Hi, this is so basic, I'm almost afraid to ask...

I'm still working in P4, to refresh rudiments, and because my long-suffering family insist I MUST_NOT un-box P7 before mid-January...

I have a gray-scale hair texture (512x512, umpteen bits, zillion colours) and I need to colourise it...

An artist could simply re-draw it, but I'm not an artist of any brush...

Using eg free ImageForge, I can reduce texture to 16 'optimised' gray shades without hurting the look. I've tried the colour changing 'fill' / 'replace' tool, but that does too much, too little or *leaks*.

I've tried changing 'actual palette' from 16 grays to graded shades of desired colour, but weirdness happens. This may be because you can't use subtle colour shades in 'sixteened' piccies, or *free* ImageForge cannot do it, or I'm asking the wrong tool...

Or, of course, missing the obvious !!

When I've learned how to do this conversion, I'll be able to tackle other textures, reflection maps etc etc.

I don't mind paying ~ $50 to upgrade ImageForge, unlock share-ware or buy a PhilC toolkit, but I really do not want to pay more for an image-manipulation program than for my P7...

Advice, please !!

Hi Nik;
I'm unfamiliar with Image Forge; but I have recommended gimp (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/) to a few people. It is a free open source image editor with features that are comparable to photoshop. I have not used it myself (I have photoshop 5.5); but I have not heard any complants from those that i've recommended it to.

Here is the Wikipedia link about gimp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gimp It will give you a good idea of what gimp is and does before you decide to download it.

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It's not what you look like, when you're doing what you're doing;
It's what you're doing, when you're doing what it looks like you're doing.

I haven't hear of the program u are using ( i use jasc paintshop pro 7)... so i don't know the features in your program... in most photo/drawing/image programs there is a features called colorize.... does your prog have that.

Same suggestion as Whazizname, The gimp is a very good freeware alternative . I should put the link in the front page and interesting links too...

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Thank you, I'll check out gimp.

ImageForge belongs to cursorArts, and the free version has some tools for selective colour replacement.

[url autourl=1623663271]http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_imffw.html[/url autourl=1623663271]

Either I'm not using it correctly, or the free version can't do it quite the way I'm asking, or as precisely...


Sorry, like I said, I'm no artist. Sure, I've worked with 'colours', but in photometer and spectrophotometer cells, looking at absorption & emission peaks of chemicals from infrared through to ultraviolet, checking the instruments' nm wavelength and AU sensitivity calibrations etc etc...

Okay, I've downloaded gimp.

FWIW, if you, too, have persistent trouble opening Sourceforge pages, is probably due firewall blocking their cookie download. (Got a red eye icon at bottom-right ?) Don't alter your cookie settings, just refresh page....

D'uh, I had enormous HelpFile downloading at 198 Kb/sec while the *smaller* gimp app came in at ~95 Kb/sec-- That is one HOT server !!

Nik, your firewall troubles seems to be a little bit persistent...

http://www.posetteforever.com/discussion502.html#4618 (exactly 4 years ago...)

Can we help you in some way ? What is the firewall that you're using ?

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Yippeeee !!!

Okay, I'll be re-doing the process several times to become familiar with the path through gimp menu system, but arcane 'indexed images' facility does *exactly* what I was trying with ImageForge...

GIMP took my piccy, converted it to my choice of numbers of colours, here, shades of gray. It created a custom palette with those colours, then let me edit palette to selected colours, auto-changing same colour in piccy. In this case, I put in a pre-calculated gradient (RGB 248 200 200 --> 248 248 248), but could have been psychedelic highlighting... Or Marbelling ??

Aaaand, I think I could have saved the modified palette for re-use, but I must have blinked.

Er, looks like I'll be spending some time learning my way around gimp, printing HELP-pages as I go...

Thanks again for the Excellent advice !!

If I can, I'll post the Before & After JPGs for comparison.
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My firewall is a paranoid Norton's (LiveUpdate), browser is stripped-down IE_6, carefully bereft of Flash, Script, Codecs etc etc...
Most cookies bounce off, or are eaten by nightly AdAware sweep.
Think 'child safe'... and staying that way.

Hope this works...

ehm.. I fixed the BBCODE of your  message. It's better to use our "add an attachment" button to add files and pictures to the site, avoiding leeching and files that disappears after a while

(good work there)

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Ah, yes, that is what I was trying to do with those piccies...

Middle-aged Eyetis, I fear...

Second time through, I managed to save the indexed palette. Shades of my old Acorn 410/1: You gotta right-click for context-sensitive menus...

This way of re-colourising textures is not for everyone or every task, but it does allow very close colour matching of unrelated wardrobe items. When I am confident of 'indexed image' route and results, I'll post the recipe.

Thanks again, Tormie & Co !

I happy to to hear that gimp was able to help you achieve your objective.  

I look forward to seeing the recipe for your color conversion.

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It's not what you look like, when you're doing what you're doing;
It's what you're doing, when you're doing what it looks like you're doing.

Disclaimer: There are probably three better ways to do this...

I reduced my total count to 16 because I was changing all of a 'simple' gray-scale image If you need to tweak a couple of shades of a more complicated palette, gimp can index up to 256...
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Using gimp Indexed mode.
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HELP section is 14.9.6.1 in current version 2.4.2, but F1 or right-click gets context-sensitive help.
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Open gimp.
File, open, browse to piccy file. ( DO NOT experiment with original !!)

Image, Mode, Indexed.
 ( New dialogue box opens)
 Convert to indexed colours.
 Select 'Generate Optimum palette'.
 Maximum number of colours ?
 Select manageable number, eg 16 )
 Convert.
 ( Dialogue box closes)

Dialogues, Colour Map (NOT Palettes !!)
 (New dialogue box opens with actual palette of piccy )
 (Drag box wider until palette items big enough to see and/or neat grid !!)
 Double-click on palette item.
   (New dialogue box opens with colour editor.)
   Drag sliders and/or enter eg RGB values to taste.
   Click Okay, colour changes are copied to piccy. (!!)
 
 Repeat with other palette items until happy.

File, Save As...
 New dialogue opens: Must convert to RGB before Export: Convert ?
 Click Yes.
 JPG dialogue may open, offering compression default: Set and click Yes.

Aaaand, there you go.

Cool.
 

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It's not what you look like, when you're doing what you're doing;
It's what you're doing, when you're doing what it looks like you're doing.