I finally saw how layer order changes a whole piece

I used to just stack layers however they came out and never thought much about it. Then I watched a timelapse where an artist moved their shadow layer above the texture layer and it totally changed the depth. I tried it on my own project, a forest scene I had been stuck on for 2 weeks. Putting the shadows above the leaf textures made everything pop in a way I hadn't expected. Now I spend 10 minutes at the start planning my layer order instead of just diving in. Has anyone else had a simple layer change make that big of a difference in their work?

2 comments

2 Comments

charliew9918d ago

Yeah I remember reading some interview with a concept artist for a video game who said layer order is basically "the invisible skeleton" of a composition. Once I heard that I started paying way more attention to it. Your forest scene example reminds me of this comic I was working on where I had my lineart on top of everything like always, but then I tried putting the flat color layer above the lineart. It made the whole thing feel softer and more like a painting instead of a cartoon. I think people assume the order is set in stone but really it's just another tool you can mess with. The planning part is key though, I still catch myself reordering halfway through and messing up my saved copies.

the_hannah18d ago

is it really that deep tho?