Questions for Amber about stuff!

[Mystiqe]

just for those who've always wanted to ask miss Amber about things art related. Like for instance:

Hey, Amber, how do you cell shade hair that has colored tips that are airbrushed? Like Regina's wall paper for instance. I've been trying to get into cell shading, and tips from other artists is always helpful

[Damaris]

Amber on Damaris computer: I will warn the big downside to asking art questions...is that many of the things are not exactly things that I can easily explain in text without the use of a dozen screenshots of the process in photoshop. 

As for the hair, its really just a trick that involves layers and masks.  In Regina's case, I will shade her hair normally, then when done, I will select all the hair, duplicate the layer, inverse selection, delete (getting rid of everything but the hair on that layer), inverse again and then use the fill tool to make that layer of hair look like she has black hair.  Then I will use a layer mask on the black hair layer which lets me use an airbrush to make parts transparent...thus the blend.  When done, I just smush the layers together.

Of course...if people have never worked well with layers or the mask tool...they will have no clue what the heck I just did.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Makes sense to me, although I probably couldn't repeat the work... ;-]

[Kenji]

Use puppets.

[Mystiqe]

how do you shade gradients then?

[Damaris]

Amber from Damaris computer: I shade gradients? O_o'

[Jack McSlay]

For cell-shading, I like to use vectors myself. takes longer to shade the first time, but second layers are easy to make, because you can copy the other layer and just adjust the control points

[RobbieThe1st]

You know, I just thought of a simpler way to do that:

• Create a new transparent layer.
• Select all the hair on the main layer.
• Now, select the new transparent layer, and, using the fill bucket, fill the selection with black(or white, if you want it lighter instead of darker).
• Change your alpha value to change how dark/light you want the overlay.
• Finally, using the eraser, remove all but the sections you want to keep.

I *think* that is the same, correct me if I am wrong.


-RobbieThe1st[/list]

[Mystiqe]

like umm... when you shaded http://www.mabsland.com/Art4b/Pink_Glory.jpg the rainbow gradient

if im making any sense XD

[WhiteFox]

My guess? Tablet.

One thing I like to do, and this is with hair, is make a path that looks like an individual hair highlight. Fill, move it, fill, move it, and occaionaly adjust the paths size/shape for variance. Wash, rinse, repeat. You could probably get similar results, but it'd be pretty time intensive.  that's how I did this guy's hair: feliciano.jpg

Of course, everything worth doing is usually time intensive.

[Edit] On second glance, I'm seeing a lot more gradients than I noticed the first time. Wow.

[Jack McSlay]

I think that's not gradient work. The color transitions appear to be made in a non-straightlined rather than a arithmetical way.

To my see, the easiest path to achieve the effect is by a blur effect. Place the colors the way you want (preferably in separate layers), create a mask so only the parts you want are affected, and apply a really heavy blur on the layer(s)

I can make up a tutorial, but It'll be in either GIMP or Paint Shop Pro. I don't have Photoshop because none of its features seemed useful to me to compensate the high price.

[Amber Williams]

Lasso tool + Dodge/Burn.