Any texturing advice for a color blind modder?

[SiliconPyro]

I enjoy modeling. I can apply a texture and get a part working in KSP just fine. I even added engine bell glow. I am crap at actually creating a texture though. I'm color deficient and not particularly artistic. I tried outsourcing textures, but that just didn't work.

So can anyone recommend a way to make my parts look decent without detailed textures?

I'm using Blender and Gimp.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

That most be really frustrating, you have my respect for sticking at it all the same, I'd think the best bet is for you to adopt a stockalike color scheme, as then at least you'd have a reference, although as CB affects different peoples color perception in different ways that could be really rubbish advice, but although not restricted as you are, I'm awful with color, black and white and shades of grey fine, but when it comes to proper color I'm decidedly average. Hope you manage to work something out.

Cheers

Spanner

[SiliconPyro]

Thanks for the encouragement, Spanner. I'm considering solid grayscale, just different shades for different faces of the model.

[Porkjet]

Most rocket and plane parts in KSP and in real life are mostly black and white anyway, theres so much you can do with "just" greyscales, really, you shouldn't let that stop you from learning to create proper textures.

[Dispatcher]

Try using a color circle chart which symmetrically arranges primary and complementary colors. The colors which appear the same to you (or grey) can still be used since the palette lets you get an idea of what color or shade combinations may work well together.

[CaptainKipard]

First of all greyscale will get you about 90% of the way towards a complete texture. Afterwards all you'd need to do is ask someone to create a single layer of colour that you can then apply by using the Hue or Multiply mode.

Or you can do it yourself, which will be more difficult to get just right, but you can use the colour picker a lot. You don't need to see the actual colour, as long as you know its RGB number. Afterwards you can slide the brightness of the colour to your liking.

I would go for the first option, and I'd be happy to make colour layers for you. PM me if you want.

[SiliconPyro]

First of all greyscale will get you about 90% of the way towards a complete texture. Afterwards all you'd need to do is ask someone to create a single layer of colour that you can then apply by using the Hue or Multiply mode.

Or you can do it yourself, which will be more difficult to get just right, but you can use the colour picker a lot. You don't need to see the actual colour, as long as you know its RGB number. Afterwards you can slide the brightness of the colour to your liking.

I would go for the first option, and I'd be happy to make colour layers for you. PM me if you want.

I think that first option is best. I'll just stick to greyscale and focus most of my energy on models and actually making the part work. I appreciate the offer and I may take you up on it. Likely, though, I'll just finish everything in grey and release to the public that way and if anyone wants to help, they're welcome to give it a shot.

Thanks for the responses, guys. Once I get my new computer (my laptop's GPU died so I've got a new rig in the mail) I'm going to have a nice 24" monitor to work with and I'm going to put a lot more energy into finishing my gimbaled SRB, then move on to some other projects.

[nli2work]

which colors are you blind to? Red/Green? Blue/Green? all colors?

you can also type the RGB values. R+G = yellow; G+B = teal; B+G = violet.

Red = 255,0,0

Blue = 0,255,0

Green = 0,0,255

Yellow = 255,255,0

Teal = 0,255,255

Violet = 255,0,255

adjust the numbers equally will adjust the value/brightness

Black = 0,0,0

White = 255,255,255

Gray = 127,127,127

But as Cap. Kip said, 90% of colors in KSP are gray, white, and black. once you have that, lay down a few block selections and fill in colors using the RGB numbers.

[SiliconPyro]

I have trouble with red and green, blue and purple, yellow and green . . . I just have trouble with everything. I understand the numbers, but still when I have worked on stuff, then I have my wife or kids check it, it's all they can do not to laugh sometimes. I make some real ugly stuff.

[CaptainKipard]

Let me know when you create a development or release thread for your stuff.

[nli2work]

hm. Well damn, that's real tough.

Few general guides might help. You know the numers work so with that you can be certain other people will see the color close to what you intended. It'd just be a matter of figuring out the right number combinations.

keep colors toward the middle. Instead of 255,0,0 red; go with 180,0,0; or 180,5,5 red.

complimentry colors is generally good... combinations like Yellow/Blue; Orange/Violet; are generally good. Neighboring color combinations are good too... Yellow/Orange/Red. Or a mix of the two... Blue/Violet/Orange.

The thing with mixing different colors is you want them to be separated by value, their lightness. If you lay down complimentry colors with similar values close to each other they play tricks on the eye and looks unpleasant. colors are divided by values from lightest to darkest: Yellow-Orange-Red/Green-Blue-Violet. That's why you don't tend to see Red/Green combinations because their values are close together.

Working in "3s" will keep things simple and effective. 3 values, Dark, Medium and Light; 3 colors in your color scheme; 2/3rds one value/color; 1/3rd a combination of the other two, which can also be divided into 3rds again.

Edited August 2, 2014 by nli2work

[CaptainKipard]

complimentry colors is generally good

This must be a matter of taste. Complementary colours look horrible to me.

Here's a representation of useful colour combinations you can use. I'd stay away from complementary though, which is the opposite colours on a colour wheel.

You can rotate the shapes on those colour wheels any way you like and pick those colours in GIMP.

[nli2work]

those wheels are great tool.

The main thing is once you've sort out the values, lights and darks, you can make almost any color combination work after that.

[Dispatcher]

My color vision has tended to be good, but my choice of color descriptions is not always ... refined. To follow up on Cpt. Kipard's color wheel chart, I'll try naming the colors for your reference. Starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise: red, orange, light orange, gold, yellow, light green, green, light blue, blue, dark blue, purple, violet.

You can even find interactive color wheels online. Some are fun to experiment with; I think they would be interesting even in greyscale. Good luck!

[SiliconPyro]

Just checking in to thank you guys for your input. I'm working on a simple probe core right now, which will be greyscale, but I'll try those color wheels on a future project and see how it turns out.