Cyttorak, on 16 November 2011 - 11:36 AM, said:
How about posting a tutorial for how to make these recolorations?
I think I could do a bit myself, if I just knew more about my graphics program's settings.
Ask and ye shall receive (Sorry if this is convoluted. I've been using PS for quite a few years, but never bothered to learn the proper terminology for a lot of things. That, coupled with the fact that I've been running on caffeine for the past couple days mean this is going to be an interesting tutorial).
This will just cover the basics. If it's too confusing I'll come back after I've had a chance to sleep so I can fix things.
I'd like to give a tutorial for freeware like GIMP, but I just don't have the working knowledge for that. This tutorial assumes that you are using one of Adobe's Photoshop CS programs. My particular version is CS5, but I think my technique should be backwards-compatible. I discourage piracy, and if anyone doesn't have a legal copy of Photoshop I will be happy to sit down and take the time to learn GIMP so I can prepare another tutorial for you to use. Please don't pirate software.
Ok, now that the PSA is over, let's edit some concept art! This tutorial assumes you are basically unfamiliar with Photoshop CS5.
Step 1:
Open Photoshop.
Step 2:
Open the image you'll be editing, and (if you want to have a template you can go back to) save the image as a .psd file.
Step 3. create a new layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N, or Layer>New>Layer...) On the window that pops up it will ask for the following info:
NAME: (For this tutorial, type in "Soft White").
CHECK BOX ("Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask" just ignore this)
MODE: (This is
important! Set this one to "Soft Light")
OPACITY: (Leave this at 100%)
Then press OK! You now have a new layer over the image. You can select it in the "Layers" section in the lower right-hand corner. Do this now.
Step 4:
Select the "Soft Light" layer.
Press L. (This is the hotkey for the lasso tool, which is going to be important for this next part)
You will notice that the lasso tool is now highlighted (tool bar is on the left side of the screen). Hover your mouse over this and hold down the mouse button while hovering over it: This will bring up a small menu allowing you to chose between the
Lasso, Polygon Lasso, and
Magnetic Lasso tools. Unless you have very steady hands, you'll probably want to use the
Polygon Lasso tool.
With the
Polygon Lasso tool selected, mask out the parts of the image you'll want to edit (I.E. change colors). You will mask out the areas by clicking where you want to start a polygon, slowly moving around the image, clicking additional places where you want the outline to go. When you're finished you click back at the starting point.
Step 5:
Press "G". This will bring up the paint bucket tool (again, you can see this in the toolbar). Color the selected area white. Press CTRL+D to de-select your selected areas if you made a mistake or if you just want to remove your selection.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have "masked" off everything you want to color.
Step 6:
Select the "Soft Light" layer that we just finished editing. Press CTRL+A (select-all), CTRL+C (copy) CTRL+V (paste). This will create a new layer.
In the
Layers panel (lower right hand corner) select this new layer (it should be called "Soft Light Copy". Double click the name and rename it to "Multi White". Double click the thumbnail next to the name, and a window should pop up. There should be a tab that says "Blending Options", select that. Change the blend mode from "soft white" to "multiply".
OK! Let's recap. You should have a background (the source image), and then two "masking" layers on top of that. So far so good?
Alright, it get's easier from here.
Step 7:
create another new layer. Just a regular, defaut layer, no special changes needed (but again, I recommend you name your layer). Select your paint bucket tool and fill the entire layer with the color of your choice.
Step 8:
In the Layers panel (lower right-hand corner) Hover your mouse between the new layer and the "muti white" layer while holding the ALT key. This will make your cursor change from a mouse to two overlapping circles: when it looks like this click the left mouse button. This should apply the new color to the image.
I think you folks can figure out the rest.
1
. With your permissions when the CGB BG scheme is done, I Would love to use it on our units homepage advertising MWO, as i have been busy and not put a post about it 
