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Journal for Geometry and Graphics
Volume 20 (2016), No. 1, 115–126.
Color Scheme Scrapbook Using
A Character Color Palette Template
Ryuta Motegi1, Yoshihisa Kanematsu1, Takahiro Tsuchida2, Koji Mikami3,
Kunio Kondo3
1Division of Industrial Art, Faculty of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University
6-6 Asahigaoka, Hino City, Tokyo 191-0065, Japan
emails: motegi@tmu.ac.jp,ykanematsu0913@gmail.com
2Advanced Center for Computing and Communication, Riken
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
email: t tsuchida@riken.jp
3School of Media Science, Tokyo University of Technology
1404-1 Katakuramachi, Hachioji City, Tokyo 192-0982, Japan
emails: mikami@stf.teu.ac.jp,kondo@stf.teu.ac.jp
Abstract. The visual appearance of a character is just as important as the script
when it comes to convey the personality and charm to the audience. Our Design
Engine [6] aimed to improve the efficiency of character development by providing
support to the planning phase, where the character blueprints are drawn based
on literal information provided by the producer. Previous research exists on color
scheme design work, but these methods are not useful for character design for pro-
ducers and directors. This paper aims to provide a character color scheme support
system that uses a scrapbook made up of the color palettes of existing characters.
This is one part of our Design Engine, which purpose is to support the process
of character making that is based on only literal information. The concept of the
Digital Scrapbook (DSB) is to set up a personal database that helps creators to
pin down the appearance of characters the designers want to sketch.
Key Words: CG, Character Design, Character Making, Color Scheme, Color
Palette, Scrapbook
MSC 2010: 68U05
1. Introduction
Video content, such as animations, has become easy to produce by using advanced CG tech-
nology. In recent years it is not uncommon for a single animator to produce an animation
alone. Video content production has come to be widely performed. The appearing characters
ISSN 1433-8157/$ 2.50 c
2016 Heldermann Verlag
116 R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook
are those who determine the value and appeal of the video content, along with the scenario.
For the displayed character the color of clothes and hair is some of the important factors for
video contents, because the impression of video contents is strongly affected by the color of
the characters. In many cases the colors have been determined based on the personality and
the social setting of the character and the backstory of video contents [3]. Color scheme work
for a character is said to be work sensuous. This is because it is determined according to
personality, setting and a variety of other relevant factors [7].
Color design is used in many fields related to daily life such as interior design and fashion
design. There is a study on color image scale, color scheme system and such as harmony color
scheme system. Kobayashi [4, 5] performed an application and an impression evaluation of
various designs by classifying the color scheme using the color image scale. Imahashi et al.
[2] and Unami et al. [8] worked on the production of the illustration image, that is, convert
the color harmony by extracting the image color representing the characteristics of an image.
Cohen-Or [1] proposed a method for image conversion using a harmonious color scheme.
However, in these studies, there are three problems that have been brought to attention.
The first one is that for character design, a conversion of a combination of a character’s color
scheme, a study of color conversion for each part of hair and clothes, cannot be found. In
addition, the fashion design field also deals with the color scheme, but those methods can’t
be used for the color scheme of an entire character because clothes and colors for animation
are not always realistic.
The purpose of this study is to develop a clear management scrapbook for creating the
color scheme of a new character by using color schemes from existing characters. We propose
a template and a system for the character color scheme creation using color templates. The
character template of a color scheme is based on results of an analysis of every part of hair,
skin, and clothing of existing characters. In the next stage, the existing character’s color
scheme is applied to a color scheme template in order to record the color scheme data. We
then constructed a coloring support system that uses the extracted data for users to create
their own characters from a color combination percentage from the color scheme template.
Finally, we conducted an evaluation experiment of the character color scheme creation using
our color scheme support system.
2. Previous research
In deciding the color scheme of a character, it can make sense in many cases to look first on
examples used in the past. Therefore, the production is highly dependent on the experience
and sense of creation of the producer. Motegi et al. [6] showed that it is possible to support
the producer by making a draft design of the character based on literal material using a
character design support system. However, the support system did not deal with the creation
of a character’s color scheme (Figure 1).
Wayama et al. [9] classified a color scheme for animated characters. This study proposed
a search system for comparing color schemes by applying templates on a character’s face and
clothes. Thus, it has become possible to search for the color scheme of characters by using
the personality and the main color as input. However, the color scheme generation and the
change process of characters based on research results is not addressed (Figure 2). Therefore,
performance enhancement of the data library as well as functionality of the implementation
simulation of the color scheme is still desired. This study constructs a digital scrapbook of
existing characters and a color search simulation system in order to solve this problem.
R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook 117
Literal
Material
Results
Producer/User
Digital
Scrapbook
Sample Images
Design
Sample
Collage
Parts
Literal
Material Character,Design,Engine, Design,,
Sample,
Retrieval System Collage System
Register System
Parts Images
Scrapbook
Chara Collage
Figure 1: Overview on the ‘Character Design Engine’
Figure 2: Classification of a character’s color scheme
3. Color scheme template and analysis of character’s parts
3.1. Parts quantity of a character
We classified hair, skin and clothes of characters for simulating a color scheme. Unlike a real
person, any character’s hair can have various colors. We believe this helps to strongly define
a character’s personality. On the other hand, the color of skin has no large difference between
characters, because it is represented by human variations of the skin tone. As for the clothes,
the color scheme and colors have a great variety. For the purpose to figure out a number
of ornament types and of character clothes needed for a color simulation, we examined 51
characters. In this study, the clothing parts were shirts and pants, and ornaments showed up
as tie and ribbons. In addition, also hair and skin were considered for the analysis.
118 R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook
Figure 3: Character color scheme template
Figure 4: Example of registered character color scheme in the scrapbook
Our research results showed that the ornaments are formed by the 0-2 types, and the
clothes are formed by the 1-3 type, as shown in Table 1. A combination of ornaments and
clothes for all characters other than two lead to four types. Furthermore, hair and skin are
composed of one color basically, while ornaments and clothing show a wide variety of colors
and parts, basically. By virtue of these results, in our study the color scheme of characters
is based on one type hair color, one type skin color, three types clothes color and two types
ornament color.
Table 1: Numbers of parts of clothes and ornaments for characters
Ornaments Total
0 1 2 3
14 5 8 0 17
Clothes 2 11 4 4 1 20
34 9 1 0 14
Total 19 18 13 1 51
R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook 119
3.2. Character color scheme template
In this section, we describe character templates that intuitively can communicate the image
of character’s colors. For this purpose, we examined existing characters which parts are used
for ornaments and clothes. We also analyzed the area of clothing parts to determine a wide
variety that were originally designed from existing clothes such as, school uniforms, suits,
robes and kimonos.
As a result, hair, face line, shoulder, one-third sleeves, half sleeve, three-quarter sleeves,
long sleeves, chest, waist, hip, inseam, above knee, knee, ankle, shoes, shoes destination, coat,
tie, and so on were used as base for dividing the body into 58 areas by 18 solid lines. The color
template was created as an intuitively understandable way of placing color to each region, as
shown in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows an example in which a character’s color scheme has been
registered in the scrapbook.
4. Proposed system
4.1. Overview of the color scheme support system
Figure 5 shows an outline of the color scheme support system. This system consists of search
systems, a reflection system, and a registration system. Figures 6–7 show the steps of the
color scheme simulation. First, the color scheme of an existing character is registered as a
color scheme image with the color balance for each part, for hair, skin and clothes. Now the
user can set the color scheme for each part and check the color balance by selecting a color
scheme image. After that, fine-tuning is done for each part of the color scheme, and the result
is exported as image data.
4.2. Registration and character color scheme scrapbook
Figure 9 shows the color scheme registration system, and Figure 8 shows the underlying flow.
The registration system constructs a library of the existing characters data. When an existing
character image is loaded, a total number of 7 types of base colors, one type of hair, one type
of skin, three types of clothes, and two types of ornaments are extracted.
After the selection, the colors are set to the 58 locations of the created template. At
the same time they can be compared with an existing character. The saved data is exported
as CSV data and stored in the character color scrapbook. The saved data consists of seven
colors and their placement information for the 58 areas of the template.
4.3. Simulation system
Figure 11 shows the color scheme search system and, in turn, Figure 10 shows the underlying
flow. Our simulation is used by producers to design a color scheme on the basis of the
character color scheme data registered by the registration system.
First, an uncolored design draft is loaded into the system, and the color areas for hair,
skin, clothes, three types,and two types of ornaments are defined. A search for color and the
parts of registered character data is performed, and the search results are reflected in the 7
types of areas.
Minor adjustments on the result can be done by using the color picker and color bar. The
final result is then saved as image data and becomes a color scheme draft. Furthermore, a re-
120 R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook
Figure 5: Color scheme support system with DSB
Figure 6: Steps for registration, search and simulation of the characters color scheme
edit of the data can be done, and the color data can be exported into CSV data. Figures 12–14
show the state of each step.
4.4. Color scheme experiment
Figures 15 and 16, both show the result that was fitted to the line drawing of the defined
areas of each part such as hair, skin, clothes, etc., by using the color scheme of an existing
character. Figure 16 shows a case where the result of the color areas of shirt and coat is
R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook 121
Figure 7: Step of color scheme processing
Figure 8: Flow of the existing character color scheme registration
Figure 9: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
122 R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook
Figure 10: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
Figure 11: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
Figure 12: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook 123
Figure 13: Color scheme registration system of existing characters
Figure 14: Color scheme registration system of existing characters
different from the template. A comparison can easily be made with a line drawing as a base,
and it is possible to produce the intended color.
5. Evaluation of experiments and reflection
We had 15 test subjects for the evaluation of the system. Figure 17 shows an example of
results, of creating color schemes using the color scheme support system, by our test subjects.
Table 2 shows the results of surveys filled in by our subjects. The right column in the table
shows the average value in a 5-point scale; it reveals that a higher number would be desirable
124 R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook
Figure 15: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
Figure 16: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
in the future. Figure 18 shows a “7. Color scheme simulation” on the left and a “8. Intentional
color management ” on the right. The average value for these two items of the color scheme
simulation was 4.5. They account for more than 85 percent of the total “very good” and
“good” in each evaluation. In addition, an improvement of the color scheme search algorithm
and increasing the number of registered color scrapbooks is desired.
The results of the evaluation experiment show:
1. By setting the part areas of the character, it is possible to easily create a character color
R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook 125
Figure 17: Color scheme registration system of existing characters
Table 2: Color scheme registration system of an existing character
Question contents 5 4 3 2 1 (M)
1. Defining part regions 3 11 1 0 0 4.1
2. Search Results 2 7 5 1 0 3.8
3. The fit to the design image 7 5 2 1 0 4.2
4. Color scheme adjustment 8 6 1 0 0 4.5
5. Flow of system use 7 7 1 0 0 4.4
6. Steps of the entire system 7 8 0 0 0 4.5
7. Color scheme simulation 10 4 0 1 0 4.5
8. Intentional color management 9 4 2 0 0 4.5
scrapbook capable of color conversion.
2. By reflecting an existing characters color scheme on a new characters line drawing, it is
possible to intuitively consider a variety of character color schemes.
3. A production support for creating intended colors is possible by using the proposed
system, and it reduces the number of steps at the characters color design process.
6. Conclusion
In this study we create a character color scheme scrapbook that allows users to manage and
search a color scheme for existing characters. And, we also aimed to build a color scheme
Figure 18: Color scheme registration system of existing characters
126 R. Motegi, Y. Kanematsu, T. Tsuchida, K. Mikami, K. Kondo: Color Scheme Scrapbook
support system when creating a character’s color scheme. For this purpose, we proposed a
character standard template for collecting the color scheme of an existing character. Then,
we constructed a color scheme support system for defining the color of characters completely,
and a search method for searching a character’s scrapbook color scheme. As a result of
experiments it turned out:
1. The color processing system proposed in this study is more efficient than directly filling
color in an uncolored image.
2. A character color scrapbook can increase the efficiency of using an existing character
color scheme.
Future work:
1. It is necessary to register more character scrapbooks. By doing so, the color work will
become more smooth and will broaden the simulation.
2. A higher performance of the search method for an intentional color scheme should be
achieved by users.
3. Our system should correspond to a more detailed design, and it should be possible to
refine each area in the grid.
References
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(2006).
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Coordinate System and its Application. Internat. J. Asia Digital Art and Design Assoc. 1,
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[3] M. Kaneko:Making of Video Content, The basics of Content Engineering. Born Digital,
Inc., 2007.
[4] S. Kobayashi:Color image work. Kodansha Ltd., 1995.
[5] S. Kobayashi:Color image scale revision Version 2. Kodansha Ltd., 2001.
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[8] Y. Unami, K. Kondo:Area Segmentation and Color Exaggeration for Image Synthesis.
Internat. J. Asia Digital Art and Design Assoc. 5, 38–43 (2006).
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character. NICOGRAPH Spring Festival in TAF, 2007.
Received August 14, 2015; final form March 8, 2016
