Cleaning Tips on Cloning/Redrawing?

[Rosella]

I always suck at cloning... I don't know what settings I should use and how to do it correctly, whether I should use a soft brush or a hard one, should I clone vertically or diagonally, etc. And the biggest problem is... WHERE to clone from. Any tips you guys can give me? Thanks <3!

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

For cloning patterns (screentones) use 100% hard brush. The square one.
Always redraw (clone) on a new (empty) layer.

As to where to clone from - look around the page and see what areas seem similar to what you need to fill. Use those.
Oh, set your Clone Tool to "Aligned" - this way you won't start cloning the same place after you release your click (or pen). Also set "Sample" to "Current&Below" - this way you won't copy the lines (if you redraw them too) that are on the layer above the pattern one.

If you need more details, you'll need to provide a page you're having trouble cloning.

Oh, one more thing - set your CT's brush spacing to 1%. The default 25% is too much using the square brush.

 

[Rosella]

For cloning patterns (screentones) use 100% hard brush. The square one.
Always redraw (clone) on a new (empty) layer.

As to where to clone from - look around the page and see what areas seem similar to what you need to fill. Use those.
Oh, set your Clone Tool to "Aligned" - this way you won't start cloning the same place after you release your click (or pen). Also set "Sample" to "Current&Below" - this way you won't copy the lines (if you redraw them too) that are on the layer above the pattern one.

If you need more details, you'll need to provide a page you're having trouble cloning.

Oh, one more thing - set your CT's brush spacing to 1%. The default 25% is too much using the square brush.

Thank you so much ! Also, do you happen to have any advice on when to and IF we should use Topaz Denoise?

 

[Rain441]

i would only use it, if you have a lot of small patches all over the area and weren't able to adjust the shading perfectly. but be careful not to overuse it, otherwise the lines will become blurry.
if you want some examples, i made some chapters at my redrawing tutorial ch 3 / 4 and ch 13 about using denoise

https://mangahelpers.com/forum/threads/advanced-redrawing-methodes.2993177/

-Rain

 

[Rosella]

i would only use it, if you have a lot of small patches all over the area and weren't able to adjust the shading perfectly. but be careful not to overuse it, otherwise the lines will become blurry.
if you want some examples, i made some chapters at my redrawing tutorial ch 3 / 4 and ch 13 about using denoise

https://mangahelpers.com/forum/threads/advanced-redrawing-methodes.2993177/

-Rain

Thank you!

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

Also, do you happen to have any advice on when to and IF we should use Topaz Denoise?

Generally, Topaz Denoise is a great tool for cleaning magazine raws since the print quality is not very good there and there will be additional ink (dirt) all over the pages.
There's usually no need to use it on tankoubon raws at all, though you could use it slightly before leveling which would allow you to level the pages at a little lower settings.
However, like Rain mentioned, denoise also destroys the fine details, so it should be used sparingly. If you're unsure about whether to use it or not, make a few attempts at cleaning the same page with different filters and settings, then choose the best one and use its method for the entire chapter. (Might not work perfectly with magazine raws)

 

[Rosella]

Generally, Topaz Denoise is a great tool for cleaning magazine raws since the print quality is not very good there and there will be additional ink (dirt) all over the pages.
There's usually no need to use it on tankoubon raws at all, though you could use it slightly before leveling which would allow you to level the pages at a little lower settings.
However, like Rain mentioned, denoise also destroys the fine details, so it should be used sparingly. If you're unsure about whether to use it or not, make a few attempts at cleaning the same page with different filters and settings, then choose the best one and use its method for the entire chapter. (Might not work perfectly with magazine raws)

Thank you!

 

[Brandan White]

what about Digital Magazine? These days many Magazine out in Digital Version

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

There shouldn't be a need to denoise digital manga raws. If they were saved as JPEGs, you might denoise with very low settings to blur out the compression artifact that'll show up near lines (although it's hard to make out with a naked eye) and then level a little.

If the you think the patterns are too sharp and you wanna use denoise to "smoothen" them out, you can try. Unfortunately, you're likely to damage fine details at the same time.

Also, since this thread's about cloning/redrawing we shouldn't really continue talking about denoise here (you can make a new thread if you need more help).

This here is to make it a little more on topic:
If you have trouble matching the patterns perfectly no matter where you source/anchor from or you have fairly poor quality raws (a lot of ink splattered over the patterns), you might wanna try redrawing before denoise. Better yet - do redraws on the aligned/cropped raw itself.
Denoise is likely to fix the inconsistencies you'd otherwise be left with. Also, selecting the "ink spatters" on the raw and using content-aware fill, or healing brush to fix them should help you use much lighter settings in topaz filters, which should come to less detail loss.

 

[Brandan White]

I mostly use Healing Brush for Re Draw if powerful redraw need i use clone tool because it good for that stuff normal stuff i use healing brush and clone tool because it save times and cover that with text lol.