Title: Manga Cars: Painting Your Car In Photoshop
Patriot - February 11, 2005 07:00 PM (GMT)
1) open up the picture of your car... we'll be using this BMW M3
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) hit CTRL + A to select the entire picture.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Switch into Quick Mask mode by clicking this button. For future reference, the right half moves you INTO Quick Mask mode, while the left half moves you OUT OF Quick Mask mode.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) A few things about how Quick Mask works... In this step, we will essentially be making our own custom selection box in which we will be able to easily edit the colors.
As you may have noticed, your two available colors have changed to black and white.
BLACK is for coloring out what WILL NOT be in your selection
WHITE is for coloring what WILL BE in your selection
Since we did select all in step step 2, your entire picture should look no different than before.
Now, paint out EVERYTHING on the following list using whatever tools you like (I prefer using different sizes of pencil or the paint bucket)
--Everything that ISN'T your car (like the white background)
--The shadows below your car
--The windows and any interior you can see through the windows
--The wheel wells
--Soft Tops (if applicable)
--Headlights and Taillights
--Any logos, emblems, decals, etc.
--Side mirrors (back view only!)
--Any part of the undercarriage, grills, intercoolers, etc.
--Liscense plates, liscense plate holders (optional)
--Unless you KNOW you will be making your car a darker color, all black lines and areas
--any other parts whose color you wish to remain the same.
As you paint over these items (and more) you will notice that a semi-transparent red will go over the area. This color represents the area that will NOT be selected.
I admit this can be tedious, but this is the most important step and insures an accurate and high-quality paint job.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Once you're done taking care of 'masking' out all the areas you don't want painted, your car should look something like this:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Go ahead and switch out of Quick Mask mode by using the left half of the button pictured in step 3. Your car will now be neatly selected in all the areas you want.
On a side note, I'd like to add that at this point you may want to go to Select -> Save Selection. This will allow you to load back all the hard work you did selecting your vehicle at a later date (through Select -> Load Selection)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7) From here there's a few different ways to go about coloring your vehicle. It varies slightly depending on what color your car is and on what color you want your car to be.
If going from ANY color to black, white, or gray, follow instruction set A
IF going from a non-black/non-white/non-gray color to another non-black/non-white/non-gray, folow instruction set B
If going from black, white, or gray to any non-white/non-black/non-gray, follow instruction set C
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTION SET A (any color to black white or gray)
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
(this changes ALL of the coloring in your selection to grayscale)
<- After Desaturation
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness / Contrast
<- lower brightness
<- higher brightness
<- lower contrast
<- higher contrast
NOTE: you can repeat this step as many times as you like to reach the extremes of light and dark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTION SET B (non-black/non-white/non-gray to a different non-black/non-white/non-gray)
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> ... (you have 2 options here)
Hue/Saturation
This is probably the easiest and most powerful of the two.
Hue - allows you to shift the color of your car
Saturation - increases or decreases the amount of color
Lightness - allows you to lighten or darken the color
Hey look my car is Pink!
Color Balance
This is best for fine-tuning the color of your car by adjusting the levels of Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.
It will only change your car's color little by little, so this step may need to be repeated.
Subtle change in the pink color.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTION SET C (black white or gray to non-white/non-black/non-gray)
This is the most difficult to make look good, but it CAN work with some trial and error.
oh noes! my BMW is suddenly white!? How ever will I make it colorful again???
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness/Contrast
Make your car gray as if you were intending to make your car gray from the start. This will let you find a middle-of-the road brightness and let you set a good-looking contrast level. It also means less repition in the next step.
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance
Slide one of the colors (doesn't matter) all the way right and click ok.
Repeat this step until you have a substantial amount of color on your car whilst maintaining a decent contrast of colors. It took me 2 times to reach this dark salmon color.
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation and play with it (or any of the other adjustments mentioned here) until you find something you like.
Hue - allows you to shift the color of your car
Saturation - increases or decreases the amount of color
Lightness - allows you to lighten or darken the color
Ahh, there we go, a nice aqua
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this tutorial was helpful. There's an endless list of things you can do to your car while you have it in this state, like...
--color transitions (make a new layer, use gradients, adjust opacity, etc)
--racing stripes (use the quick mask or other selection tools to select the area of the stripes, then adjust the colors using any of the methods listed in the INSTRUCTION SETs above)
happy painting!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) hit CTRL + A to select the entire picture.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Switch into Quick Mask mode by clicking this button. For future reference, the right half moves you INTO Quick Mask mode, while the left half moves you OUT OF Quick Mask mode.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) A few things about how Quick Mask works... In this step, we will essentially be making our own custom selection box in which we will be able to easily edit the colors.
As you may have noticed, your two available colors have changed to black and white.
BLACK is for coloring out what WILL NOT be in your selection
WHITE is for coloring what WILL BE in your selection
Since we did select all in step step 2, your entire picture should look no different than before.
Now, paint out EVERYTHING on the following list using whatever tools you like (I prefer using different sizes of pencil or the paint bucket)
--Everything that ISN'T your car (like the white background)
--The shadows below your car
--The windows and any interior you can see through the windows
--The wheel wells
--Soft Tops (if applicable)
--Headlights and Taillights
--Any logos, emblems, decals, etc.
--Side mirrors (back view only!)
--Any part of the undercarriage, grills, intercoolers, etc.
--Liscense plates, liscense plate holders (optional)
--Unless you KNOW you will be making your car a darker color, all black lines and areas
--any other parts whose color you wish to remain the same.
As you paint over these items (and more) you will notice that a semi-transparent red will go over the area. This color represents the area that will NOT be selected.
I admit this can be tedious, but this is the most important step and insures an accurate and high-quality paint job.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Once you're done taking care of 'masking' out all the areas you don't want painted, your car should look something like this:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Go ahead and switch out of Quick Mask mode by using the left half of the button pictured in step 3. Your car will now be neatly selected in all the areas you want.
On a side note, I'd like to add that at this point you may want to go to Select -> Save Selection. This will allow you to load back all the hard work you did selecting your vehicle at a later date (through Select -> Load Selection)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7) From here there's a few different ways to go about coloring your vehicle. It varies slightly depending on what color your car is and on what color you want your car to be.
If going from ANY color to black, white, or gray, follow instruction set A
IF going from a non-black/non-white/non-gray color to another non-black/non-white/non-gray, folow instruction set B
If going from black, white, or gray to any non-white/non-black/non-gray, follow instruction set C
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTION SET A (any color to black white or gray)
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
(this changes ALL of the coloring in your selection to grayscale)
<- After DesaturationGo to Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness / Contrast
<- lower brightness <- higher brightness <- lower contrast <- higher contrastNOTE: you can repeat this step as many times as you like to reach the extremes of light and dark
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTION SET B (non-black/non-white/non-gray to a different non-black/non-white/non-gray)
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> ... (you have 2 options here)
Hue/Saturation
This is probably the easiest and most powerful of the two.
Hue - allows you to shift the color of your car
Saturation - increases or decreases the amount of color
Lightness - allows you to lighten or darken the color
Hey look my car is Pink!
Color Balance
This is best for fine-tuning the color of your car by adjusting the levels of Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.
It will only change your car's color little by little, so this step may need to be repeated.
Subtle change in the pink color.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTION SET C (black white or gray to non-white/non-black/non-gray)
This is the most difficult to make look good, but it CAN work with some trial and error.
oh noes! my BMW is suddenly white!? How ever will I make it colorful again???
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness/Contrast
Make your car gray as if you were intending to make your car gray from the start. This will let you find a middle-of-the road brightness and let you set a good-looking contrast level. It also means less repition in the next step.
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance
Slide one of the colors (doesn't matter) all the way right and click ok.
Repeat this step until you have a substantial amount of color on your car whilst maintaining a decent contrast of colors. It took me 2 times to reach this dark salmon color.
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation and play with it (or any of the other adjustments mentioned here) until you find something you like.
Hue - allows you to shift the color of your car
Saturation - increases or decreases the amount of color
Lightness - allows you to lighten or darken the color
Ahh, there we go, a nice aqua
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this tutorial was helpful. There's an endless list of things you can do to your car while you have it in this state, like...
--color transitions (make a new layer, use gradients, adjust opacity, etc)
--racing stripes (use the quick mask or other selection tools to select the area of the stripes, then adjust the colors using any of the methods listed in the INSTRUCTION SETs above)
happy painting!