Rella... is an anime-style illustrator! But not just any anime-style illustrator, She is a master of light and shadow! When looking at her work, I'm always stunned
by the beautiful and diverse lighting So naturally, that made me wonder… How can I do something similar? Are there patterns in her process that
will allow us to get similar results? So in this video, I will be attempting to
breakdown 6 of Rella’s unique lightings scenarios Showing you how I’ve applied these
techniques to my own illustration attempts In order to see if Rella's techniques
can help fix my boring lighting? You see…. Recently, when looking
back at my illustrations, I realized that I was using mostly the same
lighting, on the same kind of background And while that’s not necessarily bad,
it’s missing that 'wow' factor, That emotional impact that can
be seen in Rella’s illustrations Take this illustration, for example: The usage of light made it not only
beautiful, but calming and just magical! Ever since seeing this illustration,
I’ve been dying to know how it was done I was curious about what secret techniques I could learn from this… So I decided to break it down, and try applying
the techniques to my own illustrations First off, I started with recreating the background Then add the base color When you start with the background it makes
picking colors for the shadows much easier The shadow which was just 1
layer on multiply blend mode I first fill in the whole layer,
then erase parts to show the light Next I added the second darker shadow,
to give the image more depth and form I sometimes use lock transparent pixels to
do this, or create a second multiply layer Lastly, Rella likes to add
glows, dust, and sparkles Then finish off the illustration
by adding chromatic aberration! And that was it… That was so simple, that it kinda scares me.. I find that there’s only like 6 main steps to this However, recreating the illustration was the easy part The hard part is to see if I can apply
this to my own illustration attempt To see if it’s as simple as it looks,
or if I’m missing some crucial steps? I started with the background
I did this quickly just to get the feel of the lighting
Then add the base color And since the background is blue, the
shadow will reflect the same blue color When we isolate Rella’s shadows, we can have a
clearer understanding of how she shapes the light Here we can see big shapes informing
us of the direction of the light And smaller shapes for details
like lights going through the hats When I tried doing the same thing, I find adding light to be more
straightforward and less intimidating Thinking in shapes hierarchy, will also
make your composition more appealing Now that we got the overall vibe of the
image down, it’s time to add details And here’s where things
started to fall apart for me You see, when I compared my progress to my Rella’s
I started to get really worried, Rella’s looked super polished
Mine just looked flat and dirty Despite that, I continued with adding
the darker shadow just like Rella But when I did that, it somehow looked even worse?
Maybe I should add a bounce light? That could fix it right? Wait, how much should I add?
Is that too much? Too little? No matter how many times I
tried adjusting the illustration It just doesn’t have the same
feeling as Rella’s illustration Not that it’s a bad thing. I actually
think that this turned out alright But I felt frustrated when it comes
to adding shadows and bounce light I understood ‘how’ to do it… But I couldn’t
understand ‘why’ or ‘where’ to add it! I had the technical skills but lacked fundamental
understanding to use them effectively.. And then it hit me, Techniques alone, won’t solve my lighting issues It’s the deeper understanding of theory Which enables for flexibility and
creative freedom down the line So, I decided to properly study light and shadows And as for how.. I found this book Which perfectly complements Rella’s techniques, Answering many questions I had during my study Alright, let’s keep this short 'Color and Light' is a book by James Gurney And for the next 50secs, I’ll
show you my main takeaways First are the 8 different light sources
With 5 often used by Rella I had no idea that clouds
play such a big role in colors Just look at how it changes the color of the sky And talking about clouds..
Do you want to know why the sky’s blue? Me neither..
But apparently it’s pretty important This was due to a phenomenon
called Rayleigh Scattering Sunlight which is made of many colored waves
scatters when it interacts with the atmosphere Blue light scatters more due
to its shorter wavelength Therefore less atmosphere results
in more blue lights While thicker atmosphere reduce the blue color Other than the sky, there’s different
types of character lightings Half shadow, Three quarter lighting, Frontal lighting, Edge lighting, Contre Jour, and Spotlighting Oh, and I finally understood
“The Form Principle”, I hope.. The things that I thought were important
were the form shadow and the cast shadow Knowing the difference between the 2 will
help you make better shading decisions And now armed with basic
understanding of light and color, I’m excited to dive back into the
study and apply what I’ve learned After a sunny scene, it’s time to try a darker I decided to start by breaking down
this image due to its simplicity Starting with 1. Background, 2. Base color,
3. Shadow, 4. Light And then some 5. Details So let’s dive into each, while
applying it into my own attempt I began with the night sky
background which was just a gradient Then stars using the default spray brush And added base color and shadow Which really helped put the
character into the scene When picking colors for the shadows,
I like to just eye drop the background color Then adjust it from there In Rella’s illustration, you can see a darker
gradient for parts that light cannot reach And after adding that with a soft brush,
we’re pretty much halfway done! Next it’s time to add the light Rella likes using crisp white
light in her night illustrations Here, the white light is coming from a
hidden light source behind the character Although initially I thought that
this white light was the moonlight, But after some research,
I realized that that’s not possible Unless the illustration is set in space,
where there’ no atmosphere So when it comes to the night scenes,
you could decide between A hidden light source or
that the whole scene is set in space Here, I use Add blend mode for light, Since I find it to be the most versatile for Rella’s style But it really doesn’t matter which one you use Don’t forget to also add this colored light,
which I’m assuming to be the light falloff The final steps were to add the
secondary shadows for details Then Rella’s iconic dust and sparkles
I made a custom brush for the sparkles, Which you can download from below! Don’t forget to also add some chromatic aberration And that was it! Wait, that was it? This looks kinda bad- So I decided to add some flowers and a lot of blur
to make it look more interesting… And here’s how it turned out I think the downfall of this
image wasn’t the lighting, But instead, the composition,
camera angle, and this awkward pose Which resulted in a flat-looking character
But technique wise, I think I did pretty well? The fundamentals that I learned from
the book also helped me quite a lot Especially with identifying
where this light was coming from And I think the next step now, is to test
whether the techniques that we just learned Can also be used in a scene with
completely opposite lightings So let’s try and find that out
in Rella’s spotlight lighting Now, the majority of the
character is engulfed in light To do this, I started with the same
steps, background and base color The background here, was supposed to be a wall,
so I added a cast shadow to show just that Next added soft shadows to
show the form of the character For lighting, I decided to go
with an intense circular spotlight I did this by painting a circular light
on top of the character and the background This lighting scenario is often used
to create a dramatic mood and tone Which is perfect for the more
mysterious vibe that I’m going for My light source is coming from around here, So I’m adding shadows around
the top part of the character Sharpness or softness of shadow depends on
the distance and angle of the light Shadows closer to the light will have crisper
edges, while those further away will appear softer At this point, I had the look and feel of the
image down, so it’s time to add the details I noticed that in Rella's works, the areas
in strong light often have fewer details This was because the intense lighting eliminate
the shadows, resulting in an overblown effect So I made sure not add too much details
to areas closer to the light source Once all that was done, I added
Rella’s iconic dust particles Then I used gaussian blur and grains to
emulate the effect of camera in low lighting, And finally, chromatic
aberration to wrap things up I’ll be honest, I have no idea how it turned
out this well! I’m really happy with the outcome But despite that, there’s still a lot
of flaws in the process and outcome On the technical side, I feel like
the hair could have been better, It’s still quite flat compared to Rella’s And on the theory side, this lighting scenario
was still a big mystery to me I only managed to get to this point,
all thanks to having Rella’s art as art direction And real life photos as references for
light, shadows, and colors Without those things,
I wouldn’t have been able to do this While the color and light book helped me
zoom out and understand the basic theories Now, I need help with zooming in And focusing more on light and
shadows in specific scenarios And I think I got just the thing… ‘Light for visual artists’ is a book by Richard Yot Which focuses on the different lighting scenarios We got: Frontal, Side, Back, Above, Below Explanation of every sky you could think of Oh wow, look at this one...
Maybe I’ll try this in a bit And sections on shadows,
indoor lights, and materials! But I actually got this book just to read
this sections on specific light scenarios So after going through them all, I just went
straight to applying them in the next attempt: The Stage Light The stage light signature feature
is definitely this rim light effect And the secret to creating this
effect lies in the background Which is often black to allow the
rim light to stand out dramatically So you know the usual steps I decided that the light will come from above, So I added a slight gradient to give a sense of form Then it’s time to add the light For rim light, I tried keeping it super thin
and minimal, not adding more than necessary The light was also so strong that it created this
glow effect where it’s in contact with the surface Any dust particles passing through
the light will also pop out From here, I tweaked the image as I saw fit, Adjusting things like contrast, hue, and saturation In case you’re wondering,
here’s how my layers looked And overall, quite straightforward! At this point, my illustration was done! well... not really Because I have an idea that
I’ve been dying to try out A while back, I saw this video
by the illustrator: Redjuice! I was inspired by how beautiful the 3D
elements blended with his 2D illustration And I wanted to try something similar
So since the beginning of this attempt, I planned to do just that, with the 3D
skills that I learned in my previous video Which could either look really
cool.. Or end up in total disaster Anyways, what I did was….
Modeled the 3D elements Did some composition stuff
Don’t know what to do next Look up all the tutorials on youtube
Do whatever the tutorial tells me to do Then render it out, put it in photoshop And... I hate this! So I did this then that then this and that and this and done! And somehow it actually turned out really good! My goal was take advantage of the beautiful
refractions made by the 3D software In order to enhance the beautiful stage lighting
Which I think was a success! Although this lighting was beautiful, I think the next one is even prettier! Colors of the sky during sunset are
often vibrant and complementary And depending on the clouds or lack thereof, Can result in sunsets from
the typical orange blue, To golden hours to the beautiful alpenglow The inspiration for this attempt came from this photograph I loved the unique angle so much, I decided
to build a whole scene based on this photo And when it comes to the background, I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to draw it… So I chose to use Unreal Engine to make the sky This also allows me to easily adjust
the time of day and cloud volume Otherwise you could always take your own
photos or grab one from somewhere like Unsplash I find that having references of what you’re
going for can make your life much easier For the shadows, I added a grayish
blue onto the whole character Then added orange glow to the bottom
to reflect the color of the sun To help the character stand
out from the background I added a rim light, similar
to what we did previously At this point, the main lighting was in place, So now it’s time to add
details and polish things up The colors here felt a little bit dull,
so I wanted to make it more vibrant I was experimenting with the
hue, saturation, and contrast When I accidentally made this.. And I instantly fell in love with the colors
and decided to stick with this And although, this was no longer a 'real' sunset The lighting is still based
on the principles of a sunset As for finishing touches, I added colored
glows to the top and bottom of the character, Mainly because I thought it looked cool I also really like how Rella paints over
the line art with the color of sunset It’s a really subtle effect, which was very
effective at showing the intensity of the light Then added stars and grains to the background And finally, the good ol’ chromatic aberration! And this might be my favorite
outcome from this study, I was happy with how I was able to transform
and stylize the illustration as I please Thanks to having solid
understanding of the lighting I wasn’t able to go over everything,
so if you want to have a closer look You can download the files for yourself As for the final lighting, I’m not quite sure
what to categorize it as But for now, let’s call this ‘Dappled Light’ Because I want to focus on this
simple yet impactful lighting Often seen in anime illustrations, Where the bright sun shines through leaves or clouds Creating this unique and dramatic
contrast between light and shadows As for how to do this, I think you already know.. But this time, the shadow will take
on the shape of leaves, or clouds You could draw this yourself or again,
grab an image from somewhere like Unsplash And set it to multiply mode For now, this is just a placeholder, but by doing this You’re essentially getting yourself
to that 80% mark without having to do much I then added the 2nd shadow,
which I kept very minimal I like Rella’s use of pinkish
glows around the light It’s a nice touch that makes the image
feel that much more calming and sentimental So I did something similar by brushing
the area in light with a pinkish glow I was going for a cuter style for this attempt, So aside from some shadows and glows here
and there, I really didn’t have to do much Once I was happy with the overall
look and feel of the image I played around with the shadows,
to see which ones I liked the most When I put this image side by side to Rella’s I realized that there wasn’t enough
contrast between the light and shadows So I fixed that using curves and brightness sliders Lastly, I added some out of focus flowers
to guide the viewer’s sight And added dust and chromatic
aberration to finish everything off Yeah, and that was it! By far the simplest, yet so impactful I decided to keep things simple To let the juxtaposition between light
and shadow be the star of the image And that’s the power of lighting! So what exactly did I get
out of this two month study? In the beginning, I began by mimicking
Rella’s workflow and art style Trying to grasp what makes her artwork so beautiful But I quickly realized that copying
techniques alone, won’t get me far I had to solidify my understandings
through studying fundamentals And by the end, I was able to use what I learned To craft my own unique approach
to lighting in order to make it fit my vision And the best part? I’ve finally learned how
to give my illustrations that missing impact, That ‘wow’ factor that I’ve been searching for! As always, thanks for watching!