Commando Nukem, on 13 December 2013 - 03:50 PM, said:
[size="2"]I was wondering if you guys could offer up some criticisms, and suggestions on my palette? I'm trying to nail a solid gritty look, but still have a decent range of colors, and I was wondering if any of you could spot where I might have weaknesses?
In general, there's pretty high contrast in the dark shades, which can pose problems if you'd like to have dark areas in your project - either harsh transitions between colors, or you might need to use colors from other ramps to make the transition fluid - which may, or may not work. Also, the change in the lightness/values could be more evenly distributed (Flesh tones/mud)
Most of your ranges also lack really bright hues (fading to white, or somewhere close), which can create some problems if you'd like to have some specular highlights on textures or create colored light fixture textures.
Yellow and hard orange can pose problems, since they like there's no proper color to fade them out in the dark - keep in mind that besides the palette, you still have the color map/shade tables to do.
Low amount of dark shades in the vivid red and vivid green - you can use faded red shades to make it a little more fluid, but the greens will still have the jump.
Not sure how you plan to use the grit range, but I'd make it more saturated myself - this depends on what you want. I't's nice to have some variety in gray textures - if you plan on doing some rusty/stained stuff, it's great to have an in-between range between the gray and the main brown range - Doom, Hacx & Supplice use a tan range for this, and works well, plus it can be used as another color. You can go the Cyclones route, and use a green color, in-between the main gray and green range - works great too. I really like the faded/soft blue range, since a desaturated blue can be used to spice up gray/metal textures/sprites very nicely.
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From my experience, I'm almost sure you'll have to do some tweaks in the palette once you get to working on art
![:D](https://forums.duke4.net/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)
Don't worry, usually it works out for the best. Keep in mind to always keep your true-color textures somewhere!
Creating and 8-bit palette is always a trade-off, it's either more shades or more fluid color transitions. Personally, I prefer the idea of a more themed palette (less hues, more shades), but that worked well for the projects I've had - not sure what you're planning to do.
Good luck!