This is a basic modding tutorial. It explains how to recolor items, monsters, and armor, how to program, how to pack items when you're finished, and how to use Paint in detail.

Part IV: this page covers how to use the MS Paint application to work with textures.

PART IV: How to Use Paint

Okay, this is my tutorial on how to use Paint.

The Color Palette

First the color palette. On the bottom left is a panel with the colors on it.

Selecting Colors

There are three selectable colors:

Foreground drawing color:

To select the Foreground drawing color, left click on a color.

To draw with the Foreground color, use the left mouse button.

Background drawing color:

To select the background drawing color, right click on a color.

To draw with the background color, use the right mouse button.

Transparency color:

To select the transparency color, hold the CTRL key and left click on a color.

To draw with the transparency color, hold the CTRL key use the left mouse button.

When using a file format that supports transparency, the transparency color is the color that is considered transparent on Paint. So if white is the background color you can select an object with white in it and the white will be totally transparent.

Adding Custom Colors to the Palette

1. Choose “Edit Colors...” from the “Colors” menu as shown below.

This opens the “Edit Colors” dialog window as shown below.

Then click the button to open the color editor.

Pictured below is the full “Edit Colors” window:

You can change colors and color properties by:

1. Clicking on the color you want in the color spectrum.

2. Moving the sliders by left click and hold: “spectrum”: or “light / dark”:

3. Adjusting the properties in the number boxes below the color spectrum. The number boxes do the same things as the sliders, but are much more precise:

1. Hue: moves the spectrum slider horizontally from 0 to 239.

2. Sat: moves the spectrum slider vertically from 0 to 240.

3. Lum: moves the “light / dark” slider vertically from 0 to 240.

4. Red: changes the amount of “red” in the color with a range of 0 to 255.

5. Green: changes the amount of “green” in the color with a range of 0 to 255.

6. Blue: changes the amount of “blue” in the color with a range of 0 to 255.

Once chosen, the custom color will replace the currently chosen foreground color in the default palette and then may be chosen for foreground, background or transparency as needed.

The Tools

Okay, let’s look at the tools now. Starting on the top left:

Free Form Select:

The Free Form Select allows you to select a custom shaped chunk of an image.


To use free form select, select it and then left click and hold.

Drag your mouse around to select the shape.

At the bottom of the image to the left, you can see the Free Form Select tool’s control panel.

Here you can choose between a selection with:

1. An opaque background: top icon, hightlighted in dark gray.

2. A transparent background: bottom icon, with no highlight.




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Select:

The Select tool allows you to select a rectangular chunk of an image.


Select is used the same way as free-form select, except it drags a rectangle, not any shape.

At the bottom of the image to the left, you can see the Select tool’s control panel.

Here you can choose between a selection with:

1. An opaque background: top icon, hightlighted in dark gray.

2. A transparent background: bottom icon, with no highlight.





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Eraser and Color Eraser:

The Eraser tool allows you to.... well, erase stuff. No surprises there.


The Eraser is used by selecting the tool, choosing an eraser size in the control panel, and single clicking for a specific spot, or click and drag to cover a wider area.

Left clicking with the Eraser will erase everything by changing it to the currently selected Background color.

While right clicking will erase ONLY the selected foreground color (all other colors in the image remain the same) changing it to the currently selected background color.

At the bottom of the image to the left, you can see the Eraser tool’s control panel.

Here you can choose between:

1. Top: A four pixel square.

2. Second: A six pixel square.

3. Third: An eight pixel square (default, and hightlighted in image).

4. Bottom: A ten pixel square.

Color Fill:

The Color Fill tool allows you to fill an area with a solid color.


Color Fill is used by selecting the tool, select a fill color, and left clicking in the area to be filled with color.

This tool has no control panel options.












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Pick Color:

The Pick Color tool allows you to pick any color within an image.


Pick Color is used by selecting the tool, and using the eye-dropper cursor to left click a color within the image to set foreground color, right clicking a color to set the background color, or CRTL left clicking a color to set the transparency color.

This tool has no control panel options.

This is more useful than most people think, say you want to erase 1 color, but it’s a custom color that you forgot the mix to. Well, just use the Pick Color and single click on the color, and it automaticallly turns that color to your first color!





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Zoom:

The Zoom tool allows you to quickly switch between a short selection of scales.


The Zoom tool is used by selecting the tool, selecting an area within the image with the rectangular cursor, and left clicking.

It defaults to 400% ( 4:1 ).

At the bottom of the image to the left, you can see the Zoom tool’s control panel.

Here you can choose between:

1. Top: 100% scale ( 1:1 ).

2. Second: 200% scale ( 2:1 ).

3. Third: 600% scale ( 6:1 ).

4. Bottom: 800% scale ( 8:1 ).

It is probably the non-drawing tool that I use the most. It allows you to color small areas easier and is good for coloring textures in FATE.

Pencil:

The Pencil tool allows you to do free-hand drawing with a solid color.


The Pencil is used by selecting the tool, select a color, and left click and drag to draw.

This tool has no control panel options.

Unless you are a talented artist, this tool is probably fairly useless to most of us. You use it by clicking and holding and dragging. It then draws a line where you drag it. It is useless since you can’t draw a good shape with a mouse, or especially with a touch pad.







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Brush:

The Brush tool allows you color with a variety of brush tips.


The Brush tool is used by selecting the tool, selecting a color, selecting a brush tip from the control panel, and using a single left click or left and drag to add the color.

The Brush tool has 12 tip choices in it’s control panel.

From the top left, they are:

1. A six pixel diameter round tip.

2. A four pixel diameter round tip.

3. A single pixel tip.

4. An eight pixel square tip.

5. A five pixel square tip.

6. A two pixel square tip.

7. A bottom left to top right 8 pixel calligraphy tip.

8. A bottom left to top right 5 pixel calligraphy tip.

9. A bottom left to top right 2 pixel calligraphy tip.

10. A top right to bottom left 8 pixel calligraphy tip.

11. A top right to bottom left 5 pixel calligraphy tip.

12. A top right to bottom left 2 pixel calligraphy tip.

It is still not totally practical, since you cant draw a good line with a mouse. But, it is good since you can just draw one shape by clicking once. So you can make a small circle with this instead of trying to draw it manually.

Airbrush:

The Airbrush tool allows you to “spray paint” in a few different spray patterns.


The Airbrush is used by selecting the tool, selecting spray pattern, and left clicking to spray.

This tool has the following three control panel options.

1. Small, fairly full pattern.

2. Medium, fairly sparse pattern.

3. Large, very sparse pattern.

This is not a really great tool, but it works great for layering colors, and I usually use it to make fire by layering orange, red, and yellow.



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Text Tool:

The Text Tool allows you to add text to an image.


The text Tool is used by selecting the tool, left click and drag to open a text box, and type your text, and set the options in the Text Tool Bar that opens upon making your text box. This tool does not work when zoomed.

This tool has two control panel options.

1. Top: Opaque text box background

2. Bottom: Transparent text box background.






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Line Tool:

The Line Tool allows you to draw straight lines.


The Line Tool is used by selecting the tool, selecting a line thickness, and left click and drag to draw a straight line betweern two points.

This tool has five control panel options.

1. A line 1 pixel thick.

2. A line 2 pixels thick.

3. A line 3 pixels thick.

4. A line 4 pixels thick

5. A line 5 pixels thick.


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Curved Line Tool:

The Curved Line Tool allows you to draw a line, and bend it into curves.


The Curved Line Tool is used by drawing a line, and then using the crosshair cursor to grab and bend the line into various curves.

This tool has five control panel options.

1. A line 1 pixel thick.

2. A line 2 pixels thick.

3. A line 3 pixels thick.

4. A line 4 pixels thick.

5. A line 5 pixels thick.


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Rectangle Tool:

The Rectangle tool allows you to draw a rectangle with 3 options.


The Rectangle tool is used by selecting the tool, left click and drag to form a custom sized rectangle.

This tool has three control panel options.

1. Draws a 5 pixel width rectangle in the foreground color.

2. Draws a 5 pixel width rectangle in the foreground color, filled with the background color.

3. Draws a rectangle filled with the foreground color.





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Polygon Tool:

The Polygon tool allows you to draw a polygon with as many sides as you need.


The Polygon tool is used by selecting the tool, left click and dragging the cursor to the endpoint of the first line, then move the cursor to where you want the second side to end, and left click again, and so on.

This tool has three control panel options.

1. Draws a 5 pixel width polygon in the foreground color.

2. Draws a 5 pixel width polygon in the foreground color, and filled with the background color.

3. Draws a polygon filled with the foreground color.



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Ellipse Tool:

The Ellipse tool allows you to draw a rectangle with 3 options.


The Ellipse tool is used by selecting the tool, left click and drag to form a custom sized rectangle.

This tool has three control panel options.

1. Draws a 1 pixel width ellipse in the foreground color.

2. Draws a 1 pixel width ellipse in the foreground color, filled with the background color.

3. Draws an ellipse filled with the foreground color.





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Rounded Rectangle Tool:

The Rounded Rectangle tool allows you to draw a rectangle with 3 options.


The Rounded Rectangle tool is used by selecting the tool, left click and drag to form a custom sized rectangle.

This tool has three control panel options.

1. Draws a 1 pixel width rectangle in the foreground color.

2. Draws a 1 pixel width rectangle in the foreground color, filled with the background color.

3. Draws a rectangle filled with the foreground color.





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Okay, that’s all the drawing options. Now let’s look at practical drawing stuff.

There’re are basically two ways to color a texture in fate. You can do it manually, or by copying a texture into the file and covering the texture with the copied picture.

I use the copy method since it makes the models look better.

So for the zombie, I copied a pic of an oblivion zombie, and painstakingly copied each piece of the zombie skin to cover the exact same space as default skin. It took me about two days to do this, with about 7 hours of work.

Since then, ive gotten more practical. You don’t have to be exactly the same shape as the default skin, you can be sloppy and get your pic on the background color, it doesn’t matter.

So, here’s what I always do now:

Go to google and do a search on what im coloring. So if youre coloring a mushroom, look up “mushroom”.

Then paste the mushroom onto mushroom skin. This is the best way to color it. Even if you want plain green, look up green. It will look better since the green youll get will be a mix of greens that are slightly different.

The only rule really is don’t change the size of the skin unless you are changing the whole model to a different color, then you can just color it that color.

But here’s a warning:

If you’re coloring something in the “PLAYER” folder, you need to keep the skin coloring still skin colored ( ie. hands, neck, legs in some cases ) since this defines the color of the skin around the armor.