My Western Palette Adventures

[ttk]

Okay, so I'm new at this whole thing, but I spent a lot of time looking at other palettes and learning some of the stuff behind it.  I want to make a 32 color palette for a western game that I'm working on.

Any and all criticism is welcome!

Here's attempt #1


I know I have way too many browns right now and probably too many darks.  For my next steps I want to see if I can merge some colors and also add some more greens as well as some brighter colors like some pinks/blush colors.  Lots to improve upon, but I wanted to get my progress out there so I could get advice as well as push myself to keep working on it.

One question, how do you guys do the palette swap stuff with other images/game screens?  Does it require manually selecting which color replaces what, or does it work automatically?  What's the best way to do it in, say, Grafx2?

[MysteryMeat]

Aseprite has an option to do that automatically so I usually use that. Aseprite is solid stuff overall really

[DawnBringer]

GrafX2:

If you only need to update/replace one or a few colors then do it by hand with the "Replace col"-tool (right-click floodfill)

Basic remapping is done with the "Copy to other page" tool (right-click page button) and select "Palette and remap". It will copy the current palette to the spare-page and redraw the graphics.
If you just want to copy a palette without remapping, use the "Palette only" option.

[ttk]

I'll have to check out Asesprite!

DB, your palette tool is amazing, but I don't "get" all of it just yet.  Do you have something that walks through each component of the chart, what it shows, and what we should be looking for?  I'd find that incredibly helpful!

[DawnBringer]

Well, there is some basic info here: http://goto.glocalnet.net/axe/dtb12/#pal_alz_analyze_img

Note the white dot on the small palette, it indicates a duplicate color.

There's a much improved version of the script (and Toolbox) that isn't officially released yet...this is what it produces for your palette:

[ttk]

Thanks for that, DawnBringer.

I'm wondering if maybe I'm going about this backwards.  I'm still not totally sure how I should approach colors, so I may take a few steps back and try making some ramps and things to get a better understanding.

Here's my latest update, anyway:

[ttk]

Okay, started (mostly) from scratch, keeping a few of the base colors I liked before.



Analysis:



Does anything stand out as poor/missing?  What should I look out for especially?

[ttk]

blarrrrrrrg I suck, I just want to pay somebody to do it for me 

[PixelPiledriver]

blarrrrrrrg I suck, I just want to pay somebody to do it for me 

You could but naw you're fine.

You seem to have gathered all the ingredients for a cake.
And you've been re arranging them on the counter top without opening the packages.
While that's something to do, you can only guess at the results.
Bake the cake and see what it takes like.
Then decide how to adjust the ingredients.

[ttk]

Okay, okay, I'll bear down and move forward...

Here's my palette for now.  Did a couple quick tests and they look okay so far... going to try some palette swaps on SNES game screens next.  If anybody wants to do some swaps with this one, feel free, it would help me a lot

[surt]

You realise your 32 colour palette image has 81 colours in it?

[ttk]

Clearly not, and also doing that at 1 in the morning also had me miscounting to 34 anyway XD
I forgot I needed to leave 4 spots open, not 2.
But anyway I'd imagine it's the grid (and all the overwritten copy+paste) that accounts for the extra colors.  I'll clean it up.  Sorry about that 

[ttk]

Okay, ran it through Grafx2... says there's 33 colors but I think it's counting black or something.  Anyway, here it is:




Palette swaps on game screens coming once I figure it out, thanks for the tips earlier

[ttk]

Remaps!  I managed to figure it out in Grafx2 (Thanks DawnBringer!) but couldn't figure it out in Aseprite.  If anybody has more detailed instructions to automatically remap in that I'd love it.

Anyway, originals first, then my remaps...

[ttk]

One more...

[ttk]

Okay, so my analysis so far...

- My browns look pretty dusty and nice, which I like
- My reds, oranges, and yellows are not popping as much as I'd hoped, so I'm going to boost their saturation and brightness a bit
- I need probably at least one more green and blue...

I'm going to do some tweaks and we'll see.  I may end up bumping up to 48 or 64.
Anybody else have comments or suggestions at colors to look at?

[ttk]

Update: 64 colors!  Yes, I've still been working at it... Lemme know what you guys and gals think!!


I took some inspiration from Arne and DB as well as syosa's palette work.  Closest colors according to DBtools are 5.20 apart.

Here's the analysis:


Some auto-swaps (original before, mine after):

[surt]

Is this intended to be a general purpose palette or for a specific project? If it's for a specific project why are you going about it backwards? If you want a palette for specific art you create it for that specific art as you develop it.

[ttk]

Is this intended to be a general purpose palette or for a specific project? If it's for a specific project why are you going about it backwards? If you want a palette for specific art you create it for that specific art as you develop it.

I started as a specific project palette, but then started working towards something a little more general purpose.  Mainly I'm trying to improve my understanding of colors.  I'm not an artist, so when I'm working on art assets I like to have a roadmap ahead of me.  I can get a little paralyzed not knowing what colors I should be using and knowing that I'm likely to have to rework a vast amount of assets isn't really appealing to me while I'm also designing and programming.  So I like the idea of making a sort of "general purpose" palette from which I can make my games from.

[ttk]

Whew, heck of a day!  Did a lot of revising and reworking, and finally got to a palette that I'm feeling pretty happy with!

Here it is:


For inspiration I decided to take the 10 colors that make up the title screen from the original Legend of Zelda, which was the game that made me want to be a game designer when I was little.

Here's the analysis.


I did quite a few swaps and they all are looking pretty good!  I won't flood this post with images, but here's the classic CT shot:

[ttk]

Pretty sure I'm done.  Replaced a couple colors and got a nice pale yellow and a darker red in there.  Feeling good about it... on to the arts!