Painting the Interdimensional Traveler - ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film and Games - page 254

Figure 5-23: The white box next to the adjustment layer icon is the layer mask.
Benefits of Using Adjustment Layers
At this stage you could just fill the layer with a simple gradient between a lighter and darker value of
gray. This is an acceptable approach, but by using an adjustment layer and a mask we get to learn how to
use layer masks, adjustment layers, and we also gain a much greater level of control over the backdrop.
With this configuration, at any point later in the painting process you can easily double click the layer to
access the level controls to adjust the lightness or darkness of the falloff. You can easily change the color
of the background or even replace it with an image. You can also manipulate the layer mask to change
the rate or the gradient. This is much more control than you would have available with a simple gradient
bitmap. We also want to learn how to use adjustment layers, as we will revisit them to create a lighting
effect on the figure itself later in this tutorial.
5. This is the mask associated with the adjustment layer. It's plain white now, which means all of the
image is affected by the layer control. We will add a gradient to this mask to obscure some of the effect,
creating a gradual falloff to dark. Select the gradient tool from the left side of the screen ( Figure 5-24 ).
Figure 5-24: The gradient tool