Too bright colors?

[Beetleking22]

Im working on my personal project which is small 2D action rpg game and I have got critic that my colors are too bright. The problem is that I see no  same problem with my monitor. So is my color too bright? Did it burn you eyes? This always happen with my works. They always turn to be super bright in other people computers but not  mine.

[ErekT]

I think they look pretty great, on my shitty laptop screen at least The ground color might be a bit too saturated and/or bright, but I guess it depends on how much you plan break it up with grass tusks, ponds, rocks, rivers, stuff...

[Beetleking22]

I think they look pretty great, on my shitty laptop screen at least The ground color might be a bit too saturated and/or bright, but I guess it depends on how much you plan break it up with grass tusks, ponds, rocks, rivers, stuff...

I see. I was planning to break it up with a lot of stuff.. The world itself has a lot of  Post-apocalypse houses scattered middle of forest... Here are some tiles that Im working on.. But I guess you are right that it will be balanced  with a lot of stuff.. I think Minish cap looked fine with the bright colors.

[vleize]

This art looks really amazing! ...That being said, combined with the colour of the grass it is a little bit eye-burney. I think the ground colour is a little too oversaturated for something that is covering the entire floor of the level, personally. And if I was viewing that fullscreen, it would definitely bother my eyes.

I would suggest either just dropping the saturation, or maybe shifting the colour away from the yellow-green, ooor perhaps even just lightening it!

[Beetleking22]

This art looks really amazing! ...That being said, combined with the colour of the grass it is a little bit eye-burney. I think the ground colour is a little too oversaturated for something that is covering the entire floor of the level, personally. And if I was viewing that fullscreen, it would definitely bother my eyes.

I would suggest either just dropping the saturation, or maybe shifting the colour away from the yellow-green, ooor perhaps even just lightening it!

Ty! I really dont want mess with the colors because it might mess the cluster and tone of the world. I was planning to adjust  lightning.. I really hope it works.

[washk]

I always liked you work, it's an inspiration to tell the truth. I think the very bright colors are part of your style, so embrace them.

Having said that, I agree the main grass color is a bit too yellowish and saturated.

More in line in my opinion.

[skittlefuck]

Tried my hand at an edit. I feel like more than it just being very bright, it's that everything is so saturated, even the shadows so the attention is being drawn everywhere on each individual asset, feels like it's lacking a certain contrast of saturation. I think you should maybe de-saturated the shadows. Also maybe darken the buildings, they feel too bright to be stone, or at least they don't stick out very well from the grass since they share similar values imo.

Like washk said, everything I've seen you do usually is very bright -which I love! But I do think for this it's just a overall lack of contrast with how the saturation is



I suppose low contrast shadows do seem to be something that differs from your style, maybe try fooling around with high saturated shadows, lower the sat on the midtones and keep high saturated highlights for the foliage?

Another way to solve your problem without changing the saturation to drastically is to maybe just push the shadows more on the assets? I noticed that for especially the buildings, they have the same amount of light striking both the front and top, same sort of goes for the trees -sort of drowns them out when the light is hitting them like that.

[Beetleking22]

Tried my hand at an edit. I feel like more than it just being very bright, it's that everything is so saturated, even the shadows so the attention is being drawn everywhere on each individual asset, feels like it's lacking a certain contrast of saturation. I think you should maybe de-saturated the shadows. Also maybe darken the buildings, they feel too bright to be stone, or at least they don't stick out very well from the grass since they share similar values imo.

Like washk said, everything I've seen you do usually is very bright -which I love! But I do think for this it's just a overall lack of contrast with how the saturation is



I suppose low contrast shadows do seem to be something that differs from your style, maybe try fooling around with high saturated shadows, lower the sat on the midtones and keep high saturated highlights for the foliage?

Another way to solve your problem without changing the saturation to drastically is to maybe just push the shadows more on the assets? I noticed that for especially the buildings, they have the same amount of light striking both the front and top, same sort of goes for the trees -sort of drowns them out when the light is hitting them like that.

@washk Thank you washk for help!

Thank you scittlefuck!


I really like both updates of yours.. I dont want drastically change the hue and saturation.. So I changed them little bit and put more dark in bulding so it match better with tree trunks... I changed little bit also the color of the grass.. So it should be little bit less yellow.

[MysteryMeat]

I still think the body of the grass is too bright here, it might be wise to use one of the darker shades as the main body color.

[Beetleking22]

I still think the body of the grass is too bright here, it might be wise to use one of the darker shades as the main body color.

I feel like darker color would ruin the piece. The grass and the places supposed to be bright but not super bright that burns the eye. I always have very hard balance the  brightness and darkness and I have problem explain and understand thing because my  english is not my first language..

[eishiya]

If you want it to feel like sunlit grass, try lowering the saturation, but making it a little yellower. Bright doesn't have to mean highly-saturated.

[ChillTaco]

Try this one for the grass.

[MicKo]

Tried an edit that goes in the other direction, adding more saturation. Probably too much, but I feel like this loses a lot of charm when you lower the saturation like you did... 'Dunno, might just be me.



I guess it still hurts the eyes a lot... Maybe softer colors on the ground would work better then. Something like that, maybe? Some colors still feel a bit agressive, but I kinda like it this way, too.

[MysteryMeat]

The new color is much easier on the eyes and doesn't compromise the bright art style, good stuff.

[Runensucher]

Nice to see you've overcome your fears. The new colour is much better.
But you have to work on the leaf trees. They don't fit anymore.
Good luck!

EDIT: Oh man. This edit wasn't made by Beetleking. Just ignore me.

[Ozego]

It depends on the feeling you want to communicate. Personally I love the bright green color, but it might not be the right one for your project. Perhaps people feel it is too bright because it conflicts with the pitch you give them about your project.
The bright version is very anime. The world it conjures up is similar to gibli movies, nature has triumphed over humanity and evil industrialisation.
If you want a more bleak view on your world you need to show it in the colors. Look at the colors war movies use to represent foliage. They always tone it to desaturated bleak colors, even if the action takes place in canopy jungle.

[Beetleking22]

It depends on the feeling you want to communicate. Personally I love the bright green color, but it might not be the right one for your project. Perhaps people feel it is too bright because it conflicts with the pitch you give them about your project.
The bright version is very anime. The world it conjures up is similar to gibli movies, nature has triumphed over humanity and evil industrialisation.
If you want a more bleak view on your world you need to show it in the colors. Look at the colors war movies use to represent foliage. They always tone it to desaturated bleak colors, even if the action takes place in canopy jungle.

@ MicKo Nice edit! If I watch these with my monitor. The first edit is very saturaded as you said but the last one is too dark which lose the charm.. as you said ..


Here is my new edit..  The base color is not as bright as before + I added little bit saturation. Not much difference.

New


vs

Old




@eishiya Thank you for tip!

@ MysteryMeat Are you refering to Micko edit?

@ Ozego

I got a lot inspiration from Future boy conan which is directed Hayao Miyazaki.. So Its amazing that you can see my influence by mile. The world of Future boy conan is colorful which is based on  post apocalyptic world.. Its very old anime series.  I wanted create similar world. I personally dont wanna bleach that much. I made it colorful because I like bright color + yeah anime Im just worried that my color might be just too bright for other people with different monitor.

[MysteryMeat]

Yeah, monitor differences might be in play here. I was in fact referring to the edit, and the edit matches the colors of that screenshot a bit more closely and aren't as glaring and eye-hurting.
See if you can take a look at it from another device, perhaps a smart phone, the yellow-green you used (at least on my screen) is quite glaring, and hurts a bit to look at.

[Seiseki]

I've noticed cheap monitors usually have really bright greens but with reds and blues de-saturated.
My monitor is far from perfect but it's above average when it comes an even color spectrum.

I did tone down certain green tones in the palette that I use, because they just turned into a really glowy overly bright colors on my friends monitor. To be fair, it was right on the edge of being too bright on my own monitor, so I settled for a middle ground.
Both of my friends have cheap Benq monitors, but unless you're an artist or just picky about these things you don't really need an expensive monitor, so it's not like I'm hating on cheap stuff. 

If you're doing color work on a cheap monitor you should be aware that some colors might be heavily desaturated and others overly saturated. And even more expensive ones might have bad calibration.
This would totally skew your perception and the way you use those colors and the same is true for the viewer.
I don't think anyone of us reading this thread are seeing the same colors though, maybe some of you pro's with calibrated monitors

[Jin]

I also think the colors are too bright/saturated globally, it can be eye tiring if you're in a game like this for hours.

I just tried another palette from my library with less saturated colors so you can see what a big difference of color might look like.
Sometimes focusing too much on just one palette is not good.

You may not be looking for this kind of colors though...



Also there is less colors on this one, I think it can help the reading as well.

[Ozego]

I got a lot inspiration from Future boy conan which is directed Hayao Miyazaki.. So Its amazing that you can see my influence by mile. The world of Future boy conan is colorful which is based on  post apocalyptic world.. Its very old anime series.  I wanted create similar world. I personally dont wanna bleach that much. I made it colorful because I like bright color + yeah anime Im just worried that my color might be just too bright for other people with different monitor.

There's your answer. Your original colors perfectly communicates what you want to achieve. People always comment on colors when they have nothing to say because it is the most subjective element.

[eishiya]

Future Boy Conan used its more saturated colours sparingly, it didn't fill the screen with them. The anime felt bright specifically because it juxtaposed bright colours with more subdued colours, making the brighter colours feel even brighter, while also not causing eye strain.
Study how it used colours, not just the colours it used.

[ErekT]

There's your answer. Your original colors perfectly communicates what you want to achieve. People always comment on colors when they have nothing to say because it is the most subjective element.

People comment on what they see, and it's down to the artist to clarify it if he wants critique to take other considerations, like inspirations or intent, into account. We all have different frames of reference after all

[Beetleking22]

Future Boy Conan used its more saturated colours sparingly, it didn't fill the screen with them. The anime felt bright specifically because it juxtaposed bright colours with more subdued colours, making the brighter colours feel even brighter, while also not causing eye strain.
Study how it used colours, not just the colours it used.

Im more inspired about setting of future boy conan + story than the art style it uses. So I never even studied it in first place. Minish cap had bright colors but they filled the environment with a lot of stuff which made the grass color less eye straining. My piece does not have much content and it has big open empty space of bright color.. Maybe thats why it looks eye straining in first place? I will add a lot of content which I hope reduces the brightness.

@Ozego Yeah I figured this out! Thank you guys for big help

@Seiseki
Thank you for reply! I think that is the problem I have and I should not worry about the bright color. In some monitor it looks fine but my Brother for example has very expensive monitor but everything looks super bright in his monitor... When I made it darker it looks fine in my brother monitor but with mains it just ruin the the tone which make my brain very conflicted 

[kullenberg]

I played around with the idea of making a less saturated version of the original garish green show through as pools under darker patches of grass. You were probably aiming for a less wild and dry looking grass, but it was fun

[skittlefuck]

Maybe stick with the current colours you got right now if you're happy with them. Just keep updating this with what assets you're going to stick into the mockup, I wanna see how far you take this 

You're right about minish cap, they have a similar brightness that is shared with this mockup of yours, but all the assets that are on each screen sort of tone down it down on their own when you have things like dirt walls, water etc. Just throw more thingies into the mockup \ o /

[Beetleking22]

I played around with the idea of making a less saturated version of the original garish green show through as pools under darker patches of grass. You were probably aiming for a less wild and dry looking grass, but it was fun

That is awesome edit! I was actually planning to do similar thing. Make dark grass variation for variety  + it would also reduce  bright empty spot.

Maybe stick with the current colours you got right now if you're happy with them. Just keep updating this with what assets you're going to stick into the mockup, I wanna see how far you take this 

You're right about minish cap, they have a similar brightness that is shared with this mockup of yours, but all the assets that are on each screen sort of tone down it down on their own when you have things like dirt walls, water etc. Just throw more thingies into the mockup \ o /

Thank you skittlefuck you are great inspiration. I will update this in pixeljoint when it is done ..