[SOLVED] How to create skin tones from charts labelled with RGB & CMYK values?

Dazzle

While figuring out a way to turn a pasty white character into a Latinx one, I found two charts, one for skin tone and one for hair colour, with RGB numbers against each colour block. The hair chart is helpfully labelled with tags like 'Ash Blonde' as well, but for the skin tone chart, I'll have to exercise my own judgement as to which tone is right for my character. However, this will be a big improvement on what I've been doing up to now, which is incrementally adjusting the skin's Diffuse values in the Surfaces pan. The skin tone does change by that method, but usually not in a good way.

My question for the community is this. For any colour shown in the Surfaces pane, I can set three numbers in the range 0.00 to 1.00, and I'm wondering how I can set them to give me a colour which I've selected from a chart. Can I simply take 3 RGB values and divide them by 255 to get values in the range 0-1 which I then enter into Daz? Or it more complex than that?

As a bonus question for extra credit, I also came across other charts labelled with 4 CMYK values (Cyan Magenta Yellow & Key aka Black). If I wanted to reproduce a colour from those charts in Daz, how would I do that? I'm familiar with CMYK's underlying principle (masking a white background), but not sure how to convert 4 CMYK values into 3 for use in Daz.

Ascania

You click on the colour and enter the RGB value.

Dazzle

Thank you, Ascania.

I feel a 'Doh!' moment coming on. I hadn't realise that clicking on (say) Base Colour would bring up a palette. I've been manipulating the numbers directly, but your way is so much easier :)

And googling 'RGB CMYK convert' solved my other problem.

Padone

Also beware that to use the "color charts" you must have a srgb calibrated monitor, otherwise you will see your own version of the skin tones that's not what it is supposed to be. But this is also true for rendering and painting in general.

Fishtales

Dazzle said:

While figuring out a way to turn a pasty white character into a Latinx one, I found two charts, one for skin tone and one for hair colour, with RGB numbers against each colour block. The hair chart is helpfully labelled with tags like 'Ash Blonde' as well, but for the skin tone chart, I'll have to exercise my own judgement as to which tone is right for my character. However, this will be a big improvement on what I've been doing up to now, which is incrementally adjusting the skin's Diffuse values in the Surfaces pan. The skin tone does change by that method, but usually not in a good way.

My question for the community is this. For any colour shown in the Surfaces pane, I can set three numbers in the range 0.00 to 1.00, and I'm wondering how I can set them to give me a colour which I've selected from a chart. Can I simply take 3 RGB values and divide them by 255 to get values in the range 0-1 which I then enter into Daz? Or it more complex than that?

As a bonus question for extra credit, I also came across other charts labelled with 4 CMYK values (Cyan Magenta Yellow & Key aka Black). If I wanted to reproduce a colour from those charts in Daz, how would I do that? I'm familiar with CMYK's underlying principle (masking a white background), but not sure how to convert 4 CMYK values into 3 for use in Daz.

 Another useful chart if you need it.

http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/Photoshop_Elements/color_correction/skin_tone/1_skin_tone_samples_chart.htm

Dazzle

Padone said:

Also beware that to use the "color charts" you must have a srgb calibrated monitor, otherwise you will see your own version of the skin tones that's not what it is supposed to be. But this is also true for rendering and painting in general.

I'm realising that my monitor is nowhere near good enough for this task. I'll need to upgrade it. I also need to do some studying to understand the science behind colour. I can understand that rendering takes into account things like lighting, shading, reflections, etc etc which can't be handled quickly in the Viewport. But I'm still surprised that basic colours are so different between viewport and render. Another puzzle is why the icons I create when saving a character look nothing like the figure in the viewport either (obviously they won't look like the render).

Fishtales - thank you for the link. I think this will help me gain a better understanding of the subject.