I'm willing to bet many of you out there don't remember what old comics used to look like, before the glossies and Image comics and full hading and stuff. This is for you guys, plus it's a cool little chart for everybody else.
Originally, comics were printed with four levels of three colors,and two levels of a fourth. The three colors were Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, while the fourth was, of course, black. For CMY, they would half tone them to produce 0%, 33%, 66%, or 100%, while black was either there or not. This had the end result of actually limiting the number of colors that could be produced.
How limiting, you might ask?
This limiting:
(http://valandar3d.fools3d.com/comicbookcolors.jpg)
Now why is this in skins?
Because it lets us choose the most accurate possible color as the "base color" for making the skins for a classic character, for one.
As an example, the Incredible Hulk was usually colored this way:
Skin: Y3B1 - 100% yellow with 33% blue - as a base, shaded with Y3B2 (100% yellow with 66% blue)
Hair: Inked art with Y3B3 highlights (100% blue and yellow)
Pants: Usually R3B1 (100% magenta with 33% blue), shaded with R3Y1B2 (100% magenta, 33% yellow, 66% blue)
While Captain America's red and blue were actually Y3R3 (100% each yellow and magenta) for the red and R2B3 (66% magenta and 100% blue) for his blue.
If you multiply your color over a Base Skin or vice-versa, I'd suggest choosing your shade from the above, then lightening it by about 25% to 45% in the Brightness/Contrast control, until it looks right.
If you overlay a greyscale skin over your color, just use the color as-is.
Cheers! :D
Thanks for this Val, very handy :D
Perhaps, but it seems it went over like a lead balloon with everyone else. :P
No, I'm very interested; I just don't know how to skin.
I'm always interested in learning new techniques, sadly i just havn't been on much due to work
Quote from: Valandar on April 09, 2008, 11:19:49 AM
Perhaps, but it seems it went over like a lead balloon with everyone else. :P
I'm not speaking for everyone but it went over my head.
Totally missed this. Can't say I'll use it (I rarely skin classic characters as it is) but its something I'll keep in mind.
I guess I don't follow. Wouldn't the green Hulk's skin be B3:Y3:R0? Its pretty cool to see thos colors in graph form. I grew up reading all thos old ones, too, but never really understood how limited the palette was.
Nope, the Hulk used to be VERY bright green - almost neon green.
See?
(http://www.chronologyproject.com/hulk.jpg)
You also have to keep in mind that the cheap, porous newsprint tended to mute the colors somewhat. So something that looks really screamingly vibrant in Val's chart (like Hulk's skin color) would end up more subdued in print.
When comics started to upgrade their paper and printing in the late '80s, you could see the colorists kind of struggling to adjust. There were a lot of really obnoxious, day-glo comics coming out, until they figured out that they had to dial it back a little bit.
I missed this when it was first posted, but I'll save copies of the color charts when I get home (and possibly make a Photoshop pallete of them).
Bill, who remembers that he thought it was a big deal when Neal Adams and Jim Steranko started using zip-a-tone (RIP).
Honestly... my avatar sort of follows these charts. Costume wise, at least.
I find this fairly sweet, actually... If I get back into skinning, maybe I will give this chart a shot. I've also been interested in including half tones into skins. I've got to experiment with it, though.
Yes..finally someone posted the color swatches for the four-color stuff. I had originally had most of these saved to my collection of colors and lost them...thus the changes lately...now I can return to the old school looks once more. Major thanks Val...ye are a godsend!
This may or may not help those who(like me) were kinda clueless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model)
~Z23~
I can't believe I forgot to post in this thread! I saved that color chart like, a week ago, too.
Thanks Val. It's pretty interesting to see. I'll be using it to color any future work that is "classic" inspired.
No offense... but can this be stickied as a resource?
Quote from: Valandar on May 23, 2008, 01:19:29 PM
No offense... but can this be stickied as a resource?
Seconded
Cuarteado!!! (Foruthed!!!)
Val! like the rest... THANKS!!! I've been coloring like old comics draws and i needed them ^.^