THE HKCP :: The Half-Kaizer Construction Project.

[Venetia]

I'd like to avoid syndicated/exploited characters, if possible, but of course I won't flat-out turn them down. Besides, you submit pieces, so technically if you made Cloud's unitard thingy and then cut it into a shirt and pants, and then colored it red, it wouldn't look like Cloud anymore

 

[Eriol Clowphengire]

I won't be making Cloud and say, checked on my Clest chara works?

They may look like anime-ish though, still I don't know how to make spiky hairs and stuff, so far I've done my own version of Eriol (CCS)'s hair on my Hatsuya character.

 

[Venetia]

I was just using Cloud as an example, since when people make syndicated/exploited characters, they almost always start with him.

Anyway, you can do whatever you like. Just note that the Clest Template is verrrrry different from the HK Template, and you'll need to go through the same process as everyone else joining the team to start a new critique thread, then PM me your additions when they're 100%.

Thanks for your interest

 

[Finlander]

This may as well as be one of the best things ever.
Now I don't need to search as much as I would have earlier!
Thank you, HKCP team. You just made my day.

 

[Britchik]

New files have been added to the gallery! A peasant outfit made up of a shirt and trousers with suspenders has been uploaded to the Child album(s), with a number of recolours.

 

[Eriol Clowphengire]

Venetia, I would like to thank you for the palettes you've made and now I'm utilizing it on the Star Light / Clest template.

 

[busbuzz]

I hope i was a better spriter so i could help, this is an amazing project ive been hoping to see these templates easier use and here it is

 

[Britchik]

I forgot to mention this before. I've finished some boots for the child template, 3 different colours, and all have been uploaded to the gallery.

 

[Venetia]

3-25-08 : UPDATE - CHECK 1ST PAGE ANNOUNCEMENTS.

It's been a little bit since the last announcement, but something good has just happened. I won't say what exactly, but you'll find out when/if you become a team member.

Becoming a team member is easy! Just check out the first page to find out how. And don't bother trying to find out what the secret is! No one's going to tell you!

Otherwise, we're hard at work on making templates and adding files. Don't stop the support, you're our lifeblood!

I've gotten some inquiries about advertising this endeavor on other sites.

My position is: I, myself, as a GMod here, won't be participating in other forums. However, if you would like to advertise this project on another forum/site somewhere, just let me know, and I can make the graphics and give you the information you need. The more support, the better. However, this project will be exclusive to this site, despite advertising elsewhere.

Thanks and have a great night!

 

[Scribblette]

Something puzzles me. How do people decide on what palettes will suit these half-kaizers best? I understand there's a fair degree of learning and knowing what works in your eyes involved, but... wouldn't what palette works for the characters have more to do with what the palette of the tileset they're depicted in is?

Is it just what clothing palettes doesn't contrast wildly with the skin templates? I've been reading a thread on another forum (Way of the Pixel - Choosing Colors & Palettes) for determining base palette colors, but it gives no assistance on what level of saturation/brightness is decent for a mid-tone either.

Most of all, if these clothing palettes are defined here as they are, how is the tileset palette determined?

Apologies if this is the wrong topic to post in, I wasn't sure if it justified a topic of its own in a tutorial request section or whatnot.

 

[Grathea]

That's actually a good question, Scribblette.
Tileset palettes are actually under work by myself primarily, and maybe Britchik and Venetia. When they're released, there will be six or seven different swatches per material, so there's no need to worry.

As well, the colors in the default palettes are designed to match each other and be complementary, no matter what. The contrast and color ranges are all fairly similar, so color-choosing is more of an aesthetic thing than a stylistic necessity.
Did that explain things to you?

 

[Scribblette]

I think so, mostly. I've been trying to move on from using other people's palette fragments and creating a unified whole I can use for artwork myself - and something which would be compatible with other sensibly-paletted (word?) works out there like the HKCP, at that. Have learnt about the danger of neons with HSV, pastels being easy on the eye, read through what I could find on the subject online & searched RMXP, etc.

If you ever do feel like throwing up some of the palettes in progress as a demonstrative guide to how you work out what to use all up, it'd be fantastic. Though since you've pointed out it's all not so much a stylistic-necessity and more an aesthetic thing, perhaps I can trust in what I've learnt the past couple years. I'm just a little nervous since I'm (very slightly) colorblind and attempt to decide palettes based more on theory and values than by how it looks.

My previous post was in order to siphon off theory on what might define a bad palette (when it comes to someone creating their own tileset for use with the HKCP or otherwise). I don't yet see why ranges cycling through the color wheel with, say, on each row, 10 pastels on the left & a select 6 more saturated colors from the same range to the right, colors sharing similar ranges and contrast, might make for a bad palette... but again, thanks for the explanation.

 

[Showkaizer]

This is a very good question and one that I've looked into thoroughly while spriting.  For me the palette usually depends on the palette I use for my character sets rather than the tile sets. this is because I like to have my character sets stand out from the tile sets.

I do this by keeping in mind the differences in color contrast , but mostly saturation. For instance lets say that all my sprites' colors fade into a blue violet color (which they do) as they darken. meaning the absolute darkest color would be this blue violet. For a tile set to match this palette, I will often slightly desaturate the same blue violet  and use it as a base for my tile set's palettes. This assures that none of the tile set's dark colors will be saturated enough to dominate the sprites.

Uhh.. not a good enough explanation but I'm low on time. I just might run a tutorial on that...

 

[Scribblette]

Actually that's pretty helpful. I think I understand that, seems comprehensible enough . I was confused at first, then realized you must create swatches for materials rather than a 256 color palette fullstop to work with, as Gratheo indicated as well.

By sharing the faded-to-shadow colours to a degree you ensure unification of the palettes of the different tileset pieces, and by having the charsets slightly more saturated you ensure they don't blend in too strongly with the background, without having to create massively thick or black outlines around the characters as some do. And highlights hue-shift towards the shared colour of the light source, etc?

Any tutorials or pure and simple screenshots of in progress without any explanation I'm sure will be appreciated immensely by the many learners out there. And I really, really appreciate the answers by both you and Gratheo there. Is wonderful to learn.

Edit: I might hijack ShowKaiser's thread with further queries instead of this one, now, since this is delving into more theory and less pure HKCP.

 

[Odanoowari]

I think so, mostly. I've been trying to move on from using other people's palette fragments and creating a unified whole I can use for artwork myself - and something which would be compatible with other sensibly-paletted (word?) works out there like the HKCP, at that. Have learnt about the danger of neons with HSV, pastels being easy on the eye, read through what I could find on the subject online & searched RMXP, etc.

If you ever do feel like throwing up some of the palettes in progress as a demonstrative guide to how you work out what to use all up, it'd be fantastic. Though since you've pointed out it's all not so much a stylistic-necessity and more an aesthetic thing, perhaps I can trust in what I've learnt the past couple years. I'm just a little nervous since I'm (very slightly) colorblind and attempt to decide palettes based more on theory and values than by how it looks.

My previous post was in order to siphon off theory on what might define a bad palette (when it comes to someone creating their own tileset for use with the HKCP or otherwise). I don't yet see why ranges cycling through the color wheel with, say, on each row, 10 pastels on the left & a select 6 more saturated colors from the same range to the right, colors sharing similar ranges and contrast, might make for a bad palette... but again, thanks for the explanation.

Maybe I can help. Usually when I try to make different pallets for a single set I use two freeware programs.

Photo filtre(Filtre. That´s not a typo.) for color making and infraview for pallet making/editing. You can mostly go with infraview since it´s quickier, but using both programs to "play" with the colors till you are satisfied with the pallet is very easy and that´s what I do.

Photofiltre is great for creating palletes from scrath and infraview is better at fixing/editing it.


Anyway excuse me. I was just trying to help.

 

[Grathea]

Don't worry, this isn't dead. We've been working on stuff, I swear.
If you join the HKCP, you'll find out in detail and get the scoop on things before they happen!

Anyways, I've added a pair of eHKCP palettes to the gallery. eHKCP palettes use ten colors per swatch, and they should be usable for any style of game.
http://www.pixelcocktail.com/HKCP/Galle ... m=18&pos=7
http://www.pixelcocktail.com/HKCP/Galle ... m=18&pos=4

And here's an example of what you can do with them.
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/9746/treeon2.png[/img]http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/231/treekh3.png[/img]http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/9313/treean7.png[/img]

 

[busbuzz]

I can tell u HKCP is working hard ^^

 

[Venetia]

Yes, we have some large things in the works, they just haven't been posted, as they're WIPs. They'll be unveiled soon :3.

 

[Unrivaledneo]

Well now I have finaly decided to go with HK for BioFlux. Just gotta make everything a bit darker but should see how it goes.

Keep up the great work guys, maybe be adding some of my stuff to the HKCP.

 

[meian]

Oi.

I need a few HK zombie characters, so I'm about to go do some recoloring. And I notice that the non-standard colored templates are rather empty.



Assuming I go through the regular procedure of submitting my work through the normal venues, is this something you guys still need, or is it part of the hush-hush secret society, yet to be unveiled?

Basically, what I'm saying is, is that if I don't have to post a recolor or frankensprite in RA, I'd rather not.