completely non-destructive, put the “outlines” layer above the posterized photo layer, then set the Blend Mode of the outlines layer to Multiply. This will get rid of the white entirely without erasing anything. Ok, can't believe I overlooked that. Was probably scimming to the blend modes too fast. Getting there, but still a long way off. Need to get it to a point that it resembles the quality I got in Photoshop. Keypoints I have 'till now are: Posterize (currently at 6), Diffuse Glow (set to Soft Light, still figuring out the setting, currently have the Opacity of that slider set to 0, making other sliders redundant it seems, but still has an effect) and above that a Bilateral Blur (currently at Radius 11,8px and Tolerance 20%. And ofcourse the "standards" like levels, curves, brightness adjustments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 befunky (Online Funky Effects) PhotoFunia (Online Oil Painting) pho.to (Online Oil Painting) Photo to Oil Painting Converter ... and so on ... Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeEmotion Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 33 minutes ago, v_kyr said: befunky (Online Funky Effects) PhotoFunia (Online Oil Painting) pho.to (Online Oil Painting) Photo to Oil Painting Converter ... and so on ... Although a quite nice result (although the face now kinda looks "ghostly" ), the point is to be able to do it in Affinity Photo. I bought the Affinity software to replace Adobe, so I need to see/try what it is all capable of. dehskins 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 24 minutes ago, eyeEmotion said: Although a quite nice result (although the face now kinda looks "ghostly" ) Via befunky and it's default "DigitalArt -> Underpainting" settings. 26 minutes ago, eyeEmotion said: ...the point is to be able to do it in Affinity Photo. I bought the Affinity software to replace Adobe... Request that some addon oil and sketch filters etc. are build for it (maybe some of the devs & decision-makers hears you crys, though I won't bet on it). Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNKLN Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 For those of you who're on a Mac, and willing to invest another $50, Apple Motion has a nice Comic filter (amongst hundreds of others). Although it makes use of similar parameters as Affinity Photo (posterise levels, edges etc.) it comes with a different output style. For me, it's more Comic like than what i've seen coming out of Affinity (or equivalents). Here's an example (i isolated the subject prior to processing in Motion): Quote Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeiPhotoArts Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 On 3/23/2020 at 2:38 PM, scottscamera said: On 8/17/2018 at 8:42 AM, anon2 said: . Smadell, Thank you kindly for sharing your macro Graphic Novel. It is really cool. Again you've outdone yourself, and I appreciate your efforts. What I also found impressive was your use and order of sliders. It was almost like using an "app" in AP from an SDK tool. If only Serif would provide one...hear us, Developers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smadell Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 Thanks, Wei. Good to hear from you again! Quote Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markinca Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 There are some inexpensive iPad apps that can do this. It isn't the ideal workflow but it is an option. Code Organa has some good apps. I created the attached using the Animatix app ($1.99). The only thing I noticed is that the app did not preserve transparency. They offer other apps such as ToonCamera. Their website: http://codeorgana.com/index.html Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM1 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 On 9/26/2019 at 5:58 AM, smadell said: As always, I am one person with one computer and have not tested this in every possible scenario Thanks. Works great on iPad (apart from option to select number of colour levels before converting). It is possible to go into adjustment layer later and set it though.🙂 smadell 1 Quote M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen). Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas. Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt6618 Posted April 4, 2021 Share Posted April 4, 2021 This effect is so nice. 😁 smadell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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