4) Once you have your masks set up, it’s time to use your brush. Create a layer in your background speedline group. Select the pen tool, and make a straight path. This should be 90 degrees anti-clockwise from the direction you want your speedlines to be going. Here I wanted them pointing left to right, so I made a path going from the bottom to the top of the panel.
5) This is where some trail and error comes in, as the next few steps will vary depending on your image. Switch to the brush tool, pick one of your speedline brushes and adjust the master diameter to the length you want the longest speedlines to be. Then, making sure you still have the path selected, hit the enter to stroke the path. I tend to prefer thinner brushes, but it will depend on the size of your image. If the speedlines are too thick or too long, adjust their size in the brush tip shape pane and try again. If you see any ‘blunt’ ends appearing, drag the path back towards the edge of the panel.
6) Our speedlines are still looking a bit sparse, so lets add some more. Adjusting the spacing and size if you like, stroke the path a few more times. The lines can be made thinner by dragging the path back towards the edge of the panel. You can either keep building the speedlines up on the same layer, or make a new layer for each stroke to give yourself a little more control.
7) Make a new layer in your foreground speedline group. Drag the path back a little and then stroke it a couple of times to put some speedlines in front of the character.
8) And there you have your linear speedlines. If they don’t give you quite the effect you want, try experimenting with angles. Generally, diagonal lines will look more unstable or uncomfortable than lines that follow the shape of your panel— which can be just what you need for a particular moment. For example, this image looks more dramatic if the lines follow that character’s gaze rather than the edges of the panel:
It doesnt seem to work right for me, I click path, make it then try to make the speedlines and it just stays the same angle, 0. Maybe because I have the wiindows version hmm
Make sure the ‘Angle jitter’ of the brush is set to ‘direction’. I’m not sure what version of photoshop they put that option in but you’ll need it for the brush to work correctly.
If I do that then they point every which way with no regard to the path I chose. They go left right, everywhere, and I have a very steady hand, especially when dragging down. I have CS3. The brush itself works fine, perfect motion lines but the direction is wonky.
If you use a directional one, you need to actually use the path tool and ‘stroke’ it. The easiest way is to select the path, then select the brush tool and hit enter. Even if you have a steady hand, it’s going to jitter about if you try to do it by hand. Also, make sure that while the brush is set to direction, the slider is set to zero.
awe shoot, I didnt see the stroke path instructions, perhaps you should bold it or something, it seems to be easy to miss. Here I was trying to do it by hand. Silly me.
I was going over it again and suddenly I noticed it said stroke path, not brush path. Thanks for the quick reply. I was going to delete and say I figured it out but you beat me to it.
You’re welcome. Hope you have fun with it!
oh yes, this is exactly what I need, I’m going to link to your tutorial in my webcomic on the next html update. http://www.drunkduck.com/Insanity_of_Xade if you want to take a look :)
hi im a big fan of ur drawings, i have one of ur books, how to draw more manga and i am slowly learning how to draw like that. i hope u come out with new books!
Where is the circle tool? I’m not finding any. I really want to do the radial speedline but I’m having trouble finding the circle tool and trying to change that into path mode. Please help.
The circle, line, rectangle, and rounded rectangle tools are all under the same button. Either click and hold that to bring them all up so you can select the one you want, or hold shift and press U until it comes up.