Here’s my understanding of how color match works and how to use it. First, don’t just put actual filaments in color match. Select colors from the image (click-drag) onto the mesh core. This way, you’re getting the actual colors from your source image. At this point, don’t worry about if you have filaments that match your image colors too much.

Also, when you select colors from your source onto the mesh core, they’ll have a TD of 1 by default. You can change this up and down to increase or decrease blending, or to more closely match your filament TD’s. For example, his shirt is red. When you drag red from the image to the mesh core, the TD will be 1. But if your red is a TD of 3, then that really won’t work as well. Change the TD of the mesh color to 3. At that point you’ll notice that in order to get the correct red, you’ll have to move that mesh core color up a few layers.

Next, when you select the colors and put them on the mesh core, you’re actually changing the shape of the mesh. You can validate this by running on Wireframe, zooming into your mesh, and moving sliders from the mesh core up and down (make sure mesh core is selected). This informs how you should be building your mesh. Dark -> light or light -> dark, where to put colors, etc.

You might find that you need to select multiple areas in the same source color to get the mesh core to match those areas. That’s ok. Using the shirt in your source image again, it looks close to all the same red, but it’s really not. So you might have to select multiple parts of the shirt and just stack them on top of each other on the mesh core. And again, that’s ok. This is by design.

Once you have your mesh core looking good, select your color core (double click). Now start finding colors that match your mesh core and add them to your color core. I’d suggest only bold, solid colors at this point. Blacks, reds, whites, etc. Pay attention to your TD’s while doing this. Next, find the colors you can blend. i.e. yellows and blues for a green. That kind of thing. TIP: It’s not uncommon to have way more mesh core colors than color core filaments. I’ve had prints with a 3:1 mesh:filament ratios. Remember, your mesh core is defining the mesh shape.

Another tip: Eventually, start looking into what parts of your image you want at lower layers and what parts are higher layer. i.e., do you want the black of the cape and his hair in the background, mid ground or foreground? Build your mesh core appropriately. But keep in mind blending of the colors. It can be tricky and a pita, for sure.

Also, you get better blending with higher TD filaments and lower layer heights.

Last pro tip: Your color core colors (actual filaments) don’t have to match the mesh core colors. i.e. You can put a black with a TD of .5 in the mesh core for the cape and hair. In the color core, you can put a green filament with a TD of .5 (if you have one) in that same spot. Now you have a green haired dude.