AuthorTopic: Project Kitsune Colour Help!  (Read 5009 times)

Offline AlcopopStar

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Project Kitsune Colour Help!

on: July 01, 2016, 06:45:16 am
Hello Pixelation,

It's been a little while but i could use your pixely help!

I've been working on a freelance job, with the working title of Project Kitsune, It's a story driven platformer set in japan.

We are looking to make the over all pallet more coherent and charming.

Original far too many colour pallet:



An attempt at adjusting things down to 64:



I'm struggling a bit between "true colours" blowing the pallet out and a more minimal stylized pallet making things potentially look strange.

I'de love if you had any suggestions, also general over all crits of the scene/assets would be fine as well! For reference the background is tiled to make building generation easy.

There is also a general flatness that i could use some help with. But please keep scope in mind with your crits here.

(Also all signage in Japanese is going to go through a translation pass so it all means gibberish atm).

Thanks in advance!~

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #1 on: July 01, 2016, 08:39:09 am
I'd actually stick with the original overcolored version, actually.
The new palette is certainly more "cohesive" but it gives everything a sort of bleached sepia look.
The old palette was more visually interesting, at least to me personally.

On an unrelated note, I like the way you're using outlines to delineate foreground elements, but it might help to make it more of a dark purple or blue rather than a stark black.
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Offline questseeker

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #2 on: July 01, 2016, 08:49:02 am
The two variants share a problem, or possibly an opportunity: a drastic mismatch between monochrome (and deliberately tinted), low saturation and relatively low contrast buildings in the background and bright, saturated objects of much less stylized realistic colors in the foreground.
Depending on the needs of your game, you can take this difference into two different directions:
  • Everything consistently stylized. The second variant might be a step in this direction, but some objects (like the red post box) still look bright and out of place, while others (like the woman and the vending machine) look unnaturally desaturated relative to realistic standards.
  • Obviously divergent background and foreground. You mention it's going to be a platform game: you should be able to make a structurally complex, good-looking background easily distinguishable from important foreground items that allow interaction because they don't share the same palette. For this purpose, combining the sprites in the first variant (more realistic) with the buildings in the second variant (in which the brick walls are more consistent with other ones) should be a good starting point.
What are the platforms in this platformer game going to be? The screenshot shows only a completely flat sidewalk.

Offline Curly

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #3 on: July 01, 2016, 01:24:58 pm
I love the mood in the second one :)
The plants read well with the absence of green except for the roof plants imo. Would the only green color in the foreground look bad in the background plants?

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #4 on: July 01, 2016, 03:48:59 pm
I miss the blue and yellow colors from the first one..
The new one just removes a lot of important ramps, like for metal and makes it all a kind of dull color overall.

You definitely need more depth here by simplifying the background and making the difference in brightness more obvious.
It needs to be pushed back quite a bit.

It looks really great though, awesome style!  :y:

Offline Pusty

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #5 on: July 01, 2016, 03:49:21 pm
These looks great!
I would say you stick with the first one as well or at least if you game isn't ment to be that moody, because I think it looks more interesting as well. I also like the black outlines you did on foreground things as you are clearly able to see what you are able to interact with. The midground may be a bit confusing being that bright and saturated, but I can't really tell from these screenshots alone. Showing a bit gameplay or more screenshots would help to tell. (Next to the fact that I would like to see more of it :P)
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Offline Q.K.

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #6 on: July 01, 2016, 03:58:16 pm
Hi, I'm the developer of this project, I just wanted to chime in briefly ;D First, thanks for the C&C everyone!

What are the platforms in this platformer game going to be? The screenshot shows only a completely flat sidewalk.

So what you're seeing in this screenshot is part of the overworld; I'm trying out a design in which there is a relatively small overworld, where the focus is less on traditional platforming and more on character & story development. You'll meet and interact with people here, find sidequests, and then come across what are essentially 'portals' into the more action-based platforming sections of gameplay which take place in a slightly different context. Having said that, adding some more variation to the city terrain wouldn't hurt!

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #7 on: July 01, 2016, 04:21:52 pm
(ignore the idea for the outlines, just something I wanted to try)
I made a rough edit, just messing around..


You can simplify the background a lot by removing colors and detail, you don't really need to use some colors specifically for the furthest buildings.
I'm not saying remove all detail like I did in the edit.. that looks a bit boring unless you have interesting silhouettes.
But having two colors for the furthest background should be more than enough.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2016, 04:24:07 pm by Seiseki »

Offline AlcopopStar

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #8 on: July 11, 2016, 08:38:14 am
Ahh thanks for all the wonderful feedback.

Especially on the points of separating the layers of background. (And thanks for your points and the illustrative edit Seiseki!)

I worked on separating the background with its two deeper layers, I pushed the latter towards yellow, and the former towards blue. A pretty classic colour separation and one I think that works well to push the daylight vibe. I'm also a little less worried about colour count, because A) you guys don't seem to be and B) the colour count was actually being driven up by 30% shadows on a lot of things. (which doesn't really err... count).

I've also reworked the actual background layers to give them more separation in terms of shape and form, this hopefully adds more of a sense of distance.

OLD:

NEW:

Also slightly more contrast? (might interfere with character readability?)



How do we feel? better?
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 12:15:25 pm by AlcopopStar »

Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: Project Kitsune Colour Help!

Reply #9 on: July 24, 2016, 04:53:15 pm
First of all I'm must say great job on character design and near background. I really like the colors and the way you reuse your resources without it looking repetitive or boring.

I think that your "OLD" far background looks much better cause it gives better atmosphere and suggest that it's some downtown part of the city where buildings are crammed with small streets between them. New one takes away that atmosphere and that building with light windows is not cohesive with the rest of the elements, like you've cut and paste it from some other image.

I really liked the yellowish color palette you've suggested in one of the first posts, but I agree with other comments that it's better to keep those nice and vibrant colors. My thought was what if you combine those two and use yellowish for far background, it may break very cold atmosphere and contribute to overall look.

Here's just simple cut out test. I adjust colors a bit just for the sake of the edit. :)