A little help achieving this effect?

#1

I’ve been doing this sci-fi comic for nearly two years now, and I still cannot achieve this lighting effect correctly. The effect I am talking about is the typical cyan/blue lit effect you see on buttons, panels, parts of uniforms, etc. This image here gives a real good example: (Specifically - the glowing part on the item on her back)

Here’s a current example of how I have tried to implement it but failed.

I’m just not sure how much to spread diffuse light vs. the specular highlight or how to properly pick colors.

What I am doing now is working RGB mode in photoshop, I set a layer to Linear Dodge (Add) and fill it with black. Then I’ll make selections, feather and fill with lighter colors. I’ve tried doing the selection first, using curves to get the lighting effect then coloring it after, that seems to work worse.

I’m not sure if my problem is color choice, process or both (probably both).

Any help is greatly appreciated. I’ve uploaded a PSD file of the middle panel in the right column, with layers intact, if someone wants to play around with that and show me some techniques.

Download That file here

Thanks for any help.

#2

Check out my color extractor script, it’s in my sig, it will help you dissect the image and understand how easy this is to pull off.

Basically you will see it in black and white, and then see the color on a seperate layer which should help you understand how to reproduce the result by hand.

#3

That is a cool script. I ran it on a few images and studied them, and I have to confess, I’m none the wiser. In all cases I see that there is a “hotter” color on the inside and then a fairly quick fade off of the glow. I guess my trouble lies not only in what colors to choose but moreso what layer modes and techniques to do it best.

I realize you are saying I could just use color to paint it “flat” without using any special tricks. Not being much of a painter, I’m still faced with the same issues.

Frankly, I’d do it either way, it doesn’t matter. So long as I can figure out how.

#4

In the example, the area around the light is much darker. In your image the area around the light is bright and washed out.

#5

Herein lies your problem, really. Considering you’re going to the enormous lengths of creating a comic, it would be in your best interests, to ensure the highest quality of your comic, to brush up your painting skills. Remember also that a lot of this effect relies on context - ie the colours immediately surrounding it. It’s the combination of these bright tones against a suitable context which makes the effect so striking.

Here’s a two minute attempt from me. I just roughed out some basic round shapes in the bulb, in varying shades of blue, then made a new layer with quite a light blue. To this layer, I added a layer style of outer glow, set to a shade of blue, screen blending, quite opaque with a large spread. On top of this, I simply painted a couple of lighter shades, including a touch of white (with a mid opacity brush). It’s obviously not quite right, but it only took two minutes and is halfway there.

The Dodge tool is also quite useful for this.

#6

Think of it like this. The actual “value” of your image needs some contrast between the glow and the surrounding area, the glow is obviously the lighter value, with the surrounding area darker to contrast against. Your glow also have a slightly transparent effect so when you paint it on, you don’t want it to be perfectly opaque. You can see what this looks like in the black and white version of your reference image. After this your just worrying about the color, which is so simple if you separate shading from color, but otherwise it’s just the color you want with the same value you would see in your B/W reference. Also, they are using two different colors of blue to enhance the effect further, the one on the inside is using more green than the outer sample.

And Leigh’s right, you can’t be relying on tools to magically do this for you if your painting up a whole comic. It’s a simple trick too. Good luck.

#7

Ok some of this makes sense and is helpful, and I’m going to have another go. One question is what is the “best” way to go about this. To I try and play around with layer modes, or is it better to paint it straight? I don’t really care as long as I get the best result.

#8

The reason I got you to look at my script was to illustrate how to do it.

Just look at the black and white of your refrence, and try to copy it. Then go back and see how simple the color is on it’s own.

If your creating an image from scratch, to make your own color layer, just set the blending mode to “color”, it’s that simple.

Once you understand it, you should be able to use this same technique to break down and dissect any visual effect you may not fully understand with color and shading happening all at the same time. I know I had a lot of trouble mentally figuring things out until I got this tool working.

#9

This kind of makes sense too and looks good. The one thing that seems missing is the overall glow. It’s supposed to be a lamp in a dark cavern, so it should be throwing out some diffuse light light a bright candle. When I’ve tried to make the larger light area, that’s really it really falls apart.

From what you folks have said and what I see one problem is that my area of light is too flat, it only fades at the edges, so I have this big flat opacity blob.

#10

Ok, I’ll give it a whirl.

#11

Here’s my next attempt. I’ve painted the highlights as Leigh said, then used that as a basis for the glow fx. Something about using the layer effect rubs me the wrong way, but I can’t mimic that by hand. It looks better, I guess. Not where I want it to be, but better. I guess practice is what I need.

#12

The center of your light could be a tad brighter. Throw a bit more of the blue onto your character. And if you want to complete the effect you need two different blues, like your reference has, right now your only using one blue, at slightly different values. You need a second blue that has a bit more green in it to match the reference effect.

#13

Okay that makes sense. Where would I use that second blue, is it more in the diffuse part of the falloff light?

#14

Again, looking at your reference image that has the effect you want, just drag the color picker around and see how the blue changes. The greener version is in the brighter middle area, the blue you already have is the slightly darker outer glow.

#15

Pixelmech, i don’t think you should pay any attention to the ref image in your case

first of all, the number of colors and values in your cartoon is significantly lower
i don’t think you need that much of an effect in your cartoon. i’d say it’s quite enough as it is in the last update

if you want to dramatize the scene a bit more put down the overall value of the green man. this will automatically make the light seem much stronger

you can also make the brightest color of him a bit more bluish/turquoise

#16

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