Pixelation
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Gil on December 04, 2009, 12:44:40 am
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I think this is a very interesting discussion. What is your preferred background color to work on. There's a few popular choices. First off there are people who like to work on pure white. I don't like this, it usually screws with your gamma perception, creating unfavorable palettes.
Then there's pure black. It tends to screw more with perceived shapes and silhouettes and if you're creating saturated artwork, it can be a little hard on the eyes, seemingly lacking cohesion. Here's what Henk Nieborg has to say about it, concerning his work on Flink:
"I Think there were a few reasons I started drawing everything on a black background, not just on the MegaDrive. First, back in those days I drew most of my gfx on a black background, I just liked that. You could get away with a lot of stuff by fading it into darkness. It's also quite handy when you're dealing with systems like the MegaDrive which didn't give you much memory to play with. I also prefer to draw to blackness because the contrast on the megadrive system was insane, if i would have anti-aliased everything to white i would have probably gone blind." [ref] (http://nfggames.com/neography/pivot/entry.php?id=447&w=nfg_games)
The next important one is the mid grey background. It's one of the more useful ones, because you're basically drawing onto the shade that has the most use in any palette. Almost any palette you create can be augmented by greys to buffer between shades with different hues. Since midvalues take up the biggest part of an image usually, drawing onto a midvalue grey canvas gives many advantages. One problem is that the lack of any hue can wash out the other colors, because you always try to work towards the background color subconsciously.
The obvious fix for the mid grey is a slightly tinted midvalue color. I think this might be the weapon of choice for most artists. Desaturated, dim midvalue backgrounds work easier, have no apparent issues and are probably the easiest on the eyes. I like to take a color that doesn't appear in the image to get a little hue contrast going, which usually turns up richer palettes.
Then there's the last one, which is a bit controversial, the saturated background. Many hate it, some swear by it. The usual suspect is pure magenta RGB(255,0,255), because it's used by many graphics libraries as the default background color. Obvious disadvantages are that the canvas can become tiring on the eyes and that the palette will usually go towards pure saturation. It doesn't seem to have any apparent advantages, yet I see myself turning back to it time and time again. Let me explain why.
As a lover of high saturation, high contrast palettes, I love how the magenta automatically pushes me to use bolder colors. I get very colorful palettes, with usually a good range, because you need them to get a good visibility of your image on the background.
My favored approach so far seems to be magenta for sprites, desaturated midvalue for other work. The extra oomph in the palette when working with magenta tends to work fine for sprites, since I like them to pop on top of the tiles or backgrounds you created.
Please share your own workflow in terms of background color.
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I use a mid gray with a slight tint of either green, blue or something between these colours. When I started with pixelart I used pure black, but its the same as with pure white that it screws with the values. Although black is a lot easier on the eyes than white.
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But it depends, if you draw some sprites for a game and you know the background will be mostly dark, then using black is probably wiser
then a mid gray.
"Extreme" colours like 255,0,255 or 0,255,0 is just eye killing for me, canīt imaging to working with that.
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"Extreme" colours like 255,0,255 or 0,255,0 is just eye killing for me, canīt imaging to working with that.
I'd like to note that your monitor is important too. On some monitors I can't stand working with it either. My current LCD screen seems to be fine though, I can work for hours without getting any more eye strain than working with another color.
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I usually use 25% grey, if only to separate my current canvas from the rest of the white canvas in MSPaint; since MSPaint has very few undos, I usually have a canvas the size of my screen and copy/paste instances of it as I go along around the rest of the canvas, for back-ups. Also, it's one of MSPaints default palette colors, so it makes it easier to just select and use.
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This is interesting. I pretty much always go towards a beige/sandy colour - yellow, slightly red, low saturation and lighter than midtone. It's a very calming colour for me, almost like working on an old canvas. Sometimes i'll mix it up a bit and go towards a cooler hue like green. I enjoy working on black sometimes but due to the way i outline my sprites with black i very rarely work on it if making sprites. I dislike working on pure grey, not sure why but i prefer my background to have a slight colour to it.
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Anywhere from 25 to 75 % grey with a slight blue tint has always worked great for me.
Just thinking about the calming effect of that color makes me want to pixel again( and reminds me that I will, seeing as how I have a secretsanta to do!)
sometimes I experiment, but I have always found a cool grey most appealing. Warm background colors for whatever reason make me create palettes I don't like on any other background.
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Great topic, Gil. I think it's significant, too. Most important is the subliminal effect exerted on you as you work, it's important to at least be aware of it.
I've always understood working with different bg colors can cause different effects on your color choices as you work. For instance I always avoid light saturated colors, out of fear that they'll skew my color perception/choices as I draw and then realize it too late.
On the computer, I'm typically in Photoshop, so there's both the canvas bg and the outer workspace bg (that space outside the bounds of your document) to worry about. Which is typical in most art programs. White is always the default when making a new doc. Seems like as long as my outer workspace is a nice dark desaturated shade I'm fine, but usually turn the doc's canvas black, I much prefer very dark to work on. Black is a warm color ( . . . yes I know it's not really a color, call it "void" if it floats your boat), it's inviting, it doesn't absorb attention, it let's you look past it. That's why picture frames are so often black. White on the other hand repels you. I HATE white for serious artistic thinking yet I love the way it feels clean and beckons to be covered with something. Some websites are best suited for having a white background, nothing else would work. (in photoshop you can change the color of both shades in the transparency checkerboard pattern, you can even change both colors to magenta if you really want)
The color I use for my workspace surounding my current document no matter what the doc's canvas color is:
#383a3a - dark desaturated blueish green
And Veirbit brings up a very important point in choosing working bg's - the intended usage's general color. Is it for a very dark game? Maybe a space shooter with a black outer space background? The only choice that makes sense to me is to design in context of it's implementation - design your sprites with black as your working bg so they mesh correctly at run-time. I've even used the game's art background as the background layer in making some game assets.
Off the computer I like plain ol' white, I guess I'm just used to it. Paper is light, ink is dark, it's just a standard thing I guess.
Recently got a moleskine sketchbook (thanks again ryumaru, for reminding me they exist) and I love it's pages light creamy yellow tinted pages more than white. They somehow easier to draw on, warmer, comforting.
While we're at it, why not use a gradient for your background? Why just a single spot color?
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I used to do all my pixelling in The Games Factory, which has a default dark teal background.
Now a days I use Photoshop, so usually just black.
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Wow I'm surprised to see how many people start on different coloured backgrounds. I always have used a white background, occasionally I would start on a black background but... I've really got to try some of these different ideas. I find a lot of my art comes out looking very desaturated and I wonder if this is because I use a white background all the time.
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Interesting discussion. I'd never actually paused to think how exactly canvas colours influenced how your palette evolves.
I usually pick a grey somewhere around 50%. Sometimes I'll go down to 25%. Sometimes I tint it slightly cool with something like a teal. I also periodically shift the canvas colour up to a bright tinted grey like a yellow-green or teal, and down to a dark near-black, just to check how it looks.
Sometimes when I edit a sprite quickly it will open with the magenta background. If I'm going to be there a while I change it to what I described above; if its just quick I grit my teeth and bear it, lol.
I used to pixel in KnP and Games Factory as well, so for a while I was very much accustomed to saturated teal backgrounds (as well as horrid, horrid colour swatches >:( ).
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mid-grey with a tint that I cycle through as I work just to be sure it's not punching any holes through the art anywhere.
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When digi painting I usually use a little-bit darker than 50% low-sat blueish colour, my pixeling process is a bit more random. I'm usually doing game assets, so recently I've been using an average colour from the usual background tile.
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As important as an amateur's opinion can be, I'd say that, in general, mid gray is the "best" choice as it's the most neutral color available. And that's in fact what I start with (and usually also end with). However, I guess that the best color in absolute depends on what is being drawn and on the context (if any) it is supposed to be placed in. Ah, and I'm among those who said that working with very saturated and/or bright colors causes a deep pain in the eyes.
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When painting, I usually start with a mid-value low-sat background roughly complementary to the color of the light source. Since I tend towards yellowish light sources for, say, portraits, I typically start with blueish, using that to influence my shadows.
Pixelling, I typically start with black, simply because that's the default background for a new ProMotion canvas. After I've blocked in/silhouetted, i'll change it to a middish low-sat, usually blue-tinted.
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While we're at it, why not use a gradient for your background? Why just a single spot color?
Well, any program that doesn't have layers ( mspaint) would make it difficult to work over with the near infinite amount of colors underneath a piece- also I believe I can recall one of those eye trick things with grey squares on opposite sides of a gradient seeming to affect their values- which may not be something the artist wants.
Your technique of working on top of actual game backgrounds is a nice idea. I usually did more background work than sprites in the first place :p
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mid-grey with a tint that I cycle through as I work just to be sure it's not punching any holes through the art anywhere.
This! I love this mode of working, esp with sprites and when I'm trying to choose colours, I just cycle through the color slider and the saturation slider and just try different things, and then I go back to my original near-gray tint thing.
I often end up in the green-blue range of tints though cause my eyes apparently love them!
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Everyone tends to end up in the green-blue range. The whole warm vs cold thing. Try putting a blue square on a red background, the red will totally overpower the blue. That's why standard backgrounds tend to go to the blue side of the wheel.
Btw, this discussion could be interesting towards the next color scheme for pixelation. At least, I think I read somewhere that it might be something the future will bring us. The current theme is already a midvalue slightly tinted color though.
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Indeed it is, and exactly for the reason of neutrality :P
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Yeah, that was a problem the old pixelation used to have and one that I blame the current pixeljoint. The background just doesn't flatter the pixel art and that's a problem on a forum used for showing that art. I remember posts on old pixelation going "I added a background because otherwise it looks really bad on these colors".
I have a problem posting my art on pixeljoint, because the default background is so damn white that it makes all my art look ugly. I realise I can change my user theme, but that's not how 80% of the PixelJoint members are going to see it anyway.
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Yeah, that was a problem the old pixelation used to have and one that I blame the current pixeljoint. The background just doesn't flatter the pixel art and that's a problem on a forum used for showing that art. I remember posts on old pixelation going "I added a background because otherwise it looks really bad on these colors".
I have a problem posting my art on pixeljoint, because the default background is so damn white that it makes all my art look ugly. I realise I can change my user theme, but that's not how 80% of the PixelJoint members are going to see it anyway.
This is exactly why I have used the pixelation theme on pixel joint for a long time.
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Everyone tends to end up in the green-blue range.
I use brown tinted gray because it reminds me of stone and dirt. I have used green tinted gray in the past, but I really prefer the brown. Green to me is a little too harsh, the color alone is powerful because it is associated in my mind with plants, which are brimming with life. Brown is soft, dead, and muted, and allows me to quickly achieve unbiased colors and the right saturation levels. Any other color seems to influence my work habits, because I tend towards sea colors with blue, forest colors with green, but because gray-brown is so far away from any predominate color most of the time, I think it allows less of my subconscious to use colors that compliment the surrounding area.
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Like Mathias and others I tend to like a dark blue/greenish grey. Though probably a bit more dark and less grey than others here.. :)
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When working on game sprites:
I usually work on white unless I know specifically what color/colors my image is going to be appearing on.
To me, balance with its intended background is more important than attempted universal balance, and I go about this by choosing my background palettes alongside my character's palettes.
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I use pure blue. It gets some of the advantage of pure saturated magenta and such, but without the eye strain. I also prefer it as a color that's not likely to be use in the piece, so it's easier to not have random pixels get lost on the canvas, keeping things tidy. Making something that includes 8,8,8 on a pure black background and then moving things around can leave pixels behind. Also I just like blue.
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Can you post the RGB of your blue you're using? I'm very interested, since I don't know a lot of people who use saturated colors.
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Can you post the RGB of your blue you're using? I'm very interested, since I don't know a lot of people who use saturated colors.
Also please, pieces of pixel art made to this color if you will :)
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If I may be able to chime in here. I too use a a pure White background. I always did sketches in my school notebooks, hence the white preference. Plus, white is an easy color to transfer transparencies in copy paste situations. The only one time I used a different background was for my latest game demo. I used a HSL: 269, 98, 65. Since that was my sky color. I found it pleasing, but used white for most of the pixeling.
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I meant straight up 0,0,255, since it's easy to get to in MS Paint.
Things made on it...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/FireEmblem7x/Uther_Lord-Still.gif) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/Tier%201s/Tristan_Lord-Still.gif) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/Tier%201s/Eliza_Lord-Still.gif)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/FE-Yylfordt-Still.gif)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/Tier%202s/Wizard-Still.gif)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/Strategy Fightan/Knight1.gif)
ps does this board have a spoiler tag, I would have put the images in that but
Jad replies in edit form as to not take up too much space: hey dude, it's relevant to the thread, just post'em and feel happy ' u ' I'll, as the moderator I am, make sure people don't go off-topic and start commenting small details about your thangs mang
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Very interesting, I'll have to study these to see if there's anomalies in the palette that can be tied to the blue.
Do you make your own palettes while working on the blue background?
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I use the darker teal color. I like it more than straight up fushia (IT BURNS MY EYES! :'().
I never use black or white because when a color is next to, say, white, it looks darker. (Its an optical illusion of sorts) and so, usually, you compensate, and your images tend to be brighter than they should be. (Opposite goes for black, it turns out darker.) Though I can understand it if you want to have a darker themed image or a lighter themed one.
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I always use #9E9E9E (158,158,158), a neutral grey.