I never recolor objects before (except for paintings). I'm trying to recolor one of steffor's doghouse using riekus13 mint one as a base https://riekus13.tumblr.com/post/16...3/lazy-pets/amp.

The doghouse has two pieces to color. The outside and the bedding inside. I cut the two pieces out and desaturate them. I tried running an action over them, but it becomes a solid color instead. The actions only seem to work on the background, but colors my whole image instead of just the piece I want. I couldn't find a tutorial that goes over color actions or a good tutorial that goes over the photoshop process except Icad, but I don't really understand the part about making a new layer. As Icad just recolor the piece they needed but the new layer needs to be relocor, but the pictures don't show that. (I just realize this is a basic tutorial that doesn't include color actions)
Sorry for the rambling, I'm just so confused and I was hoping recoloring would be a simple straight forward thing.

Which color actions are you using?
- If they're based on Pooklet's or other hair actions (some people use these for wood and similar), you may need to start out with a different color than gray/white (they're based on the Volatile color)
- I think most other non-Pooklet, non-hair actions tend to use a white/grey base.

Color actions color the whole picture. You'll need to figure out any details you want preserved, and edit the image either before or after running actions, so make sure to keep a copy of the original texture.

Most color actions tend to have a "collapse layers" at the end. They usually don't save the image, because often you need to do changes to it, or don't want to save over the original.
- Personally, I tend to copy over the colored layer to a PSD, then reset the image, before I run the next action. You can save as pictures, too.
- If I need to combine colors or need to preserve some details, I tend to have a document saved as a PSD with those details as a top layer. Then I run actions on the other file, copy over the collapsed layer and put it below the layer with preserved details. You can save the entire project in one PSD this way, and hide/show layers as needed when saving PNGs for export to SimPE.

I was trying to use one of Berrynooboos actions which didn't come out in the right colors (I didn't use volatile as abase) and switched to futile fairytale pastel colors that work better. I did made a psd that has the base image and a copy of the two pieces I want to color. Would I just export my cut pieces as a png and run the color actions and reimport them over top my base image? Sorry I'm a little confused.

The PSD for a project (example here being a streaked hair with a hair tie) could be something like this - you can use layer masks, or just cut out the pieces you want hidden:
base hair color
Blue layer (hair streaks 1)
Pink layer (Hair streaks 2)
Details (multi-colored hair tie)

(I added an example below, not the best as it's just a quick example I threw together and not an actual project, but it kinda shows what I mean + the layer masks)

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If the actions are based around Pooklet's actions, or Pooklet's Volatile, then you'll get the most similar results if you use the Volatile base (you can run Volatile over a white/grey base first). Depending on the brightness of your base, the color will vary a bit in brightness, so you may not get the exact same result every time (it's a bit hit and miss in the beginning - you may need to do a bit of color matching with the base you're using).

Not sure if these are the ones you're using, but it seems they're based on Volatile.
https://grilledcheese-aspiration.tu...-id-write-up-an

Berrynooboo says she uses Paintshop Pro, so technically they aren't "actions", they are "scripts". The terminology does matter, and Paintshop doesn't do things quite the same way that Photoshop does, even allowing for the difference in nomenclature.

I had some real fun (not!) working out how to convert Pooklet Photoshop actions to Paintshop scripts. See: https://modthesims.info/t/681363
To date I have only done natural hair colors and not all of them, but the principles are quite similar.

Those look like the colors I tried earler. I upload some images of my psd and the images separately. Would I cut out the white background? As I thought you had to cut out the images that were going to be recolor. I also don't know how to do a mask layer.

I used the colors from here: https://berrynooboos.tumblr.com/pos...-own-textures-i
They seem to open in photoshop, they just turn to the wrong color because I didn't use volatile first.

Just so you're aware, Photoshop and Paintshop Pro could have differences between them that causes the colors to come out a bit different. There are also some differences between Photoshop versions (The CS versions are roughly similar to each other, but any lower/higher versions could have some differences - most notably hue/saturation for the lower ones, but there are a few other tools that were changed for the CS versions).

I'm not familiar with Paintshop Pro, so I can't give you any exacts, but if you notice you're not getting the same colors even if you're using Volatile, that's likely why.

I didn't get a chance to check if it works with volatile, as when I run the volatile actions, I get layer background copy 2 doesn't exist. I'm not how to fix this as I tried locking the background, copying the background and renaming it to layer background copy 2.

^ That could be an issue with how the actions were put together (copying layers with spesific names or some such). Making sure the base is named "Background" could be the way around, maybe?

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The easiest way to make a layer mask is to make sure the item is a layer and not a background, then select an area with the select tool (in your case you can use the square select tool), then click the square with a circle in the bottom right (layer view). This adds a mask to the selected area.

Layer masks use alpha channels (like Bodyshop projects) - White means it shows, black means it's hidden, any variant of grey means it's transparent and/or partly visible.

It looks like a lot of the tools for Paintshop Pro are similar to Photoshop, even the icons. There's probably some differences, but I'd assume they're close enough.


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There's a guide here for various toolsPaintshop pro -> https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/learn/how-to/
Masks: https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/tip...ts/photo-masks/
Video here, if that helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Tut1ZzBls

Thank you for the links. I'm using photopea which is like a free version of photoshop, but I read up on the links and watch the video you provided, so I can get the hang of the basics.

I'm not familiar with photopea (heard of it, not used it), but I'd think it has some kind of layer mask function. If that's the one you posted pictures from, it definitely has, with tool icons similar to Photoshop.

It has two mask a raster and vector. I ran into a weird issue. I got to color a specific layer, but the color action is coloring the black part of my mask instead of the white part. I made the mask cover the transparent part black and the part I want to recolor white. When I reverse this it just color my whole thing in one color.

Don't add the masks before you run the actions. That won't work.

You need to have two documents open in your program.

- One plain image without layers, run actions on this. Reset each time after running actions (should be a "history" panel where you can go back to the basic version?)
- On the side, have a document where you drag+drop in the image from the other document after running an action, then you can use the layer masks to filter out which areas you want colored or not.

Ok, I'll try that.

Thank you so much. I finally recolor using color actions. It's not perfect as some of the colors didn't match and I tried my best to match them with vary success, but I got it. Thank you again.