Using the Cartoon effect

Use the Cartoon effect to turn a live-action movie into a cartoon-like movie.

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Requirements

To complete the tasks demonstrated in this tutorial, you need the following software and files:

Adobe After Effects CS4

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Sample file

lrvid4066_ae.zip (ZIP, 36MB)

Prerequisite knowledge

Intermediate knowledge of working with moving footage in After Effects

Using the Cartoon effect

New to Adobe® After Effects® CS4 is the Cartoon effect. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Cartoon effect to create edge and fill areas that make ordinary footage assume a hand-drawn cartoonish or painted look.

Applying cartoon effects to moving footage

One of the most striking features of Cartoon is that its edges and fills remain consistent from frame to frame. Similar methods tend to include a distracting amount of noise and artifacting when applied to moving footage.

Creating different effects using the Render menu

The Render menu allows you to apply the Cartoon effect to Edges, Fill, or both Fill and Edges. Selecting Edges gives your composition a hand-drawn look, while selecting Fill creates a painterly look. To use the Render menu:

1. Open a composition containing movie footage in After Effects. Make sure the Effect Controls panel is selected from the Effects menu and that your workspace is set to All Panels.
2. To create a hand-drawn look, choose Render > Edges. Make sure the fx icon in the Cartoon panel is turned on.

   

   Figure 1: Creating a hand-drawn look
3. To create a painted effect with no edge lines, choose Render > Fill.

   

   Figure 2: Creating a painterly look

Using the Cartoon effect

1. To use Cartoon, choose Effect > Stylize > Cartoon.

   

   Figure 3: The Cartoon panel
2. To reduce the number of gradations in the fill and apply a cartoon effect to a moving image, choose Shading: Smoothness and move the slider left from its default setting of 70 to about 58.
3. Raise the Shading Steps by moving the corresponding slider to the right. This action compensates for areas that don’t respond well to the lowered smoothness value.
4. For an overall softer look, raise the Detail Threshold from the default of 10.
5. Restore definition to the shading of the image by lowering the Detail Radius.

Refining edges

With the Edge controls, you can refine the appearance of the lines in your footage. To use the Edge controls:

1. Choose Render > Edges.
2. To bring out the edges of your moving footage, move the Edge Threshold slider to the right from the default value of 1.6.
3. For finer lines, move the Width slider to the left.
4. To soften the contours of the image, move the slider to the right, increasing the value from the default of 60 to the desired setting.

   

   Figure 4: Using the Edge Controls

Combining Cartoon with other effects

Combining Cartoon with other effects allows you to customize the look of your footage even more. To combine Cartoon with other effects:

1. Choose Effect > Color Correction > Tint.
2. To create a sepia tone effect, click the black square next to Map To Black. The Map To Black dialog box opens. Choose a red shade from the dialog box and click OK.

   

   Figure 5: Changing the tint of edges
3. Click the white square next to Map To White. The Map To White dialog box opens. Choose a different red shade from the dialog box and click OK. The white fill shifts to a reddish-pink color.

   

   Figure 6: Creating a sepia tone
4. Restore Fill and Edges by choosing Render > Fill and Render > Edges, respectively.
5. Reduce the level of tint by moving the Amount To Tint slider to the left.

Where to go from here

• After Effects CS4 Help and Support
• Learn After Effects CS4
• Introducing After Effects CS4, by Chad Perkins
• Using the XML project file format, by Mark Christiansen
• Animating precisely with Separate Dimensions, by Mark Christiansen
• Lynda.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

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