Toning help

I'm the toner for an up and coming webcomic that my friend and I have both designed and are still scripting. She does all the art, I do the toning and text.Toning is really not that terribly difficult, but I need to know how to make it BETTER. I can fill in hair and shade things to make it look like it's colored, but what about all those backgrounds and Shoujo effects? Does anyone have any suggestions on where I can find the resources (and possibly tutorials) on how to do those?Just if it matters, I'm using the free editor called GIMP. Great program, does everything really well. The program's not the issue; I am.

Okay bud, get photoshop. PM me on how and go to deviantart.com. There is a ton of free, good tutorials on how to color in hair and what not. That's your best bet. And have fun man with your comic!

As you stated, the program is not the issue.GIMP is a good enough program for what he needs to do. If you haven't already, get the GFig plugin for Basic Vector Support, because you should pen the image via Vector for smoother, cleaner lines. (If you aren't doing so already... which you probably are ). Could you be a little more specific in terms of "shoujo" effects? Right now I assume you mean all the bubbles and stars and hearts and whatever that float around in manga and anime. But if you could provide an example of what you mean (A comic page, an anime screenshot, whatever) I'm sure I can find a tutorial or two.

CREDITS GO TO THE ARTIST OF CURSED WINGS! THIS IS NOT MY WORK!!This is a good example page. Those kind of light effects, bubble effects, yeah that kind of thing. Thanks for the assistance in advance!AGAIN! THIS ISN'T MY WORK!! Read the Manga, though. 'tis good.

Err, well I'm just going to explain how I would do it in each frame and see if it works on GIMP. Once again, I'm not a GIMP user, but I'm hoping you're familiar enough with the program to be able to "translate" some of the effects.Most of the backgrounds in this page are gradients, that go from white to a grey. I'm pretty sure you know how to do this already, but if not, just fill the background with a gradient with the lighter part as the light source. Sometimes you can fill the gradient on a layer over the frame on "Hard Light" if you want to affect the characters too. (But make sure they are outlined with dark lines.)For the affect in the first frame, simply duplicate the first frame so there are two layers with the same image, add a little bit of noise to the top layer and set it on burn. Then, on the layer UNDER the layer with the noise, you can take the pen tool, turn Anti-Alias on and make sure it has a width of "1" and just do some random scratches in white.For the second frame (the one under the first frame), creating a new layer on top of that frame, take a soft, round brush and take a shade of grey. Do some bubbles in various shapes, (make sure some are connected to eachother) and add noise. Then create a new layer, and take a slightly smaller, and harder brush, and take the color white and stamp on top the circles your grey brushes made. It should look -somewhat- like the bubbles in frame two. (Somewhat because the greyer bubbles dont seem to be "add noised" but is actually a 50% dither but was shrunk weirdly).For the third frame, the "Bubbles" are simply larger, round, soft brushes and small, hard scribbles that you can make with a 1 pixel brush.The fourth frame where the light is, now, there are probably other ways to do this, but this is how I would do it. Also, I assume you have an effect called "Radical Blur" or something that creates the affect of zooming in. Firstly, duplicate the layer, add a tiny bit of noise and set it on burn. Then create a new layer, and take your pen tool, set it to a noticable width (20, 30 pixels) with the color white. Now do a crosshair over the center of the area you want to be radiating light. Now, what I reccommend is, now this isn't nessisary, is to create a dot of black or whatever on a new layer, over the center of the crosshair. So you always know where the center is. Now, make a new layer on top of your crosshair, but below your dot if you're using it, take your pen tool, create some smaller lines of maybe, 20, or 15 width and make a crosshair in the center, again. Now, rotate that layer by about 30 degrees or so. Then, merge it down with the previous crosshair layer. Now you can keep on doing this for as many times as you want, with smaller light rays (5 pixels, 3 pixels, 1 pixel) until you feel your satisfied. If your layer isn't already, convert it to a raster layer. Now, take your radical blur tool, set it on "zoom" and change the center to whatever the center of your crosshair is. Set it on 100% or as strong as it can go. Now to create the rings. Create a new raster layer, simply take your selection tool and make it in the shape of a circle (If you cant, try just making a circle with the shape tool and selecting it with the magic wand, then, delete the circle). Make a BIG circle selection around your focal point, feather the circle by about... 5-10. (If you cant, again, just skip this step, and when you're done all your rings, just radical blur them). Fill the circle with white, then contract the layer by the width of whatever you want your first ring to be. Then, press Delete and you'll have a ring. Next, contract the selection by the width of the distance you want between your next ring, and fill it with white again, but this time, contract the ring smaller and then press delete. Repeat the process until you get almost to the center, in which you just fill it and leave it there. Now, if you dont have the feather tool, you may radical blur it, and also, if you think the rings aren't soft enough, or are too noticable, you may also radical blur it OR, lower the opacity of the rings. Now merge down so that your rings and your rays become one layer, and set it on overlay. See how that works. (It should look SOMEWHAT simular, though not exactly alike as I dont know how the artist did it).For the next frame, simply take your dodge brush and scribble on the image to make those swirls and bubbles. And the bubbles in the last two remaining frames are easy to do, just a soft grey brush with a harder, white brush on top.I hope this helped you, if there's still something you cant get, feel free to ask... or whatever. x__X

Good grief, that's in depth! But I actually understood all that. Thanks for the help, WIS. I'll toy around with that and see what I can't make!