Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Decroded on September 03, 2013, 03:28:30 am
-
I'm starting this in an effort to understand better how to make ramps that include multiple hues.
I'm not talking about simple cool to warm blends.
Rather those more artistic ramps that include either one or more completely different hue that is not an obvious choice, and yet some how fits into the ramp without nasty colour separation while also really adding something interesting to the overall piece.
Lets take this image for example:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15588722/aliens/hangar+elevator.png)
Some really crazy hues going on there to make dull old metal suddenly so interesting.
This reminds me of the colours you might see if you pause an AVI file (especially more compressed) around a dark area where you see a mix of hues blending together across a ramp.
If you'd like to discuss any other interesting examples then please share.
To get this started I've whipped up a basic rock with a fairly obvious choice of hand-picked colours:
(http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l615/Decrosion/ramp-rock-org_zps58804db2.png)[updated]
I'm finding the larger plains quite intimidating to experiment with but I'd love it if someone can edit this with some more interesting colours and perhaps add some rough background impressions where relevant.
Or if you have a better idea for an image to experiment with then please share.
Maint points I hope to improve on here:
- The relationship of saturation and brightness for various combinations of hues to blend together.
- How various hues may interact with each other to create interesting effects.
- How to mix pixels of multiple hues within the same or nearby chroma range to create a perceived colour.
Anyone got more points?
Thankyou! ;D
-
This is a color edit Helm did of Gizmonicgamer's work:
(http://www.locustleaves.com/gizmonic.png)
In my searches for knowledge I found this old quote from Helm that might help explain this kind of thing;
[...]as long as you properly minmax the saturation and lightness of a shade, you can do pretty freaking big jumps in hue from shade to shade and it will look very well. Look at a recent edit I did for faceless' avatar for hue jumps in a single ramp. There's theory behind the hue shifts most of the time, but since pixel art allows for such minute control at any level in creating the piece, one sometimes just goes crazy and experiments with the HSL sliders on a shade, 1 bit at a time[...]
Generally though, the theory is that you tint towards the colour of the lightsource ( blueish yellow in sunlight I guess ) and towards complementary shades in darkness.
-
In the old commercial critique for The Chaos Engine there is quite a bit on this topic and it is explained fairly well.
http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=1025.0 (http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=1025.0)
I hope this helps.
-
To put it shortly, use complementary colour combinations.
It just seems to work, complementary colour ramps just look better than monochromatic ones, more unique, and more interesting to look at I guess.
Unlike hue shifting, which goes from yellow, to orange, to red, etc.., complementary colours just go from one side of the colour wheel to the other, red to cyan, violet to green, and yellow to blue, for example.
Though, you would obviously need some colours to connect between them (hue shifting), otherwise it'd look like a total mess (that being said, it also depends on the contrast and saturation of the two complementary colours, so technically you could have purple and green next to each other if they're somewhat desaturated or aren't that far away with the hue).
Additionally, you could go a little away from the direct opposite of one colour, for example, rather than going with red and cyan, you could go with red and green; or just use the RYB colour wheel altogether if you're feeling artistic. :D
Also, here's a rough edit of your rock. Pretty shit, but it [sort of] demonstrates what I meant.
(http://i.imgur.com/4coGCrU.png)
-
To put it shortly, use complementary colour combinations.
It just seems to work, complementary colour ramps just look better than monochromatic ones, more unique, and more interesting to look at I guess.
Unlike hue shifting, which goes from yellow, to orange, to red, etc.., complementary colours just go from one side of the colour wheel to the other, red to cyan, violet to green, and yellow to blue, for example.
Though, you would obviously need some colours to connect between them (hue shifting), otherwise it'd look like a total mess (that being said, it also depends on the contrast and saturation of the two complementary colours, so technically you could have purple and green next to each other if they're somewhat desaturated or aren't that far away with the hue).
Additionally, you could go a little away from the direct opposite of one colour, for example, rather than going with red and cyan, you could go with red and green; or just use the RYB colour wheel altogether if you're feeling artistic. :D
Also, here's a rough edit of your rock. Pretty shit, but it [sort of] demonstrates what I meant.
(http://i.imgur.com/4coGCrU.png)
That edit doesn't really work. More important than hue or saturation is value; the reason the original works is because the reflected light is almost never as light as the darkest portion of the light ( the blue highlight having a brightness of 42 and the darkest brown being at 37 is close enough to fall under stylistic exaggeration).
It is true though that lower saturation in colors will allow you to get away with more shifting.
As long as the hues follow a natural progression, it's even easier to keep things looking "right"
(http://i.imgur.com/hpnmnJX.png)
in order of least to most flexible,
brightness- saturation- hue
-
I dont have a lot of time to really analyze the image well enough but here's my quick take on it.
I think a main point to consider here is that the hue changes in the example image are not realistic at all, and steel panels of that color in real life would look very silly. It's important to understand the difference between monochromatic ramps and multi hue ramps. Your rock example is not monochormatic. A monochromatic ramp will not take into consideration any sort of saturation or reflective surface of whatever object you're constructing. The difference between a dramatic hue shift ramp and your rock example is just basic realism. If you add greens, purples, and blues into your rock it all of a sudden implies different things about the surface of the rock and the lighting that strikes it, and this should be done in strictly stylistic choice to add an overall atmosphere, similar to how lens filters are used when shooting film. Because you're working with pixels it means that you can exchange multiple hues together and make the image look almost identical while using the appropriate brightness and saturation levels. The only reason the hues are so shifted in the first image is because of over dramatization and dramatic atmospheric elements.
For example, the highlights on the metal plates is green and red, shifting towards purple, implying a green sort of ambient light is being reflected off of the metal. You could probably imply that the metals are two colors, some are redish some are bluish, and the ambient blue light is reflecting off the blue surface creating sort of a dulled down green color, and I'm guessing the red from the other metals is reflecting in as well.
So here's a section
(http://i.imgur.com/qsfpKKs.png)
And here's a b/w version so you can tell exactly what colors the highlights and shadows are.
(http://i.imgur.com/ImDJICT.png)
And here's a color edit with a more straight forward pallet where it's clear why the colors are changing based on the lighting.
(http://i.imgur.com/s5HTZtf.png)
So the main point is that the hue shifts being used originally are being used to give the room a more rustic and ambient sort of look. Complimentary colors will give the environment a more dramatic look and build more atmosphere. To learn to how achieve this you should stick with the basics red yellow hue shift (generic outside lighting and reflective surfaces) and then edit it to see how the entire picture will look with whatever look you want to give it.