Design Photoshop Comic Book Effects

Create an exciting comic out of photos and filter effects. This tutorial will teach you how turn a normal highway photo into an intense action scene.
Design Photoshop Comic Book Effects
Step 1
Open an image of a city like this one. The original photograph is a photo taken on the highway of Austria during a vacation.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect

Step 2
Duplicate the background layer then rename this layer to “Original”. Use the Magic Wand tool to create a selection of the blue sky then press Ctrl+J to duplicate the selected area into a new layer. Name this new layer “Sky”.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 3
Now select the Original layer and put an effect over it called Poster Edges. Take over the number or play with it to try you own style.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 4
Then select the Original layer then choose Filter > Poster edges > 10,10,6. Don't mind the blue sky area in this layer, we have a clean blue sky in the Sky layer.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
See? The Sky layer is above the Original layer so the Original layer has the filter effect.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 5
I want to break up the highway so i need some rocky land with a lot of big stones. I used a photograph from the high mountains in Norway. I took this photo while i was hiking the famous Preikestølen. I took the half of the photograph and copied it to the other side, like a mirror reflection.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
I pasted this on a new layer then distorted it (Edit > Transform > Distort) it a little to fit correctly in the perspective of the photograph.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect

The erase all the unnecessary parts of the rocks. Use the Eraser tool (E).Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book EffectStep 6
Choose Filter > Artistic > Cutout. I used these settings, but feel free to use your own.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
I also did a little color correction with the Color Balance tool (Image > Adjustments > Color Balance). Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 7
Select the Original layer then use the Pen tool (P) to trace some pavement of the highway. Right mouse on your Pen tool path choose 'Make Selection'.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Cut the selection out and paste it on it's own layer. Then transform the piece (Edit >Transform > Distort/Perspective) to your own idea. Turn it, Scale it.. then when you are satisfied select the layer of this piece, hold Alt and push arrow Up. Do this maybe a dozen times, till you get a great piece of broken asphalt. When you are satisfied, select all the asphalt layers and merge them together. See example:
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 8
Take your Brush tool (B) and draw edges on the piece of asphalt. Use Shift to make straight lines from point to point! Take a dark color, like black or dark grey.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
I repeated those steps several times with big and smaller pieces. Play around with it! Make your own creation! And this is the end result of the debris:
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 9
I cut out a car from another photograph then pasted this into the project. Give the car the same filter effects (Filter > Artistic > Poster edges) then use the Cutout filter (Filter > Artistic > Cutout) to create a cartoonish look. Play with these settings to your liking. You can find more filters under the Filter > Artistic menu.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Choose Edit > Transform > Distort then manipulate the car so that it fits on the highway lane with the correct perspective.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Don’t forget to use the Warp tool (Edit > Transform > Warp) if needed. Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 10
Add a text layer into the project and put in "VRRRROEMM". Choose Layer > Rasterize > Type then use the Transform tool (Ctrl+T or Edit > Transform) to distort the text to your liking. Go to blending options then choose gradient. (Right click on layer then choose blending options).
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
You can also do a black stroke around it! Here an example of the output.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 11
I also give the car a little bit more speed by draw a line. Take the brush tool, color white, and draw a line or some lines. Go to blending options and give it a black stroke, 2 or 3px depending on your project scale. For depth do the Alt trick i explained while doing the asphalt debris and text VRRROEEMM.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 12
I putted in another (half) car, to give a bit more action. (copy, paste from another photograph)
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Make sure you tick the transform box. Scale the car to -100.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Then place the car next to the big traffic sign. Give the car also the filter effects Poster edges and then the effect Cutout, to create the cartoonish look.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 13
I used a fire picture i took from our fireplace to use it in this project. (copy, paste from another photograph)
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
I cut it out then applyed the Cutout effect. (Filter > Artistic > Cutout)
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Take this layer and put it over the traffic sign. Then use the Eraser tool(E) to delete part that not belong there. Use Shift in combination with the Eraser tool to erase straight parts!
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Next, create with the Pen tool (P) an exploding flash. Draw straight lines in combination with Shift.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Right click on the pen tool path then choose “make selection”. Fill it with white, use the paint bucket tool (G).
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Give the exploding flash these blending settings to make it more alive. Also give it a stroke, black, around 4-5px.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 14
Now we are going to create some smoke. Make a new layer then select an area around the exploding car. Choose Filter > Render > Clouds. Put this layer under the exploding flash layer.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Apply the Cutout effect to this layer.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Gently erase needless parts of this smoke layer.
To create depth, erase all the smoke that is in front of the traffic sign.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 15
Another car, a police car! I added another car. To get more action! To make it a police car, draw the siren light on top of the roof. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and select an orb type of selection. Fill this with a blue using the Paint bucket tool (G).
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Also do this with the red light. I added a little small white line to both of the lights, to create a reflection. Then make some lines with the Brush tool (B), and Blur(R) or Smudge(R) this out to create a light effect.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Here you see the effect with Smudge(R) :
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Give the car also the filter effects Poster edges and then the effect Cutout, to create the cartoonish look. I gave the police car a darker black look to make it more cartoon realistic. Here you see the final effect :
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Now add some loud siren text effects, like we did before.
Make a new text layer. Type 'TETUU'or similar and rasterize this layer. (Layer > Rasterize > Type). Hold Alt and push Left several times, to create the 3D effect. Merge these layers together. Also give this text a gradient layer we used before in the blending options.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Then you can add some shouting background. Use the Pen tool (P) to create the path. Hold Shift to create straight lines. Then make a selection out of it and give it a gradient look we used before.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 16
Now we are going to change the traffic direction signs. Select the Original layer and select out the traffic direction sign. Then make your own text. I did this:
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Also i did this with the other traffic direction sign. To give the broken highway more sense i added a 'man at work' sign at the bottom of the project.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 17
I also added a police helicopter. This one i photographed in Austria when i was on holiday. I gave the helicopter the known Poster edges and Cutout filter effects. And i added some text to this layer. And Warp this text a little bit down. (Edit > Transform > Warp) To give the helicopter some speed i took the Brush tool (B) and the color white. Around 10px is ok. I did not take a regular brush, but i is fine to do so.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Take the Smudge tool (R) and smudge this out to create a light smoke:
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
To finish of this cartoon i created an earlier happening. I created a new layer with a background in it. This background is photograph from the city Stavanger in Norway, beautiful don't you think?
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
I gave this street also these filter effects :
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Then i added some people in it. The 'Bad guys' !! Also the Poster edges and Cutout filter are added on them. I duplicated the car we already have been using, and flipped it horizontal. Then i select the part that falls outside of the small scene section and deleted that part.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
The 'Bad guy' had something in his hands. I wrote a $ on it with the brush tool. Then i blurred it a little bit with the Blur tool(R).
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Step 18
Now we're going to draw some text balloons. For every written text en text balloons, i used separated layers. Use the Pen tool (P) to draw the outlines and hold Shift to create straight lines. Make selection out of it. (Remember? Right mouse on path and select 'make selection'). Then stroke this selection. (Edit->Stroke) Choose size 5 and color black and click ok. Deselect it and fill it with the color white using the Paint bucket tool(G).
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Then create a text layer and add some text to it. I also created an 'Earlier that day' text field in the same way :
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Create another new layer and repeat step 17 to create the text balloon for the helicopter.
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
Final Results
I added some stuff, like tire tracks and some text on the police car. Also i added a 'Bad guy' text balloon! And a border around the hole project. Stroke 4px, black. Done! This is the final image! Good luck and have fun!
Photoshop Tutorial Comic Book Effect
This is the Final Result of the Comic Book Effects. You Like It? if you like don't forget to send us your valuable feedback according to your experiment about this tutorial.

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