Barrel 'o' CyberMonkeys

[Zolland]

*twitches*

damn the suspense! damn it to hell!

 

[SithXKosan]

There's no part two yet?! I was clicking onto the next page waiting to see the second part... Geez.. The suspense is killing me..

CMT, great works!! Hats off to ya!!

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

CyberMonkeytrons' Tutorial to colouring and doing some other stuff (part 2)

Blocking (or should I say Bore-ocking)

Ok- now we have gotten our lines ready its time to start the colouring. Before all the prettyness begins however we have to block the sucker in. Blocking means your just going to be putting flat areas of colours down- no shading. no fancy effects. just blocks of flat colours.

This is what i find to be the boringest part of the entire process- and it looks kinda ugly, but it pays off in the long run.

To do this I am going to use the polygonal lasso tool. You will find this as an option in the 'lassos' box on the tool bar. Just click and hold down and a new set of options should appear.

you want the middle one.

Now I end up using a lot of layers- you dont have to, some awesome people just use the one. But I like using a few- but it can end up getting a little confusing. That is why I use 'folders'. 'Folders' are sub areas to keep your layers in and keep your working space a bit more manageable.

(MORE EDUCATED EDIT: after using folders for a little while- I'm not fan anymore- sure it helps keeps things tidy, however a few other time saving tricks I picked up not to long after this, showed me that folders can be more trouble than they are worth. I'll leave this bit of the tut up, but only because someone may find it useful))

Folders are next to the new layers icon

Double click on it- call it whatever- in this case "master Chief" as all the colouring I'm going to do on master chief is going to go in here.


(important note- some important quick keys to remember here are

'F'- changes your view of the canvas- toggles 3 different views- it allows you to move the entire canvas around on the screen.(the second and third views are the same- just with a grey or black border)

'space'- The space bar is awesome because it alllows you to grab the canvas and move it around.

'L'- the lasso tool.

while using 'L' hold 'Shift" to add areas of selection or hold 'alt' to remove areas of selection. 'Backspace' takes away the polygonal tools check points- so if you have put a checkpoint in the wrong place, hit 'backspace' a few times.)

'

I created a new layer and use the polygonal lasso to start going around the area of master chiefs armour.

as long as the lasso is somewhere within the black line you should be fine. Use the space bar to move the canvas around to select the entire area.

Once you have the area selected- choose a colour (at this stage it doesn't matter what) and either use the paintbucket or alt+backspace to fill the area in.


After a while I end up with this.

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

After you have filled the area go back to the layers tab and click on the "lock opacity" icon.

Now what this does is prevents you now from painting outside of the area you have just filled.

With lock

Without lock

Believe me- its handy.

So now i just create a new layer- above the 'armour' one- call it 'brown' or something and I select all the areas of master chief that are going to be that colour

and fill it in.

I keep going til finally the picture looks like this.

Each character is in a different folder- each colour is on a different layer.

ok- so it doesnt look very cool yet. But hopefully it will.

At this stage the perfect colours dont matter- just put whatever in there, because each colour is on a different layer its easy to change by using 'Ctrl"+"U" (or Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation)

Ok next time the real fun begins- adding shading (and a background )

(it maybe a while though- im away on a little holiday)

 

[Karen1234567]

As Johnny Carson would say (WILD STUFF) I know half of you guy out proabaly don't know who Johnny Carson is - I can't say any thing negitive - beautiful work

 

[Zolland]

I've learned something! Spacebar for moving your canvas! Woo!

Brrrrrring on part 3!

 

[ComicChick]

this is so helpful. maybe u should make a thread just of your tutorials.

 

[Zolland]

in reference to locking...i find it easier to create a new layer above it and then making it a sub layer by alt-clicking the space between the two layers. that way your new color is on its own layer and can be switched at any time...and still only show up on the space you want it to.

 

[doommachine]

Awesome tutorial so far. Great art too.

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

thanks guys- hopefully I will have the next part up next week sometime.

zolland- yeah, you can do that to (actually ive never heard that one ) ... as i said, this is just the way i do things, not the only way.

Photoshop is a strange beast that has many hidden things that you dont often discover til you talk to other people. Thats why an actual tuturial thread is cool- but the ones that ive seen started tend to drop off the first couple of pages pretty fast. Maybe a few people can harass Ex to make one a sticky

 

[doommachine]

I've seen a couple art forums that have tutorial threads as stickies. They're really helpful. Awesome stuff Cyber.

 

[StorminNorman]

CyberMonkeytron...Is....God.

Thank you sooo much.

 

[ampersand]

You have no idea how much I appreciate you making this thing. You are easily the best colorist on the Hype.

 

[ComicChick]

i appreciate it too. i can't color, but after reading ur tutorial, and being shocked that i could actually understand it a bit, i may actually try to color something sometime.

you're so helpful! i think a tutorial sticky would be a good idea too!

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

CyberMonkeytrons' Tutorial to colouring and doing some other stuff (part 3)

Shading

(Disclaimer- Out of all the tuts this one probably has the most of my personal ideas on how I like colouring- many will find that the way I do stuff doesn't suit them- but this how I do it anyway)

Yay- finally I get to start to colour in some stuff. Nows also the time that my crappy line work comes in handy. One of the reasons I dont ink shading is that I suck at it- but the other is that it helps free up some opinions when it comes to colouring. Inking usually requires you to define the direction and amount of your lighting early on. Leaving your lines clean allows me to add as many lights as I want when I colour without conflicting with the inks. Once again, this is more of a personal preference thing.

Ok when your putting lights in your scene it can be a go idea to create a new layer and roughly draw the location and the direction of the lights. It will give you a better idea of how the lights will affect the environment and the characters. It can be a handy reminder so that you have all your highlights and shadows on the right side.

As you can see I have three main areas that Im going to focus my light coming from. I want a light almost coming from under Master Chief. Maybe a nice warm light to juxtapose with the outside environment that the bad guys are standing in.
The Elite is going to be holding a plasma sword- so a lot of blue/white light will be coming from his hand area. And then I thought some lights coming from the banshee could be cool.

How I start the colouring process is something ive only began doing recently, but I kinda like the results. First I darken the flat colour I am going to be colouring. Pressing Ctrl+U will bring up the Hue/ Saturation box in which you can do this. I make it almost the colour of the shadow I want to have.
It does really matter where you start- but I might aswell begin on Master Chief

Then I paint a series of lighter colours on top of the dark colour. In essence I am painting the highlights oppose to painting the shadows.

I have begun to use more saturated colours in my art- I feel it gives them a little more warm and life. Often I find people when they colour move in a straight line when choosing colours for their shading. ie

Most of the time its heading straight for white for your highlighting can make your picture look washed out. Pure white doesnt really appear much except on very shiny surfaces, so your use of it should be limited. The same with blacks- black dont appear much either, so dont be afraid to put a it of grey or even another colour as your shadows.

I find moving around the colour picker can give you more exotic results.

ie

1. heads straight for white

2. Wanders around the colour chart a little

2 ends up having more richness to it, while 1 is a little boring. Now you dont need to use this all the time (or at all), but this is probably how I going to do most of the picture.

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

Anyway- back to the drawing

When I colour I set my brush to a lower opacity and flow- normally between 20- 30% this allows me to smooth the colouring out. I suggest when you first start colouring, play around with the two settings and find something that you like.

So I choose a colour that lighter and using the low opacity and flow I paint over areas that the light would be hitting. The more time I pass over an area the lighter it gets. I also use the eyedropper tool (or hold Alt when your using the brush tool) to choose other colours on the canvas- in this case green, to blend the colours better together.

After doing the green- I move on to the brown area (on the layer I called brown earlier)

Once I do one layer I start on another, zooming in and out of the canvas to make sure that the light is going the right way and that the colours are looking alright together. If not- just Ctrl+U and change the hue.

I though I might aswell add some "fancy" effects while I was here so I put in some lights on master chief. The easiest/cheapest way to make it look cool is

1- make a layer above the lines layer.
2- lasso and fill your shape on that layer. Double click on that layers thumbnail image on the layers tab.
3- a new effects box should pop up. Choose an outer glow (play around with the sliders) and a inner glow (again- choose whatever you think look cool). Then click Ok.

Hey presto- simple lights.

And Master Chief is nearly finished

Basically thats most of the stuff you will need really to do stuff like me. I dont think I have much more to share- not that I really had much to begin with

The next few updates will just be me using the techiques I have shown you to finish up...so yeah... class dismissed.

Now I have to go home and watch Lost.

 

[MadMaximus]

I've never really gotten the handle on the lasso tool, I just use the airbrush and go back and erase till it all looks fine. But it's still a cool lesson you're doing.

 

[SithXKosan]

Awesome!! Thanks so much for the help!!!

 

[blksuperman2]

You should charge for this. But since you aren't, I am now your padawan learner.

 

[ComicChick]

you dont know how helpful this has been for me. i know nothing about ps, but i've learned so much from your tutorial!

 

[SithXKosan]

Just out of curiousity, which Photoshop do you use?? Because some of the tools that you use, it doesnt exisit on my photoshop.. My photoshop is 6.0 Probably too old, eh?

 

[iambilly81]

yeah, my guess its cs

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

Close, but no prize for you.

CS 2

Thanks for the responses guys. I hoped that it may help at least one person

 

[ComicChick]

you helped me a ton. i've kinda gotten up to the base colors down ok, but the shading/lighting/etc is really gonna be tough for me. its gonna take me a while to learn all that.

 

[CyberMonkeytron]

Believe me- all that stuff plus choosing colours is a nightmare. Im a long way off from where i wanna be. Its just something that is hard to get your head around. The more you do it though the easier it kinda gets- so just doing it lots is important.

Heres a quick up date- havent had much time recently- but I thought I'd do a little bit more