inked back grey (vol. 16): how to turn it to darkgreen? (solved)

xXQuatroXx

Hey peeps,

Bought this a while ago:https://www.daz3d.com/inked-vol16-black--grey-for-genesis-8-females

Was wondering how to turn this: https://gyazo.com/f52fd989f0dceee7643702431d74cd14 too green.

The texture to work with is like this (sample): https://gyazo.com/b9cb62894584eff5d8e198aaaf2ba582

So turning it to green while still retaining the skin underneath it.

It's simple in photoshop to alter the HUE Saturation of the whole pic but that doesnt cut it.

Any idea's?

Thanks.

kaotkbliss

I think you would have to take the pngs (I'm assuming the LIE textures are PNG) into a photo program and change the blacks and greys to shades of green. Then use your new pngs in LIE instead of the originals.

xXQuatroXx

Yeah i know thats what i would have done IF they where PNG's but nope, JPG thats why im having an issue with it

I don't know what DS uses as conversion to make  the white go away and projects it on to the arm but the white needs to go away. to do what i want.

BeeMKay

You usually use one of the merging option in the LIE settings. I think it's multiply?

Simply load the old set, then go to the LIE settings, and exchange the old map for the new map, leaving the other options the same. That's how I started out learning how to use LIE. You also can then go to the TEMP folder of your rendersettings, and from there get the combined map (LIE&body texture), and use that to replace the original body map, and save as a material preset. That saves a lot of time when loading the character.

(Sorry if my explantion seems a bit jumbled, it's difficult to explain without looking at it. I can make a tutorial with images, but I need to be at home at my PC to do it, so you'd have to wait ten or so hours...)

SixDs

You are not going to be able to do what you want in DAZ Studio, so forget about that. You're going to have to do it in Photoshop. If you are not familiar with the selection tools in Photoshop and the use of layers and masks, you are going to need to do some reading. Basically, you will need to select everything in the image that isn't the tattoo (i.e. pure white) and nothing that is, and create a new image with your grayscale tattoo on a transparent background. That can be a bit tricky and time consuming, but there is no way around it. Once you have the tattoo separated from the background, the rest is relatively easy. There's plenty of documentation available on how to go about this sort of thing in Photoshop, and its a little beyond the scope of a short forum post, unfortunately. There is no quick way to do it with a few mouse clicks, I'm afraid.

xXQuatroXx

Im familiar with photoshop no problems with that. Its seems that that white ofnthe jpg file is removed internaly by ds and them placed in a temp folder and these are use for the LIE textures. Thank for the tip Beemkay. I almost came close to do it. I indeed removed the white but made another layer for the white at the save jpg needs to be white apparently. So what i did was cut uit the tattoo. Then removed all the bg white and white around the tattoo. I wasnt bothered by the white inside the tattoo as ds will convert this it self and you will see the skin underneath. When i changed the hue to a more green color and made the white bg layer. Same white as the original. Saved the file. Then tried again. I even renamed the file to its original name and through ds applied the texture where its now green. But there is a slight offset in the arm skin texture color. The upper arm isnt the same skin color as the shoulder which is the torso. But i think i habe a way of doing it now. As the tattoonis saved as a temp texture for the arms i can save it and make a copy. Then take the original temp file of the grey black on the arms and replace it with the green tattoo.. Let you know if that worked

jestmart

I think it can be done in Studio.  In LIE add a new layer and set it to the color you want the tattoo to be.  With the new layer selected add a mask to it.  Load the tattoo to the mask and check the invert box.

xXQuatroXx

Jestmart can you give a more detailed explanation pls? Like printscreen for every step pls? Would apriciate it very much. Thanks

BeeMKay

Sounds interesting... I've got to try that!

EDIT: Works like a charm!

jestmart said:

I think it can be done in Studio.  In LIE add a new layer and set it to the color you want the tattoo to be.  With the new layer selected add a mask to it.  Load the tattoo to the mask and check the invert box.

 

xXQuatroXx

Let me know beemkay as i have no clue. Clueless. "In Lie..."???

BeeMKay

Taking Screenshots takes time.... Writing the tutorial, too.... Going to post the steps in a few, but you can have a look at the images until then... Oh, and the nifty part, it also works with just the colour layer and the tattoo image mask! But I didn't document that part.

EDIT: Okay, first of all, for those who have never heard about the cool functionality - LIE, short for Layered Image Editor, is one of the nifty features in Studio that allows you to add tattoos and other marks to your character's skin. Its function is to allow you to place several layers of images (maps) on top of each other. Sort of like Photoshop, just very much simplified and much less powerful. It also can wreak havoc on render times and loading times if you save a character. It works in all type of maps, including Bump or Normal. Most often, it is used in diffuse/base maps. We're doing this here, too.

Step 1: In the surface tab, select the surface you want to edit. In this case, it is the torso surface of G2F, converted from 3Deligh to Iray. I also applied the tattoos (from a set that predates XXQuatro'sXX set by two generations but works the same). Then, click on the small triangle in front of "Base Color", and in the dropdown menu that opens, select "Layered Image Editor".

Step 2: A new window opens. In the window, you see the map (or rather, part thereof). To see the entire map, click on "zoom to fit" at the bottom right corner of the image.

On the right side, you see the list of all layers - if you have worked with Photoshop, or Gimp, this should look familiar. We now need a new layer, and for that, you click on the little plus symbol at the bottom left of the layer listing.

A little menu opens that has the options of "New Layer" or "New Mask". We want a new layer for the first step, so select that.

Step 3: The new layer opens and is shown in the listing as the top layer. Your image to the right goes completely black, but that is okay.

Below the layers listing, you'll find various settings. Opacity (controls the opacity of that particular layer), Resource (you can add a map/image there) and a black bar with Zeros in it(Layer colour). Click on the black bar.

Step 4: the colour selection opens. Select the colour of your choice and click "OK".

Your map on the right side will turn into the colour of your choice now. That is okay.

Step 5: Adding the layer mask. Select the "New Layer" and again, click on the plus button that you used to create the new layer. Just this time, select "New Mask".

Step 6: With the New Mask layer selected, go to the Resource slot and click on "None" to select the tattoo image. You might have to track down the location of that first, as the LIE editor can be a bit kinky at times in regards to the initial opening folder..

Step 7: Select the proper tattoo file and click "Open" (or whatever your system language tells you ;-))

Step 8: In your right hand image, you now see the tattoo on top of the colour layer. That is okay. Make sure that the New Mask Layer is selected for this step. In the options below the layer listing, look for "Blend Mode" and below that is "Invert (Negate)". Check the check box in front of it.

Step 9: It might take a few moments for the inversion to complete. The map now has returned to show the skin map, and the tattoo is in the colour of your choice. Click "Accept" to confirm the changes. The LIE window will close and you will see the changes on the surface of your figure.

  Step 10: This is how the rendered result looks:

 

 

 

 

BeeMKay

Here's the result if you simply create a new layer, put the colour of your choice to it, change the Blend Mode to "Multiply" (IMPORTANT!!!!), and then add the mask layer as described above. It has a slighty different colouring, as it doesn't have the dark coloured tattoo below it and directly merges with the skin, but I think that the look is pretty good.

Thank you again @jestmart - you'rea  genius!

xXQuatroXx

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah wonderfull!!!!

Thank BeemKay for the TUT and Special Thanks too Jestmart for pointing this out. Seems i wasn't the only one who didn't knew about this.

EDIT: don't foget to add it to the translucency as well. You don't have to do it all again just go where the base color pic as at. Mine was at the temp folder (wich im going to face at a different location later). and the point the translutency color to that aswell and your done.

SOLVED!

SixDs

Well, I'll be danged. Thanks to jestsmart for the headsup and Bee for taking the time to lay it all out so carefully. Now I have something else to add to the neverending story that is my 3D ToDo list. I guess once again the old adage that "where there's a will, there's a way" proves true. Thanks again, everyone!