Oh man, that gradient map Lyons looks great. Show me your ways, photoshop-fu master - any tips or process ideas, or videos that you'd watched to get a good idea of how to grasp and use it?
Thanks! To be honest I have a very rudimentary (and possibly incorrect) grasp on how gradient maps work cause I have no formal art ed, but it looks like, in the most absolute layman’s terms possible, whatever colors map to the left side of the spectrum will affect your darkest tones, and whatever colors map to the right side will affect the lightest ones. Everything in between, as is the case of the rainbow one, affects all the medium tones from darkest to lightest, respectively. Seriously did not understand them until I could SEE for myself what colors affected what areas
Blue on the left—> skin and hair, red on the right—> clothing and lightsabers, purple—everything in between. And so on, depending on the gradient. Exact outcome will vary by layer style and opacity %.
I did peep a basic guide by one of my favorite artists but can’t seem to immediately find it now—it may be floating around on the blog somewhere.