On this thread I will be posting information, as I (and others who wish to comment) discover it, about color. The Generator Preview gives us some idea of what a breeding might look like, but unless one wants to do a hundred or more test breedings, it may still be difficult to predict the odds of getting close to the color one wants. And is there a way to calculate the odds that one parent's color will mask the other parent's color in a location, instead of blending with it? We know Enhanced Essences have less color drift than do Standard Essences, but what how big is the difference? How much more accurate are the colors from Greater as opposed to Lesser Pet Dyes? Do lighter colors drift more than darker colors do? If so, how much more? Does changing a pet's sex do anything to its colors?

While this is mostly a thread for me to track things on, please feel free to post your own test results pertaining to color here. Follow the usual rules toward your fellow players: be thoughtful, no spoilers, no dissing. Also, please don't post about how a color looks. Knowing that the blue you achieved looks darker than you imagined it would (for example) is interesting but not suitable for this thread. Yes, this is going to be a numbers- and math-heavy thread.)

I would like the data posted to contain the following information:

1. Post the type of color data you have in your first line, choosing from the following: Breeding, Dye Job, Essence Use, Gender Swap. (If anything else could possibly change a pet's color, please let me know. For example, what about Genetic Mutators?)

2. Skip a line and then begin by stating what you hoped to achieve--just a sentence or two. If using Dye, please specify the location you dyed (Eyes, Gene Two, Mutation One, etc.).

3. Links, URLs, or ID#s of the pet(s) you are posting about. If you are posting about an offspring's color, you can just post the offspring, if you want to keep the post short. Anyone who's interested can look up the parents from the offspring's page.

4. The actual Philter, Dye, or Essence you used. For a Breeding post, this includes anything used on the egg.

5. (Very important) Numbers. Every pet has ten color locations, so every pet has ten color codes. Please post each Location and its color code in either RGB or Hexadecimal. (Exception: for Dye Jobs, you only need to post the code for the area you actually used dye on.) This nifty site--

http://www.colorhexa.com/

--can easily convert from RGB to Hexadecimal and back for you. Post both Before and After codes. For a Breeding post, that means thirty codes--ten for mother, ten for father (the Before codes), and ten for baby (the After codes). For any Essence, you post twenty codes--ten from the colors you chose in the Generator (the Before codes) and ten from the actual pet produced (After Codes). A Gender Swap post would also require twenty codes, while a Dye Job only requires three codes: the area as it was Before the dye, the Selected code (the color you wanted to dye the area), and the area After the dye.

Why not just post links? Because pets can change. An owner may later decide to dye a pet's parent, dye a bred or generated pet, etc. Ideally, I want this information to remain useful over time.

6. (Optional) Calculate and post the numeric color changes/drift. The next post illustrates this simply, by showing a Dye Job. A more complicated situation, such as a Breeding, will include more calculations. You do not have to do this math. Forget about #6 if you prefer.

Also feel free to post your own theories about pet colors here. Ping me or anybody else you want to when you post (if you ping your own friends too often and annoy them, that is your problem ).

Glossary--
Drift: The amount an actual color differs from a desired color.
Masking: When an offspring's color in a certain location is identical or almost identical to one parent's color in that location, as if the other parent's color had had no effect at all on the offpring's color.
Swing: The range of possible colors in a given location on a Themed pet.

1. Dye Job

2. I wanted to change one of Benjamin's colors to a color I had used in my Iocane Latte Puffadore design that I submitted to the Fall Festival Themed Pets contest.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=901215

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Color Three. Before- R:129 G:170 B:183. Selected- R:254 G:253 B:246. After- R:228 G:217 B:221.

6. The desired change in R was +125 (254 - 129 = 125). Actual change was +159. The drift was therefore +34 (159 - 125 = 34).
The desired change in G was +83. Actual change was +47. The drift was -36 (47 - 83 = -36).
The desired change in B was +63. Actual change was +38. The drift was -25.
Total drift was therefore |+34| + |-36| + |-25| = 95.

The color I used in this location in my Iocane Latte design is actually R:246 G:251 B:254, defined as "light greyish blue" on the Colorhexa site. However, the original color was already a somewhat greyish blue ("slightly desaturated cyan"). Therefore, since I wanted a coffee latte-look, I entered the Iocane Latte color on Colorhexa, selected that color's yellow-end color on the Split Complementary Color chart, R:254 G:253 B:246, and entered it as the desired color, hoping the additional yellow-tint would counter the greyishness. Instead, I got "light greyish pink."

Theory: I should have used the Iocane Latte color's red-end color on the Split Complementary Color chart, R:254 G:246 B:247, to get a creamy-coffee look.

1. Dye Job

2. I wanted to change one of Benjamin's colors to a color I had used in my Iocane Latte Puffadore design that I submitted to the Fall Festival Themed Pets contest.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=901215

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Eye Color. Before- R:191 G:221 B:210. Selected- R:211 G:195 B:227. After- R:195 G:178 B:208.

6. The desired change in R was +20. Actual change was +4. The drift was therefore -16.
The desired change in G was -26. Actual change was -56. The drift was -30.
The desired change in B was +17. Actual change was -2. The drift was -19.
Total drift was therefore |-16| + |-30| + |-19| = 65.

The color I used in this location in my Iocane Latte design is actually R:195 G:195 B:227, defined as "light greyish blue" on the Colorhexa site. However, the original color was already a somewhat greyish green ("Light grayish cyan - lime green"). Therefore, since I wanted a lavender flower-look, I reviewed the results of 20Oct14, entered the Iocane Latte Eye Color on Colorhexa, selected that color's red-end color on the Analogous Color chart, R:211 G:195 B:227, and entered it as the desired color. The After color, defined as "Grayish violet," is only a total of |36| away from the Iocane Latte design color--the Red is perfect, the Green and Blue are a bit dark.

1. Dye Job

2. I wanted to change one of Benjamin's colors to a color I had used in my Iocane Latte Puffadore design that I submitted to the Fall Festival Themed Pets contest.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=901215

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Color Two. Before- R:208 G:218 B:210. Selected- 236, 201, 159. After-R:243 G:235 B:190

While I shall continue posting data, analyses will have to wait until after Fall Festival.

1. Dye Job

2. I wanted to change one of Arion's colors to a deep indigo that will hopefully combine better with the corresponding color of a potential mate.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=967500

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Mutation Color Two. Before- R:161 G:112 B:138. Selected- 45, 0, 103. After- R:066 G:017 B:122.

To be updated later...

1. Dye Job

2. I wanted to change one of Arion's colors to a that will hopefully combine better with the corresponding color of a potential mate.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=967500

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Gene Three Color Original R:082 G:151 B:071, selected 12, 8, 27, result R:017 G:003 B:030

1. Dye Job

2. I wanted to change one of Arion's colors to a that will hopefully combine better with the corresponding color of a potential mate.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=967500

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Gene one Color Original R:225 G:069 B:224, selected 43, 28, 94, actual R:007 G:018 B:052

Hasty dye job--writeup to follow

1. Breeding.

2. Bred Soul Armor to Blue Star Juniper.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1001387 &
http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=994831, producing
http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1048676 (Starsoul).

4. Used Philter of Acumen on the egg.

5. Soul Armor--Eye Color: R:112 G:255 B:255; Color One: R:092 G:245 B:236; Color Two: R:185 G:206 B:203; Color Three: R:055 G:062 B:088; Gene Color One: R:178 G:223 B:235; Gene Color Two: R:221 G:226 B:221; Gene Color Three: R:239 G:239 B:239; Mutation Color One: R:134 G:238 B:190; Mutation Color Two: R:245 G:248 B:243; Mutation Color Three: R:249 G:255 B:254.
Blue Star Juniper--Eye Color: R:112 G:239 B:239; Color One: R:245 G:241 B:238; Color Two: R:207 G:233 B:235 Color Three: R:136 G:225 B:240; Gene Color One: R:186 G:234 B:232; Gene Color Two: R:170 G:236 B:241; Gene Color Three: R:236 G:242 B:246; Mutation Color One: R:139 G:237 B:239; Mutation Color Two: R:246 G:245 B:246; Mutation Color Three: R:086 G:165 B:214.
Starsoul--Eye Color: R:112 G:251 B:248; Color One: R:136 G:242 B:237; Color Two: R:199 G:224 B:227; Color Three: R:127 G:214 B:240; Gene Color One: R:184 G:229 B:234; Gene Color Two: R:219 G:230 B:229; Gene Color Three: R:236 G:240 B:239

1. Dye Job.

2. Changing one of Perfect Tommy's colors to match the colors of Nova Pulse, The Strangely Mutated Qitari.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=929998 to match http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1036018

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Changed Color One from R:025 G:170 B:070. Nova Pulse's Color One is R:008 G:004 B:007, so I entered straight black, #000000. Result R:009 G:006 B:004--very close to Nova Pulse's color and within the parameters of Star-Crossed Griffi colors.

*

To have it documented online, here are the existing color ranges for Tagged Star-Crossed Qitaries.

Eye Color: R:000 G:074 B:239 to R:019 G:100 B:254
Color One: R:000 G:000 B:000 to R:015 G:017 B:014
Color Two: R:020 G:016 B:048 to R:050 G:045 B:079
Color Three: R:221 G:184 B:093 to R:255 G:213 B:123
Gene Color One: R:024 G:004 B:092 to R:059 G:039 B:127--mean R:042 G:022 B:110 = 2a166e
Gene Color Two: R:103 G:046 B:205 to R:130 G:079 B:234
Gene Color Three: R:240 G:199 B:043 to R:254 G:231 B:071--mean R:247 G:215 B:57 = f7d739
Mutation Color One: R:003 G:017 B:080 to R:039 G:050 B:114--mean R:021 G:034 B:097 = 152261
Mutation Color Two: R:034 G:008 B:085 to R:058 G:035 B:111--mean R:046 G:022 B:098 = 2e1662
Mutation Color Three: R:004 G:009 B:079 to R:035 G:047 B:099--mean R:020 G:028 B:089 = 141c59

1. Dye Job.

2. Changing one of Perfect Tommy's colors to match the colors of Nova Pulse, The Strangely Mutated Qitari.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=929998 to match http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1036018

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Changed Gene Color One, R:135 G:081 B:118, to match Nova Pulse's Gene Color One, R:043 G:019 B:112. In this instance, I simply entered R:043 G:019 B:112 as the desired color. Result, R:009 G:011 B:074, a pronouncedly darker, bluer drift. R:009 and B:074 are both darker than the lower limit for a Star-Crossed, though G:011 is within parameters.

1. Second Dye Job.

2. For this location, Gene One, the Star-Crossed Griffi upper color limit is R:059 G:039 B:127 and the lower limit is R:024 G:004 B:092, based on a review of existing Star-Crossed Griffies. This averages out to R:042 G:022 B:110, quite close to Nova Pulse's actual color. I concluded that I should try entering this color as the desired color, essentially trying almost the same color to see if it will drift less the second time, and if not, the direction of the drift.

3. http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=929998 to match http://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=1036018

4. Lesser Pet Dye.

5. Changed Gene Color One, R:009 G:011 B:074, to R:064 G:033 B:124. This is an improvement, at least; two of the three components, G and B, are within parameters. However, the R is too light, by 5 points.