Looking around for how to quickly turn a photo of myself into a cartoon, well, there’s a lot of crap out there and not much that’s “quick”. So I’ve written a short tutorial on how to cartoon yourself in ONE minutes or so with Photoshop. I’m using Photoshop CS6, but assume it’s similar in other versions.
This is the after photo (thank you to morgueFile for the photo) :
The Basic Technique
1. Open photo in Photoshop
2. DO Filter->Filter Gallery->Poster Edges
3. DO Filter->Filter Gallery->Cutout
4. That’s it DONE !
Advanced Techniques
The cartoon doesn’t always look aesthetically pleasing straight off. Solutions I’ve found are :
1. Up the brightness and contrast before applying the filters, at a ratio of approximately 1 to 3, brightness to contrast. I can’t give exact numbers as it will vary from photo to photo. For my example I didn’t change the brightness or contrast.
2. The Cutout filter has sliders for “Number of Levels”, “Edge Simplicity” and “Edge Fidelity”. Some experimenting with these will lead to a more pleasing result in most case. For my example I used – Levels=4, Simplicity=4 and Fidelity=2
3. Try a different photo taken in different light conditions. Generally well lit daytime shots look better.
4. Post-processing in Photoshop. The basic technique I’ve already shared will give you an excellent starting point on which to build. Use for instance paint brush tool to smooth shaded areas. Healing spot can be used to remove spots of colour in “the wrong place”.
5. You might want to check out my more detailed cartoon yourself tutorials – “How to Cartoon Yourself (or Myself or Whatever) – Two Days of Cartoonification” AND “Miss Charisma – Cartoonize my girlfriend, another two days of cartoonification !“. These techniques require more patience, but the end results are stunning.
6. Check out my “Hire me” page, and contact me if you want us to do it for you.
ENJOY 🙂
This is the exact same before photo I used to create the “after” cartoon, so you can try on the same one as me if you like 🙂
It’s been cropped to landscape 4:3 from original mourgeFile photo
Resources and Sources
Painted Woman Photo – morgueFile
Thanks, this should be fun with the teenagers.
Keep ’em busy for an hour or so !
Since I’m already a figment of the imagination I can’t really carton myself, because I don’t think figments cartoon well. Fig Newtons, on the other hand, do quite well as cartoons.
You seem to be returning from the figment of imagination, so perhaps a cartoon is just what you need ?
I gave up on cartoons when they stopped L’il Abner.
That’s going back a little bit !
Reblogged this on Arts and Crafts for Retirees and commented:
Good idea and Fun to Play with.
Thanks for the reblog 🙂
You are welcome. I enjoyed playing
It’s just for fun mostly 🙂
Fantastic! Yes we should all be turned into cartoons. I will come back and read when i am ready with photo. Thanks Don.
You are welcome, I tried very hard to find something like this when I did my avatar, but had to do it manually … took me 2 days !
By the way it is a great avatar!
Thanks appreciate that … it’s not 100% everyone likes it, but do I care ? … not really !
Too easy 🙂
Works though and a good basis for a more difficult project 🙂
Agreed. Got a photo ready to go. Nothing spectacular but it illustrates a post lol
Ah, sounds cool let me know when you’ve done Scooby-suz 🙂
I have it in the drafts. It’s not an exciting photo – just one of my Tween in oversized shoes. But it looks cute.
Sounds cool-a-mondo … sorry hun I’ve not been getting out much blog wise, so please forgive me if I miss things …
Join the club my friend. It’s a big club apparently. And now that I have started studying again, my time needs to be managed more efficiently.
Makes sense, you don’t like to not have anything to do …
The study, is the first step toward my goals. Hopefully (with everything crossed) it will all work out.
I have faith in you Suz … a woman of your talents could succeed at anything 🙂
Nice cartooned girl!
Thanks Niko 🙂
You’re always welcome 🙂
😎
I’ve heard but never knew. I do have some cool apps on iPhone that do really nice, and I use them on my blogs when I’m showing character reference. I have friends who model for me, and my wife. I’ve been several characters lol, but after wearing a mask, or even going out and taking photos of locations then altering, then turning it into cartoon style changes how it looks. Thanks for the cool info will have to try this too. Does it work well on IPhone?
WEll the tutorial is photoshop on the computer … and yes should work with photos taken on iphone, that’s what I use as my main camera 🙂
Warm regards
DC
I have wanted to do this for some time, however, as you may have already discovered I am technically challenged. I’ll give it a go. I didn’t do to well with the sunshades emo either. LOL
Well always there is time to become technically unchallenged ! … don’t know sunshades emo, you are teaching me a lot of new stuff today 🙂
Smiley face with sunglasses….lol
😎
HAHAHAHA or should I say PMSL, even though I have no idea what it means, I hope it’s nice.
LOL, just explained on other comment …
🙂
Very cool idea
Thanks 🙂
Fun stuff!
The most fun you can have with your clothes on I reckon ?
Reblogged this on Oxtapus *blueAction.
thanks for reblog 🙂
😉
Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome 🙂
Ooo,good lesson.
Thanks … may many enjoy !
That’s cool!
Thanks 🙂
Thanks Don, I will try this out. I don’t have so much internet before the weekend again, only from the mobile, but your advice doesn’t demand the net.
Irene
Ah, ok, internet limits 🙂 … and yes don’t need internet to play with poster edges and cutout 🙂
Excactly 😀
Thank you for sharing this Don.
You are welcome, it’s a bit of fun 🙂
Nice tip! Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome, glad you enjoyed 🙂