Shadings in general

[Relic]

This tutorial was created by Vidofner, for the tibia.de graphics forum. You can find the original here: link


Ok I’m FAAAR from the shading master but someone requested that I should do a tutorial about shadings so here goes'.

The tutorial is directed to Photoshop users but it should give some valuable info for other programs as well.
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The most important aspect to think about when shading is: Where does the light come from? Where will the light hit? Should the shading be have big contrasts between the light and dark spots or not? and most important thing that many forgets is: HOW IS THE OBJECT SHAPED?

Tutorial #1: Round ball
Ok so this is a easy thing to shade but it should probably give you some grip of how this with shading works.

1) Tools used: Elliptic Marking tool, Pencil and color buck.

Make a round ball and colorize it. I use the elliptic marking tool to make a ball Then take the outlines and make a black outline, then colorize it.

2) Tools used: Burn tool with highlight.

The light comes from the top left so the most shadings needs to come from the lower right. Remember that since its round it means that the center sticks up so the most darkness is at the very lower right and then gets smaller as it goes around the edge.
It should be almost black near the outline and then fades to the default color.
The shading should look like a moon
Common error: Many use a gradient shading making it look flat. REMEMBER TO THINK ABOUT ITS' SHAPE!

3) Tools used: Burn tool with highlight.

Even though the light comes from the top left doesn’t mean that the top left can’t have dark spots. The ball is round so when the ball rounds up to the back part of the ball it means that it will be darker there.
However, the shading on the top left should be allot smaller then on pic #2, but more intense.

4) Dodge tool with highlight, paintbrush with 5% pressure and white color.

This is where the ball starts to come alive. Make the highlights near between the top left and the center. It can’t be in the center since then it would look like the light came from above and it wouldn’t fit with the shadings.
Make it very bright in the "center" of the highlight (not in the center of the ball) and then it should fade out to less and less bright.
COMMON ERROR: Using the highlight tool (dodge) can sometimes totally destroy the picture. Some colors respond differently on this tool (like this one) and will, instead of making the color bright, make it look like another color. So instead of using dodge here you should take the paintbrush and use white color and then change the opacity to maybe 10% or 5%.

5) Tools Used: Dodge tool with highlight, Gaussian Blur and pencil

This is mostly to correct errors you've done, like I did here: I made it to dark on the lower right. So I used the dodge tool and used highlight at the "area" option to get it near the default color.
If your ball looks a bit rough it might be that you have used to much pressure when shading or highlighting. If it’s too rough you should start from scratch but if it’s just a little rough then go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur and make the ball a bit more blur. You might have to make some corrections with the pencils since you often get a very bright outline when using this tool.

[Relic]

Ok now metal. Something about 95% of the people on this board does wrong.

This is a shoulder pad on an armor, maybe not the best shape but that’s not why we're here.

1) Tools used: Pencil

Ok, find the shape and colorize it. NEVER EVER use gray colors when doing metal. Always have some blue in it but not enough for the eye to see.
Make the pad darker then the border.

2) Tools used: Burn Tool with highlight.

This is same principal as in the ball tutorial. The pad is round but in a different way. Also: there is a border that will give shadow.
Start with doing the shadows that comes from the border and the shadows from when the pad rounds up to the other side.

3) Tools used: Burn tool with highlight

Now do that moon shaped shading like on the ball but more shadow at the bottom, since this isn’t a ball the shadow comes more from the bottom.

4)Tools used: Dodge with highlight.

This is where most people fail in making realistic metal.
The problem with most people’s metal is that their highlight is to weak. This is metal and you are suppose to see your own reflection in metal. Make a rounded line with REAL intense light, almost white then make it fade to less white.

5) Tools used: Dodge with highlight

Ok here I saw that it was too dark (as usual ) and made more highlighted areas.

6) Tools used: filter/noise/add noise

Metal can be plain and perfect like chrome but this is medieval so add at least some texture, it makes it look more alive. Put just some noise to your metal.

7)Tools used: Burn tool with highlight

Now we start shading the border. It’s not so important with the shading on this, what’s important is the highlights but do shadings on each side of the border so it will look round. Make it darker at places that light doesn’t hit, like in the ends of it at each side.

8) Tools used: Dodge with highlight

Now use a 1 pixel big dodge brush (depending on how big your picture is of course) and make a bright line in the center of the border. Make it brighter closer to the light source and darker in the bottom.
I also saw when doing this that the pad was lighted incorrectly. The light needs to go out to the border at the top for it look round. Before, it looked bumpy, as if the pad was pointing out from the border.

9) Tools used: Pencil and Dodge with highlight.

Now what look wrong with picture #8?
That’s right! it has BLACK lines inside it!
Never, ever, ever use black inside your graphic unless you really HAVE to. Black goes for the border around the graphic. Instead, use a darker color of the color that "owns" the line. Remember that even the line needs to be shaded. The border line that I changed has to be darker at the bottom then the top for it to even be visible together with the other darkness.
I also changed the shape and some coloring of the "bow"-part of the border, but I shouldn’t have to explain how I did that

Happy shading and remember it always think of how the object is shaped if you are unsure how the light and shadows falls on an object, simply find something in your home that looks similar to what your drawing and get inspiration from that.

I will come with more tutorials probably, but now I have to sleep or something