Finally figured out why my digital art looked flat

I kept seeing these gorgeous pieces on here with crazy depth and light, and mine just looked... meh. Then I realized I was neglecting ambient occlusion in my shading, just using basic drop shadows everywhere. Spent an afternoon on a single portrait in Procreate adding proper AO layers, and the difference was night and day. Anyone else have that one technique that clicked way later than it should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

valh321mo agoMost Upvoted

oh man that AO tip is huge. i had the same thing but with rim lighting - kept wondering why my characters looked like cutouts until i started adding those little light edges. feels like every time i learn one thing i realize there's three more things i'm doing wrong lol

xenagarcia1mo ago

ngl i used to think rim lighting was just a stylistic flex too. this thread lowkey changed my mind though, makes way more sense now.

patricia_green211mo ago

Wait, hold on. You mean that rim lighting thing isn't just something you add for fun? I thought it was like a cheat code for making things pop, not an actual fix for the cutout look. I've been doing that wrong too then, because my characters would just float there like paper dolls. This whole lighting stuff feels like trying to fix a pipe leak right next to an electrical box - every time you tighten one thing, you realize you've got a whole new mess to sort out.