"So.. miniatures, as it turns out, are small." Got an upvote just for that intro :D

I just want to say. I love your voice. The deepness and how much bass comes through sounds great. Kind of soothing too. Whatever microphone and settings you’re using it’s working well for you. You kind of sound similar to a deep voiced radio host. The good kind of radio host. : )

I don't really understand why, but your videos are my ASMR. So soothing.

I know I’m late to the party, but I’m new to your channel. This is a great video about the effects of light on objects. After listening to this and experimenting with highlights in minis, I had a funny moment while brushing my teeth. I was looking around at objects on my counter, and realizing “oh there’s a zenithal highlight on that shampoo bottle; and an edge highlight on that shaving cream can rim... oh my gosh! Uncle Atom, I have been enlightened!”

I almost always use zenithal highlight after priming. Not only is it good if it will show through, but it is helpful in showing you the the most shaded areas and most highlighted areas, before you get down to the proper painting phase. So it works well as a kind of guideline to where you would like to add in highlights and shadows by hand. But another thing worth mentioning with why we accentuate light and shadow on the miniature, is that the shadows will never appear as deep as they do on the full sized object. Because a crease is a bit of fabric say might be 3cm deep, its quite deep so there is more shade. In the miniature version it will be barely a mm deep or not there at all, so the shadow light around it creates for it is barely there or not there. So when you look at it, it doesn't look real, it looks like a toy. When you go in and you replicate the light for it, you bring it closer to what the light would be doing to it, if it was at the scale it is meant to be representing. Taller things closer to the light sources getting stronger highlights, deeper recesses very dark.

That "but the light does actually hit my model, I don't need to fake it" tangent was hilarious, and also exactly what I was thinking. The stage make-up comparison was also perfect for me, since I am an actor, but until this video I really didn't get why the real shadows weren't good enough

Just need to express my love for how helpful your videos are and how endearing your attitude is!

as a theatre lightining tech, this was really spot on i only learned about shading and highlighting a year after i started the hobby, and even now id like to be a lot better haha

Your sound and lighting on these videos....Really good stuff.

Uncle Atom, I love your content Sir! I am interested in playing Warhammer but haven't yet. That said, I have watched a lot of your videos and just enjoy your attitude and delivery of information. Keep it up!!

Hi! Love your videos! I'm a game developer, and one trick I figured out for lighting a 3D environment was to create a primary directional light, as if from the sun or overhead lighting, then to create a much less intense (like, 20% or so) "bounce light" coming up from below (or an angle opposite your primary light), in the general colour of your terrain. In the project I worked on, for example, we had our western-inspired scene lit from a high angle in an intense yellow-white, then a bounce light from the opposite angle in a rusty red to match the sand. We found this gave a lot of additional definition to our character models, while at the same time making them fit the environment all the better. I was wondering if you've ever tried, or have seen someone try such a thing using dry-brushing? That is, drybrushing downward with a light colour, then upward with another, almost like a poor man's OSL. Or would this end up making things look too murky where the two overlap? I've yet to try my hand at model painting, though I hope to get into it soon, so I could be way off with this, but I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks; cheers from Canada; and keep up the good work!

This does help a lot. Then you mix it with your own unique style of painting and you get a lot of interesting looks depending on the miniature.

Great video! I would add: Painting lighting effects on the model is also about adding (fake) lights to your already lit table. This is done to add drama and excitement to the figures and other structures so the players don't have to do the same thing with tiny "in scale" colored lightbulbs. :)

From photography theory - light hardness/softness is related to relative size of light source. For miniatures almost every light is big, thus there are only very soft shades. This is even amplified by light reflected from the table. We would need to light it from very small source (like single LED) or with bigger source from far away. In addition light fall off is given by inverted square law.... so you need to have light pretty close to have nice quick transition.... But if you get it close, its relative size will be big.... bla bla bla. Just paint it like Atom is suggesting and you are all good :-D

Woah!!! these are all techniques I taught while art Director at Blue Table Painting. Spot on good sir! We even used a Green/Tan spray combo for plague monks. It's like we're sharing some kinda mind-link. Dang.

Thank you for your content man, really enjoy your personality and how you engage the miniature gang your videos are interesting and informative thank you!!

Sounds great, after I finish my Chosen I'll try it out on cultists. If I remember correctly, you've talked about it in your video about underpainting. I'll spray the cultist with black, and then I'll spray them from above using grey. I don't know about the contrast, though, I'm kinda afraid it may be too strong.

Wait; you mean you guys aren't playing in the dark with NVGs?

I've seen alot of videos lately where this technique has been used. Gonna have to try it soon. Thanks for another great vid!!

I've done a fair bit of (summer stock) theater production work, but never thought about the parallel between miniature painting and stage makeup. Terrain and set building are pretty obvious comparisons to me, not sure why I didn't think of makeup = painting but it's a good comparison.

Oh my god. I have been looking for a tshirt “Phantom” purple like that, forever. Also, great vid 👍

Love your video uncle Atom. Thanks for the logical explanations!

"Because I don't play in the dark with those night-vision googles" ROFL

Great information! I'm hoping to get a Kill Team squad and some terrain knocked out this weekend and I'll try some of those techniques ... thanks Atom.

Verisimilitude is very important for miniatures. That's why when I use real sticks or stones on bases, I still paint them. Otherwise they clearly look out-of-scale.

One thing you mentioned was people over do it. I'm a Necrons fan (40k) and a lot of the models have parts that are intended to be glowing but I find many painters, including some of the official Games Workshop representations, over do it in showing the glow on other parts of the model. I look forward to seeing if your suggestions find a balance between the over doing it I see on other models and the under doing it I'm sure I'm doing on mine.

The way light behaves (and by that I mean mostly the way it bleeds around corners) does not scale - it is a constant. If you make something ten times smaller, the light doesn't bleed ten times less. In fact it bleeds so much it washes out the mini details. You have to paint in the missing shades/highlights to fix this phenomena, and typically with gaming minis you have to exaggerate because they are viewed from several feet across a table.

He says at 8:20 to "dust" the units from above onto primer. Does this mean before painting any of the surfaces? Would I still "dust" it again after it's been painted?

That was a nice clearly explained video, as ever. De-saturating colours on minis can help make them look more "realistic", as real world items that are seen at a distance are affected by aerial perspective. This is where the air scatters the light, making objects further away look greyer/bluer than objects seen close up.

Great advice. I'll definitely try that trick when I pick up kill team

Vince Venturella talks about this a lot in his videos. They’re all really helpful

You tube keeps turning off my notifications on my subbed chanels. I swear im re hitting the bell everytime

I personally like to start with a lighter base colour then build up a gradient as I go down the model using super thinned washes. I've found it's easier than using the spray method and looks better than drybrushing

How would this be done with orks? I prime black, but by the time everything's done, there's not a single bit of that black showing because of the myriad of different colours used on the model.

I get this. I'm painting GW Ultramarines using the plain old GW paint plain i.e. McGragge Blue base, Nuln Oil Wash and Calgar Blue edge highlighting and it STILL looks a little flat. Anyone got any advice on how to go about painting 'light' onto these ? besides Unce Atom's advice and other video ? I have an airbrush so I have options to lighten colours and then spray from above down onto the model but the lack of control worries me.

In this video I am going to show you the importance of using Grecian 2000 !! haha sorry but I just watched the old 2013 video of the Honoured Imperium Statue painting tutorial and boy your hair was ...more colourful! Again sorry I hope I am not offending you just having a giggle (yea at your expense - but not really as I have gone very grey especially my beard!) Awesomness video as ever Unkie Atom :D

Atom has four letters. Phil has four letters. Uncle Atom is Phil Swift confirmed.

This is so important. For normal light to actually work on miniatures like it does on real people we would need way smaller light sources in our gaming rooms. These overhead lamps are so close our miniatures have almost no ambient occlusion. There is ambient light everywhere... . So yeah, we need painted light & shadows.

This is really helpful! But if I am painting a lighter color scheme (Tau Vior'la Sept) how could I achieve this since I don't want to start with a dark basecoat?

First thing I thought when. Woke up this morning... "I need to dry brush my necrons tonight" then I saw this in my notifications lmao!!!

i feel like this may have been my missing step in going from usually using Dark Primers (Black, Green, Blue) and painting up to a highlight, to using white and tans more frequently as a primer and painting down from that

It's 3 am . . . Ima watch this once I wake up in a few hours lol.

I catched you for a second time, you said "pop"! Once in one of your video (about contrast I think), you said that you don't like this trend!

Really like your content! This is bugging me though..are you standing in front of a green screen?

Great! Look forward to your demo vid

Great! Much thanks for the info Sir!

So then, what about spraying them from the bottom with a darker color so you get accentuated shadows? (would be before basing, but the paint could just be simply filed/sanded off the bottoms of feet)

Great Video. Than you I'm going to try this tomorrow.

To paraphrase Monty Python “Miniatures are what we doctors like to call, very very small.”

In my experience, the only time zenithal highlighting works as advertised is when painting with glazes. For me, the zenithal never seems to change the value of covering opaque layers to be noticeable.

I have Harlequins and Drukhari. Any tips for doing this AFTER their painted? :D

Pretty new to painting (and 40k in general), but I was wondering what brush anyone uses for ultra fine detail? I've seen a couple on Amazon (Namely "The Psycho" brush) that are for ultra-fine detailing, but I wanted to get some opinions first, and if at all some suggestions. I'm namely painting Death Guard right now (waiting on a few paints to arrive to finish my Foetid Bloat Drone that I've recently started) and wanna do some scratches and wear-and-tear on the armor platings/metallic bits.

Thanks for the video. I have been throwing around the idea to do hard lining or not. Is that kind of what your talking a about? Right now I use your under painting

Great video. How should I do black armour? I'm thinking a dry brush with a dark grey, then a selective lighter grey

How would you do this for say a Grey Knight? Is there a method for adding lighting effects to metallics?

Does this technique really affect the end result of the miniature all that much? (I mean it must, otherwise this video wouldn't be here) But even after the miniatures are all painted anyway with painted highlights/ low lights? This isn't an "alternative" for painting high/low lights is it?

if you ever tell me my models don't look good because they don't have "lighting effects", is the day you get a goddamn pie to the face.

I didn’t really like the tan color on the Plague Marines so I did a black knight look with a color scheme that makes it look almost like a pimple

Hey @Tabletop, great video. Random question: Have you taken a look back in time at say Golden Winners and asked if miniature painting has evolved a lot from where it was say thirty years ago? I wonder if there have been any innovations or shifts in "miniature painting technology and theory" that have improved even the elite of the elite.

I should try the rattle can trick. Problem is my main colour already is a pretty light tan.

Nice Video. I like how you explain.

Both my armies are primarily black, so I prime black. What color would I use for this technique? Does this work for black or only lighter colors?

So, useing grey primer at the bottom and white ontop

I heard you talking about SE Wisconsin and Milwaukee in your previous video. I moved to Racine a few years ago and still haven't found a hobby shop or anyone else intrested in war gamming at all. Would you suggest any hobby stores in Milwaukee for playing Kill Team? Thank you

Looking at the rattle-can video...I was always under the impression that one needed special primers formulated for miniatures. That the pigment on other primers are too coarse and cover up detail...is this a myth? My life would be so much easier if I could just buy Krylon cans instead of $15-$20 GW cans.

Does anyone know what I can look up for special chapter rules and special rules in general like necrons and who they follow and special painted weapons.

In essence you are replicating ambient occlusion on your miniatures, is there a way to replicate subsurface scattering.

After spraying the models with 2 primers do you then still paint a base color by hand? I have White Scars that I spray painted Grey Seer and then Corax white from above. Do I then still base coat the miniature with White Scar paint by hand?

Painted lights help fake the proportions of the real world just like lighting tricks do in rendered 3D images. Game room lighting is artificial for many reasons but the main problem is that the light sources are usually spot lights too close to the models. There is just not enough space to fake sunlight that has a light source so far from the object that its rays seem to be parallel making the Sun a virtually directional light source. Just observe how the sunlight casts shadows in a single direction while game room light shadows are usually all over the place depending on angles and distances. I hope my English was good enough to explain what I think about the importance of painted natural lights and shadows.

I don't see your Patchaws. I have enabled the annotations but I haven't seen any of them in any of your videos. I'm new to the hubby and I've seen many of your videos.

True story: I'm 15 and playing and older lady in a school musical... we finish a matinee for school kids on a Tuesday. I have "behind the wheel" practice (school driving school - 4 kids and a teacher) during last period that I can't miss- no time to wash off the old lady make-up, so I had to go driving with the group looking like an old lady. Thanks for bringing back that memory. 🙄

Longtime listener, first time commenting...being new to the hobby I decided on beginning with a death army first, in order to hide the rookie mistakes in my painting...would this lighting technique make sense in a death army..? I imagine my zombies walking through darkness and death...or is that just me..?

Will this technique work or matter with Necrons going with standard colors?

I am getting back into the hobby again...apparently the My Sharona Cyrus has convinced me that I have too much free time and money, or something. Anyway my question: I have had a White Scars army since 3rd Edition. How would I do this highlighting you mentioned with a white armored force?

When you said theater makeup, made me think of this clip of Orson Welles putting on exaggerated lines to portray Falstaff in this clip. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jLBmqZp4rb-okoE.html

I just happen to be wearing my pachowshirt at 3 a.m. watching this....

Stupid Question: Is this done before or after painting the miniature?

Ummm I might be stupid but I tried this looked good till I painted over the primer snd highlights.. I don’t see why this is important if you are painting over it ... am I missing something?

Atom how good to you have to be to commission paint?! I'm not going to win awards but I know some people would like a reasonable paint job at a lowish price.

Cool trick

Cool

this always seemed to me to be a waste of time with traditional painting because from what i can tell, the base coat obscures the undercoats completely. but with the new contrast paints - this seems like it would really pay off.

I loves me some pachow

Uncle Atom, will you be at Gen Con?

I sometimes just heavily wash the undersides of the model that are in shadow

But how about if you live in EU? You may or may not know, that non-LED lamps are banned in EU, and LED lamps leaves very strong shadows. Meaning that your minis will have stronger shadows since LEDs are crappy - try to paint miniatures with them!* (*=Since this is internet, and people have all the time hardness to know what is written seriously and what is not, I may hint that this text may not be so seriously written, and maybe more to complain about those *beeb* LED lamps, and how it is pain to painT with them) PS. In here, in EU, we are starting soon "Frostpunk" LARP - whole population will take part of it. "The Last Autumn" LARP is already going on. If you want experience "Frostpunk" in real world, just come to visit in EU in this winter!

👌👌👌

Make video about deathwatch pls Also, can you stream when you’re painting

Uncle Atom, why are you posting this late at night?

sound good to me see more yes i will

Zenithal highlighting.

The best explanation pf the importance of light-dark contrast (in french). minicreateurs.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.10

I find lighting other then shading hard

First! Great vid!

i let the light put light on my model just how they should be.

Good video bro. I failed art in grade school. How do you explain to your mom that I got an "E" in art class.

Early squaaad

Did you get your dates wrong Atom?

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Wtf does ASMR? Is it porno terms?