Unique FFXIV Media

[Endemerrin]

I knew about the layers and their separate settings^^ I abuse them a fair bit in my paintings haha, and their blending options (WHO DOESN'T LOVE OUTER GLOW?!)

I'm still learning myself, having only started the other week with no prior experience, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Abuse the hell out of drop shadows and inner shadows, as well as dodge and burn. That will definitely help bring out some luminosity and give everything artificial lighting, since most of it won't exist in an actual screenshot.



Being wary of the actual setting of the screenshot helps as well. For example, this was in Ul'dah at night, so I gently eased the tone towards something orange-ish to imitate lantern light. Sapping a bit of contrast from the image can also soften things up and help make the dodge tool pop a bit more, where as adding contrast will really flush the colors out and if you add too much, start to alias and muddy up the image pretty badly. Light really helps set the mood overall, though, and that's important with modifying screenshots.



Really, I tend to just learn most from either having a friend give me some random tip, or by just playing with tools randomly.