I'm not entirely sure how feasible this is with the code currently implemented; but as an artist, and as someone who's worked with pet-site PSDs before that are going to be used by others / for multiple edits and changes, I'm gonna suggest this just in case it is possible.

I think it would be really neat to have the ability to customize shading color and line-art color for BOTH pets, and avatars / avatar items the way we can color other aspects of them.

I'm gonna go into A LOT more detail below about my reasoning on this, so if you don't wanna read all that heck,

the TLDR suggestion is:
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Allow customizable color slots on every: pet, color changable avatar item, and avatar base itself that allows for lineart color and shading color changes.

Implementation would be similar to already present coloration methods; for avatars, it's pretty straight forward. For pets, it'd just be like the dye philters in a dropdown, or under 'manage pet'.

* Lineart color affects the entire pet.
* Lineart color for avatars has one for skin, one for hair, and one for all customizable outfit pieces.
- May or may not include one for eyes too.

* Shading color affects the whole pet.
* One shading color affects the avatar 'body', one shading color for the avatar outfit.
- While shading colors for each different customizable outfit piece would be nice, it might be too much to mess with.

* Anyone who owns the pet can change these colors at any time; no TP needed.
- Alternatively, make philters like the pet dyes (scale items, diamond items, whatevs) if that seems more appealing.
* Anyone can change these things about their avatar / avatar items at any time.
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Now here are my more in depth thoughts about this.

What really got me stuck on this was the ryori blue shading vs. the greyscale shading of everything else, but also when going through the pre-colored avatar items vs. the ones you can choose colors for.

The ryori blue shading looks really nice with some color palettes but really messes with others. I've noticed that it's on the list of things to revamp for consistency (which I assume means making it greyscale like the other pets), but even then, greyscale shading isn't nearly as good as being able to customize the shading color.

Same goes with avatars / avatar items. The newer pre-colored ones all have colored shading and colored lines, while the customizable ones always have black lines and greyscale shading, which again, in some cases can work, but others, just looks somewhat strange.

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Pets

As an artist, I know the power of colored shading and colored lines, and how much of a difference it can make to designs and artwork. I also know, that as helping with art on other petsites, as well as making PSDs usable for other people to make edits on, the layers for pets are PROBABLY like this:

* Base lineart is a layer.
* Base shading is a 'multiply' or possibly 'overlay' layer.

* Some different genes and each mutation probably has its own lineart layers.
* Some genes and each mutation probably has its own shading layers.

* Mutations also probably have masking layers (so nothing clips weirdly.)

If this is the case, then both lineart and shading layers would already be separated so they could be color altered similar to other how other pet colors can be.
Furthermore, this would mean that it's likely it would be very similar to code as any other pet color change would be, since I figure each different gene / color on a pet is a separate layer that gets color shifted individually.

In this case, lineart color changing would target ALL black lineart; so both the base lineart layer of the pet, and then all the mutation lineart that isn't already affected by current pet colors. Essentially anything that is a black outline (which is probably on separate layers from everything else).

Shading color changing would target ALL greyscale shading; so both base pet shading, and mutation shading (not currently affected by other pet color options). Which would stop weird clipping issues between pet bases and mutations.


And this, like pet dyes, could be able to be changed any time, multiple times.

Wild pets could still have their default lineart and shading being black and greyscale, and that can also be the default for hatched pets. Generated pets could have this option from the start, and it wouldn't cost any additional TP to change it (because it costing TP, I imagine, would also be messy, and it doesn't really make sense for a 'trait point' to go into line art and shading, since those aren't really traits.)

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Avatars

Avatars are essentially the same deal, though I would tend to think probably simpler. You can change the avatar colors at any time as is, and again, I feel the layer set up is probably the same. (Though I could totally be wrong, I'm just guessing.)

The main difference I see is that there are specific variations between base avatar (body / hair / eyes) and outfit colors.

I feel like the lineart color should affect things like body, hair, and MAYBE eyes separately, given these are most likely to be different colors, and one color for all might clash a lot.

The same with lineart for each customizable outfit piece; specifically outfits, head pieces, held items, wings, and 'back' items. Backgrounds don't really need it and most of them don't have outlines anyway.


Shading, however, I think should affect the whole body and be a singular color. So, same shading color for body, hair, eyes.

Each piece of an outfit could potentially have its own shading color, since I figure they are all have separate shading files, but if that's too much, I think one for all would be fine too. In the case of head items that change hair (specifically those that use the same haircolor as the avatar's current hair), then ideally those could take on the shading of the haircolor FOR THE HAIR REPLACEMENT, and have the shading of the rest of the item be its own thing or the 'outfit' shading. IF that's possible anyway.

It's very possible that the shading on those particular head items is all on one layer, (instead of separated between item and 'hair override') and if that's the case, then it'll just have to be lumped in with outfit shading(s).


Again, this is only for color-customizable items. Obviously, this has nothing to do with the pre-colored items.

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Anyway, that's all! whew.. bless if you read all of that, and if I'm wrong about the layer thing, I totally stand to be corrected. This is mostly speculating on how I think the artwork is managed, and if it isn't and is either merged in additional places, or more patchwork than I'm imagining, this might be a lot more trouble than I think it'd be.

This sounds really neat - I'd be all for it if the workload for krin and the artists wasn't too big! The one thing that's put me off of using recolors sometimes is the black lineart. What could happen is the lineart color could draw from a specific color on the outfit or item and use that as lineart, but idk.

Thanks, and yeah! I'm kinda the same way with some pets / items, where the outlines are just... too stark against the rest of the colors, and it makes everything really flat and clashy. So I end up passing on those, even if the designs are otherwise pretty neat.

In terms of workload...

Theoretically, (again, if my thoughts on the set-up of the layering in PSD files is right) it shouldn't be too much work for the artists, if any. The most they would have to do is upload separate PNG layer files of the lineart and the shading, but they would already have the actual art finished and don't have to draw anything more than they already have or would normally. aka, no more art required, only potential file separation (if lineart and shading aren't and need to be separately uploaded.)

If files aren't set up like I think they are, and the lineart and shading are merged onto one layer in the PSD files instead of separate ones for each, then it could be more of a problem. Though this would mean that the lineart and shading (as a single layer) is put on top of the rest of the design's colors and as one layer, it could still potentially be color-shifted... it would just mean the lineart and the shading would always have to be the same color and couldn't be separate ones. Still, though, this doesn't require anything from the artist, because in this case, this file would already be uploaded to the database, and currently used as-is on all the pet / outfit / avatar art.


On the coding side, given that this would just be applying color pickers to those already present layers, I don't think it'd necessarily be much new code, so much as just reusing some current code with some different targets. This I can't speak as much to, given my coding experience is very limited, but from what I do know, I doubt it would be a new process, or require any new knowledge than what is already there for other color-customizing.

So I can only hope that the work would be minimal! c':

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As for the picking of a color already present to be the lineart... this isn't something I'd necessarily recommend. While it could be a fun idea, a randomized color-picker from already present colors, or a linked color alteration from already present colors WOULD probably need new / not-yet present code to be implemented, as I don't think there's something like that on site at the moment. (Of course, I'm pretty new, so I could be mistaken.)

Plus, it could turn out looking awful. For instance, if you have a mostly black- dark red ish design, with some glowing motes that are more of a brighter off-white, that could look really neat with a purple or blue shading color / line art. There might not be any purple in the design, but usually 'cool' shadows with 'warm' colors can look really good. An example of this with a ryori:


https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=6117455

The only changeable colors used in this ryori are 'blacks', 'whites' and reds. But the blue shading really pulls it together, despite the design only using warm colors. That said, you wouldn't get that kind of shading if a randomizer automatically picked the color from the colors present in the design alone. (Props to Atriella for making such incredible ryoris!!)

On the other hand, you might get something that auto-chooses, say, one of the really light pinks on the flowers for the line art color. ... which would look very odd and off against the darker elements of the design, and since it's automated, you'd just be stuck randomizing this until you get a color you like. At least if I understand your suggestion right!

If you just mean lineart is tied to either a specific gene color for pets, or a specific accent color for avatars, then.. well, you can still run into the same issue. It'd just be less of a randomizer problem, and more of a 'well, now I have to be stuck with using something in this color-range for [X] accent so the lines look decent' problem.

In my opinion, making it completely customizable and not randomized or tied to something already there would be less work to implement and ultimately have more favored results I think! Though others can totally disagree with me on that if they think otherwise. c':

I meant something like the precolored avi sets - like for example the spellcrafter's tunic (steel) and the recolor can have the same colors but the lineart is black on the recolor and greyish on the steel. I can see how random lineart colors could screw something over in a majestic way lol. Maybe it could take from the base colors? somehow? idk.

tbh for that ryo (and pretty much all of them unless they're blue-themed) I don't like the blue shading. I find it really hard to fit in designs but that's just me.

I hope this does become a thing, and I know krin and the artists will figure something out! I'm also unfamiliar with photoshop rip.

I have seen that in recolors before lol.
Maybe just a set of recolors with like, different lineart? The black lineart IS very off-putting sometimes. But I can definitely see how it'd be difficult to do this on EVERYTHING......

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=96560&page=1#5 Author: Mystiria827 Time Posted: 2/8/2021 at 7:09 PM I have seen that in recolors before lol. Maybe just a set of recolors with like, different lineart? The black lineart IS very off-putting sometimes. But I can definitely see how it'd be difficult to do this on EVERYTHING......

Ye, redoing / making different lineart would be a lot of work for artists. At that point, it just might as well be a new item. And furthermore, recolors with different lineart still don't actually solve the problem of 'a static lineart color that clashes with customized colors', if there's any set, pre-determined lineart color. It's just the black lines problem all over again, only it's not black, it's [x] color.

But yeah, gosh, the black lines... I'm lucky that I like black and gold themes, so it isn't too bad all the time, but some of the time it's... unfortunate. c':