Christophe Young

Shading and Color Tests

Added 2024-01-16 22:00:03 +0000 UTC

Color is hard. Every time I get to this stage with a character I end up asking myself a million questions. What is their style? Should the color be their anti-style? What kind of harmony do I want? Is it too dull for the IP? Too Saturated? What color temperature represents the character? Etc etc.

The one thing that keeps things grounded is imagining the character in their world. A character's color palette plays an important role in the palette of the bigger picture. Are they meant to be an accent color and turn heads or are they more neutral and melt into the setting? For this character, I think I'd rather her melt into the setting and let her actions make her stand out (So I'm leaning toward A, D, or E). This can't necessarily be shown explicitly in the concept art (unless I storyboard the whole thing...) but it's something I keep in the back of my mind - In reality, actions speak louder than words and reveal more about their character than their clothing.

This is just a broad color pass to figure out the main scheme. I'll add accent colors and other pops of detail in the final stages of rendering.