I have a question about coloring.I am working on a game which will be running on still pictures , drawn by hand which will be from various perspectives.But the problem I have is the coloring part.How can you colour it so it can look good?Any tutorials?What kind of software should I use?I know my way around The Gimp .. is it ok? And by look good I mean look realistic .. I know it is 2D but how can I colour it so it can look nice to the eye.... damn my english is not that good and I can not express myself correctly .. but I hope you can get what I mean. Any tips or link to any tutorials or any kind of resources would be much more than welcome.Thanks in advance.

Gimp is ok but I feel it makes things hard. Use many layers and build up detail from a flat color.

Yeah I heard that it is the spawn of the devil but I am also the reincarnation of Scrooge McDuck :p and I would like to avoid using photoshop if possible.

So the trick is to use many layers you say?You get the hang of it only after lots of tutorials and trials and errors I guess eh?

The Gimp is a love-it-or-hate-it program... I love it. I think the interface is far more flexible and intuitive than photoshop, though I can understand why others don't like it.

Many people are scared off by the decidedly non-windows look of The Gimp. At first I was too. But once I got the hang of it I realized just how terrible the Photoshop interface really is. It's all a matter of taste, some people would stomp their feet and scream that Photoshop r0XorZ and teh gimp sux, but use it for a while and see what you think.

He he thanks JBourie , but the whole point of the post was not Gimp vs Photoshop :) . Since The Gimp is free I prefer it for the moment.Not to mention that I have never used photoshop so I can't say I don't like gimp because of its interface.

Didn't mean to turn it into Gimp VS PS... I was answering "What kind of software should I use? I know my way around The Gimp .. is it ok?"

I'll shorten my answer to "It is ok" :)

hehe ok :)

MAybe I should rephrase then ... any certain tutorials in gimp about what I asked exist?Or is it just experiment , experiment and ... experiment?

Hmm.. Coloring static images is the same as coloring anything in pixel art, so you can probably find out some stuff by reading some pixel-art tutorials on shading and coloring. It would likely help alot to look at other peoples work and see how they do it, you could also try taking a (digital) photo (if you have a camera, or find some on the net) and use that to work with in helping you get color and perspectives down.

You should check out Pixeljoint, ontop of having alot of great work submitted on a regular basis, they have alot of tutorials (like the "Pixelation Color Theory Thread") under the Features tab.

Then there's always practice, practice, practice!

well, if even slightly posible I would sugest picking up a 3d package. I know, you said your game is 2D, but you could always concider "PreRendering" packing bumpmaps, specular, glows, and even radiosity into your images. not sure if this would be helpful, but this is more my opinion, plus it's never too late or soon to start learnign 3d in this industry. MAya (my perfered platform) has a free "personal Learning Edition" you can download, it's perfect for any begining modeler, but rendering is pretty much worthless on it because it renderes with watermarks. 2d wise, there is photoshop, gimp, and paint shop pro, so thats pretty much the desision you gotta make.

Quote: Original post by JBourrie
But once I got the hang of it I realized just how terrible the Photoshop interface really is.

Which is why photoshop pros use hotkeys only ;)