Master This Color Transition In Your Paintings

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Shading and coloring tips for better looking paintings and artwork! Learn the principles of LIGHT FALLOFF which can be applied for both realistic and stylized art.
ToC:
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00:00 - 00:30 - Art Examples
00:30 - 00:49 - Light Falloff Intro
00:49 - 02:01 - Light Falloff Values
02:01 - 03:39 - Light Falloff Colors
03:40 - 04:41 - Skillshare Sponsorship Message
04:41 - 05:34 - Painting Exercise 1
05:34 - 06:07 - Image Analysis
06:07 - 06:37 - The Big Payoff
06:37 - 09:15 - Painting Exercise 2
-- LINKS --
More art lessons! www.marcobucciartstore.com
Patreon: / marcobucci
Website: www.marcobucci.com
Instagram: / bucciblog

[@erenyeeagah204]

I've noticed this and used it in my drawings but I never really knew the actual science behind it except for sub surface scaterring when it comes to skin.

[@marcobucci]

Good point about SSS - it follows the same falloff pattern :)

[@teinili]

I actually thought SSS was the only thing that causes this and all the rest is just artistic freedom to make it look cool :D *Edit nevermind let me first watch the video

[@rizwanzaman1793]

Same! Now that I understand it I can implement it better! Thanks @Marco Bucci

[@kantamana1]

In many cases, it is due to highlights, that are blown (overexposed) in at least one of the channels. light tend to go towards white in photographs, when the intensity goes up, but in the near-shadows, it will still retain its chroma. In subsurface scattering, the hue can shift due to blood in tissue, but also due to the tyndall effect, similar to the reyleigh scattering in the atmosphere.

[@s.a.okirito701]

there is more about sss like how light interact with particle, but for the sake of explaining i'll make it easy for u guy. so as the light hit a kinda transparent object (like fruit, plastic and of course, skin) it make the area aroud it glow, i said kinda transparent cuz if it completely transparent like glass, the light will just go through without scattering around inside or u can say in the sub-surface of the object, that means we're supposed to see the a red lit area on the object around where the light hit, right? but we dont, why? let me remind u of the name of the phenomenon, sub-surface... oh what are missing, yup, the light bouncing off of the surface itself, and this light is way more stronger, that's why u can only see the effect when there is a bit or no light bouncing off, like in the shadow or around the edge of it.

[@Nepathian]

Anthony Jones has this really neat trick in Photoshop to simulate light falloff, but I can't remember in which video he explains it. Basically you fill a layer with black and put the blending mode on linear dodge, you clip a layer on top of it on which you paint your light with white. Now you clip a gradient map on top of that and make a gradient with the colors you want for the transition from light to dark. Boom! Magic! If you reduce the opacity of the layer on which you painted the light (or darken it) the colors change automatically!

[@beaveredits4677]

Just tried this, works pretty well. Thanks

[@Nepathian]

@@beaveredits4677 Glad to help, I find it quite useful to essentially create different lights in a scene and have complete control over the color and strength of the lights.

[@marcobucci]

Sounds like a cool approach! Gotta try it.

[@clydesdale1775]

This is actually really helpful, I'm gonna try to do this in Clip Studio...

[@Nepathian]

@@ouo5634 I forgot to mention that you have to make sure your gradient has to start with pure black, this way all the base values stay the same (due to the lineair dodge) Maybe that helps? This effect also works best on top of a fairly dark base.

[@adamthorntonillustration9281]

Marco literally does the best art instruction videos on KZbin. I mean, I like a bit of Ethan Becker for a laugh every now and then, but Marco's videos are a league above anyone else's. Every word is considered and every image is perfect for its use. When I win the lottery I'm going to ask him to be my art teacher! Time well spent, I say! And loved the Charlie Brown teacher reference!

[@marcobucci]

Thanks, Adam :)

[@eduardopolido9595]

Sinix is another awesome teacher.

[@ivanneto5250]

I agree with Eduardo, Sinix is also a great teacher. I've been learning from KZbin for a very long time, but Sinix and Marco are the two best teachers around imo.

[@g.t.3186]

Drawfee's classes are also amazing, if you have around an hour to spare. They're both fun and very informative, highly recommend.

[@danielawesome36]

I started from Ethan, because I was too baby to even learn a tiny bit from everyone else's tutorials.

[@AdamDuffArt]

I feel emotionally winded after watching that - wow! thank you.

[@Friendly__Neighbour]

marco bucci teaches colors and lighting so well!!!

[@marcobucci]

Special shoutout to excellent art by: 0:01 - Donglu 0:08 - Sony Pictures 0:10 - ELIOLI 3:09 - Pascal Blanche 5:44 - Jaime Jones and Jeremy Lipking 6:14 - Donglu (again) and Dice Tsutsumi

[@michaeljackson1175]

I have a Question Mr Bucci. Why the sky in sunset is opposite of light falloff? It's from Orange to Yellow to Green to Blue?

[@neelav2394]

@@michaeljackson1175 because of scattering of the sun rays due to the suspended particles in the atmosphere. Nothing to do with light falloff here.

[@jdawgtor]

Dude, you are literally the best art teacher on youtube. Literally all the concepts you talk about make perfect sense and make me excited to learn more. :D

[@ainzoalgown3234]

so true

[@marcobucci]

thank you!

[@GabrielSantos-hn6eg]

could you tell me if you have any specific brush

[@marcobucci]

@@GabrielSantos-hn6eg No specific brush needed. I even used a default airbrush for some of this. Otherwise I usually like chalky brushes, which every app will come with!

[@GabrielSantos-hn6eg]

@@marcobucci Thank you for helping me I'm from Brazil and I follow your channel

[@zeldinart]

Marco's videos are the only ones I always watch from beginning to end. Never skip them.

[@marcobucci]

Very humbling to hear that. Thank you!

[@pheature]

I saw others artists do it and started doing it myself, since it looked cool. Nice to finally know the science behind this :) ty sensei

[@grimsonforce7504]

Fantastic teacher, takes something seems complicated and explains it in a clear simple and easy format for anyone of all skill levels to understand.

[@adamthorntonillustration9281]

You should watch his video on drawing hands. It's so excellent!

[@iamnotlnw]

I have seen these technics for years but never figure it out. You save my life!!!

[@Artgore84]

I believe you said in your livestream a few days ago that today is your birthday, so happy birthday Marco. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@marcobucci]

Yup - it was actually yesterday. Thank you!

[@JuliaZieger]

@@marcobucci Woah! Happy belated birthday!!!! 🥳

[@krysidian]

This cleared up so much for me. I was always confused at first since I thought it had something to do with subsurface scattering yet was effectively used on opaque things as well. Now It also makes sense why it seems like SSS, since it has a similar hue falloff when the light traverses trought things like skin. Every one of your videos is such an intense "Aha!" Moment!

[@Squishybo]

You explain this stuff so much better than anyone else. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was in college learning how to cook minute noodles in 58 seconds.

[@koiyo303]

I'll be honest here you have literally changed my art in leaps and bounds with your videos, specifically my color. Everyone compliments me on my color now and its the main thing everyone points out. I literally can't thank you enough for existing dude

[@klausthaler1192]

Hi Marco, this video really got me to think about the topic for which I am glad, but can't really agree with the explanation. 1:21 This is not the graph of the inverse Square. It is not flipped either as some claim here. The inverse square is x^(-2), which is not a "bell curve" and does not "fall of exponentially". What you show might be something sometimes named lambert's law, which is the preceived value (lightness) of a plane, depending on the angle (not the distance) to the light source. It determines the value of the light half tones when shading a sphere for example. The function is roughly sqrt(cos(x)). Important as well: The perceived value of light is not simply given by the intensity either but rougly the square root of it as in lamberts law (dark areas appear brighter then what the inverse square would tell you). Check lightness on wikipedia. 2:04 This example also has value contributions due to the angle i would guess. 2:46 Just showing the color wheel does not make much sense in my opinion. This would imply that you would end up with yellow again if you continue the falloff from yellow long enough. If anything, I would look at the visible color spectrum and have colors changing from purple (highest energy) to red (lowest energy). This also gives you the change from yellow to red and from purple to blue, but the color should not just change from red to blue unless there is another light source (sky) determining the shadow color. It is smooth on the color wheel but a jump in physics. Personally I am still trying to figure out why a monochromatic light source should change chroma at all. 3:12 This picture illustrates what I wonder about: Why would the yellow eye create light that appears red? Also there is hardly a value change going on. I can only imagine that this is an artistic interpretation of a campfire light which is yellow (more energetic / hot) in the center and red (less energetic / colder) on the fringes. The purple color would be mixing shadow and light colors then which seems dangerous. Maybe this is a part of what you artistically interested in though: The pleasant transition from warm lights to cool shadows. 3:30 This "light being gone at red" could also be explained by the color spectrum I really enjoyed it when you merely designed a strategy /model and stuck to it ("How to make colors vibrate") but I think the generalization of very different effects you attempt here could be done more effectively by comparing different techniques and effects that create color variation and contrast. Thank you for reading so far

[@xenontesla122]

Thank you! I thought I wrote a similar comment but I can't find it. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on with this effect and I wonder how much of it comes from just aesthetics, using different physics phenomena (like sub-surface and Rayleigh scattering) or the way our eyes perceive color.

[@christianfenis1415]

I'm glad to have stumbled upon your comment here. I find your points interesting and it made me realize that the explanations behind even the most simple art tricks/effects can get very convoluted if you factor in real-life phenomena/physics. I've watched this video many times over already and I still can't completely wrap my head around it. It made me think that maybe this effect is just some kind of fancy art trick that artists just decide to do for the sake of aesthetics but never really made realistic sense. I've always thought it was actually just the light giving off this saturated glow at its fringes whenever it hits an object and makes a cast shadow. Though I've never witnessed it really happen in real life either, it's true that it does make the details of an artwork look more appealing.

[@Runamations]

Hey Marco, great job with the presentation as always. However I believe some of the information provided is either partial or incorrect, and I'd like to address them so we can figure out what the most applicable takeaways are: As pointed out by some other commenters, while the light intensity vs distance does not fall off linearly and indeed follows the inverse-square law, the graph presented is not an inverse-square graph (your graph looks more like the lambert's cosine law falloff which addresses falloff for changes in angle of object to source, not distance). Due to perceived brightness, it may not present as exactly an inverse square to our eye, but nonetheless I think the imagery used in the video can give an incorrect impression. “There can never be a change in value without a change in color”, paraphrased from Alla Prima by Richard Schmid so I fully agree that there will be a change in the color of the light parts of objects as the light is affected by the above falloff. However I think it is very important to consider the local color of the objects within this explanation. As Nathan Fowkes puts it, “The interaction of light on surface” which means that the more an object sees of the light, the more that light plays a role in value and saturation and the converse is also true. So If the object in question is saturated and the light source is a complementary color ( Blue light vs red object For instance), we could easily see less saturation in the lights vs more saturated red in the half-tones, which would be the reverse of some statements in the video. I think this context is important to include as it directly affects color changes during falloff. To the question of what this transition is and where it’s observable, I’ve learned it as “Colored Penumbra” and that it’s more of an extrapolation of how certain materials/circumstances lead to a saturated ring near the terminator line, the chief one being subsurface scattering on materials like skin. We associate seeing it as seeing more “life” when this interaction is present. Further , just like in your video about “Color Noting”, it could also be a variety tool used to exaggerate the temperature differences between the light and dark. I note this because during the Payoff section, you mention that it’s “compressed falloff”, but when the primary factor that affects falloff is the distance from source, I don’t think compressing the distance randomly towards the shadows is entirely sound logic, when the actual distances between the “unsaturated” vs “saturated” areas is so minimal. Not to mention, both of the examples shown during the payoff use the Sun as the source, and would show little falloff due to the size/intensity of the lightsource and the distances involved. Thinking about it more as the aforementioned “colored penumbra” offers I think a slightly less convoluted logic, and would also account for why the majority of the time I see this in art , it saturates towards the warms ( Just like sub-surface, even with a cool light source). Another reason to consider this is to mimic the mild chromatic abberation we sometimes get from photography to push vibrancy. So while I definitely do not dispute the existence of falloff and the resulting value changes creating hue and saturation shifts on the perceived color of a surface, I think we might be pushing the use-case of this phenomenon too wide and not fully including all the factors to consider when it does play a role. Would love to hear your thoughts. TL;DR : Falloff exists, graph describing it is a bit inaccurate, does affect color but factors like local color are important to include, the phenomena the video tries to describe might be better thought of as extrapolated sub-surface/ colored penumbra effect.

[@radicalmatamune]

Excellent explanation. I have a question about the Pacman thing : is it always going clockwork on the color wheel regardless of light source temperature? (warm/cool) Both examples in video are warm colors...

[@Rock_atelier]

you are amazing! you know what, I can hardly find materials explaining color shifting due to light falloff and feel so upset, so I think colored penumbra is a better explanation.

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

@@radicalmatamune very late reply, but I *think* it should depend on the light and surface colors, as Runamations said. Maybe you can think of it as "switching off" the effect of the light - so if a given light shifts a given surface clockwise, the effect would shift it back counter-clockwise as less of the light hits the surface.

[@khunagueroagnis2558]

OH, THAT MAKES SENSE! Thank you, I learned a lot, I'll implement that into my paintings now

[@kurogiza]

The effect reminds me of subsurface scattering in skin, and the way the edge of shadows on skin look more saturated/reddish. Without this scattering, the skin can look dead & dull, sometimes plasticky. Maybe that's why the paintings with this effect look subjectively better; they feel more alive. Excellent video as always Marco, thanks!

[@NebulousJ]

Marco ive learned so much more on your channel than my college it’s not even funny

[@ipyongchua]

The amazing thing here, is that marco has evolved so much in his video making, i hope for a season 2 of better painting

[@awa418]

sup bored scientist

[@ipyongchua]

Lmao sup

[@omaralkhawaja2065]

Oh dude just in time I was searching on something like this effect for weeks . Thank you for explaining it to us 🖤🖤

[@IIIBeYourFantasyIII]

Love this! I remember one of my teachers Barry E. Jackson also bringing this up in a lesson and making us go through the different hues as we shaded spheres. Love how well done the information is organized and explained (and the pacman analogy!), I'm glad to have these lessons from so many informative professionals!

[@Waeva777]

I only started doing this last week and it's bumped up my drawings to a new level, I love having a video on it!

[@TheChameleon2008]

See, i have watched many courses on this topic and this is the first time that the light drop off makes sense. Thank you for spreading your knowledge and a big thumbs up!!!!

[@crazy2720]

I love the way you explain stuff. It's so easy to understand and not over complicated.

[@calieandco]

I've definitely seen this in other people's art, but I never realized there was such a methodical process to making it. It's a lot to take in, but I love this channel's technical explanations and breakdowns of techniques like this! It's really hard to find these kind of technical explanations in making artwork, so thank you for providing this content!

[@christinakentart]

It's really amazing to see how your painting starts to glow when you add the light falloff at the end. And cool to finally know the science behind this effect! Thanks for the great explanation and demo :)

[@phillipowen3149]

Thanks so much!! I’m colorblind so I definitely needed something like this to help improve my color work

[@lidu6363]

This video is amazing. I never dared to even try understanding how this works, and you made it sound so simple!

[@Ceilvia]

Marco you are the best teacher! I always learn something new when watching your videos! They are very helpful, thank you for making them!

[@tobeseve4020]

So you're telling me, this whole time I've been lighting things with yellow and shading with red moving into purple in the deepest shadows, that I wasn't being lazy and staying in my comfort zone but being REALISTIC???? Sweet.

[@seatongrey315]

I ALREADY KNEW ALL THIS AND WOW!!! Thank you so much for verifying and adding on to it. Now I understand even more about colour variance, transitions, saturation and shadow lighting. :)

[@ZonieMusic]

YES I finally found the term for that very specific thing I do in photoshop/photomanipulation. You kind of get a sense of what each blend mode does, and find out how to layer them to get this desired effect. Its really great!

[@Keshgar]

Thank you! I was looking for explanation of this effect for so long now. That's incredibaly helpful!

[@lokman175200]

Your videos are the reason I improved over the last year thank you so much Marco, and Happy belated birthday 🎂!

[@junnafur]

I LOVE your videos! They are all very easy to follow along even for the new artists (like myself) and it makes a lot of sense. Thank you SO much for these. I’m always referring back to your videos when I’m “arting” and I’m always thinking about them when I’m driving or sit down.

[@senh4944]

I was wondering how and why these light fall off's always so dang good, thank you for explaining it so easy to understand and with many examples!

[@hanthonyc]

You're my savior. I always noticed this, but never knew what resources to look for to study it!

[@schindy6385]

Honestly it just makes me so happy to watch these videos, having to stop about every 30 seconds because the content is actually spectacular and useful. So many art tutorials are just "I draw and you just do it like me", it is rarely explained how and why the stroke was used and to be frank, I think a lot couldn't explain if they were tasked to. Seeing how it actually works in depth makes it so much easier to comprehend and learn from So, thank you a lot for the effort

[@kimvrielle]

i saw this used a lot in other artists' work but never really understood how to do it. thankyou so much for this video!

[@coopergurl90]

you seem to have a knack for answering the little questions, us learners seem to observe and have but don't know how to ask. Thank you for all you do and all you share for free!

[@jacobschade8126]

Great job on this one. I love how you take us through the full journey of the theory of the matter to make sure we don't just use the effect, but understand it. I paused the video to do the first painting exercise and will incorporate the second one the next time I do a painting in daylight or with dappled lighting, so thanks for including those as well :)

[@wholesomedegenerate869]

I've been learning a lot from this channel, the explanations are easy to understand but hard to execute but it's a really big help to have a lead on where to start

[@kalvinabro7130]

Love how you animated this video you really help learn

[@tripplejaz]

I was standing on Mt Rainier in Washington at about 7PM this past summer and could SEE this transition on the trees in the valley as the sun went down. Observing this light phenomena in person really helped solidify this technique in my head. Your video came out only a month or so after I witnessed it. So cool! Great explanation, Marco!

[@emmalindner5953]

Thank you so much!! I could not wrap my head around that particular light effect, and didn’t know how to even begin to research it. You broke it down and demonstrated it wonderfully!

[@yarahelal9412]

i've always really liked this effect and have started using it myself, but had no idea why artists did it. thank you for such a concise explanation.

[@Chinornor]

Marco , you are a joy to watch and listening to you motivates me, you are so gifted and your method of teaching is so inspiring and captivating. Honestly you video is so direct and engaging,. I didn't blink for a sec till I finished it. Thank you so much

[@chromonool5211]

this video blew my mind like ten different times. i half-knew these things and already sort-of tried applying them in my work, but knowing what exactly is going on is immensely helpful!!! so, thank you!!!!

[@Sunakoart]

Very informative and easy to understand as always, thank you for sharing the knowledge! :)

[@sawadogtoday]

i have never understood light so well!! thank you!!

[@RoxaneLapa]

Thank you so much Marco. I watched this video earlier today and just now implemented it in a painting I'm working on. It adds a little bit of magic.

[@twopintsofmilk]

Happy belated birthday Marco. Thanks for all the amazing videos :)

[@itscaz8176]

I searched for a video who explain this! You're saving my life with this 😍

[@GiorgioDeMichele-Erebus]

I've been a professional illustrator for many years, but yours are probably the only online tutorial that I still get to learn new things from! While I knew the technique, I didn't knew the scientific knowledge behind it, and for me at least, who are a very rational artist, knowing the why is a huge step toward understanding how to use a technique correctly. Great work!

[@adacskipper]

Thank you for the explanation! I've seen plenty of other artists explain this but I never got what they meant; now I understand it much better!

[@jovaniebandiola780]

whenever i have confusion and curious to something about art.. marco bucci solves the problem

[@barbaravic]

Actually, this effect can happen with shadows affected by a source light from a stained window. I have a window here made from 3 colors on a frame, and it produces a shadow with this effect! It's so pretty to see!

[@ziel_ona]

When I've started to paint / draw more often I've started to observe carefully how light affects different objects and surfaces. It absolutely amazed and enchanted me, and now thanks to your very informative videos I can understand this beautiful phenomenon and try to apply it to my artwork more consciously. Than you soooo much!

[@hp4985]

THANK U I'VE BEEN NOTICING THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND I WAS SO CONFUSED HOW NO MATTER HOW MUCH I STUDIED OTHER PEOPLE'S ART. AAAAAHHHHH

[@naog5380]

You're incredible. Seriously you explain things in a memorable and simplistic manner :0

[@dragoncookies6810]

Thank you so SO much for this! My art teacher briefly mentioned this phenomenon, and I had been trying to figure out what it was called so I could get more information on. Definitely going to be studying this and applying it to my future paintings!

[@RealJohnnyAngel]

I went to school for digital vfx, and i've been trying to translate a lot of the things i learned about light and light physics into drawing and painting but couldn't put this into an intuitive way like this. thank you, i'd been struggling.

[@bigbrushtony4770]

Wooooow! Amazing lesson, mister Bucci! Glad I watched it!

[@grubbyfourk1476]

Great video. Very interesting and helpful. Great examples too. Please do more videos like this!

[@kokomi4469]

I'm gonna watch all of your videos, so well done , and I'm learning a lot omg, I have no words

[@rhoda4621]

I have been wondering what that little line was for ages, no one's ever explained it before! thank you!!

[@danielquebedeaux1835]

What an awesome video. Exactly what I was looking for. Well explained as always!

[@ninaellsworth4367]

Thank you so much for this! I’ve seen this effect in paintings before but it helps immensely to know the science behind it, and to know that the colors are following a pattern and not random.

[@zinzolin14]

great tutorial, and so well explained! Thanks for the tip! 😁

[@aquagrape7839]

Thank you! I will try to apply this to my art since other artists have been doing it

[@anishgautam3121]

You are such a good teacher...damn it was crystal clear..

[@flavafee]

another incredible instructional video! agree with other commenters; this channel is gold! thank you, marco!

[@ajregalia1334]

OH MY GOSH THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR THIS I had been wracking my brain trying to understand how that natural lighting feeling gets captured and this answered that question and then some!

[@MichaelSavidgeStoryteller]

Huh, I think this could actually be very helpful when I'm making my photos; I'll have to pay extra attention next time. Thank you for the tutorial and thorough explanation! 😊

[@FlorescentInk]

marco this is incredible! thank you!

[@joepeezly]

"Pacman starts with yellow, and devours down the color chart." I'll never forget that.

[@AnimaKon]

I love your channel dude, this is not the first time that you teach me something interesting and useful

[@marshalllee7418]

this is a really good explanation I've finally understood it after so many months tysm

[@ErikaCasab]

He´s done it again! Amazing job Marco

[@versipelio3623]

you are a life saver, i was strugling to find out what this technique was, thank you.

[@lenap4956]

Thanks to your videos I literally see the light now

[@thanatos454]

Top-quality video as always! Thanks!

[@clydesdale1775]

The king has returned, thank you I have been trying to understand light fall off for MONTHS without even knowing what its called! :,) SO HELPFUL!

[@4ngelbl00d9]

Ohhhhhh, okay! I hope I can use this to improve my paintings! Thanks for the tips!

[@lightavii]

Been trying to figure out just what this was for ages after I noticed it, but I could never find any sort of video or tutorial to explain it. This all made it click into place. Thank you SO much!

[@joy042]

Fantastic, thanks a lot for this amazing lesson!

[@MOTHsan]

I feel so smart while painting stuff now, thank you

[@randomboiyo6254]

I’ve noticed this a lot in Krenz’s painting and mimicked it for my own. Glad to know that it actually has some theory behind it rather than just some cool effects!

[@MerHerrera5]

This is wonderful, I was recently asked to make a copy of a drawing and the artist uses this effect. As it is a copy I am only drawing and painting as it is in the original, but I was intrigued to know why he used these colors! Thank you!!

[@mariaa.2337]

Thank you! That was really educational and well explained!

[@chaerub_]

i have always wondered this for so long... this is a godsend

[@shenshen371]

This is my first time watching your video. And I already express my deepest gratitude, coming from this girl who can't afford art classes and don't understand what the hell's happening in those art tutorials and how can they make their artworks not so flat QAQ. Thank you very much.

[@Ridl-one]

very helpful... thanks Marco

[@gumii5051]

I like using hue ish shading because it looked pretty, didn't know it had a science behind it, amazing video as ever!!

[@iamapie13]

This alone has made so much sense of how I portray light

[@dath.8932]

Thank you! This's helpful.

[@vitorcampos6681]

Perfect as always!

[@zoonzoon123]

You're making so much people making better arts. Thank you

[@ferdikadatu687]

thanks sir, your video and practical method is great. It's not waste time to learn from you.❤