Prepping images for cartoon effects

ToonIt! Photo for Aperture is an intuitive product but as with all graphics, you need to start with a good image. The Aperture cartooning software will do its darnedest to 'toonify' your footage with a minimum amount of tweaking. However, the better your source image, the better the cartoon effects will be. Below are tips for making your cartoon effects start out great.

Plan your images & your shot.

Visual information is brought out by good lighting, attention to composition, and the quality of the capture. The better your results, the less initial tweaking you'll have to do to get a good, solid cartoon. Being aware of the potential issues can allow you to make this issue work for you instead of against you.

For instance, starting from a RAW file and working with a PSD or PICT file is gives much better results than working with a JPG. If you are working with video stills, capturing directly to a hard drive when shooting will produce much better results than capturing off a DV tape. You will get a cleaner image with less image grain.

Here is a great example of a properly lit image and a well-staged shot.

A little planning before the source image is taken gives good, clean results.

Watch out for lighting & shadows.

A good image for cartooning effects has contrast... but not too much contrast. The face is generally what people focus on and it needs to be well lit. In fact you want the whole subject well lit, but especially the face, because you don’t want a line in face where there’s a shift from light to dark. Contrast on the subject’s nose and lips is good because that’s where line are going to drop.

Usually you want to have the main area of interest fully illuminated. In the case of portraiture that means you want plenty of light on the face. You tend to get more detail in the lighter areas, so if you have bright background and poorly lit foreground, the source photograph may be difficult to work with.

If you are planning to use outlines in the cartoon, it’s very important to notice where shadows fall in your photograph. If you use a common portraiture technique like having one side of the face slightly better lit than the other side, you’re likely to have a line running down the subject’s face. The outlines are based on the border between contrasting areas to create the lines and a shadow counts just as much as a hairline.

Pay attention to clothing & small details.

It’s also important to pay attention to clothing. If you’re trying to create a flat, cell-shaded look, you don’t want to have busy patterns on the subjects' clothing. Use single color clothing with no pattern. Be aware of where the neckline and the ends of sleeves are. You’re going to have big solid outlines where the clothing reveals skin. Paying attention to lighting, shadows, clothing, and other details leads to a final tip. Often we don’t have the time to really frame a shot. Before you cartoon your image, look for the little details that may translate a little strangely into a cartoon.

This is a cute picture but it makes a bad source image. The subject is surrounded by busy patterns and uninteresting details. There is an unexplained hand cropped at left.