09-14-2025, 11:59 AM
I think those hour are still paying off but surely you will get more comfortable with your own process. My advise is always to do thumbnail so you can save time in being rough and less time being zoom in which is a time sink in illustration.
Also layers are nice but brush control shouldn't be out the window just because you can throw in one more mask. Here the little secret locking pixel of the layers this way you will only work withing the pixel you want to affect oh and the bigger thing use clipping mask in basically the same thing but now the in a stack fashion where the bottom layer determine the limit and link layers are limited within that bottom layers boundry .You also need to get more organize if you get to that many layer and you probably just use lasso to have more thing inside the same layer. For example grouping all those little round shape on that robot mantis head in one layer instead of maybe 4 .The trick is to find element that don't touch and group them by material i would say.This way you have a easier time to find you layers just by visually look you see a material and a surface example layer name metallic front leg and an other layer metallic back leg. Obviously the more something is segmented and overlapping with different material the higher the layer count. So sometime it just a question of limitation.
But here an other major time saver... a color coded layers where each surface as it own color this way you don't even have to look for the name of a layers this the most precise and layers effective method. You simply use the magic wand on the surface and you paint directly into that limited space.
You basically end up with less than 10 layers with this technique .Here how it look a highlight layers a mid tone layer and a shadow layers and the clown pass.So with the magic wand you select the clown layer surface and you select the layers you want to paint on voila.The clown pass over the stack of layers at 50% so you can see what it affecting you can turn it off to see better and you should because it affecting the color you see aftet you select something below that layers you have a group THAT THE CLIPPING GROUP(HL,SHADOW,MIDTONE(all those layers have there dedicated mask for none destructive purpose) This method require alot of back and forth between the clown pass and the layers but that the cost you pay so you don't waste time looking for the layer this also save you time naming, creating layer, deleting layer, organizing layer, looking for a layer...
It all super useful but it technical and not so easy to find info on you kind of have to ''dig'' into the menu and look at other people to figure those technique. I wish i could show you how useful it is but it by working and seeing people work with those workflow that you understand what true organization and effective workflow is. Don't underestimate the time lost due to leak of organization or a leak of understanding of the tool at your disposal.
Also layers are nice but brush control shouldn't be out the window just because you can throw in one more mask. Here the little secret locking pixel of the layers this way you will only work withing the pixel you want to affect oh and the bigger thing use clipping mask in basically the same thing but now the in a stack fashion where the bottom layer determine the limit and link layers are limited within that bottom layers boundry .You also need to get more organize if you get to that many layer and you probably just use lasso to have more thing inside the same layer. For example grouping all those little round shape on that robot mantis head in one layer instead of maybe 4 .The trick is to find element that don't touch and group them by material i would say.This way you have a easier time to find you layers just by visually look you see a material and a surface example layer name metallic front leg and an other layer metallic back leg. Obviously the more something is segmented and overlapping with different material the higher the layer count. So sometime it just a question of limitation.
But here an other major time saver... a color coded layers where each surface as it own color this way you don't even have to look for the name of a layers this the most precise and layers effective method. You simply use the magic wand on the surface and you paint directly into that limited space.
You basically end up with less than 10 layers with this technique .Here how it look a highlight layers a mid tone layer and a shadow layers and the clown pass.So with the magic wand you select the clown layer surface and you select the layers you want to paint on voila.The clown pass over the stack of layers at 50% so you can see what it affecting you can turn it off to see better and you should because it affecting the color you see aftet you select something below that layers you have a group THAT THE CLIPPING GROUP(HL,SHADOW,MIDTONE(all those layers have there dedicated mask for none destructive purpose) This method require alot of back and forth between the clown pass and the layers but that the cost you pay so you don't waste time looking for the layer this also save you time naming, creating layer, deleting layer, organizing layer, looking for a layer...
It all super useful but it technical and not so easy to find info on you kind of have to ''dig'' into the menu and look at other people to figure those technique. I wish i could show you how useful it is but it by working and seeing people work with those workflow that you understand what true organization and effective workflow is. Don't underestimate the time lost due to leak of organization or a leak of understanding of the tool at your disposal.