Contributions are encouraged: As with real life painting every artist has their own way to do a task. You could have 50 artists all able to paint the same exact thing using 50 completely different techniques. No one is right, no one is wrong, it's just what works for you is the best one. If you are going to contribute with a tip please understand this is meant to be read by novices so please sound it out, include some pictures if you want so that a novice understand what you are talking about.
Tools needed: Unfortunately I can not stand The Gimp or I would use that because it is free. I just plain can't use it and it's 1998 XWindows feel drives me insane. I will strictly be using Photoshop CS5, from the little I've used The Gimp the basics between the two seem similar so someone with knowledge of it might be able to pick up on it.
Assumptions I'm making: I am assuming anyone reading this already knows how to export textures to DDS and open them in Photoshop and then save them back for use in the game and knows the file structure well enough to make their own repaint folders. That's an entire different tutorial I'm not prepared to write yet if you do not know this part yet.
Lesson #1 Objective: Changing colors of a basic piece of rolling stock
Lesson #1 overview: This is the first thing most users might want to do and it's the easiest way to get someone familiar with the basic tools in Photoshop. Before repainting rollingstock I had used Photoshop for years doing basic stuff like editing pictures of my friends and Photography. It was a completely different ball game for me when I had to learn repainting textures. The Red Caboose was the very first thing I ever repainted and it is what I learned `the ropes' with. So, it worked for me, I hope it works for you.
-------Lesson Start--------
If you don't have the red caboose texture loaded in Photoshop please do so and duplicate the background layer. [Never ever, ever edit the background copy]
Now, we're going to color it blue. There are two methods to do this depending on the texture and the complexity of what you are trying to do. With the caboose model the easiest way to do this is as follows. (Citation: Technically color balance or hue adjustments on the background layer is easier, but in my opinion is a terrible habit to form therefore not bothering to show it)
With your background COPY highlighted go to: image/adjustments/Black and white and just click OK on the dialog that pops up. Your Background Copy layer should now be 100% black and white.
Now we need to make a new layer and name it `Body Color'. Naming the layer is not 100% required or needed but it is a VERY GOOD HABIT to form as not naming your layers will without a doubt cause headaches for you in your future projects.
Now, we're painting this blue, so you need to make your foreground color blue (Do that now). Once you have selected your color, make sure your new blank layer is the highlight one, right click on the picture, FILL. Use foreground color, and click ok.
You should now see nothing but a solid color of blue. Next thing to do is change the blending option for your Body Color layer to Multiply. The blending option you choose can vary. There is technically never a right or wrong blending option to choose. The one you choose all comes down to the one that gives the best results you are looking for. Statistically though, Multiply and Overlay are the two I find do the jobs the best about 70% of the time.
Ok. So we have a blue caboose, but the problem is now the stuff that should be white and gray also has a blue tint to it. That needs to be fixed and for this one there are two things we will do to make this happen.
First the easy stuff like the window and body side labels. With the Body Color layer active use the square marquee tool to highlight the area, then cut. This will essentially cut the blue away so the base black and white layer can poke through. Now do this for the other body label and the window.
At this point yours should look exactly like this.
Now, let's start getting those fine spots that you can't simply highlight an area and cut out. Again (I know I'm repeating myself) make sure your body color layer is the active one for editing. Let's start with the tiny writing on the side. Grab the marquee tool, doesn't matter if it's square, round or whatever and just select an area immediately around it like so. I have selected a big area around it for the purpose of the screenshot, tighter the better though.
Now from the top menu choose: Select/Color Range. Use the eyedropper to click on a spot in the writing. Preferably a bright area. Adjust the fuzziness until only the text is white and the rest is black.
It should look similar to this when right. (hey where did my layer name go?
)
Click ok when you feel you got it. Then press ctrl-x (same as going to edit/cut). Now you should have your nice white text back. If it's anything but like the image shown below, step backwards (ctrl-alt-z) to revert it like it was before and try it again.
If you need to reference the black and white or color layer picture to see what is white/gray click the EYEBALL next to your Body Color/body color AND Background Copy layer to disable them to see the black and white image or color image for reference. Click the same spots to turn the layer back on.
Now using the two techniques above and a little eraser tool in some spots you should be able to see something like this in about only 5 minutes.
Save as PSD, then save as DDS to send back to game. DO-NOT-SAVE-AS-THE-SAME-DDS FILE NAME AND OVERWRITE THE ORIGINAL YOU EXPORTED. Always keep a clean backup handy.
That is all for this tutorial.
I'll let this fest for a bit, but the next one will be more complicated and take some time to write.
Preview for next: Dealing with multiple colored sections and converting it to a workable base gray layer to be able to color the way you want. Simply converting to Black and White does not work for something like this.
