space for next Made to assist @Lakestorm and anyone else who needs it! How to shade in FireAlpaca! Actually, shading also works in a similar way in Photoshop. This is relatively simple, as I'm not especially familiar with the program. 1. Program window. This is a tutorial for FireAlpaca, after all! 2. Colored character without shading. The lines are on the top layer, the color is behind it, and the background on the last layer will dictate the light source (because I'm lazy and just used a photo; usually you make the light source first, and then shade backgrounds and characters accordingly.) 3. Use a new layer on top of unshaded colors, but still below the lines. This is the first pass using a color slightly darker than the original flat color with the pencil brush option. I'll only be showing the hair as an example. When shading, remember that although it is a 2D drawing, it is a representation of a 3D form and should be shaded as such. You may want to do some people watching to observe how light falls on their faces & bodies from different angles. In this case, the characters are backlit, so the outside edges are lighter while areas not facing, far away from, or blocked from the light source get progressively darker. With the pencil, the opacity is controlled by pen pressure, so less pressure makes the color "lighter" and more pressure makes the color "darker". This creates a gradient. 4. Cleaning up using the eraser. 5. Smoothing out the gradient using the blur brush option. 6. In-between steps, I actually made a second pass with the darker color and blurring. Now I have also made a pass with a lighter color at places with the brightest light intensity. As a note, the contrast between light and dark areas will be stronger if the light intensity is stronger. 7. Cleanup with eraser and blur again. This is how to create soft lighting, basically. Lighting with greater contrast still essentially works in the same manner. An alternate way is to pass with the pen brush option and not blur; that would resemble cell shading instead. For shading other parts that are adjacent, I'd suggest adding another layer so as not to mess up finished sections. However, when shading an area that is farther away from what's already there, you can use the same layer again so you don't end up with a ton of confusing layers. Or you can use a different layer for every section - either way works! Here's the rest of my drawing process - 8. Applied shading to both characters. Not quite done yet, though! These lines aren't too agreeable to Scratch... 9. Attempted compensation for Scratch. Successful? Not really. This part was done in Photoshop, btw. 10. Blurring up the background (also in Photoshop) 11. THE FILTERS ARE ON!!! Color correction and filters in Adobe Lightroom. 12. Bonus... Sepia/Black and white version.
Made in FireAlpaca, Photoshop, and Lightroom Don't chu dare use this for anything else I will hunt chu daawn Characters are versions of Eva and Neil from Sigmund Corp. series (To The Moon, etc.) by Freebird Games. Can you tell I'm obsessed?
