Corel Painter Help | Adjusting Impasto lighting and depth

Some features described in the Help are available only in Corel Painter 2020, and are not included in Painter Essentials 7. For more information about Corel Painter 2020, visit http://www.painterartist.com/. To get started with Painter Essentials 7, see the Painter Essentials 7 Quick Start Guide.

Quick links to procedures on this page:

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To modify surface lighting to adjust depth

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To adjust ambient lighting

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To add, remove, or modify a directional light source

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To adjust the intensity and brightness of directional light

Adjusting Impasto lighting and depth

Corel Painter offers surface lighting controls that let you manipulate the overall depth effect that impasto creates. The changes that you make to the surface lighting can increase or decrease the depth, or perceived thickness, of the brushstroke. These controls are global — they affect all the Impasto brushstrokes on all layers.

In addition, you can use ambient lighting or directional lighting.

You can modify the impasto effect by increasing the appearance of depth.

Adjusting the appearance of depth

You can use surface lighting to adjust the appearance of depth in the brushstrokes. The adjustments that you make to surface lighting affect all Impasto brushstrokes.

To change the depth of individual brushstrokes, you can vary stylus settings or build up media. For more information, see Blending impasto with other layers.

Adjusting ambient lighting

You can increase or decrease the ambient lighting in the image. The angle of the light does not change, only the brightness. Ambient lighting can be used in combination with directional light sources.

Setting directional light sources

You can adjust surface lighting by using directional light sources, which illuminate the brushstroke from a certain angle. You can use preset (simple) lighting or custom lighting. With simple lighting, you can choose one of eight preset lights. With custom lighting, you can add more light sources, and you can move and delete light sources.

The lighting sphere shows all possible surface angles and how the lights illuminate them. The light indicators on the sphere show the position of all light sources.

When you disable the Simple lighting option, the lighting sphere appears with a single light indicator. You can then add more light sources and change their position.

You can change the color of a light source. For example, you can have multiple colored lights interact with the depth to produce different textural effects. You should keep in mind that each light interacts with all the Impasto brushstrokes, so be careful not to set up colored lights that clash with the colors in your composition or light sources that create unwanted shadows.

The image above uses two different colored light sources.

You can also adjust the intensity and brightness of directional light.

To modify surface lighting to adjust depth

1 .

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

2 .

In the Appearance of Depth area, adjust any of the following sliders:

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Amount — increases or decreases the visibility of brush striations in brushstrokes. The highest value displays more striations to create the illusion of more texture and increased depth, whereas the lowest value displays fewer striations to create the illusion of smooth texture without depth.

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Picture — controls how much color appears in the image. At its lowest value, all color is washed out, leaving only the highlights.

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Shine — controls how much highlight appears on the surface of brushstrokes. Higher Shine values make the brushstroke look metallic.

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Reflection — maps a clone source image or pattern onto the texture at a variable percentage. For more information, see Creating reflection maps.

To adjust ambient lighting

1 .

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

2 .

In the Ambient Lighting area, make sure that the Ambient lighting check box is enabled.

3 .

Move the Brightness slider.

To remove ambient lighting, disable the Ambient lighting check box.

To add, remove, or modify a directional light source

1 .

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

2 .

Enable the Enable Impasto check box.

3 .

In the Directional Lighting area, perform an action from the following table.

To	Do the following
Add a preset light source	Enable the Simple lighting check box, and click a light indicator on the lighting sphere.
Add a custom light source	Disable the Simple lighting check box, and click on the lighting sphere where you want to add a new light source. A new light indicator (small circle) appears where you click.
Delete custom light sources	Move the Lights slider to the left.
Add custom lights along a circular path	Disable the Simple lighting check box, and move the Lights slider.
Change the position of a custom light source	Drag a light indicator to a new position on the sphere.
Change the light color	Click a lighting indicator, click the Light Color chip, and choose a color.

To adjust the intensity and brightness of directional light

1 .

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

2 .

In the Directional Lighting area, adjust any of the following sliders:

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Brightness — controls how much light the light source contributes to the overall lighting color

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Concentration — adjusts the spread of the light over the surface

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Exposure — adjusts the overall lighting amount from darkest to brightest

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