The Color Picker

Now we need to learn how to use the color correctly. For this point the cursor on the “Color” icon on the left tools panel and click on a square under the “Color” inscription. By doing so, you will see a panel that allows you to pick a color.

This color will paint the square you pointed at. It shows the current color.

You can choose the second color too: click on an icon right next to the first color icon in the “The color” box (in this picture, the first color is green, and the second is black).

The second color is used in the diffuse channel while you work with the drop list.

In addition, for a fast choice of color, you press and hold the “B” key (when calling it this way, you open the downsize “Pick color” window, same as when calling from the Windows→Popups- >Color picker.

Press RMB to disable/enable the use of color. It is equivalent to choosing a white color.

Color pickers

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Within this panel are further options for other color pickers. You have five different color pickers; the last one allows you to pick a color from any image you load.

These are made available by left-clicking on the color swatches in the top left of the main Paint Tool Panel. They are:

• Triangular
• Bar
• Round
• Quad
• Image

These are made available by left-clicking on the color swatches in the top left of the main Paint Tool Panel. The pickers work just like their equivalents in other mainstream painting applications.

Apart from a standard set of color options, the “Pick color” window contains various color selection modes: HSL and IMG (selection from image). For the latter one, there are additional buttons available.

You can take color directly from a surface, point the cursor on a corresponding place, and press “V”. 

Image Color Panel

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While the first four are common, let’s discuss the Image Color Picker a bit more in detail.

It allows you to pick a color from an image of your choice from which you can choose any hue present in the image for painting.
Select the image of choice with the “Select” button or “Paste” the image from your Clipboard. Once used, an image becomes available via the “drop-down arrow” to the right of the image name.

Is also handy for keeping a reference image open at all times during sculpting or painting operations.

There are further options for the image color picker panel:

• Manipulator Icons: With the icons left top of the image color picker, you can pan/zoom/reset the position of the image.
• Select: Select an image from the file.
• Paste: Paste the image from the clipboard and use it like a custom picker.
• Image Drop down list: If you have more than one image, you can multi-select from each by clicking here in the list.

Image Color Picker (sampler)

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If you will tap the picker hotkey twice over the same color (like the layer color) it will pick the color just from the screen. In this way you may easily choose the right color – from the object or from the screen.

Pick: Extract the Color, Glossiness, and Depth from the surface of an object. Use the V hotkey to select the primary color and depth outside this tool. You can change picking preferences using this tool.

Use H to select the top layer. Use the hotkey “press LMB + V” to pick the primary color and “press RMB + V” to pick the secondary color outside this tool. Use “G” to pick the depth of the Brush.

Color Swatches Panel

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Available on “Windows > Panels > Color Swatches” lets to click the panel to load/save/switch Swatch palettes.

If you click on the drop-list can select preset palettes. You can both load and save an .ACO color palette file.

You can also right-click on a color to change the color’s properties:

Tutorials

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Image Picker: This video demonstrates the Image Picker in 3DCoat, which allows the user to sample color information from an image, as well as serve as a dockable reference image.

Using Reference Images: This video demonstrates the usage of reference images. Either as Image Planes in the viewport or usage of the Image Picker as a static reference image within the UI.