DB16 - DawnBringer's 16 Col Palette v1.0
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12795
Printed Date: 31 March 2023 at 7:16pm
Topic: DB16 - DawnBringer's 16 Col Palette v1.0
Posted By: DawnBringer
Subject: DB16 - DawnBringer's 16 Col Palette v1.0
Date Posted: 19 August 2011 at 12:53pm
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So, dear friends, I have wasted some time lately with my obsession for palettes. It's been tackled before but I felt there was (and is?) more work to be done with designing a great multi-purpose 16 color palette (I'll avoid any talk of "perfect" or "ultimate" as there simply isn't such a thing for a limited palette). Property wish-list: * Archetypical colors common in games/pixelart * Real world colors (RGB-space brightness-axis "colorcigarr") * Good coverage of the spectrum * Great coverage of the brightness range (a must for any useful palette) * Max combinatory possibilities: Interpolations, simulations, dithers etc. * ...and if possible; colors that may work as subtle varitations: rust, dirt, textures. But as with all small palettes, some things had to be sacrificed: This palette is very weak in magentas (as that is a rarely used area). It also lack much in turquoise - but at least they can be simulated by combining the many blues & greens. This is public version 1.0 (v9843.7 to me ;)) 
Some notes: * The dark register is dominated by blue/violett commonly found in shadows/dark waters etc. * The lower-medium register has the weight on green and browns; found in vegetation, wood etc. * The upper-medium register has much blues and orange/pink to handle skies, sand and skin. * The bright register has the lone yellow and the effective pink & cyan that are complimentary colors that span around the spectrum and can be mixed to a very good grey! * Red is slightly violett - I wanted a red that contrasted the other colors rather than being another shade of brown/orange. Still good enough to use in some skin-shades I hope. Here's some mockups (shamelessly inspired by the Alien Breed games and various mockups found at PJ) testing the palette: 
Outstanding issues: * The optimal(?) global brightness/contrast level...these can be adjusted quite easily without affecting the internal relationships of the colors very much - so if you have any feelings about this lemme know. * The dark register: is there a better combination/structure of colors here? Comments & questions are welcome! :)Here's the RGB-values: 20 12 28 68 36 52 48 52 109 78 74 78 133 76 48 52 101 36 208 70 72 117 113 97 89 125 206 210 125 44 133 149 161 109 170 44 210 170 153 109 194 202 218 212 94 222 238 214 And yeah...feel free to use this palette. |
Replies:
Posted By: ellie-is
Date Posted: 19 August 2011 at 1:32pm
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Well, that's just awesome.
I was in need of a limited color palette...Yours looks like it will fit quite perfectly for my needs. Thank you! |
Posted By: Mrmo Tarius
Date Posted: 19 August 2011 at 2:37pm
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While looking at the mockups, I have to constantly remind myself that:
a) all the mockups use the same palette, and b) there are only 16 colors. It looks so very... colorful. And Amiga-ish :D |
Posted By: divtag
Date Posted: 19 August 2011 at 3:03pm
| interesting really..... let me dive into this a litle bit more... |
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 19 August 2011 at 9:05pm
A-friggin-mazing  I would hate to see this thread buried away. To be sure it gets exposure I'm copying to the color thread too. *Can't find the color thread :'( ------------- |
Posted By: KittenMaster
Date Posted: 19 August 2011 at 10:53pm
| Looks more overpowered than the C64 palette. Needs a nerf in the next patch. |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 20 August 2011 at 4:02am
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@Jal: Bottom third of page 2 - http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10695 - Don't see why we can't get sticky with that thread (hehe) even if it's not perfectly organized, it's better with a good plan today than a perfect one tomorrow. Btw. I didn't explain much of the process of creating the palette as I did describing it (as I greatly rely on analytic scripts in Grafx2). But If there's any interest I could try to summarize a few keypoints and basic strategies. |
Posted By: neofotistou
Date Posted: 21 August 2011 at 8:02am
| Dawnbringer, yes please! This palette looks awesome, I'd love to hear your tips |
Posted By: kevink
Date Posted: 21 August 2011 at 10:21am
Lovely palette. I just messed around with it for a minute or two. And I think I'll be doing a mockup with this palette in the near future as well.
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Posted By: ChrisButton
Date Posted: 25 August 2011 at 5:30pm
| I'm interested in the process! |
Posted By: Cilein
Date Posted: 02 September 2011 at 8:19am
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I'd like to hear more about the creating process too! Beautiful palette!
------------- -Building an engine- |
Posted By: DarkUranium
Date Posted: 27 September 2011 at 10:11am
Hey, sorry for bumping, but I just have to say it - these are incredible!  Sadly, I am not much of an artist, so I don't know if I'll be able to make anything good out of this - I sure as hell will try though! For the Gimp folks, here is DB's palette in the Gimp Palette format: GIMP Palette (EDIT: Yeah, I know the naming is... Not very creative. If you have a better idea on how to name these, tell me and I'll update the post :P ) |
Posted By: bobowitzbob
Date Posted: 16 October 2011 at 8:52pm
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Can I use this palette for a game I'm making? |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 16 October 2011 at 9:26pm
| Of course, it's totally free. :) |
Posted By: Mindiell
Date Posted: 10 November 2011 at 9:14am
Here is the file for Grafx2 users (it will load an empty image with the palette)
JASC-PAL ------------- Mindiell French n00b |
Posted By: shampoop
Date Posted: 10 November 2011 at 10:11am
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Could you explain this file? what extension should it have? .pal? how would you load it into Grafx2? I use windows 7.
Thanks |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 10 November 2011 at 10:31am
| Yes, the extension is ".pal". You just load it as if it was a picture, but it only replaces the palette and not the current image. |
Posted By: 7Soul
Date Posted: 20 November 2011 at 9:56pm
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GraphicsGale file:
JASC-PAL 0100 256 20 12 28 68 36 62 48 52 109 78 74 78 133 76 48 52 101 36 208 70 72 117 113 97 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 89 125 206 210 125 44 133 149 161 109 170 44 210 170 153 109 194 202 218 212 94 222 238 214 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 255 255 255 |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 30 December 2011 at 5:58pm
| Testing. Testing. This thread disappeared after spam-cleaning... |
Posted By: Dusty-Drake
Date Posted: 22 March 2012 at 10:40pm
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I hope this isn't too bad of a bump, but I really do enjoy this palette. My only two images (both of which are awaiting approval) use this palette.
I do have some issues finding decent intermediate red shades and purple shades in general, but I'm still fairly new to the pixel art scene. |
Posted By: killman13
Date Posted: 27 March 2013 at 5:24am
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Can I use this palette in my game? I'm beginner in pixel art, so I will add some colors, because I don't now how draw with that palette. |
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 27 March 2013 at 5:46am
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Originally posted by killman13 Can I use this palette in my game? I'm beginner in pixel art, so I will add some colors, because I don't now how draw with that palette. I'm sure you can use them. Lately everyone has. Give credit to Dawnbringer, k. You will learn much if you force yourself to use just this palette and add nothing. See Dawnbringer's gallery and check out his mockup where he uses his palette as a guide. ------------- |
Posted By: Elriks
Date Posted: 31 March 2013 at 1:19am
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Impressive ! But I don't understand, how do we download this software?
thanks |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 31 March 2013 at 5:30am
| Software? It's just a palette - a list of RGB values. Simply grab one of the images on this page and start painting with (only) the present colors. |
Posted By: zaua
Date Posted: 14 May 2013 at 7:09am
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I wanna use it. I suck at making palettes. |
Posted By: KingGorillaKong
Date Posted: 29 June 2013 at 2:41pm
| DB, maybe you could further explain more aspects to your palette. I see you have the 16 colours across the top. My knowledge on colour theory and defining a palette is quite limited, this might be why I'm confused as to why you have 9 sets of 3 colours further down (described as Wood, Metal, etc) for a total of 27 colours. What did I miss here? |
Posted By: StoneStephenT
Date Posted: 29 June 2013 at 3:35pm
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Originally posted by KingGorillaKong I see you have the 16 colours across the top. My knowledge on colour theory and defining a palette is quite limited, this might be why I'm confused as to why you have 9 sets of 3 colours further down (described as Wood, Metal, etc) for a total of 27 colours. What did I miss here? Those color combinations from the 16-color palette mimic those specific types of colors/textures/etc. when used together. And for the record: the palette image only has the 16 colors of the palette in it ( http://hivemind.in/pj/specs/index.php?urls=http%3A%2F%2Fgoto.glocalnet.net%2Frichard_fhager%2Fdb16_v1_analyze.png - I checked ). Any other colors you think you see occur as a result of your brain blending the palette colors together. |
Posted By: DeciusR
Date Posted: 27 July 2013 at 8:20pm
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Thanks for the wonderful limited palette! I'm... only just now starting on any pixel art, and rather awful at it, but at least I'm trying.
For now, I'll be using this limited palette in a rather small game based upon surviving in the wilderness-- Using the BYOND programming language. Not sure how it'll go, but I've made a few from it, and hope I haven't disgraced it too badly. For those curious... The actual 'hub' of the game. http://www.byond.com/forum/DeciusReln/BasicSurvival The source code of the game. https://github.com/ByondDevelopment/WildernessSurvival And, finally-- My post on the hub's forums giving credit and thanks to you for having made and made this public. http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1336874 Thanks! |
Posted By: neofotistou
Date Posted: 10 January 2014 at 7:27am
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Hate to be the one to necro this post again, but! DawnBringer, we're still waiting for your process, if you're still up for it! |
Posted By: pyxl
Date Posted: 21 November 2014 at 10:14am
figured i'd save someone some time...
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Posted By: DeadlyDad
Date Posted: 12 April 2016 at 3:21pm
Hey, everyone. I thought that I'd post a version that I did with named values.
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Posted By: Magic105
Date Posted: 27 July 2016 at 11:21pm
What is that big image joined with palette image? How to use that? And what is that? I am new, so explain me. Thanks.
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Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 28 July 2016 at 9:01am
| Exactly which image are you referring to? |
Posted By: Magic105
Date Posted: 29 July 2016 at 6:16am
| http://goto.glocalnet.net/richard_fhager/db16_v1_analyze.png this image. What is it? And which software did you used to generate it? |
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 29 July 2016 at 4:11pm
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It's an analyzis of the palette. Mostly different Hue-Brightness diagrams, as those are the most informative to the human eye. Some of the content is done by hand, some is generated by custom scripts in GrafX2.
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Posted By: Magic105
Date Posted: 30 July 2016 at 7:31am
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What a newbie try to draw with your DB32 palette? |
Posted By: PixelHearts
Date Posted: 01 February 2023 at 8:09pm
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Hi DawnBringer - The game https://www.flipindustries.tk/games/hopandbop/ - Hop and Bop by https://www.flipindustries.tk/ - Flip Industries uses your lovely palette! Its retroey delicious!
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