Color Associations - Landscape-Tactility

Landscapes/Tactility: Colors such as green and yellow (sometimes orange) and blue can be used to create earthen landscapes such as forests, deserts, quarries, and other natural settings. Examining the image above you can see evidence of these colors (yellow and blue are very low in chroma however) and how the game developer's used this palette for an earthen setting. The colors also affect the tactile nature of the ground. Green emulates the soft nature of earth/growth, yellow shows the delicate swell of warm foliage, and blue projects the solid cold weight of stone. Blue and violet are also used naturally for skies and clouded areas.

The image above uses blue and green, two cold colors to convey a frozen landscape. Blue is used tactily for water/ice, and green is used for an organic/gaseous texture. The video game developers push the visual association of a cold environment by using visually cold colors.

These cold colors affect tactility in interesting ways. Blue is a color that is visually associated with water, the sky, and ice; a liquid, a gas, and a solid. To this extent, cold colors such as blue can be used accordingly to manipulate the environment to the game developer's needs. (The image above uses blue to convey a fragile solid.)

Naturally, warm environments imply warm colors. Red, orange, and yellow are utilized in Soul Caliber IV to emulate fiery lava and molten rock. These blazing colors, when visually read together, affect tactility. They bleed into one another creating a liquid, melting effect which can be used in video games to suggest instability in the surrounding environment.

Color Associations - Sound

Color Associations can be linked to Sound (loud or muted colors), Environments/Landscapes, and Tactility (surface texture). In the following posts, these associations will be examined in the game Soul Caliber IV.

Sound: Any color has the potential to be loud, whether the color is cold or warm, the potential exists. The cause of a color's loudness is simply this: chroma (intensity of the color). If a color is more chromatic than another color, it will appear to be louder than the less intense color. For example, yellow can be naturally louder, more chromatic, than violet. However, if a loud color were to have its chroma lowered (by turning it into a shade, tone, or tint of that original color for example) a color that originally has less chroma than the tainted color could become louder than the result of the change. For example, natural violet could become louder than a shade of yellow since the yellow would have considerably lost a great deal of its original chroma/intensity becoming a shade. Note that in the image above, yellow and orange are extremely loud colors, and less chromatic colors are not as noticeable as the yellow, orange, and red flashes. One might think that warm colors are louder than cool colors; this speculation is wrong...

Examining the image above the burst of cool blue overpowers the patches of red in the image. Clearly the explosion of the cool color is louder than the warm color. The reason for this, as stated before is Chroma. Whichever color is the most intense will be loudest when placed side by side.

Conceptual Dimension of Color cont. 4

Blue- Blue is a soothing, intellectual, enlightening color. Associated with wisdom and knowledge, the color has many conceptual uses. In the game examined (Morrowind), blue is the dedicated color for the Keeper of the Museum of Oddities. Knowledge is the conceptual path chosen for this color in this scenario. The game developers further link this conceptual use of the color blue to other wise Orders within the game.

The Order of Heretics within Morrowind (shown above), who rebel against the oppression of the game's Mad King/God and seek to create a new realm that isn't ruled by madness, use the color blue as their order's official color. In this facet, blue is conceptually used for enlightenment, as an emotional indicator of peace and hope.

Conceptual Dimension of Color cont. 3

Yellow- Yellow is a warm, exuberant, and cozy color. Conceptually it can be linked to many comforting things: sunlight, flowers, gold/wealth, and fire. The emotions that these things dredge up in one's consciousness can be extended to video games and conceptually used in their settings. In the image above, a cold, secluded, night-time environment is depicted, conceptually barren and sparse. Countering this isolated cool space, game developers chose to place a lamp above an open, welcoming tavern (circled in white), a lamp which radiates a warm yellow glow. The placement of the conceptually placed color guides the players off the dark street and toward the populated area, the tavern, lead by the conceptual warmth and comfort or the color yellow.

Conceptual Dimension of Color cont. 2

Orange- Orange is a bright, vibrant, warm color which can be conceptually linked to being emotionally jubilant, flamboyant, and lively. In the image above, game developers chose to use orange as a stimulus to offset the cold stone walls of a castle within the game. Although the long halls are mostly dark and solely lit by few fire basins, developers chose to use the warm sun-like color to stretch the luminance of the small fire.

Conceptual Dimension of Color cont. 1

Violet- Violet is a color used to pronounce mystery, assert the regality of nobility, convey richness-either monetary or mental, and is also associated with the occult. In the image above, violet is the official color of the game's Mad King's attire; in this case developers clearly utilize it for the concept of royalty.

In the image above, the game uses violet for a priceless (using in-game currency) mystical device, linking its conceptual use to witchcraft and the occult. The sorcerer who it belongs to, just so happens, by the game developer's conceptual whim, to be clad in mystical, mysterious violet as well.

Conceptual Dimension of Color cont.

Green- Green can be a comforting color, representing health, nature, and growth, but there are alternate conceptual uses for the color green in video games as well. "You're looking a little green," is a common term used by people in response to sickness and in the game that was examined, similar negative conceptual uses for the color green were found. Green is prevalent in toxic swamp regions in the game. Green in the dedicated color of poison and paralysis spells in the game (shown and circled in white above). Green is the color worn by some characters who are driven by greed or are, in some instances, mad. The image below depicts the attire of a character who lives in the City of Madness; note that the entire outfit, from boots to bracers, originates from the color green.