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Hello! I'm Felipe and this is the first of a tutorial series that
Give me Five will do for you that is or want to be part of
the games industry. When new artists come looking for me,
they usually come with very similar doubts.
One that I'm asked a lot is: "What color to use in my game?"
It's a very complicated subject and, because of that, our topic today is:
Colors for Games.
First of all, one must understand what are colors?
There are many color theories. The common sense is that colors are lights.
A real object is a pigment that absorbs light waves
and reflects the remaining waves until our eyes perceive.
In the case of a apple, we see it red because it reflects the red wave.
As to black and white, it's a very discussed subject
and depends of what theory you like the most.
In the case of light, black happens when the pigment absorbs all light.
That's why who wears a black T-shirt suffers on a sunny day.
White happens when all light is reflected.
Yes, this is in the real world. And in games?
On electronic devices, light is emitted and simulated.
If you've ever looked closely to your monitor, you realized that there are
several light emitters. In the case of black, it does not emit any light.
The colors that the monitor displays are red, green and blue, which,
when blended, form other colors.
That creates the RGB standard. (Red, Green, Blue)
And now? How to use that to know what colors to use in your game?
Of the many color theories, there are three that help transform colors into something logical.
"The Color Wheel", "Color Harmony" and "Color Context"
The first wheel, or color circle, based on RGB was conceived by Isaac Newton.
Thereafter, there were thousands, up to the standard we have today.
The wheel is divided into subcategories and we can start with the primary colors, red, blue and yellow.
These are the colors that, according to Newton, can not be produced blending other colors.
The secondary colors, purple, orange and green, are obtained by blending the primary colors.
As for the tertiary colors are formed when we mix the primary colors with the secondary colors.
"Harmony" can be defined as the set of pleasant colors, creating a sense of order.
The human brain tends to deny certain combinations. If they are very similar,
they can give the feeling of something boring and tedious,
while very saturated colors can give a chaotic and disturbing feeling.
Harmony is the balance of these two, the middle. Hence the importance of creating a color palette
before you start your design, because it will always follow a pattern and almost never breaks away from the harmony.
There are cake recipes that help in creating harmonies. For example, analogies of
close colors are very used. Another very common subject is the complementary color scheme.
Among several others, you can also find software that will help in creating them.
How the brain interprets them is the most complex part of the color theory.
See the same red square in different backgrounds.
In black, it stands out more, as it seems more hidden in white; Lifeless in orange and bright in blue.
Also note that it seems bigger on black background.
You should probably see that the inner rectangle looks more red in the image on the left than on the right.
So it's always important to consider the context: Where you are using that color?
Why it will be used? When the player will see it?
When you're developing games, you need to be careful in choosing the color.
Remember we talked about how the monitor emits red, green and blue colors?
These colors blend together, forming clusters on each point you see.
This point is a pixel. The distance between pixels is determined by resolution.
The higher the resolution, the smaller the distance.
People prefer higher resolutions, because there are more details and the quality is better.
And what few people take note is that the color you used will rarely be seen by the player.
In most devices the color emitted by a pixel is mixed with the color emitted by other.
This causes the color to become brighter and, depending on the case, different from what you developed.
Yeah, but that does not solve the bigger problem: What color to use? It is not news to anyone that colors have different meanings.
Let's see some of them now.
Red is the color of extremes: Love, violence, passion and danger.
Red is very difficult to get. Therefore, once was seen as a color representing magic and power.
The interesting fact is that red mixed with blue is usually preferred for women,
while mixed with yellow is preferred for men.
You have to take into account the target audience when choosing for your game.
Red captures attention, the human eye sees it faster.
The only color that is seen before the red is yellow.
It is the brightest color that exists.
It refers to happiness, optimism, lighting and creativity.
On the other hand, is also known for cowardice, betrayal, selfishness, madness, and,
the golden color, if derived from yellow, recalls wealth.
Again, pay attention to your target audience. In Japan, yellow is known for courage rather than cowardice.
A curiosity is that yellow is the only color that does not react well to black, making a dull color.
Blue is the favorite color of most people. It is a cool and calm color and also the most used in logos.
Blue is the color that has the most meanings and perhaps is best to separate by shade.
Dark blue refers to confidence, dignity, intelligence and authority.
Sneaky blue refers to cleanliness, strength or coldness.
Azure reminds peace, spiritual serenity or infinite.
In some countries, like the U.S., "being blue" is the same as "being sad".
Green refers to money, fertility, luck and nature.
But it could also mean jealousy, immaturity or nausea.
There are more shades of green than any other color in the world.
Purple is a very rare color in nature and also the last that our eye processes.
It is therefore associated with the supernatural, spiritual, magic, creativity and mystery.
On the other hand, it could also mean decay or pomposity.
Although a cold color, most children see it as a happy color.
Again, always paying attention to your target audience.
Orange can sometimes mean lack of intelligence or bad taste.
But it is a vibrant color that symbolizes energy, vitality, health and adventure.
No wonder that all oranges have food names, such as persimmon, pumpkin, mango or salmon.
In Brazil, orange is a person who is being used by another.
In short, follow the tips explained here to choose the right color for your game.
Never forget to create the color palette and to consider your target audience and the device which you are developing.
Choose colors wisely, for they have much to say.
That was the first lesson. I hope you have learned a lot with us!
If you liked, don't forget to subscribe to our channel! You can also leave comments on the video itself
with suggestions for upcoming lessons.
That's it, thank you very much and until next time!