Game Design 2Lecture 3: Colour

Errata and News•All tutorials now take place in the

games lab (M627)

•The Monday tutorial is now on Tuesdays at 12pm - 1pm (after this lecture)

•Lecture 2 slides and audio are online.

•Recommended Reading is online.

•http://www.comu346.com

Books

What is colour for?

•to label (colour as noun)

•to measure (colour as quantity)

•to represent / imitate reality

•to enliven or decorate (colour as beauty)

Colour in Games

•Team identification

•Item highlighting

•Mood, tone & aesthetics

•Convey information

Team Identification

Item Highlighting

Mood & Tone

Convey Information

What is Colour?

Rods & Cones

•Rods & Cones

•Tuned to RGB

•Uneven distrobution

•64% red, 34% green, 2% blue

•Can distinguish red better than blue

•Yellow shades particularly similar

Magenta?

Colour Models

•Hue, Lightness, Saturation (Thissen 162)

•Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Fox 52)

•Red, Green, Blue (Thissen 163)

Colour Wheel

•Newton Wheel

•Red, Yellow, Green

•Blended for hues

•add whites (tint)

•or black (shade)

Combining Colours

Color Jack

Text

http://www.bit.ly/colorjack

Tip: Industry Palettes

•Find industry photograph

•Extract main colours

Tip: Mood Palettes

•Find mood photograph

•Extract main colours

DeGraeve Extractor

http://www.bit.ly/degraeve

Assembling a Palette

•Select 3 to 5 colours from colour wheel

•Also select a neutral and highlight colour

•Experiment with tint and shade

•Contrast is important

•Consider the colour blind

•Consider cultural implications

Use Colour Sparingly

•It is easy to emphasise something on unobtrusive colours.

•On glaring colours it is difficult to emphasise something.

Colour Blind

•1 in 12 people

•Resources exist which can model colour blindness.

•http://www.wearecolorblind.com

Cultural Minefield

Technical Limitations?

•Not so much of a problem on modern consoles.

•On underpowered or web based games, may need to use 256 colour palettes.

•Can use same bitmap with different palette to get team colours.

•Work with a programmer!

Tufte

“Above all, do no harm.”