Choosing a Paint Scheme
Printer friendly version | Rate this Article | Comment on this Article
Thanks to sLai for this.
I have noticed quite a few people (Including myself,) trying to figure out a painting scheme for their Tau, loading up painted test models; one day an idea popped up in my head. Why not use Photoshop to alter the colors to try color schemes without having to paint a single model? It worked wonders, it was fast, simple and with great results.
Here's an example
The original picture (From ShasEl_Tael):
This is how it looked after editing:
And this is the Fire Warrior I painted as a result of this:
Now onto the tutorial
I used Photoshop 7 for this, although this tutorial only really uses Hue/Saturation changes which most good graphics design software contains. Paint Shop Pro, Fireworks and Photoshop can all be used with this tutorial. Keyboard shortcuts and diagrams in this tutorial are shown for use with Photoshop 7.
- 1) Get a picture of a Tau model you want to paint. You can get a picture from Games Workshop's website, a Google search or simply use one of the photos above.
- 2) Open the Hue/Saturation control (hotkey Ctrl+U) by going to: Image >> Adjustments >> Hue/Saturation. As an example, say that you want to change the color of the armour, which is, for example, light-blue, then change the Master setting to blue on the Edit part at the top left of the Hue/Sat menu:
- 3) After you selected the color you want to change, you can use the eyedropper tool to get the exact color you want to change.
- 4) Slide the "Hue" bar to change the color, the "saturation" bar to change the intensity of the color and the "lightness" bar to change the lightness of the image. By using these three bars you can get almost any color you want.
- 5) If you want a part of the blue armour to change to a different color than the rest of the armour, use the Magic Wand Tool to select the wanted part, and change the color of it individually. Some colors may be hard to duplicate, I, for example, couldn't get a color close to Dark Angels Green, so I selected the green parts of the armour that I wanted to be Dark Angels green, and used the Burn Tool with the settings Shadows, and Exposure at 13%, it worked really good. It made the armour darker and raised the contrast.This is a simple method really, although it is really useful. Give it a try; you may need to mess around with settings depending on what graphics program you are using.
If you like this site, please consider helping us out greatly by donating to us.
Rate this Article
This article currently has a rating of 8.6 (out of 10).
You must be logged in to rate this article. Please login or register to continue.
Comment on this Article
This article has been commented on 29 time(s).
You must be logged in to comment on this article. Please login or register to continue.
| Comment made by pandarider6 on 18:18:59, 20 July 2008
|
| Dude you have to help me
|
| Comment made by Dark Bryne on 10:12:35, 6 July 2008
|
| Wow this is a really clever idea, it will help alot thanks!
|
| Comment made by franz.ferdinand on 00:26:30, 8 June 2008
|
| dude, THIS IS THE BEST IDEA FOR TAU... EVER! I spent ages deciding on a scheme, ruined about $100 of minis and this FINALLY got me out of that rut! Anyone with an unsatisfactory scheme NEEDS to do this! it's brilliant!
|
| Comment made by bo2k on 10:25:04, 4 June 2008
|
| I LOVE the green fire warrior it looks so cool.
|
| Comment made by Infidel on 16:43:21, 15 March 2008
|
| the orangy/brown and blue colour sceme is really awsome and i think i will paint mine that colour once i get mine.
|
| Comment made by taugundrone on 19:08:37, 25 February 2008
|
| very good, i highly recomend this
|
| Comment made by TheEvilOne on 13:10:28, 20 October 2007
|
very nice helps alot ty i made a few celections but im going to paint this one: [img]http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j155/lightbulbhel/Tau_PaintScheme_Choosing_1copy.jpg[/img]
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j155/lightbulbhel/Tau_PaintScheme_Choosing_1copy.jpg
|
| Comment made by luminorne on 18:26:23, 24 August 2007
|
| uhm i d need a little help wat program and uhm how im not that great with comps...!!! some 1 plz help me e-mail me gizzuk@hotmail.com
|
| Comment made by DRobot on 06:52:50, 11 July 2007
|
| thats really a good idea you know, nice work
|
| Comment made by RRKeith on 15:53:25, 22 June 2007
|
| I use photoshop CS2, but it's all the same. Quick, simple, ridiculously easy, neat idea.
|
| Comment made by Karashi Lissera on 12:41:04, 29 May 2007
|
| hehe Cool, if only i can pain it
|
| Comment made by Shasonan on 22:52:23, 21 May 2007
|
| Really Good but can u do individual little spots??
|
| Comment made by Julien102494 on 18:40:27, 30 April 2007
|
Please write back to me explaining what to do and where to go. Thanks.
|
| Comment made by Julien102494 on 18:39:13, 30 April 2007
|
How do you do this proccess. I do not get how it is done. But good article. I bet it helps a few people.
|
| Comment made by --leo-- on 07:37:33, 6 April 2007
|
i've tried it but it didn't work out for me, what painting program did u used?
i've tried it all.
|
| Comment made by alpha.93 on 03:46:37, 4 April 2007
|
this helped me alot
thanx!!
|
| Comment made by lightbulbhel on 07:03:38, 2 April 2007
|
| nice idea
|
| Comment made by pasadema on 11:19:46, 24 December 2006
|
| what would black come under? in the colours i mean...
|
| Comment made by pasadema on 11:18:35, 24 December 2006
|
| what would black come under? in the colours i mean...
|
| Comment made by Inq_Razeil on 07:09:37, 10 December 2006
|
Nice dark red Tau ill show you my battle suit soon
|
| Comment made by Firebird4Life on 05:51:41, 21 November 2006
|
| Dude, that's a cool idea. I didn't even think of that. Once I saw it though, I was like "duh!"
|
| Comment made by Wanax on 05:13:36, 15 November 2006
|
| The assumption is that people can paint the same thing they can create on a PC.
|
| Comment made by Sting on 16:28:29, 13 November 2006
|
| I like the darker tau.
|
| Comment made by Teh_Frm4terer on 22:20:01, 26 October 2006
|
| lol but this is better Korill, cause DC isnt out everywhere, and its not models... lol noobs....
|
| Comment made by xv101 on 02:41:16, 7 October 2006
|
NICE
|
| Comment made by Korill on 22:14:16, 29 September 2006
|
dawn of war has a very nice army painting thing.
If you get dark crusade you can paint tau with it
|
