Resources and Support
 Pixel Joint Forum : The Lounge : Resources and Support
Message Icon Topic: Color Post Reply Post New Topic
Author Message
Clovvach
Midshipman
Midshipman
Avatar

Joined: 07 July 2024
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 62
Quote Clovvach Replybullet Topic: Color
    Posted: 25 November 2009 at 9:03am
I need help on color. For one, when I have the choice to make the palette myself... how do I know witch colors to use? For two, when I use a already made palette, how do I know witch colors to use? When I see the experts do it they use colors in places that I would have never expected, and it turns out looking great! I am sort of confused.
IP IP Logged
Pragz
Commander
Commander
Avatar

Joined: 09 August 2009
Location: Ireland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 136
Quote Pragz Replybullet Posted: 25 November 2009 at 9:56am
It takes a lot of practice and knowledge of how colors work.

You really have to think of it as colors only really being the combination of 3 things. Red, Yellow, and Blue make up every color. You learn that in your first year of art class in 6th grade. :P

According to that, you can base it off this:

Let's say you want to make a jumpsuit. Instead of picking a color and just dragging the slider up and down for different levels of light, you could use Red, Orange, and Yellow.

Red and Yellow are base colors, and orange is the midcolor.

Other possible combos are:

Blue, Purple, Red
Blue, Green, Yellow

And then of course you can add those midcolors into the mix and make even more ramps.

Blue, Green, Turquoise, Lime Green, Yellow

Then you've also got random combos that just work well when used properly. The only way to really find out is to experiment.

And then you have to get into saturation, which... yeah, that'd take too long to write out. XD


But yeah, all that's only really theory. Most of the big pixel artists have years of practice behind their belt and can create colors at the flick of the wrist.
Hello - I'm new here. :)
IP IP Logged
Anoniguy
Seaman
Seaman


Joined: 17 May 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 37
Quote Anoniguy Replybullet Posted: 25 November 2009 at 10:06am
I'm pretty horrid at choosing colors myself. So I've been finding a lot of inspiration at sites like colourlovers, and adobe Kuler. Kuler is especially handy for me personally since I can save the palettes it generates and load them in photoshop. There's also a huge library of user-generated palettes to draw inspiration from.

In the meantime it might be in your best interest to buy a color wheel from the art store. They don't cost more than a few bucks, and offer quick and easy to follow guidelines for creating good color combinations.

(Haha, firefox insists that 'combinations' isn't a word.)




IP IP Logged
Clovvach
Midshipman
Midshipman
Avatar

Joined: 07 July 2024
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 62
Quote Clovvach Replybullet Posted: 25 November 2009 at 10:18am
Thanks guys. I guess it just takes a whooooole lot of practice from here. :)
IP IP Logged
Clovvach
Midshipman
Midshipman
Avatar

Joined: 07 July 2024
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 62
Quote Clovvach Replybullet Posted: 25 November 2009 at 10:20am
Originally posted by Pragz

It takes a lot of practice and knowledge of how colors work.You really have to think of it as colors only really being the combination of 3 things. Red, Yellow, and Blue make up every color. You learn that in your first year of art class in 6th grade.


I was very in to colors and art very early... like in preschool, I'm pretty sure didn't have to wait until 6th grade.   
IP IP Logged
jalonso
Admiral
Admiral
Avatar

Joined: 29 November 2022
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13537
Quote jalonso Replybullet Posted: 25 November 2009 at 11:22am
Colors are by far the most challenging aspect in any art style. In pixelart its especially challenging because of the whole 'less is more' aspect of pixelart.

Experimentation is the best to learn from and discover. You also have to use a bit of common sense and 'big picture' thinking. Say you have a green monster in front of a cave on a mountain just before nightfall. If the cliff is on the shadow side of things then the shadow colors and ambient color reflected on said monster might be in the blues or purples or even oranges if the sun happens to be setting. Using shades in your palettes in these hues would be the common sense thing to do instead of the 'monster is GREEN so the shadow colors are DARK GREEN and the highlights is LIGHT GREEN.

The worst thing I see people in PJ do (including many of the real good ones) is to follow the linear ramp for coloring. Dynamic palettes (see Syosa's feature) that have ambient light, neutralizers and color sharing ramps has proven invaluable to me (but I too am still learning about colors and find it the most challenging aspect of PA).
IP IP Logged
Manupix
Commander
Commander
Avatar

Joined: 05 November 2024
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 771
Quote Manupix Replybullet Posted: 27 November 2009 at 2:42am
Imposed palette challenges are the best possible learning tool for color, even crazy ones. Look for them here and at Pixellation, do them over and over again (I'll have to make me a script for linking that page).

The other best possible tool is drawing from life, in situations with light and color (landscapes and cityscapes).
Even if you draw with black pencil only, you will look at how color and light interact, and be able to remember and use it in your pixel work.

Note that these are very distinct directions, both valid: realistic color vs [insert better word here] un-realistic.
Distinct but not incompatible, too.
IP IP Logged
meagz
Commander
Commander
Avatar

Joined: 09 December 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 123
Quote meagz Replybullet Posted: 14 December 2009 at 9:17pm
Originally posted by Pragz

Red, Yellow, and Blue make up every color.


That's only in pigments.

Red, green and blue make up colours in light - on tv screens, monitors etc. They're subtractive - add them all together and you get white, take away blue from red and green and you'll get yellow. Take away red from green and blue and you'll get cyan. Take away green from red and blue and you'll get magenta. Take away everything and you're left with black.

The additive colour wheel works in reverse...

Cyan, magenta and yellow make up colours in print. Cyan+magenta = blue, magenta+yellow=red, cyan+yellow=green. Theoretically, if you add them all together you get black but its not a true black.
IP IP Logged
jeremy
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Avatar

Joined: 25 November 2024
Location: New Zealand
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1704
Quote jeremy Replybullet Posted: 14 December 2009 at 10:07pm
I agree wholeheartedly on the palettes comment!
Preset palettes really help you to learn the different ways that ramps can work (Like using neutralisers such as grey, as jal mentioned), which you can then apply to your own palettes in a less extreme way. C64 Palette is quite good, it doesn't have the blinding saturation most (i.e MS Paint) do.

When picking your own palettes a rule of thumb is reduce saturation, use contrast and hue shifting. Try to choose versatile colours instead of compartmentalising, saying "This section is blue *uses blue ramp*, this section is red *uses red ramp*" Search "8cc" in the gallery and see how the 8 colour club members use their colours everywhere :)


Dammit Safari stop spellchecking words ending in -ise >:(

Edited by Jeremy - 14 December 2009 at 10:08pm
IP IP Logged
neota
Commander
Commander
Avatar

Joined: 27 November 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 158
Quote neota Replybullet Posted: 15 December 2009 at 12:45am
I can understand why you say that meagz, but I disagree, and assert that:

RGB is ADDITIVE (more R/G/B -> brighter color) not subtractive.
CMYK is SUBTRACTIVE (more C/M/Y/K -> darker color) not additive. RYB is subtractive too.

AFAIK, RGB is the more accurate way to think about colors -- the three types of color sensors we have map quite closely to red, green, and blue.

absolutely.
IP IP Logged
meagz
Commander
Commander
Avatar

Joined: 09 December 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 123
Quote meagz Replybullet Posted: 15 December 2009 at 12:50am
Originally posted by neota

I can understand why you say that meagz, but I disagree, and assert that:RGB is ADDITIVE (more R/G/B -> brighter color) not subtractive.CMYK is SUBTRACTIVE (more C/M/Y/K -> darker color) not additive. RYB is subtractive too.AFAIK, RGB is the more accurate way to think about colors -- the three types of color sensors we have map quite closely to red, green, and blue.


ah no worries. i totally should've checked that before i posted, thanks for correcting :)
IP IP Logged
x-death
Commander
Commander
Avatar

Joined: 09 February 2019
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 151
Quote x-death Replybullet Posted: 20 December 2009 at 12:59am
look up a good tutorial on color theory. learning about cool colors and warm colors will help you figure out what colors to use as highlights and shadows.

plus it also depends whether your going to just darken the tone of an existing color or if your going to shift the hue and use different colors to show highlights and shadows. colors like blue, green and purple and cool colors so you'd expect to see them used as shadows.

like i said though, looking up a good tutorial on this color theory is a good idea. the color spectrum is something i beleive will never be mastered. see it doesn't matter how smart you get, you'll always be able to learn more from it.
IP IP Logged
Post Reply Post New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum