Original Post
Shading techniques in photoshop fully explained from almost noob to pro.
OK, well first off the title is a little deceptive, if your good at GIMP the you can probably also do most of these effects in it, I personally will be using Photoshop CS3 however these techniques are possible in anything past 7 and possible since 6... well certainly CS2 anyway.
That's about it for intros, here are the sections (they are in order of how easy there are, the top is easy the bottom is harder):
0:Blend modes
1:Gradients
2:Styles
3:Pixel shaded
4:Cell shading
5:Channels (required for the lighting section)
6:Lighting
n:Combination (requires all sections to be read or at least understood.)
(the n thing is a maths joke about anythings possible, I bet suomynona gets this :P)
0: Blending -----------------------------------------------------
this is simple but required, it's very important you understand how to use blend modes...
In photoshop look at your layers window (if it's not there toolbar>windows>layers) (If you don't know what layers are don't ask here, it's too basic for me to explain) in this window there are a few things that effect the layers interaction with the layer below, we are interested in opacity and blend mode.
Opacity should be obvious, but don't forget it's there it can control how powerful the blend mode is so be sure to use it if you don't like the effect because it is overpowered.
Blend mode isn't hard to use, there are a lot to chose from, and they all have important effects, there is a drop down list on the layers window at the top of it, if you click the text within it you will select it, then just use the arrow keys or scroll wheel to check out each blend mode one after the other, I wont explain them because there easy to get used to just by using them and looking at them.
Don't forget to use blend modes.
1: Grads
Gradients are easy but can be effective, here is a small few things that you can do with them.
(note grad is related to gradual so for people who don't know what a gradient is it is a gradual switch between hues, saturations, opacitys, and shades (if you don't know those terms look them up on wikipedia)
OK, in photoshop, click on your paint bucket then wait for the little tool change box to appear and select the gradient tool, now in the tool bar at the top, click on the current gradient to bring up the gradient editor.
there are a few gradients to select, just select pure black to pure white, then notice the long bar showing the gradient, here is where you can edit the gradient, along the top of the bar the markers tell you the opacity (100% = black, 0% = white) and along the bottom hue/shade/saturation.
now if you double click a marker you can change it's value, and if you click along the bottom/top of the bar you can add more markers, now just after this it gets useful, if you select any marker you can see a small dot left and/or right will appear, between it and the next marker, just click and drag this and you can change the bias of how the gradient changes.
other useful things are that the markers attributes are pointed out below or above them, such as primarily the location in a % form, just edit this directly if you want something mathematically aligned.
2: Styles
OK back to the layer window, double click any layer (apart from background layer) and the styles editor pops up, this will be more obvious if there is something on the layer, so paint some random lines or make a square or something (just don't fill the whole thing as it will mess up the stroke effect)
Now, this is maliciously overused by people who have no real idea what they are doing, if you use this, be subtle or effective, use it's dynamic properties to your benefit but don't overkill.
Effects that are good for shading purposes here are bevel, satin, outer/inner glow/shadow/drop shadow, gradient overlay and pattern overlay. (I'll talk more about pattens when we do pixel shading)
there really isn't much i can teach you on these effects, apart from avoid over doing them, avoid bevel, avoid drop shadow, and practice all of them often.
3:Pixel shading
Dithering -- look it up before we continue.
www.gas13.ru -- the expert on pixel art.
OK yea, now you can go in and edit each pixel your self, that's true pixel shading, but I'm gonna be talking about patterns, so for true pixel shading check out Google and gas13.
Patterns: (you need to know how to make patterns and save them, check the PS help docs if you don't know how.) right now these can be fun and useful, but more importantly they along with dithering can be used for interesting shading
try a few different very small patterns, such as stuff like a checker pattern which is often used to make materials look like a chrome material, basically just mess around, and once you have a few of these (I'd recommend them to only be at very max 5 by 5, and generally more like 3x3.)
once you have this you can find different ways of using it, generally using it with other techniques, like cell shading, or lighting.
4: Cell shading
Use the pen tool to basically select areas of a picture or create shades over/in a picture in order to shade.
Most seen used in anime.
There isn't much to explain here, but it's hard to do properly, it takes more practice than some of the others, but along with gradients it can be powerful.
more specific uses are things like making a path around the area that needs to be darkened or lightened, then selecting around the path (Ctrl+Click the layer or right click>make selection) then using feather and other such things to get the correct shading done.
5: Channels
This is a fairly simple thing to understand, they work a bit like layers, and in most new versions of photoshop just click the tab on the layers window that says channels to get to it, but also you can use Window>channels.
Now, the basic application I'm using them for here is to save my selections so that i can refer to them later... To do this Ctrl+click on your source selection (by source i mean like the path you are trying to save etc) then fill in with the paint bucket tool pure white on a new channel (by default this is Alpha n, n being the next number, so 1 first, then 2,3,4 etc. However you should rename these channels so it's easier to remember which is which.)
the advantage of channels saving selections is you can apply filters to them this allows for grater flexibility.
6: Lighting
Filter>Render>Lighting effects
This is an important one, using this you can shade an object much more dynamically and accurately, now once you have got the lighting effects window open, you can adjust lights, change the surface the light is projected onto (make it more plastic or metallic etc) and add new lights, but more importantly you can do this with a pseudo 3rd dimension because of channels.
Basically if you go to the bottom of the window and click the drop down list, then select a channel, it will apply that as a height map, white being high, and black low.
this can be used to a grate extent, one way i do it is get a nice font write up something then make it a selection and give it a channel, then Gaussian blur it for 10, then again for 6, then once more for 2, use lighting effects on the text layer after rasterizing it and get a nice effect out of it, a bit like bevel just good.
7: Combinations
OK here's where you need to get smart, and creative, and try things just for the sake of trying them, but generally you need to combine all these effects to get nice shading, however there are certain things you should know in order to combine them properly.
The most important thing to know is the tools that help you combine these shading techniques, mostly this is selections, knowing that you can Ctrl+Click something to select it is helpful, and also it is important to use paths to help you select things, so here are a few tips and useful things you can do.
1: instead of using drop shadow, select the object you want to shadow, then on a new layer below this fill in a dark gray (say, #333333 would be OK) and set it's blend to multiply, then Gaussian blur it for a large amount (this is subjective you may want a strong shadow or a fuzzy soft shadow, I prefer soft but you can chose) and reselect the layer you want shadowed and any parts of the picture you also do not want to receive this shadow and delete them with a quick click of the delete key.
2: only use certain layers for certain effects, i often use one of my layers that I've used lighting effects on in lighten or screen mode rather than in overlay or just on it's own, i prefer the look of it.
3: use all the selection tools, they are awesome for this stuff, expand, contract, feather, and so on, all good stuff.
4: use the guides, (View>rulers and View>new guide) these can be centered by typing in 50% instead of a number in pixels or what ever, and new guides can be dragged off the side rulers, you can also press Ctrl+R for rulers and Ctrl+H to hide selections, guides, paths and some other stuff, just press Ctrl+H to get them back.
5: don't overkill the image with graphics
6: always ask your self 'is this necessary?' and 'dose this do it's job, or dose it do too much?'
7: ask other peoples opinion, an easy way to upload is with a photobucket account.
8: practice more than the other guy.
Things i made recently with techniques described here:
Please comment.
That's about it for intros, here are the sections (they are in order of how easy there are, the top is easy the bottom is harder):
0:Blend modes
1:Gradients
2:Styles
3:Pixel shaded
4:Cell shading
5:Channels (required for the lighting section)
6:Lighting
n:Combination (requires all sections to be read or at least understood.)
(the n thing is a maths joke about anythings possible, I bet suomynona gets this :P)
0: Blending -----------------------------------------------------
this is simple but required, it's very important you understand how to use blend modes...
In photoshop look at your layers window (if it's not there toolbar>windows>layers) (If you don't know what layers are don't ask here, it's too basic for me to explain) in this window there are a few things that effect the layers interaction with the layer below, we are interested in opacity and blend mode.
Opacity should be obvious, but don't forget it's there it can control how powerful the blend mode is so be sure to use it if you don't like the effect because it is overpowered.
Blend mode isn't hard to use, there are a lot to chose from, and they all have important effects, there is a drop down list on the layers window at the top of it, if you click the text within it you will select it, then just use the arrow keys or scroll wheel to check out each blend mode one after the other, I wont explain them because there easy to get used to just by using them and looking at them.
Don't forget to use blend modes.
1: Grads
Gradients are easy but can be effective, here is a small few things that you can do with them.
(note grad is related to gradual so for people who don't know what a gradient is it is a gradual switch between hues, saturations, opacitys, and shades (if you don't know those terms look them up on wikipedia)
OK, in photoshop, click on your paint bucket then wait for the little tool change box to appear and select the gradient tool, now in the tool bar at the top, click on the current gradient to bring up the gradient editor.
there are a few gradients to select, just select pure black to pure white, then notice the long bar showing the gradient, here is where you can edit the gradient, along the top of the bar the markers tell you the opacity (100% = black, 0% = white) and along the bottom hue/shade/saturation.
now if you double click a marker you can change it's value, and if you click along the bottom/top of the bar you can add more markers, now just after this it gets useful, if you select any marker you can see a small dot left and/or right will appear, between it and the next marker, just click and drag this and you can change the bias of how the gradient changes.
other useful things are that the markers attributes are pointed out below or above them, such as primarily the location in a % form, just edit this directly if you want something mathematically aligned.
2: Styles
OK back to the layer window, double click any layer (apart from background layer) and the styles editor pops up, this will be more obvious if there is something on the layer, so paint some random lines or make a square or something (just don't fill the whole thing as it will mess up the stroke effect)
Now, this is maliciously overused by people who have no real idea what they are doing, if you use this, be subtle or effective, use it's dynamic properties to your benefit but don't overkill.
Effects that are good for shading purposes here are bevel, satin, outer/inner glow/shadow/drop shadow, gradient overlay and pattern overlay. (I'll talk more about pattens when we do pixel shading)
there really isn't much i can teach you on these effects, apart from avoid over doing them, avoid bevel, avoid drop shadow, and practice all of them often.
3:Pixel shading
Dithering -- look it up before we continue.
www.gas13.ru -- the expert on pixel art.
OK yea, now you can go in and edit each pixel your self, that's true pixel shading, but I'm gonna be talking about patterns, so for true pixel shading check out Google and gas13.
Patterns: (you need to know how to make patterns and save them, check the PS help docs if you don't know how.) right now these can be fun and useful, but more importantly they along with dithering can be used for interesting shading
try a few different very small patterns, such as stuff like a checker pattern which is often used to make materials look like a chrome material, basically just mess around, and once you have a few of these (I'd recommend them to only be at very max 5 by 5, and generally more like 3x3.)
once you have this you can find different ways of using it, generally using it with other techniques, like cell shading, or lighting.
4: Cell shading
Use the pen tool to basically select areas of a picture or create shades over/in a picture in order to shade.
Most seen used in anime.
There isn't much to explain here, but it's hard to do properly, it takes more practice than some of the others, but along with gradients it can be powerful.
more specific uses are things like making a path around the area that needs to be darkened or lightened, then selecting around the path (Ctrl+Click the layer or right click>make selection) then using feather and other such things to get the correct shading done.
5: Channels
This is a fairly simple thing to understand, they work a bit like layers, and in most new versions of photoshop just click the tab on the layers window that says channels to get to it, but also you can use Window>channels.
Now, the basic application I'm using them for here is to save my selections so that i can refer to them later... To do this Ctrl+click on your source selection (by source i mean like the path you are trying to save etc) then fill in with the paint bucket tool pure white on a new channel (by default this is Alpha n, n being the next number, so 1 first, then 2,3,4 etc. However you should rename these channels so it's easier to remember which is which.)
the advantage of channels saving selections is you can apply filters to them this allows for grater flexibility.
6: Lighting
Filter>Render>Lighting effects
This is an important one, using this you can shade an object much more dynamically and accurately, now once you have got the lighting effects window open, you can adjust lights, change the surface the light is projected onto (make it more plastic or metallic etc) and add new lights, but more importantly you can do this with a pseudo 3rd dimension because of channels.
Basically if you go to the bottom of the window and click the drop down list, then select a channel, it will apply that as a height map, white being high, and black low.
this can be used to a grate extent, one way i do it is get a nice font write up something then make it a selection and give it a channel, then Gaussian blur it for 10, then again for 6, then once more for 2, use lighting effects on the text layer after rasterizing it and get a nice effect out of it, a bit like bevel just good.
7: Combinations
OK here's where you need to get smart, and creative, and try things just for the sake of trying them, but generally you need to combine all these effects to get nice shading, however there are certain things you should know in order to combine them properly.
The most important thing to know is the tools that help you combine these shading techniques, mostly this is selections, knowing that you can Ctrl+Click something to select it is helpful, and also it is important to use paths to help you select things, so here are a few tips and useful things you can do.
1: instead of using drop shadow, select the object you want to shadow, then on a new layer below this fill in a dark gray (say, #333333 would be OK) and set it's blend to multiply, then Gaussian blur it for a large amount (this is subjective you may want a strong shadow or a fuzzy soft shadow, I prefer soft but you can chose) and reselect the layer you want shadowed and any parts of the picture you also do not want to receive this shadow and delete them with a quick click of the delete key.
2: only use certain layers for certain effects, i often use one of my layers that I've used lighting effects on in lighten or screen mode rather than in overlay or just on it's own, i prefer the look of it.
3: use all the selection tools, they are awesome for this stuff, expand, contract, feather, and so on, all good stuff.
4: use the guides, (View>rulers and View>new guide) these can be centered by typing in 50% instead of a number in pixels or what ever, and new guides can be dragged off the side rulers, you can also press Ctrl+R for rulers and Ctrl+H to hide selections, guides, paths and some other stuff, just press Ctrl+H to get them back.
5: don't overkill the image with graphics
6: always ask your self 'is this necessary?' and 'dose this do it's job, or dose it do too much?'
7: ask other peoples opinion, an easy way to upload is with a photobucket account.
8: practice more than the other guy.
Things i made recently with techniques described here:
Please comment.
Originally Posted by Vlatko9
Yeah I was about to say pictures showing how you did it would be good, also you could just double post and cut it in half or something?
double posting is like killing babies just not even Satan finds it funny.
