Palette Fun

If your monitor is not in high or true color mode, you can not get the full effect of this tutor. Also, these are a lot of images on his page, and it might a few minutes to load completely
This section covers various attributes of palette loading. The Quake 2 palette is the palette I am uses for this discussion.
Also, on the 16.7 million color images I was forces to save them as JPGs, that's why they look glassy

colors1.jpg (6395 bytes)The color wheel from PSP 5 in high color
colors1a.gif (6357 bytes)Loading the q2 palette to the nearest color.
colors1b.gif (13837 bytes)Loading the q2 palette with error diffusion

colors2.jpg (5036 bytes)The color selection area from PSP 4
colors2a.gif (6462 bytes)Loading the q2 palette to the nearest color.
colors2b.gif (14199 bytes)Loading the q2 palette with error diffusion

By loading your palette to a high colored image like the ones above, you can learn what colors work the best with the palette. This is useful when learning a new palette.

airbrush2.jpg (1980 bytes)Red, green, blue
airbrush2a.gif (3388 bytes)loading the q2 palette to the nearest color
airbrush2b.gif (4746 bytes)Loading the q2 palette with error diffusion

airbrush1.jpg (1869 bytes)Some colors from the q2 palette
airbrush1a.gif (4555 bytes)loading the q2 palette to the nearest color
airbrush1b.gif (6116 bytes)Loading the q2 palette with error diffusion

From these airbrushed images you can learn that it is best to work with existing colors form the palette you are working in. Usually on a 16 line of colors it is best to choose one of the colors in the middle of that line and use it in high color model.

 

From examining the all of the images above, you can tell that certain way of loading a palette give a certain effect. You would want to load to the nearest color if you were drawing clean metal or flesh, but you might want to load your palette through error diffusion for something dirty or grainy, etc. Its all up to the artist really. Though some people never learn much about this and they continue on one method, and they can never get the proper look to anything they are drawing. I suggest for most cases that you load your palette to the nearest color.