Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
your client's preferences will help you avoid the pitfall of picking a color the client hates for your virtual
world design, and it will also help build a basic color framework to expand your palette. Not all clients can
tell you what color cerulean blue is, but if you show them a cerulean-based palette, they may like it. Perhaps
the irst thing you should do is to ask your client to name a few of his or her favorite colors. You can also
look for the client's color preferences in what he or she is wearing. If the client only wears black, be bold.
That powerful color goes well with red and blue, as well as silver and gold, so try that combination if you are
designing a personal space for that client.
7.4 COLOR, COLORED LIGHT, AND PERCEPTION
In general, someone with good color vision can see 10 million different colors. In fact, color perception is so
constant that the human brain will even compensate for the effect of colored light. When tested, most people
were able to ind the white color sample even when it was shown to them under different colored lighting.
This phenomenon is called
color constancy
[10]. Color vision starts with the rods and cone cells in your
retina, but color perception starts in the brain. Understanding how color and its use in architectural spaces
can affect the psychological perceptions and physiological state of the observer gives you an incredible tool
kit for creating unforgettable virtual spaces. Color is leeting, color is ephemeral, and yet it can be remem-
bered forever. As you settle down to design, ask yourself: How can my sculptural and architectural forms
be enhanced and empowered by colors in ways to make a virtual environment more visually interesting and
emotionally moving?
7.4.1
C
olor
, p
erCeiVed
s
Cale
, p
erspeCTiVe
,
and
p
rogression
in
an
e
nVironmenT
Color in the environment can change the way you perceive scale, perspective, and the progression of sur-
rounding space in an environment. To perceive these effects within an architectural space, you will need a
series of testing rooms. Figure 7.4 shows a simple connected box room design; it has a doorway in each wall,
so multiple rooms can be seen at once. Try building this simple model for yourself in your favorite model-
ing program and import it into your virtual sandbox.
Note:
this model, called House.dae and its physics
ile House_Physics.dae, is also available for download in the Chapter 7 content for this topic at http://www.
anncudworthprojects.com/. In the Firestorm Viewer, under Avatar/Preferences, turn on the Advanced light-
ing settings and Ambient Occlusion for your scene, lowering your draw distance so your computer can handle
the extra computation easily. Try changing the ceilings, walls, and loors by selecting the appropriate faces
of the model and modifying the settings in the Color Picker submenu.
1. Make the irst ceiling red (RGB=255,0,0); the second ceiling light gray (RGB=198,198,198); the
third ceiling medium blue (RGB=125,175,255); the fourth ceiling orange (RGB=255,111,0); the ifth
ceiling light yellow (RGB=255,255,195), and the sixth ceiling dark green (RGB=50,110,0). Stand
your avatar in the corner of one room; go into Mouselook and check out the walls and ceiling in your
camera view. Take a walk around, looking at all the rooms. Did you notice how aggressively the red
ceiling advances toward you and how the cooler blue ceiling pulled back? Look at the top panel in
Figure 7.4 to get a sense of this effect.
2. Turn the ceilings back to white (RGB = 255,255,255) and now try that same color progression on the
walls: red, gray, blue, orange, yellow, and green. How does this wall placement of color feel differ-
ent from ceiling placement? What color on the walls makes you feel more secure, more energetic,
or more relaxed? In Figure 7.4, the second panel down, this effect is illustrated.
