An email chain I had between myself, Professor Schneuwly, and Professor Mathues. I found the information interesting while trying to help form direction for the color palette. TRENT'S EMAIL:
Hello Professor Alain, I was wondering, we are working towards finalizing our color palette, and I'm actually not sure how to help the artists on our team decide on a color palette? Basically, given the environment art we have, and the character art we have, we want to start pulling things together to form a cohesive palette. Note: Specifically, I'm talking about these pieces... Environment 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wril1dp8i7cwix7/Environment_Forest_Mockup_Guacamelee_03.jpg Environment 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/el64ttbpx4318v1/Environment_Moon_Concept_01.jpg And putting the characters on top of it. Well, the issue is we tried this once, but some of the saturation is fighting with each other. Result: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sxdtgrtpcwz1gmx/MockUp_GameScene_Guacamelee.png Is it a matter of just deciding the character's color palette, and then using desaturated colors for the background? And if so, does that mean we have to come up with a palette filled with all the colors we would possibly use? Is there a palette per level that has consistent traits (the characters)? I am a little confused here. Any direction would be very helpful. Thank you, Trent Reed PROF. SCHNEUWLY'S RESPONSE: Hello Trent, Yes, this is something we are addressing in class. We always say one thing, light over dark or dark over light will help the scene to be read properly. You can't have one color palette working for all levels, though you are correct in saying that the color palettes used in different levels should have a similar traits to them. Keep in mind that when we say "dark", we don't mean black, but we mean that the values of the palette used for either the character or the environment is darker. I believe that for the game your team is working on, the color of the environment should be toned down so the characters will pop more on the screen. It's now week 2 in the semester, and today we were pleased to see the progressed the artists have made. We are asking them to work more on the character silhouette at this point so it will help to differentiate the characters on the screen while playing the game. The final environment concept illustration we are asking the artist to make will help define the color, values and lighting of the scene and we will be working with them to make sure the characters reads well. Alain. PROF. MATHUES' RESPONSE: Hello Trent, I agree with what Prof. Schneuwly has said. I will add a few other notes. Beyond value (light vs. dark), then saturation is the next thing to consider. In your reference, "Guacamelee", they primarily use saturation to make the character read. The character is a primary–secondary complementary color pair color combination, which really makes him pop. Wikipedia: Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined in the right proportions, produce white or black. [1] When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast and reinforce each other. They are widely used in art and design. The pairs of complementary colors vary depending upon the color model, and how the color is made. In painting, which uses subtractive colors, the traditional primary–secondary complementary color pairs, described since at least the early 18th century, were red–green, yellow–violet, and blue–orange. Maybe this is stuff you already know, but I thought it might be worth clarifying. The background is desaturated. Since the character colors are primary-secondary complementary, almost any desaturated background will work. In the environments, when they had to use a saturated color for clarity of concept, then they pushed the value of the character darker, so he would read. So, dissect your reference. Figure out the rules that made it work. Then you can apply similar color structure, but with your own color palette. It also helps if you find more than one clear reference. Guacamelee is great, but there are other similar games and TV shows that take on your graphic style. Figure out what makes the characters read in those. There is more than one way to attack your problem. Hope this helps. -Prof. Mathues
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