the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 (edited) So I figured, why have a different thread for each color scheme? It would be more fun, and more convenient to put them all in one place. With that in mind, I have started this thread as The Place to be, if you are a Macross Color Scheme. I have posted several blanks at Yellowlightman's Macross Fan Creations Website. If any of them are yours, please contact me so I can properly credit you. Also, if you have links of your own, or have posted high quality versions of blank lineart, feel free to PM me the link, and I will edit it into this first post (with proper credit) for everyone to partake in. I've found that a blank of about 1500 pixels across is great to work with. That's the size I build mine in. REMEMBER, THAT YOU MUST RESIZE YOUR COLORED LINEARTS TO BETWEEN 600-700 PIXELS WIDE BEFORE POSTING ON MACROSSWORLD!!! This is an unofficial rule created by the Mods to make viewing of the boards enjorable by all. Macross Fan Creations Links: As always, click on the link, and the click on the picture to see the full-sized version that you can download and color. VF-4 Lineart WDC'S VF-9 Lineart WDC'S VF-11 Lineart Nied's VF-11 Lineart VF-0 Lineart Good luck and happy coloring!!! P.S.- At the request of several members, I've included a brief tutorial on how I color my VF's. I've posted this a couple of replies down. Edited March 8, 2004 by the white drew carey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 VF-11, Max Jenius M3 colors: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 VF-11, Millia Jenius M3 colors: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 11, 2003 Author Share Posted November 11, 2003 Okedokee (popcorn)- Here's my dandy (see: crappy) tutorial on how I color my VF schemes: I use Photoshop 7.0 for my color schemes. I prefer to keep my lineart at about 1500 pixels across at 200 DPI. This is simply the methodology I use, which is, in all probability, very redundant. But hey- If it works than it gets the job done, right? First off, I do all of the shading. This can include regular shadows, panels lines and weathering. I'll pick a constant shade of light grey using this formula: Red-215, Blue-215, Green-215 with a Luminosity-85. Remember, you'll always want to keep your tools on NORMAL. All gradients and dark shading will be achieved through MULTIPLY. Now we can get to work!!! NOTE: EVERY LAYER FROM HERE ON OUT WILL BE SET ON MULTIPLY. 1) The first layer I do is the PANEL LINES (titled= PANELS). Using the MAGIC WAND TOOL, I'll manually select sections of the BACKGROUND, then swith to the PANELS LAYER and run a paintbrush right along the outside of the selection for any sections of panel, with the small amount of overflow showing up in the selection. The size of the Paintbrush depends on the size of the panel, but I prefer to keep it generally small (anywhere from 20-35 pixels). Keep alternating back and forth: BACKGROUND= SELECT AREA PANEL LINES (LAYER 1)= SHADING BACKGROUND= SELECT AREA PANEL LINES= SHADING Remember to keep alternating. You don't want any shading on the background at all. You'll need to keep up this alternating pattern throughout the whole process. 2) Next I'll work on the general shading. This will be encompassed by several layers set on MULTIPLY, which I usually call SHADE 1, SHADE 2, SHADE 3, etc. I'll use either the MAGIC WAND TOOL for small areas, or the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL to select wide areas that will have a constant level of shading, such as the fuselage, the nose, tailfins or legs. This time I usually make my paintbrush larger. Anything from 85-100 pixels for regular areas up to 400-500 pixels for large areas. Your best bet is to shade the whole selected area at once. Let's say I've selected the whole leg. I'll shade the layers as such: Shade 1 Shade 2 Shade 3 Shade 4 What I do for shading such as this is actually use the PAINT TOOL outside of the selected area (usually on the bottom side), moving further away with each respective layer. This way, you'll get less coverage without having to alter the size of your tool, and a level of shading that gets progressively darker through the combination of each of the layers. 3) After I'm satisfied with the general shading I'll create 2-4 more layers which I usually title WING 1, 2, etc. This is what I'll do all of my "hard" shading on. Using the ever-trusty POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL, I'll select a line of shading angling down along the body under the wings and any other noticeable protrusions. I'll use a PAINT TOOL set quite large in pixels and do a group of shading on each respective layer. Once again I'll use it on the outside of the selection, but this time around I do it above the selection, moving further away with every layer. This will give the effect of a heavy shadow under the wings and other protrusions. Once your satisfied with all of the shading, I'll switch the BACKGROUND LAYER (your blank lineart) to INVISIBLE, so that only your layers of shading are visible. I'll then choose LAYER -> MERGE VISIBLE. I'll rename this layer SHADING, and that'll leave you with two layers- Background and Shading, as seen here: While not entirely noticeable under the main wing, the results of STEP #3 are easily visible under the canards and, especially, with the shadow from the tailfin. Save this as something like VF-11_shadiing.tif (or whatever). Now you have a blank with a constant layer of shading you can use with every color sheme you make. Yay. 4) Now you can color. Make a new layer (once again set on MULTIPLY), and use you MAGIC WAND and POLYGONAL LASSO TOOLS to select areas and color. Use of the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL is wonderful for creating complicated paintschemes. 5) Adding logos and other neato stuff: Drop your logo into the image (it'll be a new layer), and change the layer to MULTIPLY. Next, use your MAGIC WAND TOOL and select something other than your logo. Then hit SELECT -> INVERSE and it'll choose everything within your logo. Then hop over to your COLOR LAYER and erase out whatever is inside the selected logo. This will leave your lineart and your shading to enhance the logo. This is what I did with my Polarbears paintscheme. After you're happy with your everything, merge everything down and REMEMBER TO SAVE IT UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME!!! Don't do like me and accidentally save it all as your blank, or shaded blank. Because then all of your hard work shading is gone. What I did with all of the M3 Max and Millia paintschemes was to do a Millia scheme, keep all of the layers seperate and save from there. Then I selected the COLOR LAYER, and clicked IMAGE ->ADJUSTMENTS-> REPLACE COLOR and simply switched the reds with blue. Easy, huh? There's a lot more you can do which I haven't covered, or even know. I hope that this thread will also become a library of sorts where everyone shares their methods and ideas. We can only learn more, can't we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Knight Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 TWDC - Thank you VERY much for that tutorial! I plan on trying some on my days off (Wed. & Thurs.) So, if I come up with anything half-decent, I'll post it here. Once again, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Knight Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Hmm, one more thing. Do you use a mouse of a graphic tablet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Thanks Jeff...that was really helpful as i am still struggling with the shading part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 11, 2003 Author Share Posted November 11, 2003 For the time being I'm stuck with a mouse, but I hope to get a graphics tablet at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncientAngel Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Nice work! wish there where 3 views posted on any of those VF's. I might have to do some looking around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 (edited) Jeff 1. I don't understand the first step "panel lines". Is this part dealing with the weathering ? I selected the background but can only color the white and not the lines... 2. You mention a grey with 215 for each RGB but what is a luminosity of -85 ?How is this done ? Sorry had to ask. Thanks. Edited November 12, 2003 by hellohikaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 12, 2003 Author Share Posted November 12, 2003 (edited) 1) First, you want to be in your Background Layer. Click inside one of your panels with your MAGIC WAND tool. This will select the empty area up to the surrounding panel lines. Next, switch to your PANEL layer and run your paintbrush along the outside of the selected area wherever there would be a panel line. You don't actually want the blank lines from the BACKGROUND to be selected. This method allows you to work with the specific shading on each panel. You could simply run a paintbrush over all of the panel lines, but it's a bit tougher to make things perfect. As to the L, here's a screencap of the COLOR-PICKER window in Photoshop, I've circled the L. Edited November 12, 2003 by the white drew carey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 Jeff Making progress here. Here is an attempt by me trying the first 3 steps plus the coloring part. I set the brush to the round type with 50% opacity and 100% flow. What brush type do you use and how exactly do you paint it on ? Do you use the tip of the brush area and do you use the soften tool to make it smooth ? Note: the tail is from the VF-3000 blank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bake_art Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 This is a pretty wicked tutorial WDC, I must say that this thread is pretty invaluable for MWers like me who are trying to learn how to color. Thanks a lot and two thumbs up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 12, 2003 Author Share Posted November 12, 2003 Hellohikaru- Good job. It looks like it was colored with Copic Markers or something of the sort. What I do is leave the flow and opacity at 100%, and then I alter the size of the brush. This way, I don't have to bother with the soften tool. One thing to keep in mind is that in almost every case where I'm shading, I actually use the brush tool OUTSIDE of the selected area. By doing so, a small amount of the "flow" carries over into the selected area. If I want more paint inside the selected area, I move the brush closer to it, sometimes even right on the edge. For panels lines I usually have my brush set wuite small (about 35 pixels or so), and run the brush right along, or on, the selection. For larger areas, I make the brush quite big (sometimes upwards of 800 pixels), and keep it well away from the selection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 12, 2003 Author Share Posted November 12, 2003 I forgot to mention: Usually, when your all done and you've flattened all of your layers, there will some exremely small gaps between your coloring and the actual line art (mostly only 1 pixel or so across). What I like to do then is throw a blur filter over the whole thing. This is my method of choice for smoothing out the whole image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 12, 2003 Author Share Posted November 12, 2003 (edited) Here's a quick run through: Image 1- The tailfin of a VF-11 After creating a new layer "PANEL" and set it for MULTIPLY, I select an open area in the BACKGROUND layer and switch over to the PANEL layer. Once there, I use a paintbrush set at 20 pixels and ran it along the outside of my selected area. Once I'm satisfied, I move back to the BACKGROUND and select a different open area and repeat until I'm satisfied with my panel lines. Image 2- Here I am showing what both layers look like when visible (left), and the PANEL layer by itself (right). Next, I create 3-4 layers, here it is SHADING 1-3, set on MULTIPLY. I now use the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL to select the whole tailfin at once. Then I set my paintbrush for about 250 pixels and selected SHADING 1. I did a quick pass from NE to SW right under the bottom right corner of the tailfin. I did the same for SHADING 2 and 3, only a little further away each time. Image 3- This is SHADING 1, seen with all other layers invisible. Image 4- SHADING 2. Image 5- and SHADING 3. Image 6- This is all three SHADING layers, and the PANEL layer flattened together, with the BACKGROUND layer still invisible. This is the completed shading for the tailfin, renamed simply SHADE. Image 7- Here is the shading layer, SHADE, and the lineart layer, BACKGROUND, seen together. At this point, I save the image with the two layers as something like VF-4_LINEART_SHADED. This way, I'll have a consistent set of shadows with every subsequent lineart I do. Next a make a new layer, COLOR, which is set on multiply. I lay down the color here, using the MAGIC WAND and the POLYGONAL LASSO tools to select areas I wish to color. Image 8- This is the COLOR layer seen with all other layers invisible. Image 9-After I'm done with everything, I flatten the whole kit-n-kaboodle and blur it. I then save the full-sized version as a .tiff image. If I'm posting it on MW, I resize it to between 600-700 pixels across and then save that version as a .jpg image. Edited November 12, 2003 by the white drew carey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Just for gits and shiggles, I changed the colors of the sample tailfin to the scheme that Hellohikaru has used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 I got it finally!!! It turned out i was using the hard brushes all along...i switch to the softer brushes and it look better now. It hard to tell becuase my black is too dark but its there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 (edited) This is the shades once merge. Still a long way to go though..need lot of practice to hold the brush correctly. Thanks alot for the tutorial. Edited November 13, 2003 by hellohikaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Excellent. Simply wonderful. One suggestion, fool around with using lighter hues when you color. The colors don't have to be terribly bright. I used a medium grey for my "black" section, and when the layers are flattened, the shading is still visible while still looking like the part is painted black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty gorgon Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 I was playing with the VF-4 that I am modelling 3D and I just rendered a couple of profiles. It is FAR from being a proper render... I just threw a side view over the model. It works reasonably good. The "flanker" scheme is better than the US Navy one... Regds, Gorgon (not Gordon) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mighty gorgon Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 And here the "flanker" scheme. Again, it is a flat color profile thrown over a side view and rendered... quick and dirt technique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 18, 2003 Share Posted November 18, 2003 Here are the links to the old color threads VF-11 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=5&t=2305 VF-9 Cutlass http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=5&t=2807 VF-5000 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=5&t=2916 VF-3000 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=5&t=2957 VF-1 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=5&t=2957 VF-17 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...t=ST&f=5&t=2992 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaser617 Posted November 19, 2003 Share Posted November 19, 2003 This might sound silly, but is it possible to make a paintscheme for the VF-11 based ont eh old VF 33rd "Starfighters" paint scheme? http://www.topedge.com/alley/squadron/lant...nt/vf-33_01.gif I don't have photoshop, or an ounce of artistic talent when it comes to the visual, only the written word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 19, 2003 Author Share Posted November 19, 2003 This might sound silly, but is it possible to make a paintscheme for the VF-11 based ont eh old VF 33rd "Starfighters" paint scheme?http://www.topedge.com/alley/squadron/lant...nt/vf-33_01.gif I don't have photoshop, or an ounce of artistic talent when it comes to the visual, only the written word. It shouldn't be that hard... It all depends on how much money you've got. Seriously, I'll take a crack at it, but since I'm pretty busy lately I'm sure someone'll get it done before me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatalist Posted November 19, 2003 Share Posted November 19, 2003 I would LOVE to see a VX-9 Vampires scheme. Not the all black one, but the mostly grey with black tail fins and black on the nose section. And with the bat insignia, not the playboy bunny as depicted elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellohikaru Posted November 19, 2003 Share Posted November 19, 2003 I would LOVE to see a VX-9 Vampires scheme. Not the all black one, but the mostly grey with black tail fins and black on the nose section. And with the bat insignia, not the playboy bunny as depicted elsewhere. It would be useful if you have pics of this scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatalist Posted November 19, 2003 Share Posted November 19, 2003 http://www.nawcwpns.navy.mil/~VX9/ Simple Google search could have brought it up. Click on the F-14 box. Oh and for further clarifying, this would be for a VF-11 or VF-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the white drew carey Posted November 19, 2003 Author Share Posted November 19, 2003 http://www.nawcwpns.navy.mil/~VX9/Simple Google search could have brought it up. Click on the F-14 box. Oh and for further clarifying, this would be for a VF-11 or VF-1. Just to spite you I'm going to put it on a VF-4... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatalist Posted November 19, 2003 Share Posted November 19, 2003 So mean!!!!!!!! But, I guess it would work. I actually thought about the VF-11, and decided against it. I want to put this scheme on my Low Viz, just need the decals in a 1/48th scale. The Black Knights have the same scheme but with a different tailfin logo. Check them out too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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