Select the pen tool and set the properties in the "Tool Options" to ensure that you have a solid opaque colour. You can use any colour you wish, it does not have to be one that reflects the actual colour required. In the case of Micromax, using colours that match is an easy proposition, but I usually choose colours for the maximum in contrast to ensure that it is easy to identify edges.

Choose where you wish to start (I usually begin with the left leg) and begin drawing approximately where you think the edge of your colour should be. It need not be exact. Save it (the "Save" command or ctrl+S) and then look at it in the Character Tool. If the skin has not updated with your changes then click on another folder in the "Skins" window. Click back on your hero and you should see the modified skin. Use the Left mouse button to rotate the mesh, and hold down the Shift key + Left mouse to move it around the screen. Control (ctrl) + Left mouse button will enable you to zoom in to get a close up view of what you have done.

Use the lines of the template as a reference point for any changes that need to be made and repeat the save and view to check the result. You can either colour over the blue (in this case) with the grey from the background or use the "Undo" command if it is completely wrong. Continue this until you are happy with the placement of your colour and then fill in any holes in the coverage, remembering to check whether the edges line up at the 'seams', the boundaries where the texture wraps around the mesh. Also make sure that you overlap the edges of the mesh at those boundaries. It will make things much easier later on.

Once the entire leg is complete to your satisfaction select the filled in areas with the "Magic Wand". Use the "Copy" command and then Right Click to paste it as a new selection. Use the "Mirror" command to flip it right-to-left and then move it over the other leg, using the wireframe to guide your positioning. While the selection is floating save the skin and view it in the Character Tool. If it does not properly match the other leg keep moving the selection until it does.

*Note that you must take care not to have the blocks of colour overlap onto other parts of the mesh.

Follow the same process of draw, save, view, and correct with each colour on each part of the body until you end up with something like this.

You may notice that the largest part of the skin is still showing the base template. With this technique there is no need to colour the whole of the template.

The last step of this stage is to save a back-up copy of your block colour template. Use the "Save As" command (F12) and give the file a distinct name. I always add "WIRE" to the end of the filename for ease of identification.





To produce the final skin you use the colour template to create saved selections. Open the 'male_basic.tga' skin for your hero. You should now have two identical versions of the same skin in front of you, the 'male_basic' that you can see in the Character Tool and the 'male_basic_WIRE' back up copy.

The first step is to select the whole of the skin (you can use either copy for this stage) with the "Select All" (ctrl+A) command on the 'Selection' Menu.

Now use the "Ink Dropper" tool to select the Blue colour from the skin. With the colour showing above the palette go into the selection menu and choose the "Transparent Colour" (ctrl+T) command and on the window that appears, select the "Foreground Colour" option with a low tolerance value. All the blue will be removed from the selection.

In the Selection menu Choose the "Invert Selection" so that now the blue areas are the only ones selected. Go to the "Save To Disk" command and then give it a name that will make it easy to identify. I create new folders for each character or mesh to save the selections into. Repeat this for each of the block colours in the template.

It is possible to select each block of colour manually using the "Magic Wand" tool, and for colours with just a few blocks this is easier than using the transparent command. Hold down the Shift key to add more blocks to a selection. Holding down the Ctrl key allows you to deselect individual blocks.

The reason that the underlying wireframe does not need to be filled in is because you create the selection area by eliminating the other colours. Select all of the mesh and then set the blue, the red, and the flesh tone to transparent as above and all that is left will be the White areas of Micromax's costume. Simply save the selection to the disk with the others.

Next, finishing the skin.