I know how to cel-shade in Photoshop, but backgrounds I don't know how to do. The backgrounds of most animes are smooth-shaded, but the shading is a little rough. When I try the Burn and Dodge tools, the shading is always too smooth. Is there a way to make an image look as if it was painted or drawn?

If it matters, I am using V 5.0.2

Try different brushes or brush shapes.

I think best with examples ;)

if you could post or link to an example of what you have in mind i'm sure you'll get a bunch of different approaches.

:)
retrocity

Backgrounds in traditional animation are usually done by matte painters -- artists other than the animators themselves. They're usually separate from the cel. That's why they look different. All it is is a different style of art. If you want to do backgrounds like that, you'll have to either paint it yourself, render it as 3D, or use a photo. There's no real secret or any one technique to it.

One small trick you can do to make it smoother is to "dup" the layer element (say the window frame... ) and add a Gaussian Blur and lower the opacity to let the bottom layer show. This gives a soft focus feel and can be done to 3D renders too.

:)
retrocity

I think that I might have better luck using Adobe Illustrator, which I am learning to use. Thank you for trying to help out.