How to "Re-color" something
INTRO
Sometimes you come across an object in a picture you want to change the color of or edit it's coloring. With these instructions you should be able to successfully re-color something and from here you can test other settings and functions to come up with some cool stuff.
I made a <a href="http://www.twindragonproductions.com/video/color-tutorial.mov">video tutorial</a> with the same instructions. There is no sound but you should be able to see exactly what I did and you can pause to review the exact steps.
This tutorial works with pretty much everything I've tried it on, as long as there are shadows and highlights on the object. This includes people, cars, cups, pretty much anything. Learning this and paying attention to highlights and shadows that you are preserving can also help you to learn how to give objects you make from scratch shadowing and highlighting manually.
TUTORIAL
You should start with an object that is light-gray or as close to it as you can get. If you don't have a light-gray object you should check out my tutorial on " How to Desaturate Something".
This is after I desaturated the cup using the method in the tutorial mentioned above.
1) Use the PEN TOOL to place marks around the perimeter of your object. (HINT: The more marks you place the more accurate your final selection will be).
2) Once you connect the first and last marks the line will become solid, RIGHT CLICK inside the object and choose MAKE SELECTION. Make sure your RADIUS is set to "0" then hit OK.
3) Go to your LAYERS window and RIGHT CLICK then select LAYER VIA COPY. (HINT: You can also just hit Control+J on your keyboard) This action will give you a copy of the object you outlined.
4) Now select the TOP LAYER and use the PEN TOOL to select parts of the object that are not directly part of the main body of the object. (Car = windows, headlights, vents, grill, decals, etc - you just want the main body of the object). This time you should set your RADIUS to 2 so that you get soft edges on your cut outs which will help blend the final effect.
Once you make each selection like we did in steps 1 and 2 you will hit DELETE on your keyboard, OR go to EDIT>CLEAR.
At this point you should have a fully cut out "chassis" of your object.
This is an example of the cut outs of a car - The Cup has no extra parts.
5) Select the TOP LAYER, then RIGHT CLICK, then select DUPLICATE LAYER (or just hit Control+J). Name the new top layer "Highlights", name the middle layer "Color". (To rename a layer simply DOUBLE CLICK on the layer name i.e. "Layer 2" then just type in a name)
6) Make the MIDDLE LAYER invisible by clicking on the "Eye" icon next to the layer. Now, go to IMAGE, then ADJUST, then LEVELS.
You will see the LEVELS window, there are three arrows under the level meter. Move the level arrows to make the chassis black but still showing the highlights. You want them to blend nicely, be careful when you begin to see grain or discoloring in the highlights. (HINT: Move the Left-most arrow to the right, Move the middle arrow to the right, Move the right-most arrow a little to the left -- You can also tap the arrows on the lower bar slightly to help smooth the blending.)
7) Now make the TOP LAYER invisible by clicking the "Eye" icon next to the layer. Click the MIDDLE LAYER to select it and make it visible. Hold down the CONTROL button on your keyboard and LEFT CLICK on the MIDDLE LAYER with your mouse. (This will select the entire shape of the object in the middle layer)
Go to your color boxes on your tools bar and select the color you want the object to be. Then go to EDIT, then FILL. In the FILL box that comes up make sure you have FOREGROUND COLOR selected and hit OK.
8) With the MIDDLE LAYER selected go to the BLENDING DROP DOWN at the top of the LAYERS window (It should say "Normal") Click on that and select MULTIPLY.
9) Select the TOP LAYER then go to the same BLENDING DROP DOWN and select SCREEN.
That's the end of the tutorial. You can of course play with the settings and even go further to change Hues and Saturations to make muted colors or brighter colors.
You can see the color of the original cup is actually too bright, the highlights are way overblown. In doing this tutorial I've been able to bring the highlights down a little and make the color of the cup deeper. This is in essence "fixing" the original picture. I could also have made the cup any other color by changing the HUE of the middle layer.
Here you can see the difference with the above picture having the highlight layer on and the below picture having the highlight layer off. In this picture it's a bit more subtle than I'd like but you can tell a difference.
And then here is the same cup with a red color just to show the change.
To change the color simply go to IMAGE, then ADJUST, then select HUE/SATURATION.
Change the HUE to change the color, SATURATION does little to help at this point, LIGHTNESS will help adjust shadows and highlights a little if you need it.
Sometimes you come across an object in a picture you want to change the color of or edit it's coloring. With these instructions you should be able to successfully re-color something and from here you can test other settings and functions to come up with some cool stuff.
I made a <a href="http://www.twindragonproductions.com/video/color-tutorial.mov">video tutorial</a> with the same instructions. There is no sound but you should be able to see exactly what I did and you can pause to review the exact steps.
This tutorial works with pretty much everything I've tried it on, as long as there are shadows and highlights on the object. This includes people, cars, cups, pretty much anything. Learning this and paying attention to highlights and shadows that you are preserving can also help you to learn how to give objects you make from scratch shadowing and highlighting manually.
TUTORIAL
You should start with an object that is light-gray or as close to it as you can get. If you don't have a light-gray object you should check out my tutorial on " How to Desaturate Something".
This is after I desaturated the cup using the method in the tutorial mentioned above.
1) Use the PEN TOOL to place marks around the perimeter of your object. (HINT: The more marks you place the more accurate your final selection will be).
2) Once you connect the first and last marks the line will become solid, RIGHT CLICK inside the object and choose MAKE SELECTION. Make sure your RADIUS is set to "0" then hit OK.
3) Go to your LAYERS window and RIGHT CLICK then select LAYER VIA COPY. (HINT: You can also just hit Control+J on your keyboard) This action will give you a copy of the object you outlined.
4) Now select the TOP LAYER and use the PEN TOOL to select parts of the object that are not directly part of the main body of the object. (Car = windows, headlights, vents, grill, decals, etc - you just want the main body of the object). This time you should set your RADIUS to 2 so that you get soft edges on your cut outs which will help blend the final effect.
Once you make each selection like we did in steps 1 and 2 you will hit DELETE on your keyboard, OR go to EDIT>CLEAR.
At this point you should have a fully cut out "chassis" of your object.
This is an example of the cut outs of a car - The Cup has no extra parts.
5) Select the TOP LAYER, then RIGHT CLICK, then select DUPLICATE LAYER (or just hit Control+J). Name the new top layer "Highlights", name the middle layer "Color". (To rename a layer simply DOUBLE CLICK on the layer name i.e. "Layer 2" then just type in a name)
6) Make the MIDDLE LAYER invisible by clicking on the "Eye" icon next to the layer. Now, go to IMAGE, then ADJUST, then LEVELS.
You will see the LEVELS window, there are three arrows under the level meter. Move the level arrows to make the chassis black but still showing the highlights. You want them to blend nicely, be careful when you begin to see grain or discoloring in the highlights. (HINT: Move the Left-most arrow to the right, Move the middle arrow to the right, Move the right-most arrow a little to the left -- You can also tap the arrows on the lower bar slightly to help smooth the blending.)
7) Now make the TOP LAYER invisible by clicking the "Eye" icon next to the layer. Click the MIDDLE LAYER to select it and make it visible. Hold down the CONTROL button on your keyboard and LEFT CLICK on the MIDDLE LAYER with your mouse. (This will select the entire shape of the object in the middle layer)
Go to your color boxes on your tools bar and select the color you want the object to be. Then go to EDIT, then FILL. In the FILL box that comes up make sure you have FOREGROUND COLOR selected and hit OK.
8) With the MIDDLE LAYER selected go to the BLENDING DROP DOWN at the top of the LAYERS window (It should say "Normal") Click on that and select MULTIPLY.
9) Select the TOP LAYER then go to the same BLENDING DROP DOWN and select SCREEN.
That's the end of the tutorial. You can of course play with the settings and even go further to change Hues and Saturations to make muted colors or brighter colors.
You can see the color of the original cup is actually too bright, the highlights are way overblown. In doing this tutorial I've been able to bring the highlights down a little and make the color of the cup deeper. This is in essence "fixing" the original picture. I could also have made the cup any other color by changing the HUE of the middle layer.
Here you can see the difference with the above picture having the highlight layer on and the below picture having the highlight layer off. In this picture it's a bit more subtle than I'd like but you can tell a difference.
And then here is the same cup with a red color just to show the change.
To change the color simply go to IMAGE, then ADJUST, then select HUE/SATURATION.
Change the HUE to change the color, SATURATION does little to help at this point, LIGHTNESS will help adjust shadows and highlights a little if you need it.
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