Rare color combinations and their use

Questions, skill improvement, and respectful critique involving art assets.
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Geistbas
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Rare color combinations and their use

#1 Post by Geistbas »

I'm really interested about this, while the title may be a little misleading since I chose to only show one combination, I think it works.

Please look at this picture I took from a Japanese game:

Image

I am a person who notices little details a lot, and this pad with the tiny sparkles is unique and solitary only to this exact location in the game. It's a little difficult to find it (16% chance), and it has two colors which are not used elsewhere in this stage, and I am certain, not anywhere else in the entire game. So it's a truly rare color combination.

I will list the 6 shades here:

██████ & ██████

I am always interested to read tutorials about picking the correct colors for art. Very rarely I find some source which discusses rare colors.

Now, these two colors are very spiritual in my eyes, and they look very interesting. I don't remember seeing this combination in my life much, in fact, the closest comparisons would be Friday the 13th night landscapes and Super Mario Bros. 1-UP mushroom (both NES games). Other than that, I can't recall seeing these two colors combined. They give me the feeling of....mold and spores? something like that? It's definitely a combination that could be used for mushrooms with green dots, such as the 1-up mushroom. But it could very well be reversed, the green being dominant.

Do you know any rare color combinations? Two colors? Three colors? I would like to discuss color picking itself as well, if that's okay. Since I am not yet very good at choosing the correct colors, but I am getting better.

I have sensitive eyes and I love to discuss color theory and usage, so consider sharing your thoughts please!

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Lumenue
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Re: Rare color combinations and their use

#2 Post by Lumenue »

I think what you have an example of there is what's known as 'complementary colors'. The shades you used for an example are somewhere within the realm of opposite, which creates a really interesting and appealing design!

There's more examples of it, though I can't think of many using those exact colors.

ImageImage

(Sorry for bad image placement, didn't want to take up too much room!) The above images are from Journey, a really awesome game that uses a mix of awesome color theories throughout the game to convey emotion, conflict, and plot without using dialogue. Notice the differences in color in the first image: the red character in a landscape with high contrast both in color and light/dark ratios. This is somewhat an example of complementary color in action, with the slight green undertones on the blue standing out against the warm reds and yellows of the player character in a way that isn't dissonant, but rather appealing.

In the second image, the color scheme is mostly an example of a monochromatic color scheme. The whole scene is warm in color, BUT there is some hints of 'colder' colors in the shading on the background objects. It's slight, but it's enough contrast to keep the environment interesting for the player, and have an artistic edge to them.

If you need help coming up with palettes, I usually use the Adobe Kuler color wheel. It's really easy to use, and has different settings you can play with. https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ Hope this was helpful/insightful/interesting to read!
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Geistbas
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Re: Rare color combinations and their use

#3 Post by Geistbas »

I actually found a book in my library which has those two colors I have shown above!

I'll remember this for certain, as I enjoy combining colors, and sad that I can't really produce a vector-based game...

That's an interesting looking game, I personally can't really describe much of what I think about it, but I got reminded of some things when seeing those.

Now I apologize, but I tried that app and I have totally no idea how to use it... I'm actually not super skilled with Adobe's products, and I am a scatterbrained person who gets confused easily. I suppose there's no problem with just practicing.

Though the term "rare", I mean... these two colors I've shown, I indeed can't see them used much.

I'm really grateful for your care and time to respond to this, and I am sorry for replying so late. I haven't forgotten, I'm just somewhat unreliable on specific topics that i start on forums.

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