Trying to hand paint clouds

Jet_Pilot · May 2011

Hey PC crew,
I'm trying to paint a sky box but I'm having a pretty hard time. Just wondering if anyone out there had any techniques or sweet photoshop brushes they would like to share. I'm trying to get something to look like this http://desktop.freewallpaper4.me/view/original/3106/cloudy-skies-and-rolling-hills.jpg

Thanks in advance

Mark Dygert · May 2011

http://www.androidblues.com/cloudtut.html

Also there are quite a few high quality cloud brushes for photoshop floating around, quite a few crappy ones too but most of the time those are easy to spot.

Shadownami92 · May 2011

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCZObxeLU58[/ame]

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raXanYjTF18[/ame]

Here are some good tips on painting a sky/clouds. It's traditional paint, but most of it can be implemented pretty easy into a digital workflow.

jocose · May 2011

^ legit

ghib · May 2011

I painted a bunch of skybox textures for The Ship way back when and I initially had a hard time of it.

Depending on the method used you might be better off using this Photoshop compatible piece of software. SkyPaint It looks horrendous but it REALLY helps get rid of the weird pinching effect on your skybox if you were to do it purely in Photoshop.

As for actually painting a pretty sky; it sounds obvious but I'd actually go outside and sit for a while and just study the sky. I used to commute to work and it helped to be able to sit on the bus and peacefully take mental notes.

When you're painting a skybox that will encompass your world you need to be able convincingly portray the effect that light has on clouds depending on their position relative to the sun. Pay attention to how they illuminate when the sun is either above or below, behind the clouds or shining on the front side. Clouds have Volume.

It's a really tough one to get right.. Also loads of reference. Don't just use 1 or 2 images.

Good Luck

Bruno Afonseca · May 2011

For a quicker result, I just use a round brush with scattering and not so high opacity, and paint in many many layers. Usually I do it in black and white first, so I keep switching between one and another and panting until it looks good enough. Then you can throw a gradient map on top of it for a base color, then start coloring on top.

rasmus · May 2011

A little scattering on the smudgebrush helps this kinda stuff, too

3shold · May 2011

Dan Luvisi has a pretty good set of brushes he uses for his work. I started using his brush set for just about everything a couple years ago. Included in the set are some good atmospheric brushes that work well to make nice clouds.

LuVisi's Brushes

ralusek · May 2011

[ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnzcgw2DMU&feature=related[/ame]

Vailias · May 2011

resource # 1
my favorite collection, some are cloud and smoke specific
Nagel brush Series

Jeff Parrott · May 2011

I just use a soft round set to scatter and then paint it on top of a blue layer. Do multiple layers with varying values to get depth to them.

Wrath · May 2011

Jet_Pilot wrote: »

Hey PC crew,
I'm trying to paint a sky box but I'm having a pretty hard time. Just wondering if anyone out there had any techniques or sweet photoshop brushes they would like to share. I'm trying to get something to look like this http://desktop.freewallpaper4.me/view/original/3106/cloudy-skies-and-rolling-hills.jpg

Thanks in advance

Is it actually a skybox...if so, I have a good method of rendering a pre-distorted cubemap that you might be interested in.

Trying to hand paint clouds

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