Corel Painter Help | Adjusting Thick Paint lighting

Quick links to procedures on this page:

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To adjust ambient lighting

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To disable ambient lighting

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To adjust shadows

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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 Thick Paint lighting

Corel Painter lets you manipulate the overall lighting in Thick Paint brushstrokes by using ambient lighting, adjusting shadows, and adding directional lights. These controls are global — they affect all Thick Paint brushstrokes on all layers.

Ambient lightning and shadows

An ambient light source is available for Thick Paint brushstrokes. You can adjust the brightness of the ambient light to lighten or darken the colors in the lit areas. You can also disable the ambient light source.

A brushstroke with ambient light (left) and without ambient light (right)

You can control how dark the shadows are in the brushstrokes. When you increase the shadow strength, the colors in the unlit, indented areas of the brushstroke become darker.

Shadow Strength values: low (left), high (right)

Setting the position and color of directional lights

You can adjust surface lighting by using 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.

In addition, you can change the color of a light source. For example, you can have multiple colored lights interact with the depth to produce different texture effects. You should keep in mind that each light interacts with all Thick Paint 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 Thick Paint brushstrokes above use light sources with different colors.

To adjust ambient lighting

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

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

Move the Brightness slider.

To disable ambient lighting

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In the Surface Lighting dialog box (Canvas

Surface Lighting), disable the Ambient light check box.

To adjust shadows

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In the Surface Lighting dialog box (Canvas

Surface Lighting), move the Shadow Strength slider.

To add, remove, or modify a directional light source

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

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 Light(s) slider to the left.
Add custom lights along a circular path	Disable the Simple lighting check box, and move the Light(s) slider to the right.
Change the position of a custom light source	Drag the light indicator to a new position on the sphere.
Change the light color	Click a light indicator, click the Light Color chip, and choose a color.

To adjust the intensity and brightness of directional light

Choose Canvas

Surface Lighting.

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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