I have been making a lot of Madden covers for my friends and I think they are coming out nicely however I can never seem to get the players skin tone right. The players on the original cover have a slight cartoonish type of effect. If anyone has any suggestion on what filter or what effect I should try it would be greatly appreciated.

Here are the original covers to view as a reference:

to get the effect you need to use tonal adjustment and ramp up the midrange. Can also be done in curves.

Softening can be done by massaging with weak soft smudge.

here are some player cuts if anyone wants to use them to help


http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll176/macdaddyshk/NFLPlayerCuts/AndreJohnson.png?t=1249239819

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll176/macdaddyshk/NFLPlayerCuts/AdrianPeterson-1.png?t=1249240160

Thanks for the advice! Where can I find the tonal adjustments tool?

sorry for the delay in replying....

these images have already had heavy post production. To get the airbrushed look enlarge the images as high as you can without slowing PS down and then zoom in use a soft smear (10%)

On a side-note; whoever did these covers did a pretty nice job of swapping the team stuff out. Each has the same wrinkles just a different sleeve on the left arm. Nifty.

here are a few more examples of the very light cartoon looking effect I am trying to achieve thanks for all of the previous advice.







Thanks again for everyones help!

I would do a really light smudge over the skin (similar to Brad Pitt above, but maybe even slightly more subtle) then add just smidge of noise or film grain to it.

thanks for the advice I will give it a shot and post the result