Riesscar's Coeff Creation Tutorial:
Before I begin I'd like to make clear that there are probably better and more correct ways of creating coeff files. I do not claim to be an expert on this, and any correction or improvement upon the following guide is welcome.
First things first... what the coeff file does:
What we call the coefficient file we used to call the reflex file in Fifa 16. I may be mistaken, but I believe that the actual term is a specular map. I will be referring to it as a coefficient, or coeff. The coeff file determines how light reflects off of the color textures in the game. It is a very important part of the equation when it comes to creating contrast between, for example, nylon and cotton on a kit or between the hard reflective sole of a shoe and the knitted polyester above it. It is used to bring out subtle details, and it is absolutely essential to make a metallic color. For example, what we call gold is not actually just a hue... it is a combination of hue, saturation and luminosity. Without the luminous quality of gold, you simply have a yellowish-green. It is the reflectivenesss that characterizes it, just as silver is simply a reflective grey.
The best method to create a coefficient file is to find one already in the game that is similar to the kit you are creating. By similar I mean that it has the same collar type and -- if possible -- the same basic shirt structure. To see what I mean, let's take a look at a kit I am creating: Bolton Wanderers' home kit. The kit needs to have a collar type of 0, which means a round collar. Fortunately, all generic kits have round collars, so we can use Bolton's default home kit coeff as our base.
Here is the Bolton Kit:
And here is the default coeff we will be using:
Two things that we must now take into consideration are that the coeff is smaller in size than the kit, and that the sleeves color runs over the shoulders as well. The first issue is easy, we just resize the coeff and make it 2048x2048 (hit ctrl-I and then enter those values). The shoulder issue is also easy to take care of, but we need to do a couple of things. First of all, we need to copy the collar to a separate layer on the coeff. Depending on the situation, this can be done in different ways. In this case the color is not different enough to simply use the magic wand to select it. I therefore use the polygonal lasso tool and manually select it. This takes a little practice, but it gets easier in no time:
Now we need to copy the shoulders from our kit to the coeff. Again this can be done in different ways depending on the situation. In this case, I chose to use the magic wand to select most all of the navy blue area, and then the polygonal lasso to take care of the rest:
We now copy and paste into place (ctrl-shift-v) the sleeves:
Given that I kept separate layers when creating my kit, I intend to copy the white dotted pattern afterwards, so I'll select the whole area I copied (ctrl-a and then alt-click with the magic wand):
Rather than just painting the color of the coeff sleeves onto my copied over texture -- which would not capture the cloth effect of the default coeff, I will then select the base layer of the coeff and untick the visibility eye of my copied sleeves so that I can see the base layer area I need to edit:
At this point it is a good idea to copy and past into place this area, so that you do not need to keep reselecting it if you accidentally deselect. With the area still selected, I use the clone-stamp tool to fill in the area that the original coeff did not have sectioned off:
Now it is time to begin copying over all of the kit details. This part is easy, because I kept everything in layers. I will simply hit ctrl-a to select all, then go to each layer one by one and copy then paste into place on the coeff:
At this point I see two issues to take care of on the base layer of the coeff. First is the fact that the team crest is positioned differently than I have on my texture, and the second is that there should not be a semi-circle at the nape of the neck. I select the base layer, and then use the clone stamp tool to remove those... note that I don't need to worry about affecting the collar, because I already copied it onto a separate layer:
Now we come to the issue of what hue each area of detail should be. This is something that you sometimes need to play around with. As a general rule, all logos, sponsors, and team crests should be made the same color as the captain's arm band. So I'll do that first. First I'll combine all of the layers which will be colored the same (which is all but the white dotted texture in this case) by ordering them sequentially and hitting ctrl-e starting from the top:
As you can see, they are now combined into one layer (layer 4):
Now to color them, I find it best to first make them completely black. To do so, I'll open a hue/saturation adjustment layer, click the down arrow to indicate that the adjustment will apply to only the layer beneath it, and then drag the saturation and lightness all the way left:
Now I'll hit ctrl-e to combine the adjustment with the layer. With all hues and lightness equal, I'll sample the color I wish to make these areas and then again open a hue saturation layer (note that it is important to first sample the color you wish to make the area). Then I will tick the box entitled 'colorize' and increase the saturation to about 80 or 90. Then begin increasing the lightness until the color is acheived... note that you often need to play with the saturation and lightness to get the right color:
Now we hit ctrl-e and we're done with those details. The last thing to do is to color the dotted white pattern. Because this area is white on the kit, I am going to go with the slightly lighter hue of the collar on the coeff. I will accomplish this in the same way I did the other areas. First combine the two layers (short sleeve pattern and long sleeve pattern), completely darken and desaturate, sample the collar color of the coeff, and then colorize:
Now on this shirt I am finished. But what if the color of the white dotted pattern needed to be reflective? In this case I would choose a different hue. I might choose cyan if it were a boot, but that would have a strange effect on a cloth texture... it would be way too intense. Instead, I will go with a light and barely saturated purple or pink color. This will give it reflective properties but not so much so that it is black without light and blinding with it. This is something that you have to just play around with a bit. I do not know the effect of all hues on the coeff... I only know that cyan is the most reflective and that dard red is the least (hence the color of the undershirt being red on the coeff). In the next tutorial I will show examples of how to use these more intense colors to create different effects with in-game screenshots as well.
Again, I will continue with the more advanced aspects of coeff creation in a second tutorial, but this my basic method. Please let me know if you need clarification or if there is a better way of doing any of the tasks I've described.
Before I begin I'd like to make clear that there are probably better and more correct ways of creating coeff files. I do not claim to be an expert on this, and any correction or improvement upon the following guide is welcome.
First things first... what the coeff file does:
What we call the coefficient file we used to call the reflex file in Fifa 16. I may be mistaken, but I believe that the actual term is a specular map. I will be referring to it as a coefficient, or coeff. The coeff file determines how light reflects off of the color textures in the game. It is a very important part of the equation when it comes to creating contrast between, for example, nylon and cotton on a kit or between the hard reflective sole of a shoe and the knitted polyester above it. It is used to bring out subtle details, and it is absolutely essential to make a metallic color. For example, what we call gold is not actually just a hue... it is a combination of hue, saturation and luminosity. Without the luminous quality of gold, you simply have a yellowish-green. It is the reflectivenesss that characterizes it, just as silver is simply a reflective grey.
The best method to create a coefficient file is to find one already in the game that is similar to the kit you are creating. By similar I mean that it has the same collar type and -- if possible -- the same basic shirt structure. To see what I mean, let's take a look at a kit I am creating: Bolton Wanderers' home kit. The kit needs to have a collar type of 0, which means a round collar. Fortunately, all generic kits have round collars, so we can use Bolton's default home kit coeff as our base.
Here is the Bolton Kit:
And here is the default coeff we will be using:
Two things that we must now take into consideration are that the coeff is smaller in size than the kit, and that the sleeves color runs over the shoulders as well. The first issue is easy, we just resize the coeff and make it 2048x2048 (hit ctrl-I and then enter those values). The shoulder issue is also easy to take care of, but we need to do a couple of things. First of all, we need to copy the collar to a separate layer on the coeff. Depending on the situation, this can be done in different ways. In this case the color is not different enough to simply use the magic wand to select it. I therefore use the polygonal lasso tool and manually select it. This takes a little practice, but it gets easier in no time:
Now we need to copy the shoulders from our kit to the coeff. Again this can be done in different ways depending on the situation. In this case, I chose to use the magic wand to select most all of the navy blue area, and then the polygonal lasso to take care of the rest:
We now copy and paste into place (ctrl-shift-v) the sleeves:
Given that I kept separate layers when creating my kit, I intend to copy the white dotted pattern afterwards, so I'll select the whole area I copied (ctrl-a and then alt-click with the magic wand):
Rather than just painting the color of the coeff sleeves onto my copied over texture -- which would not capture the cloth effect of the default coeff, I will then select the base layer of the coeff and untick the visibility eye of my copied sleeves so that I can see the base layer area I need to edit:
At this point it is a good idea to copy and past into place this area, so that you do not need to keep reselecting it if you accidentally deselect. With the area still selected, I use the clone-stamp tool to fill in the area that the original coeff did not have sectioned off:
Now it is time to begin copying over all of the kit details. This part is easy, because I kept everything in layers. I will simply hit ctrl-a to select all, then go to each layer one by one and copy then paste into place on the coeff:
At this point I see two issues to take care of on the base layer of the coeff. First is the fact that the team crest is positioned differently than I have on my texture, and the second is that there should not be a semi-circle at the nape of the neck. I select the base layer, and then use the clone stamp tool to remove those... note that I don't need to worry about affecting the collar, because I already copied it onto a separate layer:
Now we come to the issue of what hue each area of detail should be. This is something that you sometimes need to play around with. As a general rule, all logos, sponsors, and team crests should be made the same color as the captain's arm band. So I'll do that first. First I'll combine all of the layers which will be colored the same (which is all but the white dotted texture in this case) by ordering them sequentially and hitting ctrl-e starting from the top:
As you can see, they are now combined into one layer (layer 4):
Now to color them, I find it best to first make them completely black. To do so, I'll open a hue/saturation adjustment layer, click the down arrow to indicate that the adjustment will apply to only the layer beneath it, and then drag the saturation and lightness all the way left:
Now I'll hit ctrl-e to combine the adjustment with the layer. With all hues and lightness equal, I'll sample the color I wish to make these areas and then again open a hue saturation layer (note that it is important to first sample the color you wish to make the area). Then I will tick the box entitled 'colorize' and increase the saturation to about 80 or 90. Then begin increasing the lightness until the color is acheived... note that you often need to play with the saturation and lightness to get the right color:
Now we hit ctrl-e and we're done with those details. The last thing to do is to color the dotted white pattern. Because this area is white on the kit, I am going to go with the slightly lighter hue of the collar on the coeff. I will accomplish this in the same way I did the other areas. First combine the two layers (short sleeve pattern and long sleeve pattern), completely darken and desaturate, sample the collar color of the coeff, and then colorize:
Now on this shirt I am finished. But what if the color of the white dotted pattern needed to be reflective? In this case I would choose a different hue. I might choose cyan if it were a boot, but that would have a strange effect on a cloth texture... it would be way too intense. Instead, I will go with a light and barely saturated purple or pink color. This will give it reflective properties but not so much so that it is black without light and blinding with it. This is something that you have to just play around with a bit. I do not know the effect of all hues on the coeff... I only know that cyan is the most reflective and that dard red is the least (hence the color of the undershirt being red on the coeff). In the next tutorial I will show examples of how to use these more intense colors to create different effects with in-game screenshots as well.
Again, I will continue with the more advanced aspects of coeff creation in a second tutorial, but this my basic method. Please let me know if you need clarification or if there is a better way of doing any of the tasks I've described.
