[FE7] How to recolor multiple portraits to similar colors a simple way

[Avril Lavigne]

I've been reading this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3194397/Splicesplicetut.pdf

And when it gets to the part about recoloring the palette, it says to "merge" similar colors, switch back to RGB, then switch back to Index. I don't know how to "merge"....it doesn't show how. I actually don't even know how to recolor them in the first place (not in this way, I've been recoloring the more complicated way, most likely). The color table is really weird and I don't understand how to edit it. This way seems very useful to get the same palette for each character quickly.

If anyone knows how to do this (by the way, this is for photoshop), PLEASE tell me. I'm in the midst of creating my portraits but trying to get the same 16 colors for the characters I plan on splicing is probably the most annoying part for me.

If this isn't the easiest way to recolor all of the portraits to the same colors, can someone guide me to/through that method?

Thanks!

Edited May 25, 2016 by Avril Lavigne

[OreoStyx]

Paint.net is a much easier program to use to recolour portraits. You just have to press the r key to choose the recolour tool, hold the control key and either left click or right click the mouse buttons to get the colours (right click is for the original colour and left click is for the new colour that you want the original colour to be). Then once you pick your colours, just click the left mouse button and go over the portrait and it will recolour. It's as easy as that.

[Eliwan]

To merge colors is to take two close colors and make them the same one.

Personally, I don't bother recoloring the pieces until I've got an idea what color I want the pieces to actually create, as then I can more easily tell what I was doing if I have to get up.

[Avril Lavigne]

Thanks guys for your help!

[Rickochet]

I usually just use other portraits as a guide on what colors I might want and how those colors might look. I usually leave about 3-6 colors for the skin tones and the rest I usually follow a 2-3 colors per item of clothing and making sure the total colors doesn't go over 16. So most of my characters would have a primary and secondary article of clothing which equals 4-6 colors right there. The reason for this is one color for the light, one for mid tones and one for the shading often creates enough of an illusion of depth with 16 colors.

As for photoshop, I stick with my rules and just cherry pick colors off other portraits, making sure the different shades and hues match after doing samples. Holding ALT when you have a brush, pencil, or gradient tool allows you to take/copy colors, allowing easy coloring. There is also a "match color" function where you can take replace all the reds with blue, or whatever colors you want in a given portrait. Image > Adjustment > Match Color. That might be what you're looking for.

OreoStyx is right though as Paint.net might be easier. Photoshop has a lot of layers to it that you have to learn; the program is very in depth and you can do quite a lot with it.

My workflow is doing all the mock up work in photoshop and then checking with usenti on whether or not I have my 16 color limit. If you need any more help, feel free to message me.

Edited June 4, 2016 by Rickochet