Hello everyone

In this tutorial, I will show you how I use several Clipstudio features that I surprisingly found to reduce my working processes and time saving

In summary, this tutorial will explain 3 topics :

 

• Color management with Clipstudio layers

• Saving color in Material Library

• Batch export with the Animation Feature

Video tutorial

This tutorial also have the Video tutorial version :3 please take a look!!

Introduction : Working with Color management..

Drawing a single artwork you may need only reference or just pick the color by your imagination,

 

But when it become a project such as a 2D game asset(sprite), animation keyframe, comics or sticker set., where you have to draw several characters many times, you will need the color standard for the project

In classic way, we start by creating color palette for a character

and put it in the [Subview panel] for using as a simple color palette

(To use the subview panel : [Window > Sub view])

But if there are many characters, or various color modifications in the project..

The color palette on subview panel may just bring confusion

I decide to change my working method from color painting to value painting instead

 

Instead of picking color from palette : base color, shadowcolor, light color, color for final touching.. again and again…

 

I will just paint everything in gray shade(or called ‘value‘) and then use the power of digital art software to turn it into color!!!

Let’s talk about my Surprising Clipstudio Features No.1 …

Color management with Clipstudio layers

In Clip studio, we mainly have the Vector layer for editable ink job and the Raster layer universal usage (sketch,ink,paint,fill,etc..)

They are layer types that we able to create instantly from the Layer panel

But.. i just noticed that Clip studio has also layers for various fill and color correction!!

you can create these layers from the Layer menu

I used Clip studio paint for many projects and many years,

but I just start using these layers feature to optimize my working process and control my color standard not so long ago.. Let’s me tell you how I use it!!

 

 

In this topic, I will explain the adaptation usage of Clip studio’s Layers for Color management instead of using color reference sheet :

• Using Correction layer : Gradient Map to save multiple colors

• Using Fill layer to save a single color and the layer properties

 

 

Saving mutiple colors with the [Correction layer : Gradient Map]

I’ve said in the intro, that I switch from Color painting into Value painting, when I need to work in the project scale, here is some explaination in case that you’re new to the Value painting technique :

 

Basic steps for Value painting is

• paint the color in different level of gray tone (Grayscale)

• use the Correction layer : Gradient map to map the color with the brightness level of the gray shades

Common usage for this painting technique is when we not yet design the color scheme for the character in design process.

it also useful for adjusting color volume on design

But… How can we use it to control the color standard for the project?

How can we map it to have actually the same color of the reference?

Let me show you : 3

The concept of using the [Correction layer : Gradient map] as the color palette(for saving the color) are

 

1. You have to map the gray shade to proper gradient position

2. You have to paint the entire project with the same gray shade

 

 

before start : if you use layers for overall ambient light final touch, such as Add/Glow or Multiply layer, hide it first

 

Note: in this example I also use the add/glow layer for the highlight , but instead of adding highlight separately I will add it together with the painting because it’s more comfortable

Start with the color mapping, pick the colors from one area of of the reference

 

Here is the colors I used on her hair

For the hair, there is 4 color variation…

so I will pick the 4 shades of gray color for mapping to these color set

 

AND SURPRISED!!

 

in Clip studio, you already have the palette for gray tone ready to use!!

 

you can find it in the [Color set panel]

(If you don’t have this panel open, it’s at the menu [Window > Color set])

 

Set the color set to [Default color set] you will find palette for gray tone with percentage number on the name!!!

Spoilers alert : this number is also perfectly match to position number in gradient map creating!!

 

Since we need 4 color shade for the hair,

I’ve pick -70%, -50%, -30% and -15% for the color mapping

Note : I saw the dash symbol(-) in ‘Gray-15%’ as ‘ Gray MINUS 15 percent’ and understand it as ‘The white color is 15 percent gone from this gray tone’ so it’s ‘light gray’

 

         + *thereis***nothingwrong***forreadingthiscolornameas-orvalue,*

 

if you see it as ‘Gray 15 percent’ it means ‘There is 15 percent of black color in this gray tone’

 

because 15% or -15% still appear in the same light gray, in clip studio

This number of value can be perfectly match with the Color position in the Gradient Map layer

 

but It need to be invert to value 100 to convert into Gradient position

 

Because at position 0 it’s for darkest and position 100 is for lightest color.

 

So, the Color that we can map to Gray-15% (light gray)will be on position 85 , not 15

Let’s start making the [Gradient map layer]!

 

Paint the gray tone example on separate layer and make selection

[Right click on the layer >Selection from layer> Create Selection]

Create a new gradient map :

Go to menu [Layer>New Correction layer>]

By pre-created selection, the Gradient map will only applied on the selection area

The gradient bar on gradient map panel indicate the position for the gray value that we calculated

 

to set the color on gradient bar, you must click on the position marker under the bar first

The position will show the position of the marker in value 0-100 and

 

you can pick the color for the position by using the eyedroper to pick color from screen

I pick darkest color from the hair color sample

and set maker position to 30 to map with Gray-70%

It’s so satisfy how the color is able to map perfectly with the gray tone from the default color set!!

 

you can navigate among position markers by this icon

Click under the bar to add a new position marker to the gradient bar

Map all the rest color by the calculated positions

 

and the first gradient map that we can use as the color palette is done!!

Note: you can also set the color by the gray percent number, then invert it later to make the correct gradient map

 

It works too, but the preview will be with the wrong color until you finished the setting and invert it

(The position is also changed to the number that we calculate anyway)

 

you can choose any method that’s easier for you, but I prefer calculation the position by myself ^w^

Optional : you can save the gradient by create a gradient set and add the gradient to the set

When you click Ok button on Gradient map panel the selection will gone and there is a Clipping Mask area on the gradient map

click on the mask thumbnail and press [Delete button] to clear it

 

The color will also gone from the grayscale painting

This gradient map is now ready to use, It already save 4 colors that we can simply paint it with one set of gray color

 

Repeat the steps with other color parts,

 

Note : Double click on the thumbnail of the gradient layer will open the gradient map panel

 

so you can just copy the layer and change the color, because it already have the position setted

In some color area that need fewer color, you can delete the unwanted markers by drag it away from the bar or select and click on trash icon

Note : you can store more color by adding more shade later, On the gradient map that has no matching color at the position, will bring value from the color around

 

Don’t forget to set the layer gradient name to avoid confusing

Next,

To use the gradient map layers as the color palette, you need to also paint in the gray color that match to the value

 

I decide to add extra shade (Gray-90%) for blushing skin color, so in the end I have 5 shades of gray.

 

You can use the Standard color set and check the color name when picking, but it’s high chance to pick wrong shade

I create a new color set just for this project,

 

Click on [Edit color set] icon and [Create new set]

set the name and click [OK] you will get a new blank color set

Use the [Eyedroper] (or right click)to pick the color

 

I started with the darkest color

click on [Replace color] icon to put the color to selected position on the color set

right click on the color and [Change color name]

 

I put the original color name, with the way I will use this value

 

the name will appear when you hover on the color

select another blank slot and repeat the steps for saving all the gray shades

Now the preparing is done,

 

Let’s try it!!

 

Draw the ink and paint with the gray value we’ve made

 

I fill the art with base value first, then paint another value for the details

Instead of picking color from the color reference sheet again and again, I use only 5 color to paint on the entire image,

 

Which save a lot of time for me!!

 

Now it’s time for mapping the color to the value

 

Use the [Fill] tool : [Refers other layers]

 

and set the Refer multiple option to [Reference layer]

In the layer panel, also set the ink layer as a reference layer

Click on the layer and fill the color

 

Note : you can click on the mask thumbnail to make sure the color will be filled

 

you cannot fill the color if you click on the layer thumbnail and the mask is not active

The color maybe not appear correctly in some area,

it’s possibly by

• using the wrong value on shading

• some overlap area of the gradient maps

 

for the overlap area, you can make selection from the correct gradient map layer, and delete it from the overlaped Gradient map layer

You can see the color is the same as the reference!!

 

For small details like mouth and white eyes, you can just paint it on separate layer,

Because using gradient mask will just more complicate and time consume

Now it’s time for another way for color saving on the layer :

Saving a single color and layer settings with[Fill layer]

I already show you how to save the color into the gradient map layers

 

But it’s not yet enough for the overall working progess!!

 

When look closely, you may see the different…

the spots pattern of the seal is missing and the ink color is different!!

 

Because even the gradient map layers is kinda complete on color saving, but sometime, it’s just easier to just paint it on a new layer and use the Layer mode to bring it to appears correctly

 

let’s take a look at the spots…

I painted the spots with the darker gray of the hoodie on a raster layer , set to multiply mode and set the opacity to 45 percent

 

Instead of making this layer for the spots everytime I draw her , Let’s save these properties in the Fill Layer!!

 

Create a new Fill layer go to menu [Layer>New layer > Fill]

if you already prepick the color, it will create a Fill layer with the color you picked, no need to repick the color

By default, if you did’t create a selection before create Fill/Gradient map layer it will come with fully fill mask

We will paint the spot by ourselves,

 

Select the mask and press [Delete] button to clear the mask

Set the Layer mode and opacity to the same as the original layer from reference

 

and paint the spots on the mask layer

it looks the same as the original now…

 

but the dot is still outside of the edge…

 

to fix this problem, you can group them together with the base color of the hoodie by putting the Fill layer of spots and the gradient map layer into a folder

 

Set the [layer mode] of the folder to [Through]

so the gradient map also applied to gray value that’s outside of the folder

Drag the mask from base layer and put on the folder,

and the spot is no longer outside the edge :3

 

Note: when you fill the color for this part, you have to fill it on the mask of the folder instead

You can do the same for the Ink color and the glow effect

 

This is how the final result and folder structure look likes

To use it on another art, you can just copy these layer and paste it on another file, arrange them in correct order, clean up all the mask and only fill on the mask referent on new art

 

It surely can save a lot of time on getting color frome the reference one by one :3

but… What if i don’t wanna clean up every time I use these layer???

 

Let me introduce you to the surprising Clip studio feature No.2!!

Saving the reference color set in Material Library

Clip studio comes with amazing asset library feature called Material library where you can share or download material form Clipstudio Asserts

 

by default, the material libraries can be access by the bar on the right side of the workspace

It has been a while that I used this feature for asset management.., you can check it from my old tutorial about making the entire story with sound by Clip studio animation features

You can create your own material folder for any project by right click at [All materials] and [New Folder]

 

I recommend to create your own asset folder to keep the material you always use in your projects, it’s very time saving

In the past, I always register some brush tips and background on my custom folder by the menu

 

[Edit > Register Material > image]

It’s pretty neat that I can save my asset to reuse in the project…

 

but it’s even more surprise when one day, i just found that I can just save my layers into the material folder by just drag and drop…

…

To bring it back, you can just pull it from the Material library to the canvas or layer panel…

 

and it will totally have the same property as how we save it, layer mode, mask, opacity, etc,…

You must know SHOCKED I WAS when I first time know that I can just throw almost everything in the folder without needing to register it by the register menu

Back to our tutorial, I will save my color set in the Material library and will just drag it to my canvas whenever i need to draw the character again

 

before register the folder, I have some management for my color layers

 

• Clean up all the mask, so, every time I use this, I don’t need to clean it again

• Separate the folder for layers that will stay above the ink

• put all the gradient layers that used as color palette into a folder and set it to “Through“ so it can be instantly place over the value painting

• Set the layer label color, so it’s easy to find

 

and this is how it will look like :

drag the folder into the material library and it’s registered

you can double click on the icon to set the image material data later…

Set the material image, so it’s easier to recognized

Here is how it looks when you finally have the palette for all the character, very neat!!

Now we come to the final working tips.. the batch export !!

Batch export with the Animation Feature

Sometimes you have to export your art in various file… or various versions.

Instead of export one-by-one and waste a lot of time for cookies.

 

Here’s surprising feature that I already use on my animation project long time ago but I just realized that it can be adapt to another 2D project..

 

The Animation Keyframe Export

 

But since it’s feature for animation export, to use it, you must prepare your file to be able to export with this feature first

 

This is the file that I’ve made for a visual novel character sprite

it has :

• 9 face expressions

• 4 arm gesture, and

• 1 body base

 

everything is in separate folder with clear name and color label

I need to export it with generated name so I can directly use it in my game project.

I don’t want to waste time renaming them one-by-one

 

Let’s start with the Timeline, my timeline is docking on the bottom of my workspace.

 

(If you don’t have it opened, go to menu [Window > Timeline])

Create a new timeline

at the New timeline popup box, set the [Playback time] to the quantity of image that you want to export

In this case, I want to export various face of the character, so I put 9

You will got the timeline that shows all your folders

and have the playback time at the number you set

Create a new animation folder

Optional : I also name the folder

Put all the face expression folders inside the animation folder and make all folder visible

Assign the animation keyframe…

Selection the animation folder

go to menu [Animation>Edit track>Assign multiple cels]

Set the option to [Assign by cel name]

The folders will be assigned to all keyframe !!!

No need to assign it one by one

Now the file is ready for exporting

 

go to menu [File>Export animation>Export animation cels]

You can set the export option :

• If you want the file to save in to proper name, you can put the name to the folder, and select the [File name] option to [Cel name]

• you can set the prefix for the file name or leave it blank

• you must select on the option [Export layer not in animation folders] if you want to export also the visible layers outside the animation folder

When Export, the file will have proper name like how we have set it

Important!!!

If you have more than 1 animation folder, The result will be separated by content in each animation folder and not visible to each other.

The alternative way for batch export with animation folder is by export sequence of the timeline

 

use the menu [File>Export animation>Image sequence]

It has similar setting to animation cel export,

but this option will export the visible layers at each frames with the same prefix and number in sequence

Summary

• You can use the gradient map layer to save the color set and paint only the gray value to map with the color(value painting)

• The fill layer is for save a single color and the layer properties(mode, mask setting, opacity.. etc.)

• You can drag the layers folder to save in the material library and drag it back to use in any file.

• You can use Animation export feature to do batch export file

I hope this tutorial get you some idea for your work process.

See you in the next tutorial!!