Shading pains... x_X

Shurikane · Dim Panties As String Joined: 24 Sep 2002

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29320088/

Details are at the link. I'm trying to shade this pic in vector, but because my last art class was in Grade 9 (as in... 7 years ago?) and I have zero knowledge on art concepts and techniques, I humbly require assistance to get those damned colors down pat. Embarassed

Sketch · Otaku Knight Gender: Joined: 30 Sep 2004

there are several tutorials you can look up.. Devantart has a few that could tell you how to Cg in the photoshop section ^_~

Yunni · Is a broken record. Gender: Joined: 15 Jul 2005

Arg, I haven't one clue about Vector really, but... lemme take a gander *peeks*

Looks like the sort of thing you'd 'cell shade' to me! Pretty easy with vector, I assume, once you know how. Hrem.... well first when tackling ANY shading, I'd figure out where the lightsource is. The most difficult part will be the face, from the looks of it.

What I tend to do, is look up lighting references / photographs on google, or in any books I have, but usually I find using yourself is a good and quick reference. Get a table lamp and a desk-mirror, mate : D Same applies to the legs and chest really. The character has no visable boobage, so I can only assume you are going for the 'flatter-chested' person, so once again - using yourself as a ref won't be a problem, really.

*ponders* I'm no genious when it comes to colouring... what programme are you using??

Shurikane · Dim Panties As String Joined: 24 Sep 2002

Here's the original I'm working from: http://fanart.shurikane.com/Elise/elise-01.jpg

The boobage isn't showing on mine because I haven't drawn it yet. >_> I won't be using clear black lines for that but rather try to see if the shading will do the job alone.

Two: I want to move the light source from the top to the upper-left corner and slightly in front of the character. That means every white part will go just a little to the left and down. Ironically enough, the face and arms will be the easiest part because she has white skin. Very Happy

The most difficult part of all is the hair.

Oh, and I'm using CorelDRAW 8, after which I touch up a bit using Corel PhotoPAINT.

Yunni · Is a broken record. Gender: Joined: 15 Jul 2005

Ahhhh! Gottcha on the boobage part ^_^ I haven't used those programmes however

!! What I tend to do for cell-shady-type stuff in photoshop, is to use seperate layers and also the lasso tool to select/draw the area I want to 'shade'.. however I am not sure of the CorelDRAW / PhotoPAINT equivalents are >.<;; Although instead of typical cell-shading, I like to use a mixture of hard and soft brushes with different opacity levels o.o But once again, I am not sure on the interface of Coral-stuff.

Shurikane · Dim Panties As String Joined: 24 Sep 2002

Corel PhotoPAINT is the equivalent of Adobe Photoshop except most tools have other names and are placed elsewhere.

CorelDRAW is a vector art program, so it's best for cel-shade looks and "simple" designs, and it's far more powerful on curvy stuff, since I don't need to erase everything I do but rather adjust the curve of a line, which rocks boxers.

Yunni · Is a broken record. Gender: Joined: 15 Jul 2005

Well, I haven't made any tutorials myself but here is a 'straight to the point' colour tutorial a dood did on DA, hopefuly it'll translate well to Coral PhotoPAINT. But vector cell-shade wise... I fail

The dood I linked too said he MAY do a cell-shade tutorial in the future... but that isn't too helpful right now x_X;;; <-- mission failed.

Teh tutorial

E D I T:

Woo, found a good tutorial that covers-what you may want to know. It starts from initial pencil drawing to finish - and it doesn't really cover the precise method of cell-shading... useful tips though : D

Another tutorial

Yunni · Is a broken record. Gender: Joined: 15 Jul 2005

The lastscoinz dood on DA (the first tutorial I linked) did a cel-shade tutorial now, as well : D

Teh cel-shade tutorial!

Shurikane · Dim Panties As String Joined: 24 Sep 2002

Here's where I am at right now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/Shurikane/elise-vector-07.jpg

The Rendering Tutorial helped a lot in order to figure out the hair shapes but I decided to let go of that and focus on something else instead. I took care of applying some depth to the legs and the chestplate. I'm not too sure about the simple highlight and shadow I applied to the legs but at least it's less flat than it was before. I also fear her breast is also drooping slightly to the right (viewer's POV)... Or actually that part of it's hidden behind her arm (which doesn't make sense.)

I also decreased the line weight for the part of the hair that connects with her face. Her eyebrow is currently sitting in front of the hair but that'll be fixed in a final edit later on.

Finally found out the eyes were missing the characteristic Anime glare. It's very tiny at the moment so I wonder if I should make these bigger.

The hair's still the same way it was before because I haven't touched it and I want to keep at least one of these patched as color reference. I want to eventually lay down a single patch of highlight to the left, where the light source is, then lay a darker patch to the right, after which I lay the "white bar" on top. Still, I'd like to one day explore the "clump by clump" avenue a bit, because I swear I've seen that done before and I find it a lot more beautiful and consistent than the cel shading from the tutorial.