Scanline Tutorial

So, you may be wondering what scanlines are.


They're pretty easy to make, and add a nice finishing touch in several occasions.

Scanline patterns can vary depending on the user, so I'll show you 2 different patterns I personally use.

First of all, open up a 3x3 pixel document. The background has to be transparent.

Zoom in (Ctrl ++) until you're at either 1600% or 3200% zoom, allowing you to actually see the pixels

Then you'll want to use a 1 pixel brush (square/pencil brush is best or you might spend extra time trying to get it right) to fill in some of the boxes in a pattern. Here are 2 of the patterns I use.

​

You can also make those going the other direction by essentially flipping them, or by filling in all the opposite blocks you can make different patterns altogether (sometimes this doesn't always turn out particularly well).

Once you have the pattern made, go to Edit > Define Pattern.
You can name the pattern whatever you want, I chose "Scanlines", naturally.


Now, open up a picture of your choice to test out scanlines on.

Make a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). You almost always want to make a new layer for every different step you take when editing pictures so if it doesn't turn out the way you liked, but you spent too much time on it that you can't just undo it, you can delete the layer instead of your entire work on the picture.
At this point you'll need to find your Paint Bucket tool. If you cant find it, try finding the gradient tool instead and right clicking it.
Once you have the Paint Bucket tool selected, it should be set to "Foreground" at the top, instead set it to Pattern and find the pattern you just made.


Now that you have a new layer, fill it in with the pattern. It should only take one click to fill the entire thing with the scanlines.

Set the layer to Soft Light. This should make it more transparent so its not completely blotting out your picture. Now you're done, you've successfully used Scanlines.


For the last step, there are several different options you can take. Sometimes its best just to play around with the different layer settings and opacity. If you want the Scanlines to be extremely faint, perhaps set them to Soft Light and 50 Opacity or less. Or instead of using Soft Light in the first place you can just set them to 50 Opacity on normal.

But above all else, never use "Sharpen" when its going to effect scanlines. It makes them stand out above all else and it usually looks terrible. If you're going to sharpen a picture, always do it BEFORE you apply scanlines.

 

I was wondering what that was, and I just applied it to my sig already:



Looks nice I think, thanks again. ^^

 

I wish I had the patience to try your tutorials on one of my hand-made arts Lucent

Nice guide anyways

Edit : I like your new avi/sig Ada ~

 

Ty ^^

Still trying to decide if I want to apply it to my avi, I think I like it's smooth look, but I'm gonna go atleast check it out.

 

Nice Guide ^.^

I mostly use a brush for that XD

 

Can't really decide if I like with, or without.. lol

 

nice guide <3

 

Or do it with and put it behind the render o.o

 

To be honest I'm about to ask someone about this. And Lucent came to rescue! OMG thank u so much!! X3

 

Nice tut, thanks a lot

 

Nice tutorial.Appreciated.