- [Aaron] Thanks for joining me.
(upbeat music)
I'm Corel Painter Master Aaron Rutten
and in this video, I'll help you determine
the best resolution to choose
for your digital canvas.
The amount of detail in a digital painting
is defined by the resolution of the canvas
you're painting on.
The higher the resolution, the finer the detail
in an image.
An image with low resolution lacks fine detail.
Typically you'll want to favor high resolution
over low resolution,
but things get a little more complicated
when you're dealing with large canvasses.
First let's consider the distance at which
someone will be observing your artwork
after it's printed.
While small and medium canvasses are typically viewed
at arm's length, large canvasses are often viewed
from far away.
The billboard you see by the side of the road
is an extreme example of a large canvas.
Believe it or not, billboards are printed
at a very low resolution.
So, why is that?
It's because the farther you are from an image,
the less resolution is required to see that image clearly.
Because billboards are not intended to be viewed up close,
it would be a waste of ink to print billboards
at a high resolution.
Notice how blocky this low resolution image looks
when we view it up close.
Now, watch as I zoom out or move away from the image.
It suddenly becomes a lot clearer.
This is because as you move away or zoom out,
the pixels in the image converge or get closer together,
making it more difficult to see each individual pixel.
As you get closer, the pixels spread out
and become more noticeable.
Let's look at some real world examples
of printed artwork in my studio.
This is a 90 by 40 inch multi-photo collage.
While it's fine to appreciate the amount of detail
up close, in order to see the whole image,
you have to step back quite a ways.
This is the distance most people
will view this artwork from.
Here's another example of a large canvas
depicting a gold heart.
Again, the intended viewing distance
is from far away, not up close.
Small and medium canvasses, however,
are typically viewed at arm's length.
Since the viewer will be very close to your canvas,
you'll want to make the image crisp and clear.
Let's look at the digital version of one of these paintings
and discuss the dimensions and resolutions I chose.
Here's the original digital painting for the 90 by 40 print.
If we look at the dimensions and resolution,
you can see it's set to 62 by 38 inches at 72 dpi.
I painted this piece years before creating the print
so at the time I had no idea I would eventually
be creating a print that was 90 inches wide.
I chose 72 for the resolution because I knew
if I were to print the image, it would be viewed
from far away.
In addition to that, there were several other reasons why
I didn't chose a high resolution,
but we'll come back to that in a minute.
It's important to note that resolution
and the image dimensions are really describing
the same thing, the number of pixels in an image.
The number of pixels determines the size and the resolution
of the image.
This image is 4,464 pixels wide
by 2,736 pixels tall.
Since I chose 62 inches for the width
and 72 pixels for the resolution, there will be
72 pixels for every inch of the artwork
or in other words 72 times 62 is 4,464.
So, even though this image is currently at 72 dpi,
I could lower the dimensions and that would create
some extra pixels that can either get thrown away
or converted into resolution.
Unfortunately, resizing is a one-way street.
It's easy to scale an image down
because all you have to do is convert the pixels
from inches to resolution or simply throw them away.
However, enlarging requires adding pixels.
And, since pixels equal detail, the computer's not capable
of adding something that's not there.
You, as the artist can add detail.
The computer cannot.
Since this tutorial is focused mainly on resolution
as it applies to canvasses,
I won't go into a whole lot of detail
about how resolution works when resizing images.
If you want to learn more about that subject,
you can check out my video on resolution.
So, if my original was only 62 inches
and I printed it at 90 inches,
why does the print still look good?
Well, again it comes down to how far you are
from the print while you're viewing it.
At a distance, you don't notice that the computer
inflated or multiplied the pixels
to make the print dimensions larger.
However if you look really close, you can see
the image is a bit blurry
and there are some aliased or jagged edges in the piece.
That's what happens when you enlarge.
For a canvas this size, it's less noticeable
from a distance, but for a smaller image
that will be viewed up close, blurriness
and aliasing will stick out like a sore thumb.
So, if high resolution looks the best
and it's the most flexible for reduction and enlargement,
why wouldn't you just paint every image
at a high resolution?
To answer that, we need to look at some of the pros and cons
of high versus low resolution to help you understand
how resolution affects more than just
your print size and quality.
So, if we start with the pros of high resolution,
we know that we can scale high resolution artwork down
without compromising the image quality,
that the resolution can be reduced easily
without degrading the image quality,
that a high resolution image looks clearer
and has more detail.
A high resolution image prevents aliasing
in fine lines, curves, and diagonal lines.
And, a high resolution image looks great
when you zoom in.
The cons, however, are very important to consider.
A high resolution image takes up a lot of memory
which slows down your computer and your software.
It takes a lot longer to process effects,
and a high resolution file takes up more space
on your hard drive.
And, because a high resolution image is so large
and memory-intensive, it's also more likely to crash
or become corrupted.
As we mentioned earlier, the fine, up close detail
of a high resolution image gets lost at a distance
while you're zoomed out or while the image is down-scaled,
and it also takes a lot more time to paint
a high resolution image.
That's more detail that you have to add.
And then last, but not least, a high resolution image
requires more ink when printing.
Now let's take a look at some of the pros
of working at a low resolution.
A low resolution image takes up less memory
which is less demanding on your computer and software.
Effects also take less time to process
on a low resolution image and the low resolution image
takes up less drive space.
Because a low resolution image is less memory-intensive,
it's also less likely to crash or get corrupted.
Low resolution images are easier to share
on the internet because they're smaller.
And low resolution images take less time to paint.
And, of course, since there's fewer pixels
in a low resolution image, it uses less ink
when you're printing.
Now, let's talk about some of the cons
of working with a low resolution image.
We know that a low resolution image cannot be scaled up
without compromising the image quality
and that the resolution cannot be increased
without degrading the image quality as well.
A low resolution image has less detail
and it promotes aliasing and fine lines, curves,
and diagonal lines.
And, of course, a low resolution image looks horrible
when you zoom in or enlarge it.
So, now that we're more familiar with how resolution
affects your artwork, you can see why I didn't make
my 62-inch wide painting at 300 dpi.
It would have crushed my computer.
And, just like the billboards you see along the roadside,
a lot of the detail I would have added
would have been lost while viewing the painting
from a distance.
It's important to note that there isn't a magic resolution
that works for everything.
But, there are some guidelines that'll help you choose
the best resolution for your painting.
As a general rule of thumb, use a lower resolution
for large canvasses and a higher resolution
for small or medium canvasses.
For something like an eight by 10 or 11 by 14 canvas,
I use 300 dpi.
For anything at or above 24 by 18 inches,
I use 150 dpi.
If you want a higher quality result,
you can chose 240 dpi for large canvasses
and 600 dpi for small or medium canvasses,
but again, the detail you'll be adding is not noticeable
to most people.
Also anything for the web needs to be 72 dpi
because that's the standard for most screens.
However this is quickly changing as high dpi displays
become more common.
It's not unusual to need to format your artwork
in a variety of sizes and resolutions.
When scaling down the dimensions or resolution
of our artwork, make sure to save copies
of your work so you don't overwrite
your high resolution original.
So, that brings us (upbeat music)
to the end of this tutorial.
I hope this tutorial has helped you make better decisions
when choosing a resolution for your canvas.
If you found this information helpful,
take a quick second to like this video.
And, if you'd like to learn more tips
about digital painting, subscribe to my channel
and check out my video training courses
for Corel Painter and Photoshop.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.