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Editing & Modeling Tutorials ~

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  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited September 2018
    Tutorial 3: Understanding Color (By LeslieM25)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    Note: Some additions made by me.


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    Color is obviously very important for photo editing. Having a good knowledge of some basics can be very helpful. Some of the things I’m going to talk about in here might be things you already know, but I’m going to start with the basics for people who need it.


    Part 1: Color Wheel Basics
    The most important thing to know for understanding color is how to use a color wheel. This is a basic color wheel:
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    First you need to know your primary colors. A primary color is a color that cannot be made by mixing anything else. The primaries are red, yellow, and blue. These are the colors that are mixed to create all other colors. They are the root of every color imaginable.
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    Next are the secondary colors. Secondary colors are ones you get when you mix two of the primary colors. They are green, violet, and orange.
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    Last are tertiary or intermediate colors. A tertiary color is a mixture of a primary color and its nearest secondary color. They are yellow-orange, red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, red-violet, and blue-violet.
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    Part 2: Warm and Cool Colors
    Color temperature is another very important thing to know for editing. A good understanding of this can help you to make everything in your picture cohesive. It can be used to evoke a certain emotion through your picture or just set up the lighting so that your sim looks like they really are in the background that you put them on. Color temperature is the coolness or warmth of a color. A color is cool when it has blue in it. The only exception to that rule is yellow-green. It is actually warm because it’s mostly yellow with a little blue. Warm colors are on the other side of the color wheel. They have mostly red or yellow in them.
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    Using warm and cool colors together in a picture can have a really good effect as well. Cool colors tend to recede whereas warm colors tend to come forward. You can easily see what I’m talking about in these impressionist paintings. Use of colors in this way is easy to see in these, but if you look close at a lot of paintings, you will see that artists use blues and violets in the shadows and tints of yellow in the areas that are brighter.
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    Part 3: Complementary Colors and Location Based Colors
    Section 1: Complementary Colors
    Complementary colors are very good to know in photo editing. They are directly across from each other in the color wheel.
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    When placed next to each other, complementary colors make each other appear more intense and brighter.
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    When two complementary colors are mixed, they neutralize each other. This is because put together, they contain all of the primary colors. This is very useful for toning down or getting rid of colors in a picture. I’ll use my picture that I made for the paths tutorial for the example. As you can see, there is a lot of orange and yellow in this picture.
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    Now if I want to tone down the intense colors, I can add a violet filter to tone down the yellow and then a blue filter to tone down the orange. Here it is with only the blue filter added. Notice how the orange tones have been toned down a lot but the yellows are still there.
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    Now here is the picture with only a violet filter added. The yellow in the picture has been toned down but it left a lot of orange.
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    Now here it is with both filters. The orange and yellow are much more toned down.
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    I’m going to go even further and add a green filter to tone down the red. The red is pretty intense in the picture, so with the green filter added it is still there, just much less intense.
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    Section 2: Split-Complementary Colors
    There is another variation on this called split-complementary colors. In split-complementary, there is a base color and then instead of using the direct complementary color, it uses the two colors on either side of the complementary color.
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    Using split-complementary colors has a similar brightening and intensifying effect to using regular complementary colors, without as much visual stress. When we look at it, we feel like it flows together better. It’s a little harder to point out when you look at a photo, but here is a good example. This picture uses red-violet, green, and yellow.
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    Section 3: Location Based Colors
    Triadic Colors
    Triadic colors are ones that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. This color scheme also can look pretty vibrant, even with pale or unsaturated colors.
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    Here’s an example:
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    Analogous Colors
    Analogous Colors are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. These colors always match well and create a nice flow when used in a picture.
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    Here is an example:
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    Part 4: Colors and Emotions
    We all know that color reflects certain emotions in pictures, but did you know that colors can actually make our brains feel a certain way? I find this very interesting. An example is how fast food restaurants use bright colors in their restaurants, packaging, and commercials. Those bright colors make our brains feel happy and excited about their brand. I found some good examples of how individual colors can affect how we feel about something.

    Red: represents danger, warning, or error, but also warmth, love, passion, and intense emotion. Can also symbolize bravery, war, or blood. Some studies have shown it to stimulate appetite (which is why there's so much red at McDonald's restaurants) and improve accuracy on certain tasks.

    Pink: the lighter shade of red represents love and romance, as well as femininity. Pink is generally considered to have a calming effect.

    Yellow: this bright, attention-getting color is seen as a sunny, happy color, yet studies have also shown, paradoxically, that prolonged exposure to it can make adults lose their tempers and babies cry. Yellow is also the most fatiguing color to the eye.

    Blue: seen as having a calming effect. Darker shades of blue (as in police uniforms and business suits) may suggest reliability and security. The color is also often associated with sadness. Studies suggest that the color blue can increase productivity and creativity, and may actually lower body temperature and pulse rate.

    Orange: being a combination of yellow and red, orange is also a warm, stimulating and attention-getting color.

    Brown: darker shades of red, yellow and orange are warm, but less stimulating. These earthy colors can suggest strength and security.

    Green: a combination of blue and yellow, this color is generally a physically soothing color that may simultaneously produce an emotional lift. Green is the color most associated with nature, and sometimes signifies good luck or money (which may be why at its extreme, green is associated with envy).

    Purple: associated with royalty, wealth, and luxury, as well as spirituality and wisdom. Purple can seem exotic, but sometimes overly so. In some instances purple can appear out of place or even artificial.

    White: represents purity, innocence, and goodness (the good guy is the one in the white hat). White makes a room seem brighter and more spacious, but too much white can have a sterile, cold effect.

    Black: represents death, mourning, and evil (think Darth Vader), but also sophistication, as in formal wear, and authority, as in a judge's robe.

    Gray: literally a "middle-of-the-road" color, gray is a practical, timeless color, but also dull or even depressing when used in excess. Gray causes the least eye fatigue of any color.

    (I think that’s all I have for now on color. I actually cut out that first color wheel for you guys so it's easier to use as a tool while you're editing your pictures. All the other ones I found online had wonky looking colors so I colored it in with the right ones. It's just the wheel with a transparent background. I hope this tutorial is helpful to you and helps all of you to create some beautiful pictures.)


    Part 5: Uses in Modeling
    The colors you choose in modeling, whether it be filters, a background, or the clothes for your sim, are extremely important. If you choose the wrong colors you can cost yourself points, which is something we always want to avoid.

    We’ll start with an important basic, and that’s skin colors and clothing colors. Average skin tones do fine with most clothing colors, but certain skin tones will fail with specific colors. For instance, sims with a more yellow complexion will not look good in yellow related clothes. Instead of contrasting at a healthy level, the sim instead blends with the clothes and they become washed out, so to speak. Another example is really pale sims. Once you put them in white you lose that sim among the clothes. Instead of white or pastels, put them in darker colors to help make them pop. Pay attention to the colors of the outfit and accessories vs the sims skin tone to ensure they look good in their outfit.

    Speaking of making the sim become lost, the same idea applies when dealing with backgrounds, and this is the biggest mistake I see new editors do. Commonly a new editor will dress their sim in a similar color to the background, usually a solid colored background or where that color is predominant. This causes the sim to be “lost” among the background due to the same colors blending into each other, and it’s hard to tell them apart. You can see an example below. See how she just fades? Now if that was a blue background, she'd contrast beautifully and we'd be able to see her in full detail.

    gO14e6i.png

    Now, color is especially important when doing assignments that are meant to evoke emotion. For instance, if the emotion I chose was sadness I would go with subtle blue filters on my photo, maybe some grays as well, to give it that “depressing” feel. If I were to add yellow filters I would actually be making my photo more vibrant, which is a happy color and may make the viewer more content than sad. Obviously you do not want to evoke happiness, only sadness, so when doing your emotion assignments it is important to use your filters to their fullest extent. Be subtle with your filters though.

    Another example is any sexy edits you need to do. Red is a possible color to go for in your filters or clothes. If not red for the clothes, a black or other dark color will do, but avoid yellows or whites since it is a passion/romance/sexy edit and yellows and whites are innocent colors. The colors you decide on, whether it be for filters, clothes or background, can make or break your edits, so be careful deciding!

    Lastly, another use for colors is during elemental assignments. If you have to do fire, you use reds and oranges (some hint of yellow) and other warming colors. But if you’re doing ice you need to use whites and blues, and other cooling colors.
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited September 2015
    All done! I hope everyone enjoys the new tutorials, including the new cutting method. I will be putting up the others soon, hopefully.

    @BobSkellington @Minstrel @PeaceSign101 @Gemmabubbles @PurpleKenzie19 @BabyCarrotz @Amazingamphy @Eliavah @CazzTregurtha


    @ayeden Can you list the differences you've found? Also, do you want a newer version? Email me if you do.
    I can add the changes you've found to the guides so that CS2 users won't have any problems.
  • ayedenayeden Posts: 73 Member
    @MizoreYukii off the top of my head adding an alpha channel is different. It wasn't an option in the menu that you had in the picture. I will go through the guides again and take notes as I work on this assignment.
    The easiest way I have found to cut them out is use a green screen (or other color that doesn't match something on the sim) in cas and use the background eraser in elements.
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    @ayeden there isn't an alpha channel for ps. Message me and tell me what is going on, because I think there's some confusion. XD
  • ayedenayeden Posts: 73 Member
    edited September 2015
    @MizoreYukii You are right. I'm sorry. I'm thinking of something else. There was something though that stood out as different, just can't remember what. I'll go through each one and see if I can find it.
  • PeaceSign101PeaceSign101 Posts: 1,413 Member
    edited September 2015
    @PeaceSign101 We already talked in the message, just waiting for you to confirm whether you're staying or going. Hopefully staying. D:

    Releasing the new cutting method, a second one from Leslie, and a bonus tutorial from her. All of these relate to last week, so do not count for this week since they don't cover errors or skin shading. xD

    I took to heart what you said about time management and I am for sure staying! ;) I don't what I should do though. I really want the job to be a librarian, but I don't know what country I should do. I was thinking I could do America, but I always stick to that and never branch out XD

    Oh and awesome tutorials!!!
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  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    Working on the last tutorials now. Just worried about getting them up before the end of this week. Busy, busy. Have my birthday and a bunch of homework and a few exams coming up next week. @_@ *Shudders*

    Ugh, I almost tagged myself. Is it sad that I almost keep doing that? I feel like I'm going crazy. o_o xD

    @PeaceSign101 YAAAAY! *Tackles* So happy Cookie! Let me know if you have any more questions about what I said. ^_^
    Ohhh! I can't believe you're going to do the challenge! I'm so happy! :mrgreen: This challenge was meant to encourage people to explore countries they are interested in, so I suggest by choosing a country you would like to learn about. You should try digging through Google to see if one sparks your interest, or if you want me to suggest some to you I can. ^-^ Just make sure to choose one you'll enjoy, and if you don't like it you can always switch it out for something else later!

    And thank you! But the last two tutorials are from @LeslieM25, so she deserves the credit. The Color Tutorial will be very useful for us models!
  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    @MizoreYukii Thanks! I hope so! :)
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
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  • PeaceSign101PeaceSign101 Posts: 1,413 Member
    @LeslieM25 Oh my Gosh you're tutorials were so helpful! Especially the color one! <3
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  • PeaceSign101PeaceSign101 Posts: 1,413 Member
    edited September 2015
    @MizoreYukii :D And yes, I decided I would do the challenge! I felt really bad that I suggested that you start up the challenges, yet I never really considered doing it, so I figured I would give this one a try! I never really thought much of drawing until I saw a lot of entries for competitions with drawing in it and I am very fascinated by it. I've never really been into art myself, honestly. I can barely draw a stick figure XD So I thought that maybe drawing on the computer could be a new start for me! :) But I wouldn't be to surprised if my makeup looks like a giant blob. lol
    Post edited by PeaceSign101 on
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  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    @LeslieM25 Oh my Gosh you're tutorials were so helpful! Especially the color one! <3
    Good! I'm glad! :)
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
    GqsONVc.gif
  • EliavahEliavah Posts: 2,270 Member
    lovely tutorials leslie <3 I can definitely see your use of colors in your photos, some photos I love my color composition, but some I just am like "I like pretty bright things lets make this rainbow " haha
  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    Eliavah wrote: »
    lovely tutorials leslie <3 I can definitely see your use of colors in your photos, some photos I love my color composition, but some I just am like "I like pretty bright things lets make this rainbow " haha

    Thanks! Yeah have you ever noticed by my pictures that I'm picky about that? Lol
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
    GqsONVc.gif
  • EliavahEliavah Posts: 2,270 Member
    I have noticed leslie :o also @Mizzie ; eep sorry I was typing that on my phone and I could've swore I said what I wanted to say about your tutorial!
    anyways I love your cutting out tutorial and thank you so much because I figured out what I was doing wrong -.- I used two white layers, and black on top haha. I set the black one to difference, and it still worked, but it cut out the whites of my sims eyes and junk.
    going to test it out now!
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    @PeaceSign101 That's great! I'm looking forward to what you do. ^o^ I think drawing on the sims is easier, mainly because you already have a base and don't have to worry about drawing a person or even coloring them. xD Let me know if you need any help!

    @Eliavah It shouldn't be doing that! O_O You should have two images, a black and white one in the exact same position, and either one can go first. The whole body should be black when you set the top image to "difference". Let me know if that keeps happening. xD
  • PeaceSign101PeaceSign101 Posts: 1,413 Member
    @PeaceSign101 That's great! I'm looking forward to what you do. ^o^ I think drawing on the sims is easier, mainly because you already have a base and don't have to worry about drawing a person or even coloring them. xD Let me know if you need any help!

    @Eliavah It shouldn't be doing that! O_O You should have two images, a black and white one in the exact same position, and either one can go first. The whole body should be black when you set the top image to "difference". Let me know if that keeps happening. xD

    @MizoreYukii I agree, having base probably does make it easier! :sweat_smile: And thanks for offering help! <3
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  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    @MizoreYukii That new cutting method you posted looks interesting. I'm definitely going to try that out next time I do a big edit.
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
    GqsONVc.gif
  • EliavahEliavah Posts: 2,270 Member
    It was because the pictures werent lined up exactly I think. I just used the method for a bunch of photos and works c: the only thing is transperacy issue like you said but I just duplicate sim's layer
  • AmazingamphyAmazingamphy Posts: 1,733 Member
    Practicing some makeup drawing
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    Gone from this place and never coming back. P5 is good
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    @LeslieM25 I just wish we could do use it for CAS pictures. xD

    @Eliavah The transparency shouldn't be a problem since placing them on a background makes the program ignore it. Or at least for CC it does. Did you try it by just placing the sim on a background first? I need to know if that works for the other versions or not. xD

    @Amazingamphy Looking at is so far and you've done pretty well, just remember that when drawing over the lips (unless going for a specific design) you should be covering all of it. It seems like there's just one stroke of the brush and some parts aren't covered because of it. And use your eraser to control edges, because when you stop drawing the first stroke it won't be even. xD Make the eraser small and zoom in to remove the uneven or questionable areas. Great job though!
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    Hopefully will have the rest of the tutorials up tomorrow during my free time. v.v

    Hope you're having a great week everyone!
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    Sorry guys, no luck. I had surprise work due in one of my classes so was doing that. >_<
    It's a buuuuusy weekend since I have exams next week and some assignments due, but I promise I'll try my best to get these up. If anything I'll release the skin shading tutorials sometime this weekend so that gives you something to practice with (all but one are ready to be released), but the errors and liquifying tutorial will have to wait until I finish my homework. Thankfully the longer this takes the more examples I come across to teach yo guys (like my Miss World entry from last night), so that means extra knowledge and examples for correcting errors. ;)
    That also means just more time to do shopping/research for these assignments (maybe even learn to do poses for your job?), so yaaay? xD
    Anyways, just let me push through this pile of homework and my last two assignments and I should be able to get these tutorials up finally.

    Have a great weekend everyone!
  • AmazingamphyAmazingamphy Posts: 1,733 Member
    Can we draw on color contacts, hair streaks, etc.?
    HmypxT0.png
    Gone from this place and never coming back. P5 is good
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