Any artist knows that the Dodge/ burn tool is extremely important. This tool allows an object to look more dimensional, cylindrical, scratched, but most of all, Realistic.
First, lets learn the basics of the dodge/ burn tool.
First, i shall go over the various settings included with the Dodge/ burn tool.
Opacity: Basically, the degree of how visible it will be. having it low will result in seeing little change. This can be left at 100, because we will find out how to change the strength of the brush later.
Brush: Quite straight forward, the brush that will be used to make the burn/ dodge. The best choice would usually be the fuzzy-edged circle (As seen in the image above).
Scale: The size of the brush. For high resolution work, this may be needed to be scaled very high, or for scratches, scaled very low.
Fade Out (Tick-box): causes the brush movement to get less strong as it is being dragged. Once the box has been ticked, a number box will allow you to increase or decrease the fade length.
Apply jitter (Tick-box): Causes the brush to leave spaces in certain spots, instead of being one constant strength.
Hard Edge (Tick-box): Defeats the purpose of using a fuzzy edge brush, it just makes the same intensity throughout the entire circle.
Type
Dodge: makes the brush Highlight the applied area by lightening it.
Burn: does the opposite of Dodging, it darkens areas to give them less exposure.
Mode
Shadows: Makes the burn or dodge very strong.
Midtones: Keeps either dodge or burn at a controllable level, without overwhelming strength.
HighLights: Very soft dodging and burning, for minor alteration.
Exposure: Very important. this is a slider that allows you to fine-tune exactly how strong you want your dodge or burn to be.
Making Use of the tool.
First, im going to show what burning and dodging can do to make an object appear cylindrical.
Here is something simple ill start with.
Just a plain color. So what i am going to do, is Add Burns to the top and bottom.
The best way to do this, is to click outside the canvas, hold Shift, and click where you want the burn to go across.
Burning in the same area, but slightly below or above, also adds good affect.
In the areas between the burns, you may do light dodging to bring out that area, using the same 'shift' technique to make lines.
Using dodges and burns, my image now looks like this
So now, i want to add Small scratches to this.
I will use a very very small dodge brush for this, and do them freehand.
It may take some practice for your scratches to appear realistic.
Here is my result on scratches
Beyond what is seen here, may good skins and artworks use dodging and burning. Metal will always need dodging and burning. Even plastic would require highlighting parts that will stand out.
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