10 replies to this topic

[FearedByFew]

I've never been great at spriting, but I don't think it helps that I don't have a great sense of color. I feel like even the simple graphics I use for my games could look a lot better with the right colors.

Does anyone have any advice regarding developing a palette to use throughout a game, or perhaps just some tips on choosing colors that are more pleasing to the eyes?

Thank you.

[FatalSleep]

Well depends on the game! Say a horror game you'll want to use dark and gloomy shades of colors. Then a flashy shoot'em up you'll use a bright array of colors.
Now if you have anything to present I.e. pics of your games you'd like a change in color show them to me and I'll be glad to help.

[FearedByFew]

Well frankly I'm a bit embarrassed to show off what I've got since 90% of the graphics are just simple shapes, but if it helps I can tell you the basic premise for the game.

In a nutshell, you play a man stuck in a small area (smaller than 640 x 480) and various hazards appear in said room and try to annihilate you. Laser nodes constantly sweep the playing area and fire intermittently, machine gun turrets emerge from the walls and fire bursts at you and, as time goes on, more and more dangers present themselves and the gameplay generally gets faster paced.

So it's action-based, clearly, and it's not necessarily a game that you would spend a huge amount of time playing since the only objective is the stay alive as long as you can.

The background and walls are a simple brick dungeon-esque pattern, but I'm thinking of redesigning it to more resemble a laboratory experiment chamber.

[FatalSleep]

Sorry I can't help you without pictures unless I am doing sprites that are 8-bit.
If you are embarrassed then send it to me personally so no one else sees?

Stop being embarrassed?

[FearedByFew]

Ok then. Here are two screens from the game. Mind you I just started getting semi-serious about this game last night, I've spent a majority of that time writing scripts for the enemies and perfecting the player's movement code.

https://docs.google....NmU4Y1UxTllmbjQ

That black rounded square is the player, for now, until I decide on what I actually want the player to be. I can't draw humans to save my life, so it's gonna be interesting.

there's a turret firing at the player in the first screen, the bullets are drawn as triangles for now; I'm experimenting with collision checking at high speeds. The second screen shows the targeting reticule over the player object; the four squares start from outside the visible play area and "home" in on the player and eventually lock on; that's when the turret begins firing. The gray objects on the top and bottom with the red/green on them are the laser nodes. Every so often they generate a laser between them that lasts for about two seconds and dissipates.

As you can tell, I've put more work in drawing the background and the targeting reticule than really anything else.

I just don't want my game ending up looking bland or harsh on the eyes.

[dannyjenn]

I think those colours look alright, although your general style looks a little plain. But it's not at all "harsh on the eyes"

Colours are difficult and I completely agree that choosing the right colours can be the difference between having a mediocre sprite and a great sprite. Unfortunately for me, I also have a difficult time choosing colours. The one piece of advice I have for you -- never use pure black (000000) or pure white (FFFFFF). No professional spriter ever does and it really does look a lot better with a gray slightly lighter than black (maybe like 111111 or 202020) and a gray (or blue) sightly darker than white (something like F0F0FF or EEEEEE).

Edited by dannyjenn, 07 July 2012 - 08:03 PM.

[FatalSleep]

Danny is right. Using pure of any amount of color can ruin a great/good sprite. Like what looks to be your player sprite.
I recommend making him look more like a player.

If it fits yours game you could make his gun gray then give him an army pattern for his head.
Just an example. I can drawn one out for you if you want?

[FearedByFew]

Danny is right. Using pure of any amount of color can ruin a great/good sprite. Like what looks to be your player sprite.
I recommend making him look more like a player.

If it fits yours game you could make his gun gray then give him an army pattern for his head.
Just an example. I can drawn one out for you if you want?

Well, no, I don't plan on giving the player a weapon. That goal of the game is to stay alive by avoiding hazards, with good timing and reflexes. I do appreciate the advice, though.

Edited by FearedByFew, 08 July 2012 - 03:06 AM.

[kburkhart84]

I don't do much spriting, but I know a few things that can help. For a given sprite, you probably want to use maybe 12 colors. You would have 4 "different" colors, and then use 3 "shades" of each color. So you may have a "fleshy" colored face, a red shirt, blue pants, and dark boots. I assume you understand about shading from a light source. Start with an outline. Then shade the whole shirt that mid shade of red. Then in the shadowed and lit sides put the lighter and darker shade of said color. Then do the same for the pants, face, etc... Maybe it isn't exactly as simple as I've written it here, and you have to account for curves and contours of things like the face, but maybe this advice will get you started.

[WMCD]

You need to separate foreground from background, and active objects from foreground. You have to set up a visual hierarchy where the most important details stick out and less useless visual information recedes. You can achieve this by using brighter colors and higher contrast in the foreground, and darker colors and less contrast in the background. Also, generally more colors in the foreground [read: detail], and just a few colors in the background. Highlights make things come forward and stick out to the player.

When choosing colors, think about how all colors interact as a whole and not just whether that one color looks "good". Colors vary wildly when put into context with other colors.

[FatalSleep]

Danny is right. Using pure of any amount of color can ruin a great/good sprite. Like what looks to be your player sprite.
I recommend making him look more like a player.

If it fits yours game you could make his gun gray then give him an army pattern for his head.
Just an example. I can drawn one out for you if you want?

Well, no, I don't plan on giving the player a weapon. That goal of the game is to stay alive by avoiding hazards, with good timing and reflexes. I do appreciate the advice, though.

I misunderstood the picture.
I thought that black thingy shooting was the player. Guess I was wrong.
Basically add color to anything that looks like it should have color. (e.g. turrets, blocks, player etc.)
Separating the shades works nicely to. So say you have a dark background, it'd be best to make your objects above the background a brighter color/shade or vice versa.

Edited by FatalSleep, 08 July 2012 - 11:33 AM.