Animation Source Forums

So pretty much as the title says I will help you guys improving your renders (Or recolors as some people call them).

First off, I will NOT teach you how to render. You'll have to figure out on your own. Plus there are already plenty of tutorials on here. I also made one: click me.

This topic will work like this:

You'll post your questions about certain things related to renders (e.g. how to get smooth lines) and I´ll try to explain you my ways to do so.

You can ask for tips.

Also you can post your render asking for suggestions on how to improve. Or send in your empty linework to "redline" when you aren't sure about how to place some lines. (Redlining - An informal sketch over another person's piece of art to point out and correct flaws, especially in anatomy. The sketch is usually in red.)

Do NOT post things like "How do you render?" or "Can you teach me?"

I might give visual tutorials, screenshots of my working steps or maybe even videos.

I use GIMP and my mouse (Sometimes my tablet but I am still in the progress of getting used to it). I also have Photoshop CS4 and Sai but I don't use it. So I'll be best at explaining things in Gimp. Need help with tablet settings and such? Don't ask me, I know little to nothing about those.

So get your questions in, I'll try to answer them as soon as possible.
But keep in mind that I am not perfect and might not be able to solve all your render-related problems but I'll try my best.

^What would a good render program be?

I´d say any drawing program that can handle layers is fine even though I´ve seen some impressive renders made in MS paint (I wouldn´t recommend it though)

Personally I work with Gimp. I tried Photoshop (CS4 and Elements 2) and Paint Tool Sai but to me Gimp is easier to handle and has pretty much the same features than photoshop.

I've always wondered how you add the effect of the like reflection sort of thing of the character? You usually use it in desktops c:
/balto/en ... display=30
/balto/en ... display=30

That's easy. You simply take the render, scale it a little until you think it looks fitting (drag it around too) and then you simply lower the opacity until you get the desired effect. That's all.

Thanks Jordy < 3

What would your tip be on shading?

Oh, shading is something I am still trying to figure out on my own. In this tutorial I tried to explain how to shade. Scroll down a little to find it, it's near the end of the tutorial.

As for where to shade, I don't really know how to explain. Try to imagine where the light would touch your character. (Adding another, transparent layer and drawing a sun on it where your light source it might help, at least that's what some artists say, I never tried that)

You can try taking a dog figurine (let's say your drawing/render is a dog/wolf) and point a flashlight at it from the same angle than the light would be in your picture. This might help you figuring out where to place highlights and shadows.