Home
Star Wars
  Star Wars Misc Art
  Star Wars Insider Art
  Star Wars Sketchbook
  Star Wars Comic Book Art


Star Trek
  Star Trek Misc Art
  Star Trek Comic Book Art

Film & Television
  Film and TV Misc Art

Comic Books
  Comic Books Misc Art
  Doctor Who
  X-Files
  Farscape
  GI Joe
  True Blood
  The Phantom
  Spike Vs Dracula

  Star Wars Sketch Cards
  Bounty Hunters
  The Mandalorian Season 2
  The Mandalorian Season 1
  Women of Star Wars
  Star Wars Rebels
  Masterwork
  Return of the Jedi Widevision
  Perspectives
  The Empire Strikes Back Illustrated
  A New Hope Illustrated
  Galactic_Files_Series_2
  Galactic_Files
  Galaxy_Series_8
  Galaxy_Series_7
  Galaxy_Series_6
  Clone Wars Season 2
  TESB_30th_Anniversary
  Galaxy_Series_5
  Clone Wars Season 1
  Galaxy_Series_4
  Clone Wars 08
  ANH_30th_Anniversary
  RotS
  Heritage
  Clone Wars
  Misc

  More Sketch Cards
  The Walking Dead
  The Avengers
  Marvel Beginnings Series II
  DC Comics Women of Legend
  Indiana Jones
  The Hobbit
  The Lord of the Rings
  The X-Files
  Heroes



Become a Patron!

Shop at my official Art Store

Become a fan on Facebook

Follow me on Instagram

Watch my stream on Twitch

Subscribe on Youtube



Lucasfilm Ltd.

Disney.com: The official home for all things Disney

Discover more at Hi-Fi Design.com!



Gentle Giant Ltd.

IDW Publishing - The home of Star Trek, X-Files, GI Joe and more!



My Art on eBay


Comics 101
Art tips and techniques, reviews and interviews from my studio. Archived here and at World Famous Comics.

Comics 101 Archives

Comics 101 for 09/05/2002
Star Wars Gamer #6 - Battle Droids!

Week 5: Digital Painting over Pencils Part Three - Lightsaber Rendering

Moving on, the next 'special effect' for me to render will be Mynnic's weapon, the lightsaber. There's a technique I use in most of my full color digital Star Wars art to illustrate these weapons that I'll share with you here.

The first step is to make a precise selection (using the polygon selection tool) from the very hilt of the saber handle around the pencil lines for the sides and tip of the glowing blade. I'm taking my time here using this tool, making sure my selection is the exact length and width of the blade that I want (which is what I originally indicated in pencil) and the tip is curved and not too flat.

With that selection active, I make a new layer and call it the 'Saber Layer' (you can rename layers in Layers Pallete when you first create a 'New Layer' or by dragging down from the arrow menu in the right hand corner of the pallete and choosing 'Layer Properties').

I then fill that selection with pure white from my color window using my paint bucket tool or 'Fill' command in my Edit menu choices.

Before deselecting, I create a new layer and call it the 'Glow Layer'.

Next, I go to Select>Feather in my menu and choose to feather this now empty selection which exists on this new layer by 15 to 25 pixels. The amount of feathering really is optional and depends on the actual size of the saber and the glow effect your trying to render in your illustration.

With the selection now feathered you will see the size of it shrink or decrease somewhat. This will allow me to paint inside the selection with whatever color for the blade's glow (in this case blue) as well as allowing the pixels of paint to fade outside and beyond the selection those number of pixels I previously declared to feather.

On this 'Glow Layer' I use my larger tip for my airbrush at full opacity and make several passes until the glow of my saber is bright enough and looks to fade just enough around the edges.

I then drag this 'Glow Layer' behind the 'Saber Layer'  which allows the inner, hard-edged white blade to be viewed on top now.

While still on the 'Glow Layer' I decrease the opacity (in the Layers Pallete) of that layer somewhere between 80-90% which allows for some even more subtle transparency of my color art to show through the glowing energy blade and also softens it's glow sligthly more.

With my newly constructed lightsaber, my Jedi skills are now complete (Ex. L). I return to my color art layer and finish the rendering on Mynnic and Pal-Hans-Das now and begin to block in more color on Vinto. I'll be 'flattening' or compressing all of the layers together used to create my lightsaber, blast effects, background and characters once I'm finished with rendering the other characters on my color art layer.

Ex. L

Next week we'll discuss the last steps in completing this illustration.

See you next time,

-Joe

<< 08/29/2002 | 09/05/2002 | 09/12/2002 >>

Recent Columns:
NEWESTTeeKay-421 Magazine #65: A Star Wars Interview (09/05/2013)
10/28/2010My Top Five Favorite Horror Films, The Horrors of Canada and Movie Review - Dellamorte, Dellamore (a.k.a. Cemetery Man)
09/09/2010Movie Review - Machete
07/08/2010Celebration V: The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print Artwork
11/05/2009Star Wars: Clone Wars Season One Widevision Artist Sketch Cards - Step by Step
11/06/2008You Have the Comic, Number One: A Star Trek Interview
10/25/2007Download Zombie Prom for FREE at iTunes, My Top Five Favorite Horror Films and The Horrors of Canada
09/06/2007Movie Review - Rob Zombie's Halloween
06/21/2007Star Wars: Celebration Europe 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Comic-Con International 2007
05/03/2007Star Wars: Celebration IV 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Free Comic Book Day 2007
03/08/2007Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #5 Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art
Archives >>

Comics 101 Archives


Home | News | Comics 101 | Stuff to Buy | Bio/Credits


© 2024 - , 153 Sheffield Way, Sandusky, OH 44870
All other ® & © belong to their respective owners.
World Famous Comics Network