Need help to change the color of a white car

Nightmaster · **Joined:** Jul 15, 2015 **Posts:** 4

GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: New User

Hi guys I am new here so be gentle with me

I am trying to change the color of a white car in a pic I have found on the web. I wish to see how this car would look if black instead of white.

I have installed GIMP 2.8.14 and see a lot of tutorials but so far I had no luck in my task.

Can any of you guys help me with that?

The car in question is the Audi A9 Concept

I just wish to know how I do that trick.

Wallace · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:36 am **(#2)**

Nightmaster wrote:

GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: New User

Hi guys I am new here so be gentle with me

I am trying to change the color of a white car in a pic I have found on the web. I wish to see how this car would look if black instead of white.

I have installed GIMP 2.8.14 and see a lot of tutorials but so far I had no luck in my task.

Can any of you guys help me with that?

The car in question is the Audi A9 Concept

I just wish to know how I do that trick.

Is this the car in question?

Attachment:

audi-concept-car-10.jpg [ 54.99 KiB | Viewed 5264 times ]

Nightmaster · **Joined:** Jul 15, 2015 **Posts:** 4

Yep that one indeed

Wallace · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:17 am **(#4)**

Nightmaster wrote:

Yep that one indeed

Okay, I gave it a try and this is what I came up with.

Attachment:

audi-concept-car-Black.png [ 165.27 KiB | Viewed 5231 times ]

It's not perfect by any means.

trandoductin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:22 am **(#5)**

that one is hard i find because back ground shares gray tones of some parts of the car as well.
here's my best effort.

Nightmaster · **Joined:** Jul 15, 2015 **Posts:** 4

How you guys managed that? I was trying yesterday for hours but no luck on my part

Wallace · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:31 am **(#7)**

Nightmaster wrote:

How you guys managed that? I was trying yesterday for hours but no luck on my part

I use layer masking.
Copied/duplicated the image, added an alpha channel, inverted the color, added a layer mask.

Check out this link about layer masking... viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2888#p37070

trandoductin wrote:

that one is hard i find because back ground shares gray tones of some parts of the car as well.
here's my best effort.

Nice one Trandoductin, I like how you got the shine. :bigthup

trandoductin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:44 am **(#8)**

I used a combination of threshold and some manual selection as well to select the white parts of the car and some grays i guess and then applied a Color->Curves to it.
still don't like that white glow around the edges though.

Wallace · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:47 am **(#9)**

trandoductin wrote:

I used a combination of threshold and some manual selection as well to select the white parts of the car and some grays i guess and then applied a Color->Curves to it.
still don't like that white glow around the edges though.

It's not an easy one, due to the issues you mentioned earlier. Especially the reflection.

Nightmaster · **Joined:** Jul 15, 2015 **Posts:** 4

Thanks for the tip guys. Will try that at home (working right now).

Wallace · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:56 am **(#11)**

Nightmaster wrote:

Thanks for the tip guys. Will try that at home (working right now).

Okay, good luck. :bigthup

Let us know how it goes.

trandoductin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:05 pm **(#12)**

I have included an .xcf of the pieces selected by using the free select tool for you to play with.

Here I am having fun with an rgb car.

oldmangrumpy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:57 pm **(#13)**

I never know what colour car to choose, so I found a tut that allows me to mix n match - trouble is it does not work with black cars!

Wallace · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2015 5:58 pm **(#14)**

oldmangrumpy wrote:

I never know what colour car to choose, so I found a tut that allows me to mix n match - trouble is it does not work with black cars!

[ Image ]

Now that's a nice option.

Wallace · **Posted:** Thu Jul 16, 2015 7:20 am **(#15)**

Had another go at it.
I can't seem to get the reflection to look right, so I omitted it.

Attachment:

audi-concept-car-10b.png [ 142.14 KiB | Viewed 2766 times ]

trandoductin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:14 am **(#16)**

now that's a sweet looking black car

Wallace · **Posted:** Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:52 am **(#17)**

trandoductin wrote:

now that's a sweet looking black car

You don't think it's too dark?

Any suggestions on how to do the reflection?

trandoductin · **Posted:** Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:01 am **(#18)**

it's a little dark but looks more like a bat mobile that way.
i find the reflection hard too its' hard to make it look real, but i notice the reflection can't get darker than the dark grey surrounding the floor otherwise it'll look really out of place. i guess the dark grey is the darkest you can have maybe this reflection has a dark grey tint to it or something.

Wallace · **Posted:** Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:43 pm **(#19)**

trandoductin wrote:

it's a little dark but looks more like a bat mobile that way.
i find the reflection hard too its' hard to make it look real, but i notice the reflection can't get darker than the dark grey surrounding the floor otherwise it'll look really out of place. i guess the dark grey is the darkest you can have maybe this reflection has a dark grey tint to it or something.

I agree, that's what makes it so difficult to do correctly and have it look convincing.

trandoductin · **Posted:** Fri Jul 17, 2015 6:49 pm **(#20)**

I think this one has better reflection.
I just made selections of the reflection i colored and painted on another layer using the gray reflection of black, and set that gray layer to be 50% over top of the colored reflection.

Any better?

maybe even more opacity of the gray, this one is at 70%