Used to spend hours on lighting effects in post

Back in 2022 I was still painstakingly painting light rays on every layer by hand. Then I watched a speedpaint from an artist named Kori and realized dynamic lighting is mostly about color theory and layer modes. Why did nobody tell me I could just use gradient maps and overlay layers this whole time?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sean1mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah and here I was thinking "overlay layer" was just a fancy term for more manual painting.

grant.jade1mo ago

For ages I was doing the same thing, painting highlights pixel by pixel. Then I found out you can just duplicate the layer, set it to screen or overlay, and mess with the opacity. Total game changer, saved me so much time.