애니메이션 스타일 조명 기법 마스터하기

렐라의 기법을 연구하면서 빛과 그림자에 대한 이해가 깊어져 일러스트레이션의 임팩트가 더욱 강해졌습니다.

### 애니메이션 조명 마스터하기: 렐라의 아트에서 영감을 받은 두 달간의 스터디
* 🎨 크리에이터는 **2개월 동안 렐라의 독특한 애니메이션 조명 기법**을 이해하고 일러스트레이션에 적용하기 위한 연구에 착수합니다.
* 📚 이 연구는 모방 기술만으로는 원하는 효과를 얻을 수 없다는 것을 깨닫고 **렐라의 조명 시나리오를 모방**하려는 시도에서 시작되었습니다.
* 🧠 그런 다음 제작자는 제임스 거니의 '색과 빛'이라는 책을 통해 광원, 하늘의 색, 그림자의 원리에 대한 기본적인 이해를 바탕으로 **빛과 그림자의 기초**를 공부합니다.
* 🌌 이러한 지식으로 무장한 크리에이터는 **배운 기술을 스포트라이트 조명, 무대 조명 등 다양한 조명 시나리오에 적용**하여 기술을 더욱 향상시킵니다.
* 🎨 학습 전반에 걸쳐 제작자는 **빛, 그림자, 색상에 대한 이해**를 돕기 위해 렐라의 작품과 실제 사진을 참고 자료로 활용합니다.
* ✨ 이 연구는 애니메이션 일러스트레이션에서 흔히 볼 수 있는 단순하면서도 임팩트 있는 조명 스타일인 **얼룩덜룩한 빛**으로 독창적인 일러스트레이션을 만들면서 마무리됩니다.
* 🌅 학습이 끝나면 크리에이터는 조명에 대한 자신만의 독특한 접근 방식을 배워 **일러스트레이션에 '와우' 요소**를 더할 수 있습니다.
* 🌟 이 연구는 시각적으로 인상적이고 정서적으로 영향력 있는 일러스트레이션을 제작하는 데 있어 **조명이 가진 혁신적인 힘**을 강조합니다.

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 lighting 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 50 secs, 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 reduces the blue color. Other than the sky, there are 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’s 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, I 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 to 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 a 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 section 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 to 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!

How Learning From Rella Fixed My Boring Lighting

Videos on exploring art & design

Software used:
Illustration : Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint
Editing: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator
Tool: Wacom Intuos Pro


tppo

빛과 그림자 마스터하기: 렐라의 독특한 라이팅 기법 분석

Rella는 애니메이션 스타일의 일러스트레이션에서 빛과 그림자의 대가로, 6가지 주요 단계를 사용하여 다양하고 인상적인 조명 시나리오를 만듭니다.

배경부터 시작하여 기본 색상을 추가하고, 여러 레이어로 그림자를 만들고, 어두운 그림자로 깊이를 더하고, 광선, 먼지, 반짝임을 추가한 다음 색수차를 적용하는 과정을 거칩니다.

렐라의 그림자를 분리하면 빛의 방향을 위해 큰 도형을 사용하고 세부적인 조명 효과를 위해 작은 도형을 사용하여 빛을 형성하는 방법을 이해할 수 있으므로 프로세스가 더 간단하고 덜 어렵게 느껴집니다.

도형의 계층 구조 측면에서 생각하면 구도를 더 매력적으로 만들고 자신의 일러스트레이션에 렐라의 감정적 효과를 재현하는 데 도움이 될 수 있습니다.

일러스트레이션에서 빛과 그림자 이해의 중요성

세련된 일러스트레이션과 비교하면 그림자와 반사광을 추가하는 데 어려움을 겪었습니다.

유연성과 창의적 자유를 위해서는 기술만으로는 부족하고 이론에 대한 깊은 이해가 필요하다는 것을 깨달았습니다.

제임스 거니의 "색과 빛"이라는 책은 다양한 광원, 색에서 구름의 역할, 음영 결정에서 형태 원칙의 중요성에 대한 귀중한 통찰력을 제공했습니다.

일러스트레이션에서 밤하늘과 스포트라이트 조명 만들기

아티스트는 그라데이션 배경을 사용하여 별과 그림자를 추가하여 캐릭터를 장면에 배치한 다음 빛이 닿지 않는 영역에는 더 어두운 그라데이션을 적용했습니다.

일러스트의 흰색 빛은 처음에는 달빛이라고 생각했지만, 나중에 우주가 아닌 환경에서는 불가능한 숨겨진 광원이라는 사실을 깨달았습니다.

스포트라이트 조명은 그림자가 드리워진 벽 배경을 만들고 강렬한 원형 스포트라이트를 추가하여 캐릭터의 극적이고 신비로운 분위기를 연출했습니다.

예술에서 빛과 그림자 마스터하기: 크리에이티브 여정

그림자의 선명함이나 부드러움은 빛의 거리와 각도에 따라 결정되며, 가까운 그림자는 더 선명하게 보입니다.

아티스트는 렐라의 스타일을 모방하여 조명이 강한 영역에서 최소한의 효과를 내기 위해 강렬한 조명에 집중하고, 상징적인 먼지 입자를 추가하여 사실감을 더했습니다.

아티스트는 가우시안 블러와 색수차 등 다양한 기법을 사용하여 빛과 그림자 효과를 향상시켰으며, 머리카락과 특정 조명 시나리오를 묘사하는 데 더욱 개선하고자 노력했습니다.

"특히 검은색 배경에 극적인 테두리 조명을 사용한 무대 조명 효과를 만드는 데 리처드 요트의 '비주얼 아티스트를 위한 빛'은 다양한 조명 시나리오를 이해하는 데 큰 도움이 되었습니다.

일러스트레이션에서 3D 요소와 일몰 조명 실험하기

일러스트레이터는 Redjuice에서 영감을 받아 2D 일러스트레이션에 3D 요소를 통합했는데, 그 결과 놀랍게도 좋은 결과를 얻었습니다.

또한 사진에서 영감을 얻어 무대 조명을 개선하여 아름다운 일몰 효과를 구현하는 데 성공했습니다.

언리얼 엔진을 사용하여 시간과 구름의 양을 쉽게 조정할 수 있었고, 컬러 글로우와 미묘한 일몰 효과를 추가하여 일러스트레이션의 전체적인 임팩트를 더했습니다.

일러스트레이션에서 조명 마스터하기: 두 달간의 여정

이 작가는 다양한 조명 기법을 실험하여 궁극적으로 독특하고 인상적인 스타일을 완성했습니다.

단순히 다른 사람을 모방하는 것에서 벗어나 기본을 공부함으로써 일러스트레이션 조명에 대한 자신만의 비전을 찾을 수 있었습니다.

두 달간의 여정을 통해 마침내 아티스트는 작품에 원하는 '와우' 요소를 구현할 수 있었습니다.