INTRO

Hello! I'm Gpx and you're all welcome to this tutorial on how to express light direction and color in clip studio paint. here I will try to generalize a bit (then specify and example) to make it easy for others to assimilate with their workflow ('😏your welcome!'). That said, this tutorial is separated into three parts:-

-BASIC OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS,

 

-SOME LIGHTING TECHNIQUES AND

 

-SOME SPECIAL LIGHT EFFECTS and HOW I APPLY THEM ~(￣▽￣)~

A. BASIC OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS ON OBJECTS

The simplest separation one can have of light and shadow(my opinion) on an object will be the light region(full light, halftone), form shadow region(reflected light, shadow edge), and cast shadow region.😮

1. FULL LIGHT/HIGHLIGHT: The full light is essentially the spot hit by a primary light source. its exhibits the high light intensity of the original light source(color/hue).

 

2\. HALFTONE: it's the faded spread of the full light. it is basically the “tone” you get “halfway” to your shadow. Your halftone will generally be a shade of color halfway between the color you used for your full light and the color you will use for your shadow.

 

3\. SHADOW EDGE: it's the darkest area on the object, for it's neither affected by primary nor reflected light.

 

4\. REFLECTED LIGHT: coming from other unclear sources in the surrounding(generally), produces areas of slight brightness over the shadow area.

 

5\. CAST SHADOW: is the area which is screened by the object from the primary light source. 

For those who can't do the above, here are some simple steps with some clip studio default tool, which I used to get my result.😐

simple sphere shading steps (┬┬﹏┬┬)

-I first fill my circle, then use the default "mechanical pencil" i paint over a new layer(1) with a lighter(compared to the one initially filled).

-Then I added another lighter color than the previous one on a new layer(2) and use the soft spray to create any reflected light.

 

-Then blend the edges accordingly with the blender brush

-I then used a "round mixing brush" and blur its edges for the light spot

-then i set layer '2' to add glow and layer '1' screen.

-The last thing is to produce a cast shadow, done by duplicating the base color layer, transforming it to the ground, and blurring the edges.('😉easy right?!')

total layer and distribution

NOTE :

Though the concept of lighting goes deeper than that, I will stick to this before moving forward (but the above can be further simplified when your work doesn't require all the glowing/shinning details).🤔

It's also good to note that when applying these effects(especially "reflected light"), one must take into account the surrounding light source(s).😢

B. SOME LIGHTING TECHNIQUES 🤗

1. Using the approximate volume shape

What's next can also be seen as how to apply the sphere shading above.

if one can approximate the figures(human anatomy below) to a set of deformed spheres, he can also easily come out with the following.🙄

 

steps:-

-use "Bezier curve" or "Continuous curve" from the figure tool for the outline,

-delete the intersecting lines which are below a fill(future)

-fill the deformed circles

 

Now that we see which circle is placed over which, and how each is positioned with respect to the primary light source, we can easily come out with this...

-use the auto-select tool to select a particular circle

-and shade over a new layer(i used a soft spray here)

 

ಠ_ಠ 'you following right?'

next,

-remove the spheres(🤨'not necessarily delete- just un-see it '),

-adjust the edges (erase, blend, blur)and

-blend the light layer over the base character(I used overlay here).

 

🤯? 😏no rush there's more to come😏!

 

one can give more life to the art by,

-duplicate the key light layer

• make a selection using "crtl+ click new layer image" then shrink it(I did it by 30)

 

 

-delete outside a selection on the new layer and

 

 

• inside a selection on the old(original) layer.

 

-use layer blending mode "add glow" on the new layer, and filter it using "gaussian blur"

 

o(一︿一+)o 'hope i'm not going too fast?'

not bad, heh?（︶^︶）you can see this add a nice diffusion and transition of light along the shadow edge (terminator specifically)

 

 

NOTE: in case you used multiple colors for your light, use the "copy stamp" tool to quickly fill missing regions (even if the region has a gradient).

 

if there's a secondary light source introduced, it's easy to re-use the deformed spheres to shade with respect to light direction, then use layer opacity to adjust each light intensity.

Well, the beauty here is if the light source are of different color, you can easily adjust those as each color are on the individual layer(mine is stuck in pink setting so...🤐)

2. Using clip studio 3d models <( ￣^￣)-🥛

When one uses a clip studio 3d model as a reference, they can easily use the "extraction of lines and tones" utility to get a nice selection for their light and shadow. here's how it's done...😎

yeah! it's the same girl again.🤧

 

 

 

after getting to the shading step, move to the sub tool "operation" and select the object sub tool.

next, select your 3d figure layer(click on 3d figure on your screen) to make the tool property appears

then click on the ratchet-icon on the bottom right corner of the tool property palette(or along the bar that appears on the screen below the 3d figure).

next move to "light source", and adjust the light direction(ball) or intensities(1 & 2) as needed.

 

next right-click the 3d figure layer and select "extract lines and tones". this leads to a screen as below where...

-you'll use the same settings as mine (outside the box- make sure to check 'preview'),

-don't mind that in the crossed box and

-use the posterization bar to easily adjust selection over figure(increase or decrease number or size of selection).

you can add selections by clicking on an empty region

and adjusting a selection by dragging it along the bar

 

next press ok and delete the "fill layer" and "outline layer" automatically created.

 

you can thus use these selections to easily paint over detailed light expressions, or create correction layer, mask layers😯 and any other thing you had to use manual selection for before

if you wonder where this cute gothic style came from- I just darken my character's texture.

I think it suits here better, right? (🙄not really asking😁)

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ 'let the jaw hit the desk already?!'

 

 

by the way, hope you noticed I didn't speak much about shadows in this work. the reason is I created seemingly largely diffusing light pattern. as such dark regions(shadows) appeared naturally.

but you can still add your own personal pitch black region as the technique will naturally be the same.

 

This is essentially helpful for the visual effect of light on human anatomy but can be quite useful and fast when used appropriately.

 

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ 'here we go!'

C. SOME SPECIAL LIGHT EFFECTS and HOW I APPLY THEM ~(￣▽￣)~

1. Expressing Color🤐

The screen blending mode

Being the opposite of 'multiply', it brightens the layer below and merges it with the blending layer color. It's quite good when one whish to introduce reflective light on non-glowing (dull) surfaces.

-it tends to show a whitish version of the color which was initially brighter.

-it can be used to brighten a particular area in a manner

The add/add glow blending mode

This one does literally what it says, adds- adds both color RBG value to give a brighter one. this is a good blending mode for good reflective surfaces.

       The add and add glow blending mode produce the same effect with add glow producing a 

stronger effect on semi-transparent areas.

 

while the screen blending mode retains its color(hue) faintly, the add/add glow is more prompt to losing it in exchange for higher brightness. it's also good for light sources

 

The color dodge blending mode

 

This blending mode is also good for highlights or when expressing a highly saturated light source but gives a stronger color effect.

This is because the color dodge blending mode strives to increase brightness while maintaining saturation, even if the result might be a completely different color than both mixed in some cases.

but when having a dark scenario, this blending mode can gives off a cool display of light.

 

The overlay/hard light/ soft light blending mode🤧

They can be called composite blending modes because they apply the effect of some other blending modes simultaneously. because of this its quit nice to edit layer with mix light and darkness

 

-The overlay {multiply/screen}: This is a good blending mode for background light or AB light. it can also be a good mode to blend texture over a color

 

-soft light {burn/dodge} and hard light {multiply/screen}: I frequently use them for texture lighting, since it takes care of both dark and light regions over the texture image, since it applies light with good emphasis on the distinct color it constitute.

The main difference between the overlay and the hard light is their neutral color.

 

Neutral color: the color which does affect the underlying color when placed on the blending layer. [50% gray] for overlay and [black] for Hard light

2. creating a light source (white/color)

To create a white light source, one should...

-use the soft brush tool to stack up color(s) of different sized brush stroke with increasing saturation. Starting with the lowest saturation (covering the desired area), then set the blending mode to addglow or color dogde

the higher the number of strokes the better(but one can also use blur at the end is the source looks edgy as above) .

also to change or add color while keeping it nature,

-duplicate the light source layer and change hue to desired color

-set blending mode of this new layer to color doge.

3. Expressing Direction with gradient and mask layer

light appears pretty much always as a gradient. so, to give direction I start by creating the scenario (night, day, winter ).

I then move to create a gradient that represent the light source with screen blending mode (to keep a faint blue color and back ground color).

apply a dark mask (to mask the whole color first), then using the soft brush I draw out the region the rays pass through.

NOTE: here, I'm drawing on the mask layer not the gradient layer

 

please check how to use mask layers below (move straight to masking, pretty short😉)...

1. dark layer mask before brush

2. layer mask after brush

also when one has a figure or person as in my sample, its easy to make a selection if you used 3d figure(as taught above) or

-make a selection of the flat color

-move to the main light layer and choose "copy and paste" from the selection menu bar.

-then adjust with brush and eraser the selection to obtain the following

1. "ctrl + leftclick " to select

2. copy and paste the light layer

3. adjust the mask

I think, this should wraps up pretty much everything😫, Thank you for reading till the end😅 and till next time.😷

 

 

keep creating!┗( T﹏T )┛