Miru
Well-known member
Ever wanted to do color-separation before creating an SFF? Wanted to get a quick jumping on point? I found an answer. The tutorial here is designed for GIMP, but can be handled with other software as well;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmmpz0RjyY
You may need to turn up your volume for the video. To sum it all up;
1 - Create a new layer and name it “Shades”. Then, also create a layer called “background” for contrast. This will be used for color index 0 once you export.
2 - Select each the lightest hues on your sheet, on the original layer. Try counting how many colors are used for each era (mainly if handling oldschool/digitized characters), and then determine which areas to separate first.
3 - On the new layer, decide a color for use as the separation base. Pink or green would work (use the other as the background layer) for this color. Then fill using the bucket tool.
4. Repeat the process for each other shade until the shades cover the original sheet fully.
5 - Once this is over, duplicate “Shades”. Rename the duplicate to “Values”, and set the layer type as RGB Value.
6 - Add another layer and name it “Colors”, then set it’s type to RGB Hues.
7 - On the base image, select an area by color.
8 - Fill in colors as desired using the pencil tool, picking which color to use for which area of what was originally one color.
9 - Export as PNG using “Copy Visible” to get everything.
10 - Set colors to indexed and adjust palette so the transparency color is placed correctly at index 0. Cut sheet as desired from there.
This is useful for separating colors right off the bat, before going into Fighter Factory.
If using individual rips rather than a sheet, keep a palette table handy to cover both the colors used for the “Shades” layer and the colors used for the “Colors” layer. I would also recommend removing duplicate sprites before doing this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmmpz0RjyY
You may need to turn up your volume for the video. To sum it all up;
1 - Create a new layer and name it “Shades”. Then, also create a layer called “background” for contrast. This will be used for color index 0 once you export.
2 - Select each the lightest hues on your sheet, on the original layer. Try counting how many colors are used for each era (mainly if handling oldschool/digitized characters), and then determine which areas to separate first.
3 - On the new layer, decide a color for use as the separation base. Pink or green would work (use the other as the background layer) for this color. Then fill using the bucket tool.
4. Repeat the process for each other shade until the shades cover the original sheet fully.
5 - Once this is over, duplicate “Shades”. Rename the duplicate to “Values”, and set the layer type as RGB Value.
6 - Add another layer and name it “Colors”, then set it’s type to RGB Hues.
7 - On the base image, select an area by color.
8 - Fill in colors as desired using the pencil tool, picking which color to use for which area of what was originally one color.
9 - Export as PNG using “Copy Visible” to get everything.
10 - Set colors to indexed and adjust palette so the transparency color is placed correctly at index 0. Cut sheet as desired from there.
This is useful for separating colors right off the bat, before going into Fighter Factory.
If using individual rips rather than a sheet, keep a palette table handy to cover both the colors used for the “Shades” layer and the colors used for the “Colors” layer. I would also recommend removing duplicate sprites before doing this.
