guyver coloured image from chapter 177

[*Jess♥]

i did this mainly for bananaking but anyone else can benefit.

cleaned

solid colours

basic light distribution

rough shade

detail shade

tones

[Salkafar]

Beautiful.

[*BananaKing]

Okay so a few questions:

For the "Basic Light Distribution" did you just take a shadow of grey with low opacity and build up the shade from top down or use a ramp gradient?

For "detail shade" did you use a hard brush?

For tones did you just apply one solid color for the guyver armor itself and let the shades you already put down make the tones darker where needed?

Boy this is a bit embarrassing considering half of my class is focused on learning photoshop. Surprisingly we never went over anything regarding shades or tones...I understand masking and matting is useful but would've liked to learn stuff like this more. But its a compositing class, so you can't get what you want I suppose

Oh yeah, very nice job dude, thank you

[*Jess♥]

thanks salkafar

Okay so a few questions:

you can use a variety of techniques to get the end result you want. as I've been using photoshop for over 12 years, I may not always use the expected methods. i always swap and change techniques depending on my mood.

lately, I have preferred to use solid colour layer to add colour and control it with a mask.

I also use clipping mask to make shading more straight forward.

if you look at the solid colours image. the solid light blue colour for the guyvers controls all the shading layers. each shading layer has a clipping mask which refers to the light blue layer.

so the layer on top of that, i just whacked a gradient on it. dark at the bottom light at the top.

layer on top of that, soft brush large. layer on top of that soft brush small.

the tone thing afterwards was just a flat colour on top of the other layers and set to multiply.

and of course i painted in the detail for the eyes and spheres by hand.

(i have to say the most time consuming part of this image was cleaning away the screentone from guyver 3's body. )

[*BananaKing]

Alright this is very helpful.

Shading layers, are those in the adjustment layers tab? We didn't go over those. This is still a little like speaking french to me, but I'm getting the basics of what you're talking about. Were you taught stuff like this or did you learn it yourself through experimenting?

[*Jess♥]

nah, I'm just a natural when it comes to programs. well when they're coded well at least.

i taught the tutors in college how to use the programs.

shading layers? they're yours. layers that you use to shade. just normal layers.

you can either choose your specific shades manually or you can use black and play with the opacity.

but beware when you choose black... if it's night time, cool. but if it's a well lit scene then black will just make it look dirty. in a well lit scene, you would need to take into account the ambience.

hmm, I ought to link my lighting tutorial for you.

I think i posted it a long time ago on here or on the old guyverboard.. but it's easier to find on DA.

http://drag-5.deviantart.com/art/Lighting-Tutorial-82388860

[*BananaKing]

I got a question about this particular lighting method:

I understand everything except the "Solid Colors" part. It may just be my eyes, but I don't see any of that purple-ish blue color in the gradient so I'm not sure I understand why its there?

I want to try and impliment this method of yours into a piece I'm doing so any info would be greatly appreciated.

[*Jess♥]

it's there.

so i would say, yes it's your eyes! but don't worry, i wouldn't expect anyone to be able to tell just by looking, since the tone of the background may disguise it.

if you use the dropper tool you'd see.

the gradient i used was a basic black to white ramp. and the opacity was reduced. if i had not reduced the opacity you would not see the linework on their feet.

apart from that though, the point of the solid colour layer is mainly to control the clipping masks. it's your foundation.

[*BananaKing]

Hey I just finished reading the lighting tutorial you game me, it was really informative. Granted I need to learn masks a bit better, but it was very clear and really makes it look like you save a lot of time to create an awesome final product. Do you by chance have any more tutorials you've made? If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to give this (and any other tutorials you may have) to some of my friends. I'm not kidding when I tell you how informative this was.

Problem with my school is, although they teach you software like Maya, Nuke, and PS, they still expect you to know a whole mess of things before you start. I didn't have photoshop until 8 months ago, so I never got the real chance to learn it. I mean I had a week of classes on it in a Digital Fundamentals class, but thats was like 2yrs ago.

[*Jess♥]

I'm glad you found it useful.

I actually made this for my classmates when i was in university.

I have done another tutorial that i can think of. it was hayami with shou and mizuki hugging outside the villa.

I don't have a copy of it but somebody else might have it.

but i think it was pretty much the same thing that i showed in this thread.

i don't think there is more that i could demonstrate though to be honest.

unless there is something specific you'd like guidance on and if i happen to be good at it.. than i guess i could try and fit something together.

[*BananaKing]

Oh well, it was worth asking. I just want to try and be moderately good at photoshop since I like layer based systems over node based. I don't know why, but nodes look far more confusing and less organized than layers; whatever.

[*BananaKing]

So I've been playing around with masks and starting to get the hang of them. I'm still a bit confused about clipping masks though. You can't post PSD files here can you?

[*Jess♥]

i can post anything here.

but i don't need to post anything. a clipping mask is basically a mask that uses the layer below it as the masking data.

it ensures that you can only paint where there is paint on the layer that you have attached it to.

a clipping mask will only operate with the layer below it. if you use a clipping mask on a layer above a layer that is already using a clipping mask, it will inherit the masking from the one that was used by the other one.

just play around with them and see what happens.

to say it more technically, a clipping mask tells the current layer ₍₁₎ to use the alpha channel of the layer below it ₍₂₎ as a mask, unless the layer below it ₍₂₎ is already using a clipping mask ₍₃₎. if the layer below it ₍₂₎ is using a clipping mask ₍₃₎, it will inherit that alpha channel₍₃₎ instead of using the layers own alpha channel₍₂₎.

[*BananaKing]

Those technical terms was like spanish I know what it all meant but it was still confusing.

Technical explainations aside, I kind of have a grasp of clipping masks but isn't it the same thing as a normal mask? I mean you basically paint or cut out the shape of what you want to hide/show based on what's below it right? I've been experimenting with gradient shadows using a regular mask. I guess that's the basic way to use a mask

When I said "you" I wasn't referring to you personally Ryuki. I meant me, cause I want to try and post my PSD file for you to look at so you can see for yourself what I'm doing with the masks. Oh well, I'll just fiddle with some more

[*Jess♥]

ah ok. well put it in a zip file and you can attach it just fine.

yeah a clipping mask is just like a regular mask. but a regular mask is just black and white and only applies to one layer. if you wanted to use the same mask for multiple layers you would have to use laborious copy and paste.

with a clipping mask, you start with your base. your base can be any colour. if you then use a clipping mask you can paint any other colour on top of it and it won't go over the edges. also, if you then decide to adjust the outline, you can paint the master layer and all other layers that are linked to it will change accordingly.

following 3 screens should help.

basic shape used as clipping mask. other two layers then painted freely.

i used yellow to paint on the layer being used as the clipping mask.

then i erased down the middle.

[Johnleprekan]

I think I understand. Holding alt and hitting the layer makes a group right? Then you make a mask on the bottom layer. Every layer grouped to it is masked?

Yay, I did it.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Johnleprekan

[*BananaKing]

Okay so if you wouldn't mind taking a look at this art of protoman for me that would be great. Unlike the guyver lineart I did, I want to make these shadows falloff like they would in reality. I got the one on the leg using a regular mask and the bigger shadow using a mask & gradient.

Blues! copy.psd.zip

[*Jess♥]

looking good dude.

with armour shadow, you could simply right click and select clipping mask. then you can delete your current mask on that and paint your shadows freely with a soft brush.

[Johnleprekan]

Are you still working on the Guyver image, Bananaking? I actually wanted to see the complete picture.

[*BananaKing]

I'm not sure what else I could do with it. I'd love to make the highlights have a sort of "halo-glow" effect, but I don't know how to do that atm. I'd rather hone my skills on other work. I'm trying to complete that Protoman pic for my brother then move onto another megaman pic

[Johnleprekan]

I know what you're talking about.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Johnleprekan