Color Codes and You

[Silrie]

I have always had difficulty with color codes. This is not a secret; Lord knows I complain enough about it over the ooc channel. Yesterday, I decided to open a thread on color codes which addresses the following:

Judicious use of codes (where they must absolutely be used and where you can get away with not using them)

Where to code (what parts of a string (i.e. noun, adjectives, ) do you feel should bear the codes

Color examples (examples of the codes used to represent different colors i.e. color silver, metals, color gold, different shades of primary colors, etc)

These will vary, so I’d love the different takes on them.

So basically, if it has to do with color codes, I’d love any and all suggestions that I can look back on. It’s really disheartening to work hard on strings of an outfit only to have the entire thing completely disregarded, even when it’s obviously new, because the color codes suck. At this point, I am just really disappointed because I am under the impression that nicely-worded strings with no color will always take a back seat to poorly-worded strings with nice color.

What matters most to you all? The wording of the strings or the color which accompanies them?

Ana: Player of Silrie

[Pixie]

All of this is almost guaranteed to be super dependent on personal preference.

For me personally, on strings and color versus wording:

I could easily tolerate an outfit with NO color codes if it had excellent wording.

I could not tolerate an outfit with excellent wording and a disastrous choice of color codes.

I could not tolerate an outfit with poor wording and excellent color coding.

The two together is much preferred. Ghastly wording and heinous coloring is the worst case scenario. I would rather have no colors on great strings than bad colors on great strings. Good color and good strings together is what to shoot for. Neither is more important than the other -- they're equally vital (to me).

On what to color:

That's up to you. People do a lot of different things and have tons of different styles. I lean toward nouns, I think, but most of my strings are just based on what feels appropriate at the time.

Color swatches:

There is a thread under newbie help that Dice made to help people color code. It's -very- good:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1222

[Dice]

So agreed. I'll absolutely admit terrible color is worse to me than terrible wording. But no matter how prettily you color a string, if it's badly written or describing an outfit I can picture and don't like, I'll definitely not go for it either. Strings that mess up grammar to get 59 are just a no-go for me, period. Regarding color, I do have extremely specific and inflexible rules for the most part, as highlighted in the post Pixie linked, but it all breaks down to "smoothness". Color smoothly, by putting colors next to each other that are only one step "removed" and avoiding alternating colors/too many lights and too many darks in a row, and you'll end up with something that may not be revolutionary but should be pleasing to look at. I'd be happy to edit my post with the actual examples in codes rather than pictures if that might help - should have done that originally! But for an example:

{b{B{G looks better than {b{G{B, because the former one pairs two colors one step apart in brightness/darkness but within the same base color (b and B) and then pairs two colors one step apart in color but the same in brightness (B and G). This creates a visual smoothness, a sort of gradient that fades from one color to another. But the {b to {G transition in the second string breaks those rules, and so just doesn't look great.

I also try not to be too busy with colors. Don't use too many color switches in the same string, and especially not in the same world. From looking at Pixie's strings especially, I've seen that a long wash of dark color with small highlights of bright color creates this beautiful, deep look that seems rich and indulgent without being annoyingly vibrant.

I almost always color symmetrically over two or more adjacent words, but very rarely the whole string unless the intent of the outfit is to shock and awe. I very commonly color adjective/material, like "black velvet" or "midnight satin" or whatever I'm doing, but will also add color elsewhere to balance - in my mind, most strings do well with some color up front and some later, but not all the way through, and unless you're coloring it with an intentional block pattern, it looks good to vary the location of color throughout a whole outfit.

So an example (random not 59 strings), caps showing where I would probably color:

a BLACK VELVET cap topped with an extravagant GOLDEN PLUME
fine EMBROIDERY of BRIGHT GOLD tracing a tunic's DEEP NECKLINE
a BROADLY-CUT TUNIC sewn from BLACK VELVET, gathered at the waist

Some at the start, some at the end, sometimes in the middle, varying placement.

Some personal colors:

I do silver with either {D{w{W or {W{w{D;

I do gold with either {W{Y{y, {y{Y{W, or just {y{Y{y (too few characters in 'gold' sometimes to use three colors).

I do orange often as {r{R{Y{W for a brilliant fiery look, or sometimes {r{y{Y for a deeper autumn/fall kind of thing, much more muted.

I'm absolutely in love with {b{B{D{w{W for a darker blue, especially when paired with grey or silver accents, which I think I stole off Riette.

Also a big fan of blues that mix B and C, like {b{B{C{W or subtler variants like {b{c{D{W as I think Pixie highlighted in that other thread.

Again to give proper credit, Pixie's strings have taught me that EVERYTHING looks good in {W(lighter color)(darker color), like {W{M{m, or even
{W{w{D{m, though {b is hard for many people to read over long stretches of text. I sometimes do this now as {w{W{M{m too so that the color seems to emerge in the middle of the world from a base-colored string, which can look very neat, especially with a few characters of {w on each side.

And my plane is leaving so I hope this helps!

[Geras]

Color swatches:

There is a thread under newbie help that Dice made to help people color code. It's -very- good:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1222

I'd just point out that I don't think the PNG files in that link are going to be accessible to a screen reader.

In terms my own preferences, IMHO the string length itself is the most important thing. Getting everything to line up at the max length and whatnot. Like Dice, I try to keep my colours symmetric (and I think Dice is an excellent person to look to for guidance on this as well).

One thing I'd suggest that helped me a lot was just asking others for their thoughts and opinions. Merchants are usually very able and willing to help each other. And random other players (or even the OOC channel) can give opinions on colour options too. I'm happy to when I'm not IAW for work lol.

[Silrie]

Guys, all these replies are fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Dice, if you could, when you actually have free time (no rush) maybe add example codes under the picture links or however it's set up? And, I didn't quite see the actual codes in your non-59 string examples. Did you intend to showcase where you'd actually put them in?

Anyway, you guys are amazing; I am so bookmarking this thread. Keep the suggestions coming if there are any more! How about coloring jewelry and metals?

Ana