I'm looking for some suggestions in techniques for digital shading. I use PhotoShop for my coloring and I prefer to shade inside the program. Lately I've been experimenting with different kind of shading techniques, all of which require at least an hour or so to accomplish (for one comic, since I color the whole thing all at once). Still, that's a long time to be doing shadows.
That in addition to how long it takes to do tones, effects, flats, text, speach bubbles, scanning etc usually takes me about 3-4 hours.
Long story short, I'm looking for some ideas on how to shade in a QUICK fashion and still make things look interesting. Right now, I'm just using the basic lasso selection / solid black fill with 15% opacity (anime-esque shading) - 20 minutes, maximum, but the time required seems to be the only attractive thing about it.
Any ideas?
Ideas For Shading
-
Black Sparrow
- Cartoon Anti-Hero
- Posts: 6973
- Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:04 am
- Location: Violating your restraining order
- Contact:
I can't help you much there... My shading typically takes me 1-2 hours as well. But, I figure, if the comic looks good in the end, it's worth the 6 hours I spent working on it.
There are some people that manage to pull of the lasso selection style very nively. Take Digital War for example. If you intend to continue on with lasso selection, it may help to tone darker (especially when the light is as bright as it is on this page).
There are some people that manage to pull of the lasso selection style very nively. Take Digital War for example. If you intend to continue on with lasso selection, it may help to tone darker (especially when the light is as bright as it is on this page).
This is going in my notebook titled "Things I Didn't Know about Surface Dwellers."
-
Goldencrystals
- Regular Poster
- Posts: 40
- Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:53 am
- Contact:
Hope this helps
I've always shaded with a brush, I tend to only use the lasso tool for just collecting things, but I've found that just a darker color, and a brush on maybe a different layer, works Wonders
Now, to make this whole process quicker, you might want to consider making your page smaller, but if not, it still won't take very long, methinks
If you stuck on useing a binding tool, like the lasso, I would suggest using the pen tool to outline your shadows. It creates a stable path, and stays there, so you can make several at a time and color them seperately!
http://www.pslover.com/ -- http://www.photoshoptutorial.net/search.php
These sites haved offered me more help that I could ever imagine, you can find some awesome tips here, and maybe even find a total new way of shading!
(Tip for lazy people with shading: Using the Burn tool is a pretty quick way to get a shade, but be warned, sometimes it goes a little crazy, and should only be used in small areas!)
Now, to make this whole process quicker, you might want to consider making your page smaller, but if not, it still won't take very long, methinks
If you stuck on useing a binding tool, like the lasso, I would suggest using the pen tool to outline your shadows. It creates a stable path, and stays there, so you can make several at a time and color them seperately!
http://www.pslover.com/ -- http://www.photoshoptutorial.net/search.php
These sites haved offered me more help that I could ever imagine, you can find some awesome tips here, and maybe even find a total new way of shading!
(Tip for lazy people with shading: Using the Burn tool is a pretty quick way to get a shade, but be warned, sometimes it goes a little crazy, and should only be used in small areas!)
You know, I think I will try doing it manually, shading with a brush. It's faster than selecting everything and it's not as conventional as that anime type shading.
Darker base flats would probably be a good idea too. Thanks guys. As always, your advice was much appreciated and made a huge difference.
Darker base flats would probably be a good idea too. Thanks guys. As always, your advice was much appreciated and made a huge difference.
