"not enogh room for another light source" is such a great concept and a duh why didn't I think of that one. the reason why a glow stick looks like it glows more in a dark room vs a lit room isn't because it isn't emitting less light. it just has more room/isnt being drown out by other light sources. so to have a dramatic glow it need that darker environment. your right your paint job exemplifies perfectly that room with the dark border and what I would call 2 hash light sources. opened my mind, light without contrast is boring.
"enough room" is also a thing in music. You can't have more than about two deeper bass instruments going before they just muddle into WTFery. While higher frequencies are "smaller" and "take up less space", you still have to pick and choose what instruments you use at what keys so they don't crowd each other
To account for the combination of OSL over a material's natural color, the main thing to consider is that the light effect might look darker, depending on the surface color; the easiest way to figure those differences out is to paint some plain colors that you're using on your mini on a flat piece of paper/plastic/whatever, turn off all your lights, and then shine the OSL color on them from an actual light source (e.g. your phone - just open an image of a single color, and turn the screen brightness up to 100%) and then jot down next to each color, which ones look significantly darker than others, and which ones look bright. (I usually just mark them with numbers, from 1 to 4, in terms of how bright they look). Adding this slight variety in brightness to account for the material color is pretty much zero added work, while making a notable difference in how the OSL feels. As someone who joined the miniature painting world after years of (amateurish) 2D painting, I'm really happy in how you explained it, and I'm now recommending this video even to my 2D painting friends who struggle with dramatic lighting; my "simple but effective" approach usually was: before any value painting, try and draw a clear black line between where you want the OSL and the remaining lighting, and make sure either light source only crosses that line once you're 100% sure it will still look good. The line doesn't have to stay pure black, and it should be blended/smoothed, but it has to remain significantly darker to still work as the edge between OSL and the rest of the lighting. It's an approach you will see especially clearly in comic books, where a lot of artists use sharp black inking of the border between a dramatic light and a background/ambient light - although whether to make the border sharp or smooth, black or dark base color, thin or thick, is entirely up to you.
This is so uncanny. I have just started planning a new Malifaux crew with a dark theme with a red underlight and I've been trying to find resources for it and this is perfect. thank you so much for explaining how to do this technique.
when you said that there is not enogh room for another light, it actually suddenly made sense what you wanted to teach here. :D great tip to think about for my next minis
It'd be helpful if you linked the videos you are talking about in the description too. Sometimes RU-vid just doesn't RU-vid right and the cards fail to show up
I'd like to see the lights you use. I have some photography lights, but they are too big for that use case. The ability to experiment with different lights like that is fantastic.
I cannot recommend this tutorial enough! Thanks for spelling out the crucial parts of OSL. OSL means painting light and not painting color in the first place. I think you got away with ignoring the colors of the reflecting materials is that yurt painted some kind of latex. Wich has strong reflections like skin. If she would wear some green wool clothes it would look off. Fun fact is that the blue light on you shows the exact principles of OSL. The reflections are only visible in the shadows but still none on the black shirt.
the leaving room for the secondary light is such a great way to explain it, I had recently put it in to practice following a guide, but having that concept in my head going forward I think is going to really help me, thank you for the video.
Thank you for the clear explanation. Often we hear/read/listen "contrast is crucial for miniature painting". Sure, but easier said than done. This one shows how to plan to include that contrast for this scenario instead of just building light on top of light. Very helpful, and very instructive. I just got some Iron Maiden Eddy models - not as appealing as the demonstration model, but probably a good place to put it in practice :)
You are the best painter blogger I have come across. Your tips are invaluable, your production quality is excellent, and your narrative is truly captivating. It’s a pure pleasure to follow your work. Thank you!
Amazing video on the topic! I recently started to incorporate more OSL in my own minis, and honestly, this is by far the best video I have seen on the topic. Thank you for the good work. It really made me see new aspects and will help me improve my skills.👍
i think it speaks for iteself i have to keep reminding myself that you dont have a red light in the final shots when its all done. its really messing with my head but its so satisfying
I have been using lights and Photoshop for that reason. For those printing in this in 1/4. It does not balance well and can easily fall over. Either glue the whole thing or make a brace like I did. And make sure you cure those wings properly as they weigh a lot and are only held on with a small joint.
I've been slowly learning and working my way up to more complicated painting processes, and I had been eyeballing trying to make a glow effect on a mini next. This is a good help with tons of useful tips to get me started! Thank you so much.
Overall it's a good idea, but if you don't want it, I just wanna let you know that this was painted like 95% without airbrush, it just made some parts faster, so you definitely don't need it for results like these
Reminds me a lot of Vince Venturellas video about a similiar topic, where he painted a demon lighted by a warm light from the top, with a diffused shadow-y lightsource from below. My take from it was, that different lightsources are only directionally discernable when their lighted areas are differentiated by unlighted shadow areas, i.e. there is enough contrast on the model for the object light sources highlight to its cast shadow. I feel like that is pretty close to your statement about having enough room for a light source
Hey Zumikito! Could you do a video on how to add your pro acryl transparent paint on-top of a zenithal highlight to teach us how to get the most out of it?
It's IMO the biggest mistake we make as intermediate painters, in part because we see too many Heavy Metal studio paint jobs: Not enough darkness. The only way to copy the GW studio's style and add sensible OSL is to make the light bright as plasma, as for everything else, the default color palette is too light. This format also makes it difficult to hide mistakes, or put the emphasis on the parts of the miniature that we want: Most of the job was done by the sculptor. When enough of the model gets dark enough, or desaturated enough, the painter can compete with the sculptor again, but it's really hard if every model is light as a cartoon character.
I haven't tried this but I think an easy way to create that dark space in the desired direction and have that dark transition area retain the chromaticity of the lit object could be painting the a widish lit area with a transparent red paint (which darkens and shifts towards red), and then going inside that area with an opaque red.
Is it possible to share your setup on how you achieved your reference photos? I assume one of those color changing LED lights with a remote or something inside a photo box?
4:50 What lights did you use to plan the sources? I struggle with highlight placement, and having something dimmable and multi color would be very helpful if you had any recommendations.
Probably a dumb question but how different do you need to proceed if you want to make the light source come from above? For example, I want to paint a Bloodsecrator for my AoS Khorne army and I would like his banner to be the lightsource, I want to make it understood that the khorne symbol on it is glowing as hell. It means that his head and his mace should receive a lot of light. But that's also where I'm supposed to paint my highlight because these parts are exposed to zenithal lighting. Is it impossible to do because there isn't room to be left for the OSL to be made? Or do I need to put only small dots of blacks here and there and do my OSL from there? Pls help :/
The solution can be rather simple, but I don't know if you want to do it this way. What I would do is paint the glow effect first and then the rest. The rest has to be painted with just a very subtle light. Another solution is to make it so there is ONLY the banner as the light source.
@@Zumikito I feared that would be the answer, I didn't plan for such a dark atmosphere on the rest of the mini, and I probably can't really do so anymore because I wanted it to fit with my whole army. I suppose it's not really possible to sell the "wow that thing is basically a lighthouse" effect on the banner in these conditions then. Though I might try to twist a bit what you said and paint OTHER minis super dark, like the chaos furies from AoS slave to darkness, and put the extreme reflections on them so that when you put the whole lot of them together, it becomes clear that this banner is shining bright like a diamond. Super helpful video anyhow, and thanks for the reply !
What if you paint the whole miniature 2 shades darker and then use a lighter triad or something for the OSL? I think I want to test that. It should work given the "enough room for another light source" concept.
Unrelated to your video.. but I watch you for my hobbies and a guy called Network Chuck for my word (network engineering). Man... I can't tell who is who sometimes.
Its a shame you can't get that morrigan sculpt without being a "VIP" member of their patreon *for five months* Which would cost you $100! They are absolutely gorgeous sculpts but its a very scammy and obfuscated buisness model.
