Nope, as you can see in this image of the original 1992 sprites, they are correct. I could never make such a big mistake, because I know these colours pretty darn good; they were for me a case study of successful application of color theory principles, when I was forming myself as a visual designer.
A little bit of history that I think could be of interest for die hard fans of TMNT. When Playmates was planning the release of their toyline back in the 80's, they made the decision of giving each turtle a distinctive colour, so the kids and the parents would perceive that they were substantially different and would want to collect them all. No parents in the world would have bought four identical action figures, that had their weapons as their one and only difference.
Obviously, the primary goal of Playmates was to maximize their toys' sales, and they had design and marketing professionals in their team that knew how to increase the visual appeal of the toys to achieve that goal. The bandana colours and the four variants of green skin were not chosen randomly, their assignment was a direct result of good knowledge of color theory.
Many people know that, in order to make pictures or graphic designs visually pleasant and appealing, contrast is a key aspect. But what the majority doesn’t know is that contrast can not only be achieved with colour luminance, but also with hue and saturation.
All professionals who work with colour know these principles and we apply them in every single project. In the case of the turtles, they chose colour combinations for bandanas and skins that have the maximun hue contrast possible in relation to each other.
Raph was given the closer variant to pure green, which is the complementary colour of the red in his bandana. The complementary colour of orange is blue, so Mike was given a variant of green mixed with blue. Leo was given a blue bandana so his green variant was shifted to a warmer tone, towards its complementary which is orange. And finally Don, who was given a purple bandana, got a variant of green which lies actually in the hue of complete yellow.
Regular people don't know about colour theory, but it’s proven that our brains perceive as much more visual appealing designs that make use of these principles, that designs that don’t make a good use of them. I’m convinced that the assignment of the turtles skin colours contributed dramatically to the huge success of the Playmate’s TMNT toy line, and that the election of any other colour scheme for the turtles would have made them less attractive and would have diminished the toy sales.
Actually, that strategy worked so good on the kids from that time that, 30 years later, one of them felt the urge of spending hours of his spare time modding a TMNT video game, just to see those colours in the turtles’ skins again. :D
Hey cSonora, are you still working on this mod? As tenmachi pointed out, it seems like the latest update broke the mod, and now only the menu/cutscenes work, but the players don't.
Hey guys, yeah, they changed completely the way color palettes work, and honestly, as they now include a toy version palette, I haven't thought of doing a new update. The colors are not exactly the same; the belts are black, the shells are green, the eyes are full white, the weapons are orange, etc.—all colors exactly the same as they were in the toys. It's not exactly like the SNES comic mode palette, but maybe it's close enough for those who want to play with the classic colors:
I think the colors they used are ok, except for Mickey's skin color, which is much lighter and desaturated than it should be.
Anyway, I already extracted the files that are used in the new palette system and know how it works, if there's enouhg people interested, I could do an update of the mod. Just let me know guys If you would like to have this exact palette available in the new update.
Your expertise and attention to detail is inspiring! Please count me on the list of people who hope that you will update your mod so that it works in the latest version of the game. Thank you!
I hope this mod gets updated, but keep the new colors from the DLC since they actually are correct. It's just the 'rest of the stuff' it needs to work with.
Just coming by to express my interest in an update for this mod.
I prefer this mod over all the others that I have been using it prior to the latest update even with the character select colors not working. Unfortunately the latest update fully killed this mod.
An update would be awesome and greatly appreciated. Cheers.
The color fix doesn't apply to the character select screen for me. Pretty sure it used to work a couple months ago.
I'm sticking with your mod regardless as I think you did the colors the best but just wanted to see if there is an additional patch I'm unaware that I need. Cheers.
One of the more recent patches changed the spritesheet size and layout for the Character Select screen *only* - see my post on the Custom Skins page for details.
I can't seem to get this, or even ANY recolors, working for some reason on the Steam version. I did as it said, just extracting the files themselves in to the TMNT folder with TMNT.exe and running the installer; looks like it works, goes for about 7 seconds then says it was successful but see no color changes in game.
Is there something else I am supposed to do too? Any settings I need to change in-game or frameworks to install or anything?
you need to copy the entire mod folder without replacing files, and only then run the the install.bat with administrator rights from this folder. tmnt.exe must also run the file with administrator rights.
Yeah, I'm waiting for the support team to look into this. I guess it's going to take a while due to holidays, so here's an alternative link in case you don't want to wait :)
81 comments
Nope, as you can see in this image of the original 1992 sprites, they are correct. I could never make such a big mistake, because I know these colours pretty darn good; they were for me a case study of successful application of color theory principles, when I was forming myself as a visual designer.
A little bit of history that I think could be of interest for die hard fans of TMNT. When Playmates was planning the release of their toyline back in the 80's, they made the decision of giving each turtle a distinctive colour, so the kids and the parents would perceive that they were substantially different and would want to collect them all. No parents in the world would have bought four identical action figures, that had their weapons as their one and only difference.
Obviously, the primary goal of Playmates was to maximize their toys' sales, and they had design and marketing professionals in their team that knew how to increase the visual appeal of the toys to achieve that goal. The bandana colours and the four variants of green skin were not chosen randomly, their assignment was a direct result of good knowledge of color theory.
Many people know that, in order to make pictures or graphic designs visually pleasant and appealing, contrast is a key aspect. But what the majority doesn’t know is that contrast can not only be achieved with colour luminance, but also with hue and saturation.
All professionals who work with colour know these principles and we apply them in every single project. In the case of the turtles, they chose colour combinations for bandanas and skins that have the maximun hue contrast possible in relation to each other.
Raph was given the closer variant to pure green, which is the complementary colour of the red in his bandana. The complementary colour of orange is blue, so Mike was given a variant of green mixed with blue. Leo was given a blue bandana so his green variant was shifted to a warmer tone, towards its complementary which is orange. And finally Don, who was given a purple bandana, got a variant of green which lies actually in the hue of complete yellow.
Regular people don't know about colour theory, but it’s proven that our brains perceive as much more visual appealing designs that make use of these principles, that designs that don’t make a good use of them. I’m convinced that the assignment of the turtles skin colours contributed dramatically to the huge success of the Playmate’s TMNT toy line, and that the election of any other colour scheme for the turtles would have made them less attractive and would have diminished the toy sales.
Actually, that strategy worked so good on the kids from that time that, 30 years later, one of them felt the urge of spending hours of his spare time modding a TMNT video game, just to see those colours in the turtles’ skins again. :D
As tenmachi pointed out, it seems like the latest update broke the mod, and now only the menu/cutscenes work, but the players don't.
I think the colors they used are ok, except for Mickey's skin color, which is much lighter and desaturated than it should be.
Anyway, I already extracted the files that are used in the new palette system and know how it works, if there's enouhg people interested, I could do an update of the mod. Just let me know guys If you would like to have this exact palette available in the new update.
I prefer this mod over all the others that I have been using it prior
to the latest update even with the character select colors not working.
Unfortunately the latest update fully killed this mod.
An update would be awesome and greatly appreciated. Cheers.
I'm sticking with your mod regardless as I think you did the colors the best but just wanted to see if there is an additional patch I'm unaware that I need. Cheers.
Is there something else I am supposed to do too? Any settings I need to change in-game or frameworks to install or anything?
https://artsonora.com/img/TMNT%20Shredder's%20Revenge%20Mod.zip