color swatches: A color swatch is a component of a color palette. It defines a selectable color that can be used for drawing or painting in TBS. A color swatch consists of the following: RGB and HSB values: define the color of the swatch. Alpha value: defines the amount of transparency in the swatch. Swatch name: labels the swatch and can indicate where to apply the swatch, like 'Bip's Helmet and Gloves". When you add a swatch to your palette, the properties of the new color swatch are based on the values of the currently selected swatch. If you select an existing swatch with properties close to the new color that you want, it will reduce the time you spend defining the new color's properties. You will use the color picker to change the color value of a swatch.

Although Toon Boom Studio gives the current swatch a default name you can change it to one that describes where you intend to use the color. The swatch name is more than just a label: it’s a way of defining a color zone in your drawing. For example, let’s say you use a swatch called Skintone and you use this swatch in all of your character’s skin zones. If you decide you want to darken a character’s skin color, you only need to adjust the Skintone swatch. If you applied the Skintone swatch on only the character’s skin zones, Toon Boom Studio updates all the drawings accurately. To select the swatch you want to draw, ink or paint with, you can click a color swatch on the Color Palette tab. However, if you have a number of color palettes, palette styles and color swatches, it can be time-consuming to select the right color swatch.You can use the Dropper tool to select a swatch from a drawing. You can paint vector shapes with bitmap images. Toon Boom Studio fills the vector shape with the image, which allows you to achieve some sophisticated painting effects that are difficult with vector painting tools.For example, you can create a bitmap image of scales. Then you can paint your dinosaur with the scale image. Your bitmap textures can even have transparency. To create a bitmap swatch you will use the add texture command.

You can add a color swatch to your palette that paints a zone with more than one color. The painted zone displays multiple colors that blend smoothly from one to another. This is called a gradient swatch. You can define up to eight different transition points within one swatch. You can then adjust where the transitions take place by dragging transition markers to the appropriate place. In the setting sun example, we used a Linear gradient (the colors change in a straight line), but you can also use a Radial gradient (the colors change in a circular motion).

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