Here's my noob method of color separating. This method is very time consuming, but can lead to some very good results.Programs:The program that I use for CSing is Gimp. There are a few reasons for that. For one thing, Gimp allows you easy access to your color map via toolbox. A color map is seen in a lot of indexed pictures. In case you didn't know, an indexed picture is basically a picture with only certain colors that are in a color map. If you were to color something with a color that's not in the map, the image will change it into another color that's somewhat similar to one of the colors in the image. The only way that a new color will show up is that color has to be added to the color map. Gimp also allows for different kinds of brushes. A brush is basically a pixelator in image makers and editors that changes or adds colors to your image. Gimp not only has different sizes of brushes, but you adjust the thickness of the brush in the tool options window. This is very helpful, which I'll explain later on. Finally, Gimp provides you with a very handy color selector. Gimp's color selector isn't as good as Graphics Gale's due to low contrast colors mixing together, which I'll go it detail more a little later, but unlike GG, you can use your brush while your image is focused on one color, meaning that the only pixels that will change is the one that is the same color of the original selected.First up, Let's create a new image:When creating your new Image make sure to change the background color, which is the green box in the toolbox:The reason for this is you want to have your image at a certain color to make in transparent in MUGEN. Also, be sure to make the image big enough to accommodate all other images that you plan on CSing. Now, set your image to Indexed by going to Image>Mode on gimp:Now a menu will pop up. In this menu where it says,maximum number of colors, enter 256 and click Convert or press enter:Now that that's done, go to your color map:Notice that you only have one color. Well now we get to the boring part: Adding more. Go to the bottom of the Color map window and click add color twice:Notice that the color that was your foreground color, which in my case was black, is added to color map. In order to be more efficient, you have to have ALL of the colors in color map filled BEFORE you add your sprite's colors. This is because Gimp acts very strange. When adding one color, you have to click it twice, or it won't show up. And when it shows up, two of the same colors show up, which can make organization difficult and time consuming. Now repeat the process until all of the spaces are full:It should look like this. Now then, save this image. This will help with all your color separation needs in the future, so it would be good to keep up with it. Now for the adding the colors to your sprite. I'm gonna be using Ken as an example. Good vision and lighting is very helpful, but who really wants to strain their eyes? This is where the color selector comes in. CvS sprites are good for CSing beginners because most colors are very bright, have good contrast, and don't mix. Be known that very low contrast causes Gimp and Photoshop to select multiple colors, which means that you'll have to zoom in order to properly get the colors that you want. Now, zoom it enough to see the detail of the sprite. Select your color selector, which looks like a rectangle with different colors:After selecting it, click any area that you choose:Notice the selected areas are all fuzzy. This helps to locate colors more easily. Now go to the droplet tool and select an area with a fuzzy boundary:You can't really see it, but now the color that was selected as the new foreground color. It's very helpful to find the darkest of a color first. It's also helpful to focus on one color tone at a time. The Color selector helps track down those colors. Now add the color as a custom color in the color editor:To add the color just simply press OK and it will added to the custom colors. Now back to your empty image. Go to the second color of your color map. Change it the custom color added by double clicking it and selecting the first color that you just added. Now continue this process until you have all the colors in the first and/or second row of the color map:This is my preferred assortment when it comes to CSing. Mainly because it allows for easy access to colors and when done correctly, can save time in CSing. Now copy and paste the image to the the empty image.Now for the before we actually get to separating, we need to make some colors. Go the color after the last changed color and double click it:*forgot to screenshot this, but basically, It was the first color on the color on the second row highlighted* This is where spriting knowledge as well as color knowledge comes in. In order to get a really nice separation, your colors have to be different enough to not only be recognizable on the sprite, but the color map as well. Contrast is also very important and makes the CS looks very professional. If you want tips on contrast, talk with a lot of experienced people with it. And don't be afraid to take criticism. Now, create enough custom colors to match the part that's going to be separated. In this case, I'm going to separate his right(our left arm):Now for the actual separation. Go to the color selection tool and select the darkest color on his arm. This is where multiple brush sizes play a vital role in separating. Small brush sizes can get in very important detail, but takes more time. Large brushes gets a lot of areas, but you can get the wrong area and have to completely start over. Usually the way the sprite is shaded can help with deciding which size of brush is needed. In this case a small brush that's at least 5 pixels thick will do wonders:Now start coloring the arm. If you make a mistake, just come back to it, but don't forget it.After that's done, continue with the other colors until you get this result:Nice, Isn't it? Color Separating can also be used to add special details. But that's a different story. Now delete the image by pressing delete on your keyboard and save the empty image that remains. This can help make the process quicker by already giving you your supplies.A few more things that I learned:-Be creative. CSing can be really cool and add personality to characters, so creativity in CSing is like creativity in anything else in Mugen.-Don't overdo it. Sometimes CSing takes months depending on sprites, colors, and the way you CSed. Sometimes it's the smallest things that makes the biggest impact.-Trial and error. You're gonna make a lot of mistakes. I did. I remember my very first CS. Hot damn that sucked. But that helped me a lot.And that's CSing in GIMP in a nutshell.
Bumping Powahs GO!I'm gonna update this tutorial before this month ends since I've picked up a few time saving tricks. So stay tuned! ^^
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain in detail? If you're talking about the image itself all you need is one layer and it'll show. I'm going to update this anyway, so don't worry about it for now. ^^
