Minecraft Skin Gradients - Tutorial

1. Colors

Most of you are probably familiar with the famed color wheel, so I’ll keep it brief. This is the color wheel:

When making a gradient, I find the easiest ones are those that use analogous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel), which I include warm and cool colors in, or monochromatic gradients (the gradient is one color, ranging from dark to light). Other color combinations need a little more manipulation, increasing their complexity. However, the basic steps are the same.

2. Ip’s POV: RGB Slider Terms

I prefer to use the RGB slider in the PMC editor when shading skins because it makes it easier to hue shift. It also makes gradients a lot easier! In the following tutorials, I am going to refer to changing colors as making them “more red” or “less green”, which are descriptions based on the RGB sliders. Here’s what I mean:

1. When I say “more” of a color (red, green, or blue), I move the slider to the right.
2. When I say “less” of a color, I move the slider to the left.

Here’s an image with the PMCSkin3D color wheel, to see the changes in the RGB sliders and the changes on the color wheel for those who use it to pick colors. For the examples, I’m starting with a medium grey.

3. General Advice

• Work your way up to more complicated gradients

• The more transitional colors you have, the smoother your gradient will be.

• Smaller gradient areas fit less colors (it’s easier to do a small blue-purple gradient than a small yellow-green-purple one).

• The opacity tool is your friend! If you have access to it, use it.

For this tutorial, I’m shading a basic red-orange-yellow gradient on hair. However, these instructions also work on dresses, capes, horns, etc. Remember, analogous colors are those that are next to each other on the color wheel. Another example would be green-blue-purple.

Step #1: Select your colors and plot out the shape.



Step #2: Compare the difference between each color. For example, red is overall less green than yellow, while orange is more in the middle.

Step #3: Put transitional colors between your main colors, so you have the beginnings of a gradient. In this example, I have my red, then three progressively lighter red-oranges, orange, two orange-yellows, and my end color. In addition, I recommend staggering these colors instead of leaving them linear because it will help make the transitions less sudden.



To get these colors, I made my red more green and slightly more red and blue. On the color wheel, you can see each color become lighter and more saturated as the outside indicator line moves closer to yellow (and closer to green, hence making it “more green”). The more transitional colors you have, the smoother the gradient will be.



Step #4: Shade each color individually as you would normally—if you use hue-shifting, try to lean toward its neighboring color in the lightest/darkest shades. I’m using the classic waffle-style hair here instead of my normal style.



Step #5: The trickiest part: make adjustments as needed. Some colors are more friendly with their neighbors than others, and only need slight alterations. Let’s start with the head.



There isn’t a lot of work to be done here because the colors are very similar.



This first section, highlighted blue, could be more orange. If you’re using the color wheel, you could select some of the darker red (using the eyedrop tool) and make it just a smidge more green. If you can use an opacity tool, you can select the lightest shade of the orange and layer it on top of the section pictured below. I normally set my opacity to 10-14% and do one or two passes.



This second section could be more red. You can either adjust the colors manually to be less green or use the lightest shade of red and the opacity tool as described previously.

Now for the back: this is a lot more color variation.



Firstly, if there are any glaring, abrupt transitions, you can easily fix those with mostly either more green or less green. On the color wheel, moving the indicator line closer or farther from yellow. With the RGB sliders, move the Green one left or right until the number changes by about 10-20 (i.e. 80 to 90-100).



These blue sections could use a little more subtle tinkering. Small adjustments with the color wheel or manipulating with the RGB slider by about 5-10 will work. You can also again use the opacity tool as before; select the lightest color next to the one you’re adjusting and layer at around 10-14%.

Step #6: Add your overlay, focusing mostly on the lighter sections. And voilà! You’re done!

Here’s a picture of the whole project, step-by-step:

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