”Anime" 3D Toon Character (color scheme) (Patreon)

Continuing from the previous article on how to create ”Anime" 3D Toon Character (texture version), this article will explain the color scheme to match the background.

Try to match the character with the background.

Here are the backgrounds for this project. (Day view, Evening view, Night view)

Normal color character and background together.

If you just place the characters in their normal colors on the background, the colors will not match the background except for the day scene, so the characters will appear to be floating.

we can adjust the color scheme of the characters while referring to the color scheme of the background.

Find a color scheme reference from the background.

Point 1: Find a color scheme from the background sky.

The first thing to do is to find the color of the light source. If there is a sky in the background, check the color scheme of the sky for bright colors and dark colors.

Day sky : [Bright color] Almost white blue, [Dark color] Blue

Evening sky : [Bright color] Yellow, [Dark color] Reddish purple

Night sky : [Bright color] Navy blue, [Dark color] Dark blue

In this way, from the background sky, you can find the colors near the light source (bright colors) and the colors far from the light source (dark colors).

Point 2: Find a color scheme from a white object.

If there is a white object in the background, find the color change from that object. For example, if the white object changes to yellow, it means that yellow light is shining on it. From there, you can find the color of the light source.

Day view : [Bright color] Almost white blue, [Dark color] Blue, [Shadow color] Dark blue

Evening view : [Bright color] Yellow, [Dark color] Dark red, [Shadow color] Purplish

Night view: [Bright color] Navy blue, [Dark color] Dark blue, [Shadow color] Dark blue

By finding the light hitting a white object in this way, we can see the range of colors used.

Match the character to the background.

Create an example of an evening scene. We will match the character to the evening scene using the color scheme found in the background as a reference.

Here's the direction of the color scheme.

We will mix yellow for the normal color part and reddish purple for the shadow color part. It's not enough to simply mix them. If you just multiply the colors, they will become dull. It is important to adjust the color while imagining what the color will look like when the light source hits it, rather than just layering the colors. This subtle adjustment is the most difficult.

I adjusted the shadow color to be a little darker without changing the skin tone too much.

Left : Before

Right : After

Wouldn't it be easier to change the color in the lighting?

You might think that if you are dealing with 3D models, it would be easier to change them with lighting instead of adjusting the textures. However, this is actually not the case.

Using lights to change colors.

Left : Lighting changed to evening scene color

Center : Basic color

Right : Changed to evening scene color by color scheme

It is easy to see by comparison, but the character whose color is changed by lighting looks a little darker. In fact, just changing the color with lighting changes the brightness.

Left: Color change by lighting

Right: Change in brightness due to lighting

You can see that just changing the color in lighting also affects the lightness. Just changing the color also changes the brightness, so pay attention to the brightness when changing the color in lighting. In the case of lighting, it is not possible to apply different colors to the normal color and the shadow color, so the color of the 3D toon character will be monotonous.

This is not to say that lighting is necessarily bad. In the case of 3D toon characters, it is better to create them in a way that adjusts the normal colors and shadow colors.

Thank you.