Need some help with the sprites from an old game

[Darkloke]

Greetings. I am trying to edit some character sprites from the old game and would like to know if its possible to do the following (well, i suppose "its possible", i mean - possible for a low-skilled user):

1. Doll.psd consists from 3 layers - background, base character figure and alternative "bald" head with some piece of background. Is there some "easy" technique in PS that would allow to "subtract" that background piece from the layer with the bald head, considering that this part is very similar (almost the same) with the background piece (i.e. kinda remove pixels which are the same on other layer)?

2. Dolls.psd. Is it possible to remove/paint over cloth elements to create clean skin? May be using data from other characters since they have the same size? I have tried per-pixel magic wand selections with content-aware fill, but results were meh... May be there is some better methods?

3. Are there ways to change skin tones for characters here? For example make pale characters with red skin tone like two other examples? I know about match color option, may be some others are better?

 

[IamSam]

1. Doll.psd consists from 3 layers - background, base character figure and alternative "bald" head with some piece of background. Is there some "easy" technique in PS that would allow to "subtract" that background piece from the layer with the bald head, considering that this part is very similar (almost the same) with the background piece (i.e. kinda remove pixels which are the same on other layer)?

Yes.

Turn off all layers except "bald head" layer.
Add a new layer below the "bald head" layer, fill with white.
On the "bald head" layer, add a layer mask.
Us a very hard round brush (Brush Tool) set to black and remove background.
Turn off or delete white background layer when done.

Copy and paste the head with hair (pc02) to a new layer by making a selection with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, hit Cmd/Cntrl + J.

Repeat the same layer mask and Brush Tool process with the "pc02" layer to remove the head from the "pc02" layer.

 

[IamSam]

2. Dolls.psd. Is it possible to remove/paint over cloth elements to create clean skin? May be using data from other characters since they have the same size? I have tried per-pixel magic wand selections with content-aware fill, but results were meh... May be there is some better methods?

Yes............depends on your painting skills. There may be an easier way to do this................I just can think of any right now.

Add a new layer above the "pc18" layer.
Use the Brush Tool to paint in the skin over the clothes and footwear.



When you're satisfied with the results, duplicate the two layers (Select, Cmd/Cntrl + J) and then merge the duplicates (Cmd/Cntrl + E).

3. Are there ways to change skin tones for characters here? For example make pale characters with red skin tone like two other examples? I know about match color option, may be some others are better?

Yes.

Add a Color Fill Adjustment layer above the "ps18" merged layer and clip. (Clipping mask)
Set the Color Fill Adjustment layer to "soft light" blending mode.
Adjust the color by double clicking the Color Fill Adjustment layer thumbnail.

White



Red

 

[Darkloke]

Thank you very much for the answers, IamSam. I would like to clarify this:

On the "bald head" layer, add a layer mask.
Us a very hard round brush (Brush Tool) set to black and remove background.
Turn off or delete white background layer when done.

Do you mean here to manually paint the mask? So basically its the same as using eraser to remove background part? Or using selection tools to isolate unneeded parts?
I thought something as shown in example here - select/mask out a difference in layers using blending modes... Though i wasnt able to get a good results by this example. :-D

Is it possible to use the difference blend mode to create mask of the difference between layers?

Is it possible to use the difference blend mode to create mask of the difference between layers?

community.adobe.com

 

[IamSam]

Do you mean here to manually paint the mask?

Yes

o basically its the same as using eraser to remove background part?

Yes

Or using selection tools to isolate unneeded parts?

No. You will not get the same result as using a layer mask and the Brush Tool.

I thought something as shown in example here - select/mask out a difference in layers using blending modes... Though i wasnt able to get a good results by this example. :-D

Yeah, the technique used in that video is more or less useless for your situation.