Digital painting in photoshop!
by Justin Mayhew · in Artist Corner · 04/13/2009 (12:57 pm) · 8 replies
Who loves to flat their images before they paint? Yay or Nay?
I am kind of new to digital painting in photshop, learning the ropes as it were. I have some questions maybe some of our veteran users can answer?
1. Is their a way to assign a brush a hotkey but also assign that same key a "Darken" or "Lighten" mode as well?
2. How long should a quality detail 12 inchx 8 inch image character image take to paint professionally, this is a way for me to gauge where my skills are and how much faster I need to become?
I'll add some more questions later, maybe as I stumble along.
Also if anybody else has any questions on the matter please shoot them out here, if your lucky I might be able to help?
I am kind of new to digital painting in photshop, learning the ropes as it were. I have some questions maybe some of our veteran users can answer?
1. Is their a way to assign a brush a hotkey but also assign that same key a "Darken" or "Lighten" mode as well?
2. How long should a quality detail 12 inchx 8 inch image character image take to paint professionally, this is a way for me to gauge where my skills are and how much faster I need to become?
I'll add some more questions later, maybe as I stumble along.
Also if anybody else has any questions on the matter please shoot them out here, if your lucky I might be able to help?
#2
Show us a few speedpaints or paintings of yours...I am sure we can give some feedback and a comparative imageset inline with thoughts of progression. cgsociety.org ;)
04/13/2009 (10:26 pm)
Asking about the length of time that a pr0 would need for an 8x12 character painting is a tough question to answer. Too many variables come into play: style, color palette count, pov/aspect, body sections drawn, amount of times the body is shown, compositing ?, ...just too much to talk about.Show us a few speedpaints or paintings of yours...I am sure we can give some feedback and a comparative imageset inline with thoughts of progression. cgsociety.org ;)
#3
Thats awesome. I tried the tools presets instead and I have a "soft 45 pixel brush in lighten mode," and another soft 45 pixel brush in darken mode. Now is there a way to assign those two tool presets into the actions and thereby assign them a key like F2-F9???
I like to paint in this way using my sliders in HSB to get the coloration I desire. I have wasted so many thousands of seconds going to the top of the screen and switching between light and dark modes.
Even though I have been taught to start dark and build up to light, I always see some detail I want lay on top and thus I jump back and forth.
04/14/2009 (6:30 am)
@ RussThats awesome. I tried the tools presets instead and I have a "soft 45 pixel brush in lighten mode," and another soft 45 pixel brush in darken mode. Now is there a way to assign those two tool presets into the actions and thereby assign them a key like F2-F9???
I like to paint in this way using my sliders in HSB to get the coloration I desire. I have wasted so many thousands of seconds going to the top of the screen and switching between light and dark modes.
Even though I have been taught to start dark and build up to light, I always see some detail I want lay on top and thus I jump back and forth.
#4
general ball park answers will do, but I also see what you mean. Painting can get very serious in detail. I am almost done with the concept poster for my game, I'll run that past here on the forum to have you guesstimate a time length a pro could have completed it in, then I'll tell you (and watch you gasp) how much longer it took me to finish it off.
Check back in later I'm almost done...
04/14/2009 (6:38 am)
@ ebgeneral ball park answers will do, but I also see what you mean. Painting can get very serious in detail. I am almost done with the concept poster for my game, I'll run that past here on the forum to have you guesstimate a time length a pro could have completed it in, then I'll tell you (and watch you gasp) how much longer it took me to finish it off.
Check back in later I'm almost done...
#5
Also try and avoid blur or smudge, maybe just along the edges of a brush stroke to drift it into another is okay, that's how I avoid hard edges in real life oil paintings (so tecehnically that's smudge).
04/14/2009 (8:33 am)
Don't use lighten or darken (dodge and burn) it's hacky! Use a fresh colour and paint it in, just like a real painting. You can put it on a new layer and alter translucency after you've made the marks.Also try and avoid blur or smudge, maybe just along the edges of a brush stroke to drift it into another is okay, that's how I avoid hard edges in real life oil paintings (so tecehnically that's smudge).
#6
Justin: I've never had to set up hot keys to pull specific brushes, so I'm not sure about an answer there. That said, the "less than"/"greater than" keys on the keyboard ( , and . ) step through the brushes, so if you create your brushes right next to each other you can use those keys to step back and forth between them.
Do you know about using the numeric keypad to adjust the opacity of your brush? 0=100%. Also, holding in "shift" while hitting a key on the keypad will adjust your flow.
I never flatten my source file, but then I don't use a painterly technique.
---
EDIT: Also, are you painting with a tablet, or a mouse?
04/23/2009 (8:12 am)
Steve: Lighten and Darken are blending modes and are different from dodge and burn. I'm not sure what would be hacky about using lighten and darken. It allows for blending of colors that can't be achieved with translucency alone. And applied with translucency, it allows for a wide range of effects. The same blending modes that can be used on a brush, are also used for layers, so if you paint on a layer with a mode applied to your brush, and then change the layer mode... it might lead to interesting things, or it might override the brush mode...I'm not sure. Never tried it.Justin: I've never had to set up hot keys to pull specific brushes, so I'm not sure about an answer there. That said, the "less than"/"greater than" keys on the keyboard ( , and . ) step through the brushes, so if you create your brushes right next to each other you can use those keys to step back and forth between them.
Do you know about using the numeric keypad to adjust the opacity of your brush? 0=100%. Also, holding in "shift" while hitting a key on the keypad will adjust your flow.
I never flatten my source file, but then I don't use a painterly technique.
---
EDIT: Also, are you painting with a tablet, or a mouse?
#7
Those are awesome hotkeys Collin, never used them before but I think I will now. I need to learn how to set up my brushes in there own file, instead of loading new ones everytime I need "Natural Brushes 2" back to "Basic Brushes," for example.
Like Collin said, I dont use Dodge and Burn except on extreme rare occasions, but I do use the Lighten and Darken modes with fresh new colors. It only lays on the ( in Lighten mode) color if the underlying pixels are darker than the current brush color. That being said I often jump back and forth between lighten and darken on the drop down menu to go back and forth at times where I need detail.
The Opacity numbers sound awesome, especially on a tough area of the painting. Never heard of them either, but I'm gonna try them out.
04/23/2009 (6:37 pm)
I am using a stylus, God I can't imagine painting with a mouse. Those are awesome hotkeys Collin, never used them before but I think I will now. I need to learn how to set up my brushes in there own file, instead of loading new ones everytime I need "Natural Brushes 2" back to "Basic Brushes," for example.
Like Collin said, I dont use Dodge and Burn except on extreme rare occasions, but I do use the Lighten and Darken modes with fresh new colors. It only lays on the ( in Lighten mode) color if the underlying pixels are darker than the current brush color. That being said I often jump back and forth between lighten and darken on the drop down menu to go back and forth at times where I need detail.
The Opacity numbers sound awesome, especially on a tough area of the painting. Never heard of them either, but I'm gonna try them out.
#8
04/25/2009 (3:26 pm)
You might want to also check out the effect of the blend mode "Multiply". I use that a fair amount for shading. 
Associate Russell Fincher
Sickhead Games