Doodly Advanced Tutorial

Color Draining an Asset

Advanced Tutorial #10

Color Draining an Asset

The term refers to removing the color from an asset to which there are several methods to accomplish this task in Doodly. This is simply to do with imported character or prop assets but not so easy to accomplish with Doodly provided assets. This documentation will talk about all the known methods for Doodly provided assets. The methods taught in this DTD can be used in the reverse as well to put color into an asset instead of draining it out, if you don’t own the rainbow addon.

Note: There are times we want to remove the color from an asset for a special effect. Doodly provides the rainbow addon for adding color but nothing natively for removing that color once it has been added. If you’ve ever tried this trick by simply having a non-colored Doodly provided asset on top of a colored one, I am sure you found out that it is not that simple and that method provides a potentially undesired effect.

1. Instant Removal (Same Scene)


Scene Transitions

Draining the color instantly. This involves 2 assets one with color and the other without.

This will provide instant removal of all color from that asset on the canvas.

2. Erase the Color (Scene To Scene)

We can, however, provide our own pseudo effect by exporting the scene at the desired resolution with a white asset in its place, taking a screenshot or using a photo editor that can open .mp4 files, saving that full screen asset back into Doodly as an image.

I provide a full demonstration of this technique in my scene transitions video tutorial in the behind the scenes footage. Watch that video tutorial to see how to accomplish this. The only difference between what I am showing you in that video and telling you here is you will use a white asset for a whiteboard or chalkboard asset for a chalkboard instead of no asset. The chalkboard makes it difficult because you lose the ability to move the asset since the chalkboard background within the asset won’t match up with any other part of the chalkboard but where you originally captured the asset around.

Review the partial erasing video tutorial in the Scene Transitions video tutorial and it will show you exactly how to accomplish this effect.

3. Color Removal

This involves exporting a white asset from Doodly in the same spot. Either taking a screenshot of that asset or opening up the video in a photo editor that can handle opening .mp4 files, removing the white background behind the asset without removing the white inside the asset, cropping the image and importing it back into Doody.

Note: Don’t resize the asset before you have them both on the canvas and then resize them together at the same time.


Fade to Color

4. Color Drain

I have a video tutorial to explain how to accomplish this trick. Watch my Fade to Color video tutorial and the same exact concept applies for this trick.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to the most common questions regarding this topic.

To instantly take away color from an item on your canvas, you need to use two identical items where one has color and the other is black and white. First turn off erase mode in your video settings. Place the colored item on the canvas, copy it, and paste it. Next turn off the rainbow feature, place the black and white version over the colored one, and select the replace option. Finally set your delay time and change the duration to zero to create an instant change.

Yes, you can make the hand smoothly erase the color instead of drawing it. You need to export a video of the uncolored item, take a screenshot, and use an editing program to remove the background while keeping the inside intact. After cropping the image, bring it back into your project. Make a copy of your colored item on the canvas and swap the top layer with your newly imported uncolored image. When you play the video, the arm will smoothly wipe away the colors.

Using a chalkboard background makes things tricky because you capture a piece of that specific background when you take a screenshot of your uncolored item. If you try to move that item later, the captured background will not blend in with the rest of the board. It only matches the exact spot where you originally recorded it.

Yes, the same steps used to drain colors out of an item can actually be reversed to fill an item with color. This is a great alternative method to colorize your projects if you have not purchased the specific add on that normally handles this feature.

You should wait to change the size of your items until both the colored and uncolored versions are placed together on the canvas. Once they are both present, you can adjust their size at the exact same time to ensure they match perfectly and the visual effect works without any issues.

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Wayne Leiser
Wayne Leiser
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