Need help with colors

What do you think of the colors? I think the main problem is with the dress, there's not a lot of contrast against the background, and this style won't have outlines. Of course the background won't be all blue, but still. Also, I've been told the sky color might be too jarring and hard to look at.

The colors look fine to me. A gradient for the sky would make a world of difference. Particularly, a gradient that is lighter at the bottom would make those long shadows more convincing.

The character's face looks sunburned, but I suspect she symbolizes the sun so a sunburn may be appropriate.

It's totally readable as-is, but there's always room for improvement. I think the current sky colour is fine. Here's an abandoned game that uses a similar colour palette with no outlines, you may be able to refer to it to resolve some of your concerns.

I'm not sure about using gradients in this game... I'll have a bunch of background objects, it won't be just blue sky (butts, mountains, etc), but I think I'll avoid gradients to keep the style more consistent. I still get the feeling that the outline of her dress isn't as visible as I'd like it to, but for some reason yellow is the only color that feels right for the mood I want, anything else seems to change her personality (or lack of it) completely.

Here's an animated gif just because:

I think I'll avoid gradients to keep the style more consistent.

I personally feel this is wise, flat colours for everything is a good look. Lovely in motion. Will she ever have arms, though?

I personally feel this is wise, flat colours for everything is a good look. Lovely in motion. Will she ever have arms, though?

Not sure. I made the sprite for another game where she was supposed to have no arms. But maybe I'll just make everyone have no visible arms as part of the style, would save me some trouble because I'm awfully slow at making sprites. But I will give it a shot, the arms would help a lot with the jumping animation and I could make her look classier while walking.

I really like the dropping / ground collision animation, by the way!

I think there's good contrast between the dress and the background. You'll have to add the butts and mountains before you can really judge how well it works.

When I'm picking color pallets I create rules for how to vary the colors. Backgrounds must have 16 bits less red and 16 bits more blue than foregrounds. Highlights are 20% more white for colors with a value over 50%, 10% for colors with a value under 50%. I know it sounds complicated. Just make up the rules as you go along. Write them down. Then whenever you question your color choices, refer to your notes, AKA: artistic direction.

You'll have to add the butts

wat

Quote from: egomassive on May 02, 2014, 18:27:48

You'll have to add the butts

wat

You said it first. Will this game be suitable for all ages?

I'll have a bunch of background objects, it won't be just blue sky (butts, mountains, etc)...

What in God's name, I meant to say "clouds", not "butts". Just... what.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, both of you. You made some interesting points Ego, about the light and dark parts of the sprite, and I already work a bit like that with the highlights and shadows, but couldn't really follow the "16 bits less red" part O.o

The daltonism thing is really interesting!

EDIT: For Christ sake, it was this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-butt-plus/apmlngnhgbnjpajelfkmabhkfapgnoai
I feel like an idiot.

but couldn't really follow the "16 bits less red" part O.o

I suppose what he meant was that the background colour should have an 8-bit red component (0-255) of 16 units less than that of the foreground colour (and 16 units more for the blue component).

EDIT: For Christ sake, it was this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-butt-plus/apmlngnhgbnjpajelfkmabhkfapgnoai
I feel like an idiot.

I knew I saw something like that somewhere! It's a joke about the Power of the Cloud™

Quote from: Raicuparta on May 02, 2014, 23:58:20

but couldn't really follow the "16 bits less red" part O.o

I suppose what he meant was that the background colour should have an 8-bit red component (0-255) of 16 units less than that of the foreground colour (and 16 units more for the blue component).

Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking saying bits. I usually adjust my colors in hexadecimal. Each color is represented by 2 digits. I like to keep the second digit a 0 or an 8, and I vary the colors by incrementing/decrementing the first digit. Changing #808080 to #708080 decreases the red value by 16 in decimal.