AuthorTopic: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes  (Read 12627 times)

Offline Double7

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #10 on: January 15, 2017, 01:08:39 am
Hmm, I'd say it's not tall enough. The perspective on the roof is a bit odd too, I'd drop it down a tad both to better match the smaller roof on the right and gel with the perspective on the wall a bit more.
Colorways I'd need to see how it fits into a scene to really tell, try slapping some roadways or an example of what characters might look like to juxtapose it with!

If it is going to be in a top down game, how long should the roof be? I saw some streams saying it should be about half as long but i'm not sure.The building itself is 7 tiles wide by 4 tiles tall. The size of the roof is 7 tiles wide and 2 tiles tall. Could you explain what throws you off about the perspective?

Offline Ma3vis

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #11 on: January 15, 2017, 01:14:29 am
Honestly am kind of new at this so



Dropped down the roof a little for perspective reasons
I agree with MysteryMeat in that it should be longer somewhat

Highlighted some areas in red that need editing/touchups

Added white to the sign for a brighter neon tint
Added shadow to the ledges of the roof also for perspective

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #12 on: January 15, 2017, 01:20:27 am
Oh, another thing! Increase the contrast between your colors, I didn't even notice there was any texture/shadow on the roof or wall until I zoomed in on Ma3vis's edit!
As a general rule I go by, the absolute minimum difference between two colors should be ~10 values in hue or saturation to be visible. I'd personally reccomend going a bit higher than that for this, especially on the shadows.

Also, I'd reccomend against the stock blur effect it seems you used, instead try to replace it with some lighting along the edges around those lightsources like the doorframe or pipes.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Double7

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #13 on: January 15, 2017, 01:25:07 am
Honestly am kind of new at this so

Dropped down the roof a little for perspective reasons
I agree with MysteryMeat in that it should be longer somewhat

Highlighted some areas in red that need editing/touchups

Added white to the sign for a brighter neon tint
Added shadow to the ledges of the roof also for perspective

Thanks for the feedback. Will be trying to touch it up now and add surrounding tiles. The white on the neon is a great idea and I will definitely be using that in the future.

Oh, another thing! Increase the contrast between your colors, I didn't even notice there was any texture/shadow on the roof or wall until I zoomed in on Ma3vis's edit!
As a general rule I go by, the absolute minimum difference between two colors should be ~10 values in hue or saturation to be visible. I'd personally reccomend going a bit higher than that for this, especially on the shadows.

Also, I'd reccomend against the stock blur effect it seems you used, instead try to replace it with some lighting along the edges around those lightsources like the doorframe or pipes.

The blur on top is there for a bit because I will be using in game lighting to generate the glow of the neon. That way it affects the other moving objects around it as well. The reason I was so hesitant to make harsher shadows on the roof is that I don't really have a light source in the current picture for it. I guess I can assume that the rest of the city will be able to cast those for me.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #14 on: January 15, 2017, 01:51:10 am
Aye, on top of that though you might want to shoot for high contrast in general! Cyberpunk tends to run with some pretty dark themes, hence the "punk" end of the moniker. Darker colors as a rule fit that, though obviously there's wiggle room in there for alternate takes. Experiment and see what looks good to you!

As for things being taller, if you're going for a cityscape it might help to work with fades to black instead of roofing to better imply height.
Like so, but you know, not an INCREDIBLY lazy edit like this:

I didn't really nail what I'm trying to illustrate, but try to have it fade out as if the camera is "cutting away" the top part of the building, that way you can still sell the clustered metropolitan area without having to obscure parts of the game.
Alternatively, you could have taller parts of buildings fade away as characters move behind them, it all depends on what you're going for.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Double7

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #15 on: January 15, 2017, 02:36:25 am
Aye, on top of that though you might want to shoot for high contrast in general! Cyberpunk tends to run with some pretty dark themes, hence the "punk" end of the moniker. Darker colors as a rule fit that, though obviously there's wiggle room in there for alternate takes. Experiment and see what looks good to you!

As for things being taller, if you're going for a cityscape it might help to work with fades to black instead of roofing to better imply height.
Like so, but you know, not an INCREDIBLY lazy edit like this:

What you talkin' bout meat? That's a beaut. Yeah I will definitely use this when making larger buildings. I will try to go over the whole thing by hand to increase contrast and make it pop. Will need to get home first so I can work behind the blurs I have right now. I will update once I make some substantial changes.

Since this is a color oriented topic as well, how do the colors look overall (besides the contrast)

Offline Double7

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #16 on: January 16, 2017, 01:21:16 am


Here is what I was able to come up with. Not 100% happy with it, but would like some help on where to move forward now.

I think one of the problems I am having with my brightness is that my Laptop screen is showing much darker blacks and brighter whites. It has more powerful contrast then when I pull my image over onto my second monitor. I will definitely need to have a brightness scale for the player to set whenever I get to there.

I currently don't have and "lighting" effects since that will be made with the game engine, so imagine there being street lights and glows off of the neon signs and floor lights.
The one thing I am really wanting help with is textures on the sidewalk and the street. Right now they are just a single color because I can't find a way to texture them properly (one of my weak points).

This part of the world isn't supposed to be a very high traffic area, more a backstreets area. So there will definitely be areas with a ton of neon and ads and stuff. Which I am excited to work on.

EDIT : To explain my problem. On my first monitor the Right version looks better and on my second monitor the left looks better. So I know which brightness looks better to me, I just don't know what most monitors will show.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2017, 01:23:29 am by Double7 »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #17 on: January 16, 2017, 01:25:55 am
If it's a lower traffic area, perhaps some negligent roadwork to provide some texture to the area? I'm not sure how utopian a cyberpunk world you're going for. The far left is the one I'd go with though, some work fiddling more with the colors like on the sidewalk might be worthwhile but at thsi point it wouldn't raise any eyebrows for me during gameplay. It's got a very nice clean look to it.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Double7

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #18 on: January 16, 2017, 01:33:32 am
Thanks meat. I will probably have to learn to work on my second monitor then. Because on my first monitor I can't even see the outlines of the blue streaks track on the road.

I will keep messing around with the sidewalk a bit. If I can't get textures then I will add some puddles and other trash to the walkway to add some more clutter to the screen. It might be a utopia but it is still a city ;)

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Trouble with cyberpunk color pallettes

Reply #19 on: January 16, 2017, 08:51:05 am
It might be possible to salveage that first monitor if you play around with the settings and/or install Fluxx (https://justgetflux.com/) and play around with that until you get good results. For a while I wound up using my phone to double-check colors until I got my replacement monitor, though come to think of it I haven't really done much extensive testing on that...

Hm, that's actually a good question, how DO you test monitors for proper color stuff?
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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