Colors in MD

[Muratus del Mur]

There is something that i consider obvious, but obviously its not obvious to most

Colors, in MD, have a very clear symbolistic and purpose from my point of view. I thought to share these things so they are said, for those of you that are curious about the subject, or people that contribute to md various stuff, as it would be amazing if they could follow the same color guidelines, even if i consider it is something very personal to each person.

 

My language will become more "intuitive" in the next part, as i am trying to describe what i feel more than what i think. I hope its clear enough.

The background colors, are soft beige, mixed with dark brown and the obvious black&white of the drawings. Shiny Gold is the symbolic contour, or underline, of some things.

For me, the goldish+beige+dark brown+black+occasional sharp/dark red, are the md color theme. They build together a certain feeling. This feeling changed from the old md interface a lot, and in the new you have more red, and brighter gold shine. Together with the colors, my attitude towards md development changed too.

As a random fun fact, the pale brown background that i kept from the old interface, is a tree bark photo of a tree i was standing under while planning md stuff, and i will probably keep that background a long time. The page edges, are made back when i had no clue how to make them "artificially" on computer, so i actually crumbled a paper and burned the edges then scanned it  (i still have the paper).

Ok back to the colors..   

Colors are strictly under control, its like a color mafia, only some things are allowed to benefit from "color".  The more color something has, the more unusual it is. You noticed avatars are black, and color means just 'gold'. However, highly wild feautures such as illusions, bring color even to avatars.

The anniv creatures, up to the latest one that was colored by Aia, have also some of the color codes and symbolistic that hide info about how md dev is going in that period. 

 

Now a subject for research.

For me purple/violet/indigo, in md, means "end of the line", "death", "all powerful and unusual" . Something that is this color should not have anything above it, that is more powerful, cool, or that exceeds that particular functionality. This is how i feel about this color, and when i work on md i do just what i feel, i don't even check if its the same with what it should be according to my own guidelines. So, i think its interesting to double check this, and see if i used purple/violet/indigo in any palce that doesn't fit with what i said above. Let me know of your findigs!

 

Shapes and colors

Colors and numbers for me are one and the same. It is only natural that shapes should follow colors too, as shapes are just pairs of numbers.

I am 101% aware of sizes and numbers i use for sizes in md, but like i said i just follow a feeling. It could be interesting to check these proportions and see if they mean anything from an other perspective. At first glance they don't seem to follow golden ratio that is so obsessively praised by some. Again let me know if you find something, it might be worth a wp.

 

ok i will stop here, its weird to write about such things without face2face feedback, but if you have questions, or are curious about something, i will answer.

I hope you enjoyed it.

[Curiose]

Hope you don't mind me bringing up an old thing from the past:
But Nightshade used to be a common mention. I don't know if people mention it any more ( I don't remember it's context, but I assume it was a necrovian drug) or if even the freshest Necrovians even know of it's existence in MD.

Nightshade the flower is a dark purple'd hue in real life. 

There is deadly nightshade the flower, and then there is also the family "nightshade" which carries vegetables and berries such as eggplants. huckleberries, tomatoes. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Curiose

[Muratus del Mur]

thats a good remark

[Curiose]

I am going to make an edit to clarify the point a tad.

[Jubaris]

There might be creatures that have some shade of purple (at least in my male simplistic eyes) like the pimped grassan and the 14th anniv hollow. Or are those shades of pink  

[Curiose]

1 minute ago, Jubaris said:

There might be creatures that have some shade of purple (at least in my male simplistic eyes) like the pimped grassan and the 14th anniv hollow. Or are those shades of pink  

I think It's more pink than it is purple; or at least it is not the same shade of purple that would otherwise connotate deadly consumption.

[Muratus del Mur]

pimped has this yes, as i am not intending to make anything more fancy on the grasan branch other than the pimped.

Anniv crits might use this color as they are close to the end of the line for their presence as anniv crit, ...its possible, i dont really know as i never checked or made it intentional. let me know if you discover anything interesting. Also some have symbols on them, that speak about changed i made in that period or shortly after. Its an interesting subject if you wish to digg deeper into it.

[Muratus del Mur]

pls consider all the words i used to describe a color, not all purple is death, some should be viewed as end , end of the line for something, or "ultimate" thing.

[Chewett]

@Muratus del Mur we previously discussed the "colours" of lands, did you want me to post what we discussed and make it "official"?

[Aelis]

On the textual side:

I've only found mention of the color purple twice in the Adventure Log. I don't know who wrote that part of the AL, but in it, Mur is seen carrying and opening a purple box.

Spoiler

 

Quote

Page 209 [2008-09-04 02:13:29 - The Shade Bllance - Mur.]
After transporting the gifts from the archives, Mur relaxes a bit. "Not much untill the Festival beginns...hmmm...lets open a box see whats in it". He opens a big purple box, inside it several bottles of champagne. "Ohh..niceee...lest have a party, no one will notice they are missing :D". Mur does a "pointless party" in the depth of the undergorund, with free drinks for all. "look at them ...hk... ..so..hk ...zzzzz". Probably he will have a strong headache after :P. Outhere one of the spies thinks "Now that everybody is at Mur's party, its a good moment to steal those docs ..hehehe"

 

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

Page 213 [2008-09-05 01:10:38 - The Shade Ballance - Br.]
Braiton paces back and forth by the cage impatiently. WHY can't I find them? Just then he sees someone running past carrying a bright purple box, muttering something about an upcoming festival. "The festival! That's it!" He greedily begins arranging himself for a favorable impression at the Festival.

 

 

This festival was related to a RPC/PWR contest:

https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/493

... which I believe to be this one:

https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/461

I don't know if purple here would mean the "end of line" for the contest or the "all powerful and unusual" concept associated with RPCs, but I find it quite interesting that the purple object was a box...

[Aelis]

Now, on the visual side:

I found two very different violet/purple/indigo occurrences (to me, at least). Let me know what you think:

The first one is an alliance symbol (which I've never seen in-game, I found it by exploring the urls):

 

And the second one is from an old screenshot that I found in my folders. It seems to be a colored version of an illusion (in the original picture, I can also see the black and white version of this). I really like the colors on this one, especially on the head. I think it's a very unique color.

I totally get this feeling Mur mentioned from the second one, but not from the first one.

6 hours ago, Muratus del Mur said:

Something that is this color should not have anything above it, that is more powerful, cool, or that exceeds that particular functionality.

 

[Nep]

The 14th anniv hollow warrior does have some purple in it, as well as the first level of the joker (though it's a pretty minor spot on its hat).

[Yoshi]

I always thought it was interesting that the Santa creature has purple robes.

[Dracoloth]

I found myself back in the original story mode, and I noticed it's mentioned that the creature of liquid dust has a purple top hat.

[Muratus del Mur]

On 4/19/2021 at 12:42 AM, Chewett said:

@Muratus del Mur we previously discussed the "colours" of lands, did you want me to post what we discussed and make it "official"?

yes, lets do that, as i don't remember what we talked and its a pitty if it gets lost in time. thank you!

[Chewett]

There was various discussion, but for reference these are the canonical colours of each Land (take note lorehunters!):

Loreroot - Green
Necrovion - Black
Golemus - "MD Orange"
Marind Bell - Grey or Ivory
MD Archives - Red
Lands of the East - Yellow
Gateway Island - Silver/Grey

[Muratus del Mur]

oh wow, forgot we talked about it, but this is indeed how i see the lands, totally accurate.

 

PS: even the land ids in the db correspond number=color to this!

[Jubaris]

That reminds me of this old post of mine: 

 

[Yoshi]

15 hours ago, Clair de Lune said:

 

Does No Man's Land have a colour?

Perhaps only when Bob blooms, which is another thing to add to this list. Bob blooms in all the colours curiously enough.

[Muratus del Mur]

I would say nomans is transparent (no color), and yes as stated above bob is part of this. Something with a specific color would not be able to represent bob, that has all the colors.