the white drew carey

Hey, you're Kakzaki incarnate!!!

Good job. I like reading this. It's kind of like a blog (God, I hate that word) of your trials and tribulations with the VF-4. One question, though: Why did you start a new thread instead of continuing the first one?

The ARC Troopers are pretty badass. I loved it when that one snuck up (or down ) behind the AAT, climbed up it, shot his way into it and then proceeded to wreak havoc.

Why do people collect antique Coca-Cola memorabilia? Why do old ladies collect cats? Why do people collect firearms without the intention of ever firing them? Many people enjoy the superior durability of the Chunky Monkey design, aside from it's obvious shortcomings regarding accuracy. Others enjoy the nostalgia value, as well as owning a classic piece of Macross history. Here's one: Why do you ask silly questions?

1) First, you want to be in your Background Layer. Click inside one of your panels with your MAGIC WAND tool. This will select the empty area up to the surrounding panel lines. Next, switch to your PANEL layer and run your paintbrush along the outside of the selected area wherever there would be a panel line. You don't actually want the blank lines from the BACKGROUND to be selected. This method allows you to work with the specific shading on each panel. You could simply run a paintbrush over all of the panel lines, but it's a bit tougher to make things perfect. As to the L, here's a screencap of the COLOR-PICKER window in Photoshop, I've circled the L.

I'm not too keen on the Full-Armor or Super configurations, so I think I'll give 019 a pass. What I REALLY want is a Zeonography Kampfer... Mmmmm.

For the time being I'm stuck with a mouse, but I hope to get a graphics tablet at some point.

Okedokee (popcorn)- Here's my dandy (see: crappy) tutorial on how I color my VF schemes: I use Photoshop 7.0 for my color schemes. I prefer to keep my lineart at about 1500 pixels across at 200 DPI. This is simply the methodology I use, which is, in all probability, very redundant. But hey- If it works than it gets the job done, right? First off, I do all of the shading. This can include regular shadows, panels lines and weathering. I'll pick a constant shade of light grey using this formula: Red-215, Blue-215, Green-215 with a Luminosity-85. Remember, you'll always want to keep your tools on NORMAL. All gradients and dark shading will be achieved through MULTIPLY. Now we can get to work!!! NOTE: EVERY LAYER FROM HERE ON OUT WILL BE SET ON MULTIPLY. 1) The first layer I do is the PANEL LINES (titled= PANELS). Using the MAGIC WAND TOOL, I'll manually select sections of the BACKGROUND, then swith to the PANELS LAYER and run a paintbrush right along the outside of the selection for any sections of panel, with the small amount of overflow showing up in the selection. The size of the Paintbrush depends on the size of the panel, but I prefer to keep it generally small (anywhere from 20-35 pixels). Keep alternating back and forth: BACKGROUND= SELECT AREA PANEL LINES (LAYER 1)= SHADING BACKGROUND= SELECT AREA PANEL LINES= SHADING Remember to keep alternating. You don't want any shading on the background at all. You'll need to keep up this alternating pattern throughout the whole process. 2) Next I'll work on the general shading. This will be encompassed by several layers set on MULTIPLY, which I usually call SHADE 1, SHADE 2, SHADE 3, etc. I'll use either the MAGIC WAND TOOL for small areas, or the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL to select wide areas that will have a constant level of shading, such as the fuselage, the nose, tailfins or legs. This time I usually make my paintbrush larger. Anything from 85-100 pixels for regular areas up to 400-500 pixels for large areas. Your best bet is to shade the whole selected area at once. Let's say I've selected the whole leg. I'll shade the layers as such: Shade 1 Shade 2 Shade 3 Shade 4 What I do for shading such as this is actually use the PAINT TOOL outside of the selected area (usually on the bottom side), moving further away with each respective layer. This way, you'll get less coverage without having to alter the size of your tool, and a level of shading that gets progressively darker through the combination of each of the layers. 3) After I'm satisfied with the general shading I'll create 2-4 more layers which I usually title WING 1, 2, etc. This is what I'll do all of my "hard" shading on. Using the ever-trusty POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL, I'll select a line of shading angling down along the body under the wings and any other noticeable protrusions. I'll use a PAINT TOOL set quite large in pixels and do a group of shading on each respective layer. Once again I'll use it on the outside of the selection, but this time around I do it above the selection, moving further away with every layer. This will give the effect of a heavy shadow under the wings and other protrusions. Once your satisfied with all of the shading, I'll switch the BACKGROUND LAYER (your blank lineart) to INVISIBLE, so that only your layers of shading are visible. I'll then choose LAYER -> MERGE VISIBLE. I'll rename this layer SHADING, and that'll leave you with two layers- Background and Shading, as seen here: While not entirely noticeable under the main wing, the results of STEP #3 are easily visible under the canards and, especially, with the shadow from the tailfin. Save this as something like VF-11_shadiing.tif (or whatever). Now you have a blank with a constant layer of shading you can use with every color sheme you make. Yay. 4) Now you can color. Make a new layer (once again set on MULTIPLY), and use you MAGIC WAND and POLYGONAL LASSO TOOLS to select areas and color. Use of the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL is wonderful for creating complicated paintschemes. 5) Adding logos and other neato stuff: Drop your logo into the image (it'll be a new layer), and change the layer to MULTIPLY. Next, use your MAGIC WAND TOOL and select something other than your logo. Then hit SELECT -> INVERSE and it'll choose everything within your logo. Then hop over to your COLOR LAYER and erase out whatever is inside the selected logo. This will leave your lineart and your shading to enhance the logo. This is what I did with my Polarbears paintscheme. After you're happy with your everything, merge everything down and REMEMBER TO SAVE IT UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME!!! Don't do like me and accidentally save it all as your blank, or shaded blank. Because then all of your hard work shading is gone. What I did with all of the M3 Max and Millia paintschemes was to do a Millia scheme, keep all of the layers seperate and save from there. Then I selected the COLOR LAYER, and clicked IMAGE ->ADJUSTMENTS-> REPLACE COLOR and simply switched the reds with blue. Easy, huh? There's a lot more you can do which I haven't covered, or even know. I hope that this thread will also become a library of sorts where everyone shares their methods and ideas. We can only learn more, can't we?

I'll give y'all 3 guesses which one I picked...

Why don't you just post the picture?

VF-11, Millia Jenius M3 colors:

VF-11, Max Jenius M3 colors:

So I figured, why have a different thread for each color scheme? It would be more fun, and more convenient to put them all in one place. With that in mind, I have started this thread as The Place to be, if you are a Macross Color Scheme. I have posted several blanks at Yellowlightman's Macross Fan Creations Website. If any of them are yours, please contact me so I can properly credit you. Also, if you have links of your own, or have posted high quality versions of blank lineart, feel free to PM me the link, and I will edit it into this first post (with proper credit) for everyone to partake in. I've found that a blank of about 1500 pixels across is great to work with. That's the size I build mine in. REMEMBER, THAT YOU MUST RESIZE YOUR COLORED LINEARTS TO BETWEEN 600-700 PIXELS WIDE BEFORE POSTING ON MACROSSWORLD!!! This is an unofficial rule created by the Mods to make viewing of the boards enjorable by all. Macross Fan Creations Links: As always, click on the link, and the click on the picture to see the full-sized version that you can download and color. VF-4 Lineart WDC'S VF-9 Lineart WDC'S VF-11 Lineart Nied's VF-11 Lineart VF-0 Lineart Good luck and happy coloring!!! P.S.- At the request of several members, I've included a brief tutorial on how I color my VF's. I've posted this a couple of replies down.

That Taka commercial is pretty badass!!!

Apparently, there's supposed to be a badass lightsaber duel underwater at some point.

I loved it. Fast, furious, and awesomely animated. One of the funniest kicks was the preview for Episode 2. About 5 seconds of all-out space fight. I think this is going to be an exciting addition to the SW universe.

I think most of the Cannon Fodder pilots are ambisinister. That's why they dies so quicky.

It's used in both. I disagree that the problem lies with the pilots. Take a gander at any lineart or schematics for the VF-1, you'll see that the cockpits/canopies as rendered here are simply too large. Because they are so large, it makes the pilots look too small. That was my first observation until I realised it's the cockpit/canopy that's doing it.

Except for certain issues about pieces falling off unless securely fastened, public opinion around here gives major props to the Deep Striker. All in all, I don't think anything we can say will help sway your decision. GFF are good toys, but so are the 1/48's. You'll probably have to decide which one you want more. One thing to keep in mind is that the GFF's, and to a lesser extent the 1/48's, are NOT playing toys. They're best if you find a pose you like and then leave them be so they can just sit there and look pretty.

Kakzaki and Hikaru are in -1A's. After Roy got sent to that big binge in the sky and Hikaru went missing for his tryst wtih Misa, Max assumes command of Skull Squadron. In the fight scene with Millia, Max is flying a VF-1S, desgination 001, in his DYRL paintscheme. After Max ditches out on UN Spacy to bring "culture" to Millia, Hikaru assumes command of Skull.