Pixel Joint Forum: Matching colors and cluttering

Message

   Hi.

Very nice sprites on this site! 

I made some sprites.

I most recently made the guy to the bottom right.

I feel like he doesn´t quite fit in with the other although he is using similar colors to the crab.

I also feel like he might have too many colors, or needs larger clusters of pixels, but I am not sure how to fix it.

The texture of the skin is supposed to look like that of a guar from the game Morrowind.

I basically need a better understanding of choosing colors, and how to keep a consistent tone throughout a collection of sprites.

The fish is not right either perhaps.

Does the values have to be similar to keep a consistent tone throughout a game? If the fish is supposed to be shiny in dark water, can it have more saturated colors than other sprites from the same set?

Am I right in my feeling that he feels off from the rest?

Appreciate any tips from you pros.

Author	Message
Jenghin Seaman Joined: 16 December 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3	Topic: Matching colors and cluttering Posted: 17 December 2022 at 1:09pm
	Hi. Very nice sprites on this site! I made some sprites. I most recently made the guy to the bottom right. I feel like he doesn´t quite fit in with the other although he is using similar colors to the crab. I also feel like he might have too many colors, or needs larger clusters of pixels, but I am not sure how to fix it. The texture of the skin is supposed to look like that of a guar from the game Morrowind. I basically need a better understanding of choosing colors, and how to keep a consistent tone throughout a collection of sprites. The fish is not right either perhaps. Does the values have to be similar to keep a consistent tone throughout a game? If the fish is supposed to be shiny in dark water, can it have more saturated colors than other sprites from the same set? Am I right in my feeling that he feels off from the rest? Appreciate any tips from you pros.
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eishiya Commander Joined: 04 August 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1109	Posted: 17 December 2022 at 7:37pm
	I agree with your assessment: the bottom right sprite doesn't quite match the rest. However, I think the fact that on average the clusters are smaller isn't itself the cause, but rather a symptom of an underlying problem: shading every bit independently of the whole. For example, why are the hip and shoulder so dark? The limbs would be protruding there and they would be connected to the torso, but shadows give the impression of gaps and dips, not protrusions. The other sprites don't have great forms, but they feel more cohesive than the dino. Here's a quick edit where I tried to connect the disconnected forms a little more, and reduced the contrast on the head so that it's not so overwhelmed by its texture: This edit doesn't go for consistency with the other sprites, but I think it does help a little. As for values: you don't need to use the exact same values - after all, sometimes you want to depict lighter or darker objects! Rather, your black and white point should be consistent across sprites (even if some sprites don't get anywhere near those extremes), and your ramps should have roughly the same number and distribution of colours for a given value range. The rat also stands out from the rest because it's a dark animal, but its black is lighter than the "black" on the other sprites. An easy way to help consistency is to reuse colours across sprites. I like to have my ramps start and end in the same "black" and "white", and to link between ramps where possible. This will tend to unify the colours, and give me many opportunities to reuse colours even between sprites that have different overall hues.
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Jenghin Seaman Joined: 16 December 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3	Posted: 18 December 2022 at 1:06am
	Thank you! Thank you for the color explanation. This def looks better! I will come back with an update Here is the 3d model https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW-creature-Guar.jpg
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Jenghin Seaman Joined: 16 December 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3	Posted: 20 December 2022 at 7:21am
	Hello again. Here is an update based on your advice. I removed the darkest color, but perhaps I shouldn´t. The design looks better now, but I´ve tried matching up the colors of the rest (rat). So the rat maybe is too little contrast? Experimented using the darkest colors of different sprites and putting them as the darkest on others, but did not look so good.
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