08.05.2008, 17:14
Thanks all!
@rigamortiz - It takes a degree of luck, but for this particular job, because I felt lazy, I used a set of cloud-shaped brushes, careful layer manipulaton (think hard light, gaussian blur overlay, etc), and the smudge tool to add some highlights. I'll be honest... when I started, it was looking horrible, but the more you tweak it and the more layers you experiment with, the better it turns out. When I'm NOT lazy, I'll hand-draw the clouds (more or less requires a pen tablet) >
1) Block in the basic shapes... standard round brush, 90% hardness, pen pressure = opacity
2) Block in shadows using new layer
3) Block in highlights using new layer
4) apply mid-tones to original layer using a softer brush
5) using the smudge tool, attempt to shape the clouds realistically.
6) apply thin white highlights, and a blurred, low opacity copy-layer as a "glow."
It varies from job to job, and it's no science. My hand-drawn clouds are still really very poor. Choosing colors for anything but big white CU's can be very difficult.
Cheers.
@rigamortiz - It takes a degree of luck, but for this particular job, because I felt lazy, I used a set of cloud-shaped brushes, careful layer manipulaton (think hard light, gaussian blur overlay, etc), and the smudge tool to add some highlights. I'll be honest... when I started, it was looking horrible, but the more you tweak it and the more layers you experiment with, the better it turns out. When I'm NOT lazy, I'll hand-draw the clouds (more or less requires a pen tablet) >
1) Block in the basic shapes... standard round brush, 90% hardness, pen pressure = opacity
2) Block in shadows using new layer
3) Block in highlights using new layer
4) apply mid-tones to original layer using a softer brush
5) using the smudge tool, attempt to shape the clouds realistically.
6) apply thin white highlights, and a blurred, low opacity copy-layer as a "glow."
It varies from job to job, and it's no science. My hand-drawn clouds are still really very poor. Choosing colors for anything but big white CU's can be very difficult.
Cheers.