zerodowned
Sorceror
I didn't write this, found it on the Sphere forum years ago, saved it and just found it again today while cleaning out computer.
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By: Mithrandir
From: sphereserver.net forums
Hue editing 101-
Ok. First things first. When you are looking at a hue, it shows up as a gradient, usually darks on the left that blend to a color on the right. There are three parts to any hue. Those three parts are the Shadows, the Midtones and the Highlights. The Shadows are the darks, on the left. The midtones are the colors in the middle. The highlights are the colors on the right, and they are usually the brightest.
An object in UO also possesses shadows, midtones and highlights. Take a platemail breastplate for example. It has a good range of these three attributes. It's shadows are dark, the midtones are neutral, and the highlight is very bright, close to white in fact. What this means in terms of the hues is, whatever color is in the last little bar on the right is going to be that highlight, the brightest color on the object. So, if that color in the hues is white, your object is going to be very shiny if it has a bright highlight. If you put a dark color in place of the highlight, your object is going to look funky. So it's best to stick with this kind of formula when making colors:
When you double click on a spot in the hue editor, it pulls up something like this:
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
It should be a bunch of little bars, with space for text above, and a gray bar beneath. The white space on the top allows you to name your new color. The bar on the bottom is the spreader. Which I will explain in a moment.
For this sort of mini tutorial, we're going to make a vibrant, shiny red color. Step by step.
1) Open the hue editor.
2) Back up your hues file just in case.
3) Open your hues.mul file if it isn't already.
4) Scroll down a ways and find a black entry, one that has no color in it. The first space in your hues file is one like this, DO NOT OVERWRITE IT. Scroll down and find another one.
5) Double click the all black color bar.
6) A new box should appear. It says "Range Builder" on the top. It is the bunch of bars with the space to name your color and the spreader on it I described earlier on. Within this box, a set of little bars should be in the middle. Each of the spaces should be filled with black. Double click the one farthest to the right.
7) A color picker should now be on your screen. Choose White and click "ok".
8) Now, you should see one of the bars has been filled in with White. That is going to be our highlight. Pick one of the black bars a few spaces to the left of the white bar and double click it.
9) On the color picker, choose a nice Red. Then click "ok".
10) Ok. Now you should have one red bar and one white one. The rest should be black. The Red is going to be the midtone, the color that defines the overall hue making up an object. Now, left click on the black bar farthest to the left and hold it down. Now drag over to the right. A blue line should drag with you as you hold down on your left mouse button. This blue line should highlight from the black farthest to the left to the red in the middle. It will look something like this:
B is for black, R is for Red, W is for white
-----------------------------------------------------
| B |B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B| R |B|B|B| W |
11) Now, click "Spread". You should have a range of color now, that goes from black to red with varying shades in between.
12) Now, click on the red bar at the far left and hold, then drag over to the white bar.
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|These are varying shades from red to black| R |B|B|B| W |
13) Click "spread" again.
We're pretty much finished now. To see the results save and close the editor, then go test it in game. You can use axis to find the color in it's built in color picker and color things with it. Keep in mind because each object has different shadows, midtones and highlights, the color will look different on varying objects. Hope this helps.
****Added by Tracker:
Clothing is almost all highlight, except for cloaks, which have a complete range of colors. Colors that start as neutral color (instead of starting white) look natural on them.
Armor is mostly midtone, with a few bright highlights. Colors that start very bright and quickly turn dark look very good on them.
Weapons tend to be mostly dark tones, so colors that have bright midtones that fade slowly work well.
The normal dye-tub colors tend to be almost completely neutrals, with the highlights and shadows barely changing. This is why they look so flat and boring. To avoid this, always make the darkest parts of the shadows (the last 4 boxes or so) nearly true black.
There are certain "formulas" that you can take to make certain types of colors. To make a very bright color, for instance, that still looks realistic, I recommend making the entire right-hand third of a color be a washed-out color, with no "gradient" in that third, just a flat color. Then spread that color over the midtone third, and leave the ending third very black. You'll end up with a shiny, silky color that looks natural, but interesting.
It's very, very difficult to get "mixed" colors to look good together in one hue. Generally, I only recommend doing this with close-together colors, such as teal and blue, red and orange, or green and blue. Red-purple colors end up making things look unnatural, and terrible.
-----------------------------------
By: Mithrandir
From: sphereserver.net forums
Hue editing 101-
Ok. First things first. When you are looking at a hue, it shows up as a gradient, usually darks on the left that blend to a color on the right. There are three parts to any hue. Those three parts are the Shadows, the Midtones and the Highlights. The Shadows are the darks, on the left. The midtones are the colors in the middle. The highlights are the colors on the right, and they are usually the brightest.
An object in UO also possesses shadows, midtones and highlights. Take a platemail breastplate for example. It has a good range of these three attributes. It's shadows are dark, the midtones are neutral, and the highlight is very bright, close to white in fact. What this means in terms of the hues is, whatever color is in the last little bar on the right is going to be that highlight, the brightest color on the object. So, if that color in the hues is white, your object is going to be very shiny if it has a bright highlight. If you put a dark color in place of the highlight, your object is going to look funky. So it's best to stick with this kind of formula when making colors:
When you double click on a spot in the hue editor, it pulls up something like this:
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
It should be a bunch of little bars, with space for text above, and a gray bar beneath. The white space on the top allows you to name your new color. The bar on the bottom is the spreader. Which I will explain in a moment.
For this sort of mini tutorial, we're going to make a vibrant, shiny red color. Step by step.
1) Open the hue editor.
2) Back up your hues file just in case.
3) Open your hues.mul file if it isn't already.
4) Scroll down a ways and find a black entry, one that has no color in it. The first space in your hues file is one like this, DO NOT OVERWRITE IT. Scroll down and find another one.
5) Double click the all black color bar.
6) A new box should appear. It says "Range Builder" on the top. It is the bunch of bars with the space to name your color and the spreader on it I described earlier on. Within this box, a set of little bars should be in the middle. Each of the spaces should be filled with black. Double click the one farthest to the right.
7) A color picker should now be on your screen. Choose White and click "ok".
8) Now, you should see one of the bars has been filled in with White. That is going to be our highlight. Pick one of the black bars a few spaces to the left of the white bar and double click it.
9) On the color picker, choose a nice Red. Then click "ok".
10) Ok. Now you should have one red bar and one white one. The rest should be black. The Red is going to be the midtone, the color that defines the overall hue making up an object. Now, left click on the black bar farthest to the left and hold it down. Now drag over to the right. A blue line should drag with you as you hold down on your left mouse button. This blue line should highlight from the black farthest to the left to the red in the middle. It will look something like this:
B is for black, R is for Red, W is for white
-----------------------------------------------------
| B |B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B|B| R |B|B|B| W |
11) Now, click "Spread". You should have a range of color now, that goes from black to red with varying shades in between.
12) Now, click on the red bar at the far left and hold, then drag over to the white bar.
-----------------
|These are varying shades from red to black| R |B|B|B| W |
13) Click "spread" again.
We're pretty much finished now. To see the results save and close the editor, then go test it in game. You can use axis to find the color in it's built in color picker and color things with it. Keep in mind because each object has different shadows, midtones and highlights, the color will look different on varying objects. Hope this helps.
****Added by Tracker:
Clothing is almost all highlight, except for cloaks, which have a complete range of colors. Colors that start as neutral color (instead of starting white) look natural on them.
Armor is mostly midtone, with a few bright highlights. Colors that start very bright and quickly turn dark look very good on them.
Weapons tend to be mostly dark tones, so colors that have bright midtones that fade slowly work well.
The normal dye-tub colors tend to be almost completely neutrals, with the highlights and shadows barely changing. This is why they look so flat and boring. To avoid this, always make the darkest parts of the shadows (the last 4 boxes or so) nearly true black.
There are certain "formulas" that you can take to make certain types of colors. To make a very bright color, for instance, that still looks realistic, I recommend making the entire right-hand third of a color be a washed-out color, with no "gradient" in that third, just a flat color. Then spread that color over the midtone third, and leave the ending third very black. You'll end up with a shiny, silky color that looks natural, but interesting.
It's very, very difficult to get "mixed" colors to look good together in one hue. Generally, I only recommend doing this with close-together colors, such as teal and blue, red and orange, or green and blue. Red-purple colors end up making things look unnatural, and terrible.
