Introduction

Hello im Sam! Welcome to "A guide to gradient maps: all you need to know" in this article we will look at how to use Gradient maps as a beginner, but also know how to use them to its full potential and learning to use them with different methods to get to different results.

 

I hope that by the end of this tutorial you learn how to use gradient maps and enjoy using them, because its a really fun and useful tool to use!

What are gradient maps?

Let's start defining what gradient maps are, They are a powerful tool that can change the colors of an image using a gradient. The way it works is pretty simple: through mapping, the tool replaces colors by their value within a tonal range, measuring this from black to white, which is known as the grayscale range.

 

Mapping is a way to assign something in one set to another thing in a different set. In a gradient map, what happens is that color A from set 1 is going to be replaced with the same color from set 2. Basically your layer is the set 1 and our gradient map is the set 2, all your colors have different numbers depending on their value within the a range that is measured by the tint or the shade of your color and its going to be replaced based on their value within something in the grayscale range.

 

Grayscale: Shadow and Light understanding

Let's define what a grayscale is, it is know as a group of shades without any visible color that goes from black to white (A to B), this said process is done by measuring the light and shadow whiting the image.

Its good to know how to use this to your advantage, mostly because drawing in grayscale lets you understand concepts like contrast, light and depth, also using this will make your art look a lot better, giving it a sense of profundity and making it look more appealing and eye-catching.

 

Even though your drawing may look good, it can be better, sometimes you can have a big variety of colors but the tint or shade is almost the same, when we desaturate this leaving it with only a grayscale gradient the colors may look almost, if not the same, here comes the problem of not having a main focus on our artwork and the colors combining themselves.

 

Heres and example, here we have the same drawing with 2 different color options, one of them has almost, if not the same values of tints and shades, in and the second one, The colors implemented are the same as the first option but the tints and shades are more diverse.

 

When we desaturate both, we can notice at first sight, that our first example looks really plain, the character doesn't have a contrast with the background and the colors are mostly the same shade and tint. In the second example we can see a difference within the background and the character the colors are clearly more diverse, which makes it eye-catching and gives it a sense of profundity.

 

When using a gradient map in both of them, the first one wont change much, but the second one will have a wide range to change in the grayscale range, meaning that the variety in the colors will be more extense.

 

Gradient maps basics: Tools and functions

Before we start we need to know where the gradient maps tab is, with your layer previously selected, lets go Edit > Tonal Correction > Gradient map.

 

Another option is to right click your layer and add a new correction layer, setting it up as gradient map.

The one you decide to choose is mostly up to you, but we will see both of these methods later and how they work.

Once you are in the gradient maps tab you’ll have something like this, right now it looks really complicated, so let's separate this several sections.

A) Gradient settings

B) Gradient set

C) Position

D) Color

E) Mixing rate curve

F) Preview

A) Gradient settings

1. Color bar: A preview of the gradient.

2. Nodes: Set the colors in the gradient, lets you create an extra node if you click on an empty space, you can also drag them in the bar to adjust your gradient.

3. Select left or right node: Switches to the next node, to the left or right.

4. Reverse gradient: Flips all the nodes in the gradient.

5. Delete node: deletes the selected node.

B) Gradient set

1. Gradient sets lists: Shows you a list of different gradients sets to choose from.

2. Gradient set menu: Different settings, when clicked shows another display (referred below)

3. Gradient list: The gradients to select inside a gradient set.

4. Up and down: Move the position of the selected gradient up or down.

5. Replace gradient: Overwrites the selected gradient with the one in the color bar.

6. Apply to gradient: Loads the selected gradient to the color bar.

7. Duplicate Gradient: Duplicates the selected gradient.

8. Add Gradient: Creates a new gradient based on the one displayed in the color bar.

9. Delete gradient: Deletes the selected gradient.

 

Gradient set menu:

1. Create new set: Creates a new set to save your gradients.

2. Delete set: Deletes the selected set.

3· Duplicate set: Duplicates the selected set.

4. Settings of the set: Change the name of the selected set.

5. Register set as material: Allows to register as a material the selected gradient set.

6. Add gradient set: Lets you import gradient sets previously downloaded as materials.

7. Add gradient: Creates a new gradient based on the one displayed in the color bar.

8. Delete gradient: Deletes the selected gradient.

9. Duplicate gradient: Duplicates the selected gradient.

10. Change gradient name: Lets you change the name of the gradient you have selected.

11. Replace gradient: Overwrites the selected gradient with the one in the color bar.

12. Apply to gradient settings: Loads the selected gradient to the color bar.

13. Import gradient: Import a gradient settings file.

 

C) Position

Indicates de position of the selected node.

 

D) Color

Indicates de color of the selected node.

You can change between the main, the sub color or choose a specific color manually or with the eyedropper.

 

E) Mixing rate curve

·Lets you adjust how the color changes in the selected color node on the left and the right.

·The horizontal axis shows the position of the nodes.

·The vertical axis indicates how the color will mix in relation to the node of the right or left.

Note: You can add up to 16 nodes in the graph.

 

F) Preview

Lets you preview the results on canvas, you can turn it on or off.

Making your first gradient

Now that we know what the tools do and where they're located, we are going to make our first gradient map. Let's start by creating a new gradient set and giving it a name.

Then we will add some nodes and choose some colors for each node, the more selection and range in colors the more varied the changes will be. As you can see, the changes are directly reflected on the canvas, but if you don't like this option, or you want to use the eyedropper to copy colors from the canvas, you can just deactivate the preview, Click it to uncheck the box.

We can keep it just as simple as adding nodes and choosing colors, or we can use the mixing rate curve, mostly using this option will let you have certain variety in relation of how the colors mix with each other.

Once we are happy with the gradient we made we are going to save it clicking on create new gradient, just in case you want to modify it later, you can click replace saved gradient.

Using gradient maps

Change the gradient

-Setting the gradient map as a correction layer

This is really simple to set up, first right click on a layer and select layer correction and select gradient maps, the good side of this tool is you can change the gradient just by clicking twice in the icon, and you can turn off the layer, it won't affect your color layers, one of the downsides of this method, is that it wont let you turn off the preview.

-Setting the gradient map directly on the layer

This method is as easy as the first one even though it has more steps, the only downside is that you won’t be able to maintain the original colors and you will need to duplicate all your layers and merge them together for it to work, in this method you will be able to turn on and off the preview option.

 

Change the color

The way we make our layer to set up the gradient wont the performance of the ways we can change the colors in our canvas.

 

-Change the color value alike

In the gradient map tool, we are just going to change the colors to our liking, when we are done with that, we are going to save it, the colors will be modified evenly.

 

-Adding color in sections

With the help of the selection tools or selection wand and masking layers we can select the parts in our artwork to modify the colors, in both methods we will use the mask option to specify the colors in each zone, i consider this is a good method in case you don't want all your artwork under the same color scheme and you want to give more variation in tones that may be the same.

Layer blend modes

-Gradient maps are the best when combined with layer blend modes and set to a certain opacity, it lets you add different ambients and set ups to your drawing, for example, change the colors to make it a night or day set, also it gives you an option to add effects or lights or shadow effects to your artwork.

-Besides, using the layer modes lets you balance your colors in case they won't go along together or they just seem off. let's say you have a really colorful character but the colors don't match or look off, when adding a correction layer with gradient maps, you can use the layer blend modes and experiment with different gradients to find something that gets along better.

Get gradient maps from the assets store!

Its a good option to make your own gradient maps, but you know what else is great, the asset store, here you can find materials created by other people, with that we can look for gradients and gradient sets!

Conclusion

I hope that you find this useful and you end up using 1 or 2 things learned from here, in case you have any question feel free to ask, its always better to ask things if you don't know them than not asking at all! And always remember, the only limits are the ones you put on yourself, you can always experiment and try new things!

If you want to see more of my artwork be sure to look at my link tree, i don't bite... or maybe i do?