Woodblock print effect - how to?

[kevininspace]

Hello!

I've been trying to figure out how to do a woodblock print effect, similar to this image:

(This image is from Wired magazine.)

I've searched the forums and googled ("wood block", "woodblock", "wood", etc...) but to no avail. Are there any tutorials or plugins to achieve this effect? Any pointers or a tutorial would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[kevininspace]

I also found out that this style is similar to the "hedcut" images used in the Wall Street Journal.

[barkbark00]

I also found out that this style is similar to the "hedcut" images used in the Wall Street Journal.

Right, which is just another woodcut style. I can't think of a way (besides by hand) of doing this. Those images are generally hand drawn, using actual images as references only.

[kevininspace]

I can't think of a way (besides by hand) of doing this. Those images are generally hand drawn, using actual images as references only.

Hmmm, so I would actually need some artistic talent I guess.

I've looked around a lot today and every example is, as you say, generally hand drawn.

This blog seems to have mimicked the hedcut style (roughly), but the true woodcut/line art style appears to be more labour intensive. This forum has a guy, with much effort, create a Photoshop "action" which will repeat the effect for each selection. The basics are, you get a selection to which you want a particular pattern, and run the action. Is there something similar to actions in pdn?

[Ash]

I can't think of a way (besides by hand) of doing this. Those images are generally hand drawn, using actual images as references only.

Hmmm, so I would actually need some artistic talent I guess.

I've looked around a lot today and every example is, as you say, generally hand drawn.

This blog seems to have mimicked the hedcut style (roughly), but the true woodcut/line art style appears to be more labour intensive. This forum has a guy, with much effort, create a Photoshop "action" which will repeat the effect for each selection. The basics are, you get a selection to which you want a particular pattern, and run the action. Is there something similar to actions in pdn?

http://www.alleba.com/blog/2006/12/20/p ... cut-effect doesn't look like it.

Paint.NET has viewtopic.php?f=16&t=20403 that is close to "action"

You can make a selection then run it.

And the effect you want to do can be done in PDN, but the only way is just like the "Photoshop action". which will take a while to do.

[kevininspace]

Paint.NET has viewtopic.php?f=16&t=20403 that is close to "action"

You can make a selection then run it.

And the effect you want to do can be done in PDN, but the only way is just like the "Photoshop action". which will take a while to do.

Yup, quite a while to achieve this effect, but the tools mentioned (the ScriptLab) help tremendously. While trying to reproduce the effect, I had trouble with two things:

1. Halftoning: As far as I can see there is no plug-in for halftoning. I know that EdHarvey plugin has halftoning as a dithering method, but I'm looking for something a bit more print-shop, i.e.:

or

(from the Wikipedia article on Halftone.)

2. Rotating the whole canvas/image, not just the layer, in increments other than 90, 180, -90. For example, rotating the canvas by 37 degrees.

Perhaps this should be a separate thread in the forum.

[barkbark00]

For this, try my Halftone tutorial.

[ncfan51]

The 2nd one can be done like this:

1. Via Layer/Rotate Zoom, set it to 37 degrees or whatever

2. On Layer 2, go to Layer/Rotate Zoom Again, and just click OK as no adjusting is required.

3. Repeat for all layers.

[barkbark00]

I don't think the issue is the rotation, but the color conversion. The second example is showing the CMYK printing process. Look at ED Harvey's Extract Channel plugin to easily get that color data.

[ncfan51]

I meant the second point

2. Rotating the whole canvas/image, not just the layer, in increments other than 90, 180, -90. For example, rotating the canvas by 37 degrees.

[barkbark00]

I meant the second point

2. Rotating the whole canvas/image, not just the layer, in increments other than 90, 180, -90. For example, rotating the canvas by 37 degrees.

oops...I missed that

[kevininspace]

For this, try my Halftone tutorial.

Works great. Thanks for this!

The 2nd one can be done like this:

1. Via Layer/Rotate Zoom, set it to 37 degrees or whatever

2. On Layer 2, go to Layer/Rotate Zoom Again, and just click OK as no adjusting is required.

3. Repeat for all layers.

Can't seem to rotate the actual canvas, not just the image in it. The problem is that pixels near the edges of the image get cropped. As far as I can see, the only way that a rotation of the canvas would keep the whole image would be to change the canvas size as well (which isn't a problem, just one extra step.)

[ncfan51]

First you have to expand the Canvas Size, with the anchor set to "middle", if you don't want the edges cropped off.

[kevininspace]

First you have to expand the Canvas Size, with the anchor set to "middle", if you don't want the edges cropped off.

Exactly! Thanks!