- WELCOME -

Hello, and welcome to this tutorial about "gradient maps"!ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ

 

Let me introduce myself: I'm Lemon, a student in 3D animation, and I've been drawing on clip studio paint for a little over 5 years!

This tutorial will aim to explain to you how "Gradient Maps" work, a really useful and nice tool allowing you to go from black and white to color in a single click:

This tutorial is for a beginner level, I personally had a hard time understanding its functions well, and I tried to learn it on my own ( ´ ▽ ` )

So I'm going to share my experience with you and what I learned!

This tutorial was made on the ipad pro, with Clip Studio Paint ex

1 - What is it?

To understand how gradient maps work, you must first see the gradients themselves:

They are located here:

By clicking on this icon, we arrive at the place where some of our gradients are stored:

To see the entire list, go to this tab and press the key:

Then on the new window that opens, click on "advanced settings"

We arrive at this window:

There is a drop-down menu, in which you can see all the gradients that you have added

To add new ones, you have to go to the key again:

We then click on "add a set of gradients"

We arrive on this window, where are the gradients that I have downloaded from the Clip Studio Paint store

To add them to our drop-down menu, simply click on one of them, then click add

You can then simply click on the icon at the bottom to be able to select them, then add them all at once, like this:

You can then find them in the drop-down menu, they are arranged there in chronological order, which I find quite practical to find your way around afterwards!

2 - How to use it?

In my experience, there are three different ways to use gradient maps:

a: color black and white areas

b: create colored filters to create an atmosphere

c: fully colorize an illustration to have a solid palette

I will explain each of these three points below!

a: Coloring small areas and a character:

At the beginning of learning color on digital, it is quite complicated to understand how light works with colors

That's why working in black and white first, with gray values is a good way to understand how light works.

The gradient maps will thus allow us to add color over the black and white in a single click!

To illustrate all this, I will use this illustration that I made in black and white:

I very clearly separated each part in different layers to be able to add the color zone by zone, so that everything is clear and clean!

To create a map, there are two different ways, which I will show you:

first of all, you have to select the layer where you want to put the color, I'll start with the hair:

Right click then go to "new correction layer" and then to "gradient map"

Automatically, a layer will be created above, and a window will open

We have to do something before, so press "ok" so that the window closes, we can find it later

As it is, the layer affects all the other layers below it, as I only want to modify the color of my hair, I will press this icon so that it is active only above:

Once it's done, you can reopen the window to add the color!

Just click here and you'll come back to it:

We just have to choose the desired color for our hair:

The gradient is read from left to right on the frieze. On the left are the dark values (black), then when you slide to the right, you end up with the light values (white)

This is why most of the gradients go from the darkest to the lightest, it is to follow the system of shadows and light, the colors that are most to the left will go to the darkest areas of the image. image, then it continues like this until the lightest shade! (＾▽＾)

Once this system is understood, gradients are very easy to use

And we can have fun with it and choose different colors for the hair:

I like this one I will keep it!

We will now focus on this famous frieze.

 

It is possible to move the small arrows at the bottom, which will thus make the colors move on our model

You can also remove them by pulling them out of the frieze, but also add them by simply pressing on the frieze

I increase the dark side a little bit, and press "ok" when satisfied

The advantage of having created a correction layer is that it does not affect the layer where I painted in black and white

It will act like a mask, which we can remove at any time if we don't like it anymore, it's a non-destructive way of working, which avoids a lot of problems ∑d(°∀°d)

 

We just have to hide this layer to find the black and white version

I will now show you the second way to make a gradient map:

I'm going to do the skin now, so as for the hair I'm going to go to the skin layer then you have to go to the "Edit" menu then "tone correction" and finally click on "gradient map"

I use gradients made especially for the skin, you can find a download link at the bottom of this tutorial (￣ω￣)

For the skin, it will almost always be necessary to modify the frieze with the small arrows to adapt the intensity of the shadows and the lights

I tried to add some green for a slightly sick side but I'm not a big fan of the result so I didn't keep it, but this is how you add color in the gradients:

Of course, no matter what changes you make to the frieze, it doesn't affect the basic gradients at all, they stay the same.

The difference with this method to create a map is that it will be done directly on the black and white layer, and therefore destroy what we have done

It's quite dangerous if we ever don't like it we have to go back, and sometimes we can't because of other actions, so I recommend to use the first method

However it is very useful for some things!

For example these little lines were created with the map, to get rid of them I can easily use the blur tool and blur them

Like this !

Of course, the gradient maps do not prevent us from modifying the colors afterwards, I find that it lacks a bit of pink so I will add it slightly with a soft eraser:

I create a new layer above and I lightly brush the skin on the cheeks, the bottom of the eyes, the shoulders and the nose (°▽°)

I then finish the image quickly, not needing a gradient map for the others, because the liquid is only white and the eyes are only black

Off gradient map is only useful with shades of gray

And we can then have a very cool effect on the skin and hair in just a few clicks! ( ´ ▽ ` )

b: Create filters for a colorful atmosphere

I really like to play with colored atmospheres for my illustrations, this technique which I follow is very useful for finishing touches!

I like to do this to finish and warm up the scene a little more as well as the colors

To make these filters, we're first going to need our illustration on a single layer, so we're going to duplicate and merge to avoid destroying our work, and we also need two different versions here

So I select all my layers and I just click on this option:

The software duplicated then merged everything I selected

So I go to this new layer at the very top, and as we saw before, I just create a gradient map:

I slightly modify the black and white frieze to have a stronger contrast, and bring more light where I want it

Once done I click on "ok" to save it and I redo a gradient map, to add color this time!

As my illustration takes place during a sunset, I choose orange to warm up my scene

I then add a blending mode to this layer, here it's "overlay" but it can be any, as long as it works with what you want to have (°▽°)

Since it was way too strong, I lowered the opacity until I liked it

And then I try another with purple this time, to bring out the flowers and give a magical atmosphere

I lightly erase my character to keep light on her and that she doesn't get lost in the background

I put the blending mode "soft light" and I lower the opacity again

I only showed two filters here, but you can do as many as you want, it can have very different atmospheres according to your desire

Don't be afraid to overdo it, and be creative above all!

c: Color an entire illustration

This is surely the favorite function of this tool!

When I finish an illustration, I really like to have fun testing different cards to give them strange colors, which would take too long to do by hand.

I only need one layer this time, with all my black and white artwork on it, like this:

Then I come and create maps on top, and I let myself go, trying lots of fun things

It's also an interesting function, because it allows you to keep a defined palette for the illustration, and thus have something united and more interesting!

Here is an example of several renders that I tested:

But you can also color drafts very quickly with this tool!

We start with a black and white version for the lights, then we add a color that suits us with a card and it will be very useful for making the final illustration!

The important thing is to be creative, it's a very powerful tool that allows a lot of things once you understand how it works!

4 - Download

Thank you to all these artists who created these sets of gradients, they are really good and the colors very harmonious!

- END -

Thanks for following through!

 

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me on clip studio or instagram (´▽`)

Instagram : _lemon_night