Drew the same eye for 2 years before someone pointed out my layer order was backwards

I was at a digital art meetup downtown last month and this kid behind me goes 'oh so you paint the highlights first and then the shadows?' I had been doing it completely inverted the whole time. Has anyone else had a basic workflow thing just totally flip their results?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylorellis16d ago

Wow I heard about something similar from a guy who runs a small animation studio. He said he taught himself the whole painting process wrong for years by following some early YouTube tutorial that had bad info. Once he fixed layer order his work got way cleaner way faster.

kevin_west16d ago

but honestly I feel like making mistakes early on is just part of the process, you know? like if that guy had gotten a perfect tutorial from day one he might not have really understood WHY the layers work that way. figuring out the wrong way first kinda forces you to learn the logic behind it. I messed up my own workflow for years with super cluttered timelines because I refused to group things properly, and yeah it wasted time but now I never forget to do it. sometimes the struggle sticks with you better than getting handed the answer.

jennifer20416d ago

Oh man, right? I once spent three full months using the wrong blending mode on everything because I thought "multiply" meant more layers equals better results. My projects looked like a toddler dropped a crayon box in a blender. The worst part was I was so proud of myself for being "efficient" when really I was just making a digital mess. But hey, now I can spot a bad layer setup from a mile away, so I guess there's that. At least your timeline clutter taught you something, mine just taught me how to cry quietly while restarting projects.