Index
- What is Color Calibration?
- The Basics of Color Calibration
- How can I color a texture without using Color Calibration?
- What is Shader Color Calibration (Main Color/Shade Color)?
What is Color Calibration?
Color Calibration is a useful feature to color textures.
For example, you can change a model's eye color without changing the preset eye pattern.
In this article, we'll introduce how to use Color Calibration and how it affects different items.
The Basics of Color Calibration
When you select an item that supports Color Calibration, a "Color" section will be displayed in the right panel.
Click (or tap, on the iPad) on the color wheel and choose a color from the color picker to apply it to the item.
You can also use Color Calibration from the texture editor.
Check "Apply color when editing" and click Edit Texture.
Check "Use Color Calibration" and pick a color. The color you applied to the texture in UV mode will be displayed in World mode.
The color will also be applied to the areas of the original texture you painted with the brush.
Save the item as a Custom Item to use Color Calibration and change its color at any time.
Color Calibration for Face and Accessories
You can use Color Calibration on a Preset or a Custom Item in the following categories.
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Face
- Irises
- Eye Highlights
- Scleras
- Eyebrows
- Eyeliner
- Eyelashes
- Mouth
- Lips
- Cheeks
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Accessories
- Glasses (High)
- Glasses (Low)
- Cat Ears
- Rabbit Ears
The following items only support Color Calibration via the Edit Texture panel.
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Face
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Mouth Inside
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Face Paint
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The colors you set in the Color Calibration feature of Face Parts and Accessories will be applied to the model's texture once it's exported as a VRM.
Color Calibration for Skin Items
You can use Color Calibration for these items by specifying a Color, a Light Color, and a Dark Color.
Face
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Eyelid
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Nose
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Skin
Body
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Skin
For skin items, use Color to specify a color to apply to the overall texture, use Dark Color to apply a color to dark areas, and Light Color to apply a color to light areas.
The colors of skin items are connected, so if you specify a Color, Dark Color, or Light Color for one of them, the same color will also be applied to all other skin items.
If you want to pick a color independently from other skin items, go to the item's Edit Texture panel, set a color, and save the item as a Custom Item to make it independent.
The colors you set in the Color Calibration feature of Skin Items will be applied to the model's texture once it's exported as a VRM.
Color Calibration for Hair Materials
You can use Color Calibration for Hair Materials by picking a color for the Main Texture, the Highlights Texture, and the Outline.
The respective item names are Main Color, Highlight Color, and Outline Color.
You can select Presets or Custom Hairstyle items and use Color Calibration on the Main Color and Highlight Color.
You can edit the Outline Color from the Edit Hairstyle panel.
The Main Color you set in the Hair Materials texture's Color Calibration feature will be applied to the model's texture once it's exported as a VRM.
However, the Highlight Color and Outline Color will not be applied to the model's texture once it's exported as a VRM. These colors will be reproduced by a shader when the model is rendered in each application supporting VRM files.
Items not supporting Color Calibration
The following items do not support Color Calibration.
Outfit
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All clothing items
If you want to change these items' color, you can edit the texture directly from the Edit Texture panel.
You can still adjust the Shade Color Calibration for these parts.
How can I color a texture without using Color Calibration?
Color Calibration is a convenient feature that allows you to change the appearance of an item by simply picking a color, but because the color of the texture image and the color of the item after Color Calibration are different, some people may find the process somewhat counter-intuitive.
If you want to edit the color of a texture directly, select the item, uncheck "Apply color when editing" under Edit Texture and start editing.
If you have used Color Calibration to pick a color, editing will begin with that color already applied to the texture.
What is Shader Color (Main Color/Shade Color)?
In the Edit Texture panel of each item, there is a section called Shade Color that resembles Color Calibration.
This feature was available in the beta version of VRoid Studio and allows you to set the main and shade colors.
You can use Shade Color for all items in the Outfit category.
If you used main and shade colors to create a model in the beta version, the settings will be carried over when the file is converted.
Just like Color Calibration, Main Color and Shade Color also let you color textures, but the two work a bit differently. If you pick a color using Main Color, you may end up with a dull result.
So we recommend using Color Calibration.
As the name suggests, Shade Color lets you pick a color for an item's shadows.
Shade colors will not be applied to the model's texture once it's exported as a VRM.
These colors will be reproduced by a shader when the VRM model is rendered in each application.
How to create an item that supports Color Calibration (editing a texture)
How Color Calibration works
Color Calibration is available for Face Parts and Accessories, Eyelids, Nose, Face Skin, Body Skin, and Hair Materials.
These all work differently, but they all use some effects so that the item looks good once colored.
Face Parts and Accessories:
The color you pick is applied to the texture in Overlay mode.
Eyelids, Nose, Face Skin, Body Skin:
The color you pick is applied to light, medium, and dark areas of the texture using a Gradient Map.
Hair Materials:
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The color you pick is applied to the main texture in Overlay mode.
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The color you pick is applied to the highlights texture as an Emission (*) color.
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The color you pick is applied to the outline in Overlay mode.
* Emission color: a mode that gives the material a luminous effect.
Tips on using the Overlay effect
Color Calibration in VRoid Studio often uses the Overlay mode to combine a grayscale texture to a color of your choice. In this section, we'll explain how the Overlay mode works so you can get the hang of Color Calibration and create items using grayscale textures.
Overlay is a blend mode that colors the texture image according to its brightness. The color you pick is blended with the texture by making the dark areas of the image even darker and the bright areas even brighter.
Concretely speaking, areas of the texture that are gray with a lightness of 50% (#808080) will reflect the color specified in Color Calibration's "Color", and darker or lighter colors will reflect a darker or lighter version of that same color.
In Overlay mode, colors don't blend if the base layer is white (#ffffff) or black (#000000).
You can use this knowledge to create Eye Highlights, for example, that combine pure-white highlights and softer highlights, and decide to only color the latter.