Resolution, Marco's Digital Painting 2
-
Marco,
So, the resolution you show in the video (part 5) is 72 ppi with for example, sized at 1400 x 1900 pixels. And you mention upsizing by pixels as you go. Do you never work with a 300 ppi file? or does that not matter? What about when you send the file to the publisher? Do you upsize from the 72 to 300 then? Thanks! Loving the videos and the artwork!Luanne
-
I think starting at 72dpi for sketching and getting an idea into place. But before you do any final line work or painting you would want to size it as larger as you like. Once a file is completed at 72dpi and your try to resample it to 300dpi it will get all blown out.
-
1 to 2 times the final print size at 300 dpi is the typical sizing for artwork. You can start smaller for comps and sketches, but eventually you will have to size it up to this. Sizing up at the end is possible but not really advisable, as it invariably affects quality.
-
@Chip-Valecek Thanks! I've never worked at 72, always just size @ 300 but was wanting clarification on what Marco was saying in the video. That was my thought too that upsizing would 'blow out' the image, or soften it at the least.
-
@smceccarelli Thanks! I've always worked at full size at 300. How does it look when making it twice the size? more detailed, or do you lose things as it is sized down for print? thx.
-
@LuArtM There is no noticeable difference, unless you paint zoomed in at double size ;-). The amount of details you put in really depends from what is your zoom factor when you paint. I nearly always paint at 50% or below, so as not to get caught up in details. There are exceptions of course - sometimes you do want those details. I am working now on a 12 ft illustrations (print size) which will not have a lot of space in front, so people will watch it very close. I have sized at full size (so 12ft x 3ft at 300 dpi) and I am painting at around 60-70% the full size (and it is taking forever....).
The practice of sizing the image bigger than full size is just a safety - so if you do need to crop it a the end for whatever reason, or it ends up printed bigger than you anticipated, you still have some resolution to play with. -
@smceccarelli In addition to the possibility of needing to crop for the specific image use, I paint much larger also because it allows me to use the imagery for various other purposes that might require either a much larger image or a crop which may require the image to be larger due to the size of the crop (e.g. expo banners, large poster prints, tight crops but on larger products, etc.).
I also like to keep my core elements as separate layers (or layer groups in folders or other files) so that I can use them separately for different purposes (for instance, I may want the character without the background or with a different background for some reason such as if I am printing the character on colored fabric or putting the character into a different scene for a special marketing or other purpose).
Of course, all of this results in huge file sizes, but my laptop can totally handle it, so I do it, because it's a real bummer if you ever need the image to be 2 or 3 times bigger than it is.
-
@smceccarelli oh, btw, at 12' x 3', I would assume that the banner is bring printed digitally, so you should be able to easily get away with 150dpi.
It seems that you are painting the characters separately. Are you painting them in their own, cropped-to-character-size files? That will help a ton if you are. After each is finished, then you can bring a flattened version of each character into the core 12'x3' file and move into position according to the full sketch.
-
@LuArtM To echo everyone else, I tend to just do it all at the size my end file is at (often in the range of roughly 24x36" or larger @ 300dpi); however, sketching at a low resolution then upsizing it to the high resolution for rendering is no problem and could actually be really beneficial (assuming that your sketch is not going to be used in the actual final artwork but just as a guide for painting/etc. that is never seen).
After the sketch phase, the best for rendering the art is to start at the high resolution (so no future upsizing is needed), because while technically you can get away with some upsizing, the more the file is upsized, the lower the quality will become (especially if there are graphical elements, like a logo. Those don't scale very well when in raster form). Also, it is fine to do artwork at a 1:1 ratio (i.e. creating the 300dpi artwork at the size it will be used at); however, in my opinion, it is best to do it larger than the size used. In addition to allowing for detail (which may or may not be needed with whatever style is being done), it also allows the artwork to get "tighter" when used at the final production size (which also helps "hide" any line/edge/other "issues") and gives options to the designer (such as if it needs cropped or shown at a larger size, etc. per what Simona said)
-
Thanks everyone! Lots of great info. You all have beautiful work!
