Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Siimon on September 06, 2017, 02:54:55 pm

Title: Hue Shifting / Color Choice [opinions requested]
Post by: Siimon on September 06, 2017, 02:54:55 pm
I'm trying to get better at choosing colors that look good because at the moment I'm hopeless :)

I've been reading up on color theory and watching some videos on the topic (found out that regular drawing differs from pixel drawing in certain aspects of hue shifting - such as increasing the saturation when going darker rather than decreasing)

Anyway.. I've fixed up an image and I'm quite satisfied with the colors, would like to hear what you think, there is no light source. (are light sources used in games? I think that limits your piece to certain situations?)

Thanks for reading :)

(http://i65.tinypic.com/2rq0wav.png)
Title: Re: Hue Shifting / Color Choice [opinions requested]
Post by: Chironyx on September 06, 2017, 03:17:36 pm
I'm trying to get better at choosing colors that look good because at the moment I'm hopeless :)

I've been reading up on color theory and watching some videos on the topic (found out that regular drawing differs from pixel drawing in certain aspects of hue shifting - such as increasing the saturation when going darker rather than decreasing)

Anyway.. I've fixed up an image and I'm quite satisfied with the colors, would like to hear what you think, there is no light source. (are light sources used in games? I think that limits your piece to certain situations?)

Thanks for reading :)

(http://i65.tinypic.com/2rq0wav.png)

Just wanted to say real quick, that from the looks of it to me, each person does colors a little different, some increase the saturation for darker colors, like me, some increase the saturation for brighter colors, some make colors super contrasting, with major difference in brightness, etc etc
So I'm not so sure if you'll find one right answer here  ???
Title: Re: Hue Shifting / Color Choice [opinions requested]
Post by: yrizoud on September 06, 2017, 03:46:35 pm
This is extremely low-resolution, so you don't have much room to convey a specific (strong) light source.
Note that you can omit an outline entirely, if the background is contrasting enough. Typically, I'd try to avoid dark outlines between an object and the ground, except when the object actually has tiny legs and is casting a shadow (ex: armchair)

Games do use light sources, both for aesthetics, and in order to help the viewer's mind to correctly interpret what he's seeing.
For example these tiles:
https://opengameart.org/sites/default/files/iso-64x64-building_2.png
This follows the rule tha on concave objects, right part is lighter, and left part is darker. It really helps getting a "3D" feeling, but it comes with a price : tiles can't be mirrored, they have to be redrawn with the opposite lighting.

If the blue thing is an aquarium, I think you should rather focus on the 'blue shiney" part. Try with a lighter diagonal "slash" maybe.
Title: Re: Hue Shifting / Color Choice [opinions requested]
Post by: Siimon on September 08, 2017, 06:34:36 am
I wasn't aware of that Chironyx, thanks for pointing it out to me, I'll play around with both styles and see which one looks better :)

yrizoud, omitting the outline entirely had not crossed my mind and it seems to make a lot of sense, I'll definitely be applying that, and yes that's an aquarium, needs some work :D

Regarding light sources in games, I'm looking at hyper light drifter and I can't seem to 'see' their light source being applied, but rather the shading applied is to maintain the shape of their sprites, not sure if maybe it's my beginner eyes not being able to spot this!

https://www.google.com.mt/search?q=hyper+light+drifter&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-gbMT760MT760&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjolrrO-5TWAhXJNhoKHfC7DSUQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=950#imgrc=VKyGyVia0VhapM: (https://www.google.com.mt/search?q=hyper+light+drifter&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-gbMT760MT760&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjolrrO-5TWAhXJNhoKHfC7DSUQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=950#imgrc=VKyGyVia0VhapM:)
Title: Re: Hue Shifting / Color Choice [opinions requested]
Post by: yrizoud on September 08, 2017, 07:53:55 am
Oh, Hyper Light Drifter does apply light sources...when there are enough pixels to do so. The campfire scene casts a huge ray of light on the cliff, and in large pieces of scenery, it is assumed that lights come from above, so foliage / rocks facing "up" are lighter.

When you have few pixels, you can't do everything at once.
For example these chess pieces:
(http://pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/chessset.png)
The physical objects are supposed to be of a single-color, and completely smooth. The only reason they're represented with very different colors (from actual white to black!) is because of the light shades and reflections. At this resolution, it already requires all the available pixels (many clusters are 1 pixel high or wide). If you wanted to represent colored details on them, you would need to give up some physical details and simplify the shading.
Title: Re: Hue Shifting / Color Choice [opinions requested]
Post by: CyberDain on September 12, 2017, 11:52:47 am
Games do use light sources, both for aesthetics, and in order to help the viewer's mind to correctly interpret what he's seeing.
For example these tiles:
https://opengameart.org/sites/default/files/iso-64x64-building_2.png
wow 11 shades
now try same with db32 lol