Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

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Cold Skin
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Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Cold Skin » Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:23 am

Though the idea is totally unrealistic, just imagine that the ones in charge of a new product (whether it's Toei, Shueisha or one of the game companies) is entrusting you the role of giving a new, refreshing, reinterpreted visual take, on the franchise for this very specific product, by freely reinventing the colors.

- You can reimagine the colors for anything: characters, clothes, accessories, landscapes, planets, technics, transformations, alien species, divine beings... Anything goes!

- You are strictly limited to changing colors, but you have no set limit in doing so: you are free to totally disregard any colors that had been chosen so far, along with any statement about colors, whether in-universe (such as the mention of a golden-haired warrior, or pure-blooded Saiyans being black-haired) or out-of-universe (such as Toriyama wanting Goku's costume to be reminiscent of the orange worn by Buddhist monks).

- Only little changes or complete makeover, you're free to decide: maybe you'd like to change only Goku's blue under-shirt and keep the rest absolutely untouched, or you might want to go crazy and keep absolutely nothing from his original colors and even change his natural hair color!
You're the boss, you can go for little touches if you think it's enough of an update, or go for a complete, "ruthless" reinvention.

- Justifications or not, it's up to you: you can choose colors based on very specific concepts, references and logical explanations, but you can also just choose them just because you think "it would look cool/interesting" and that's it.

- It doesn't have to be good ideas that you would choose: you can propose things that would be a concept that comes to your mind, but that you wouldn't actually like or apply.

So, any ideas about new colors that would surprise even long-time fans?

Examples:
"Plain cloud" Kinto-Un: maybe it's just a white cloud like any other, except you climb on it.

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"Giant Ape" Super Saiyan 4: the fur and eyes do keep in line with the Giant Ape it's based on.

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"Dragon Within" Dragon Ball: just a crystal ball, but the stars inside are colored after the green dragon that's within.

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"Alien once more" Namek: people have gotten used to Namek over the years, the blue vegetation and green sky feel almost usual and comfortable, not strange anymore. Why not throw unusual colors to make it feel strange and otherworldly again?

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Peach
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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Peach » Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:45 pm

I wouldn't mind Bulma having her original manga hair color. It worked out really well in Path to Power.

Also, generic ki blasts don't have to ALL be yellow. Throw some red or green in there.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by PurestEvil » Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:49 pm

I just wish Vegeta's armored clothes stayed grey for all of DBS.
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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Cold Skin » Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:47 pm

Peach wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:45 pm I wouldn't mind Bulma having her original manga hair color. It worked out really well in Path to Power.

Also, generic ki blasts don't have to ALL be yellow. Throw some red or green in there.
When it comes to Bulma, my main point of interest is that her and her sons (in his two versions) are supposed to be share the same hair color.
This is how Toriyama usually depicts them when they share a picture, Trunks is supposed to be the spitting image of his mother as a boy but with the tough rectangular eyes of his father. So I like it when it's purple for all three or since a few years blue for all three (though I do have a preference for blue as long as it's not that greenish tint from the original DBZ anime but the DBS blue).

The colored version of DBS understood that logic of having all three share the same hair color and - unlike the anime - corrected Kid Trunks' hair to be blue too like his mother and his future self.
PurestEvil wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:49 pm I just wish Vegeta's armored clothes stayed grey for all of DBS.
I know that it was probably decided to get on the nostalgia side, but really, whether it's for Goku or Vegeta, I will never agree with the decision to go back to the old costumes when the new costumes gave Super's incarnations a more specific identity.

Plus, it showed that Vegeta doesn't necessarily have to wear blue for his main costume.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Pol » Wed Oct 20, 2021 11:56 am

Vegeta with dark red hair.
I thought it fit the "pure evil" saiyan aesthetic well.
Also, red-green colored Cell juniors.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Demon Prince Piccolo » Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:12 pm

This is a neat topic. Kind of to go with that picture of Namek, I think the Dragon Balls would look cool purple with orange stars. While I love the look of SSJ4 as is (red fur, black hair), I'd be interested in seeing it looking like its original concept art...which, unless I'm mistaken, had golden fur and golden hair? I also think a burnt copper hair color for SSJ3 would look neat. And either red, maroon, or purple eyes for the SSJ forms in general.

Also like others have said, Bulma with purple hair as originally intended (like in Path to Power). Boo saga Gohan with purple and orange gi like in the manga.
The story of DRAGON BALL starts from the moment Goku met Bulma. I don't really mind the Z, so long as it's understood that it's not the true beginning of the story.

I actually prefer the Goku vs Tenshinhan and Goku vs Piccolo Jr. rivalries to the Goku vs Vegeta rivalry.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Saiya6Cit » Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:36 pm

Peach wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:45 pm I wouldn't mind Bulma having her original manga hair color. It worked out really well in Path to Power.

Also, generic ki blasts don't have to ALL be yellow. Throw some red or green in there.
Totally. We need an animation with bulma's original purple hair. And the key blasts are also a good idea I'm thinking on purple.

This is a topic I had not thought about and I spend most of my free time thinking about dragon ball, so good one.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:01 pm

Interesting thread! The Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc of the DBS manga was the first time I felt serious dissonance from seeing the new characters' official colour palettes after having seen them in black-and-white. OG-73 has to be the best example. Due to his resemblance to Hit, I imagined him as a lighter shade of purple. Instead he's this weird green-blue hue. I'm still not used to it. Shimorekka's another one, I pictured him as a very light shade of red, but his skin is apparently light green.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by KingVegetto » Wed Oct 20, 2021 9:47 pm

I'd get rid of Vegeta's hideous orange armor that he has at the beginning of the series and make it yellow instead.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Cold Skin » Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:50 pm

Saiya6Cit wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:36 pm And the ki blasts are also a good idea I'm thinking on purple.
At least, this was already done in the original manga's colored version, albeit only for Piccolo's blasts.
This picture didn't need any editing since it already shows what a regular purple blast looks like.

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LoganForkHands73 wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:01 pm Interesting thread! The Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc of the DBS manga was the first time I felt serious dissonance from seeing the new characters' official colour palettes after having seen them in black-and-white. OG-73 has to be the best example. Due to his resemblance to Hit, I imagined him as a lighter shade of purple. Instead he's this weird green-blue hue. I'm still not used to it. Shimorekka's another one, I pictured him as a very light shade of red, but his skin is apparently light green.
Which I guess would be something like this.

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Demon Prince Piccolo wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:12 pm This is a neat topic. Kind of to go with that picture of Namek, I think the Dragon Balls would look cool purple with orange stars. While I love the look of SSJ4 as is (red fur, black hair), I'd be interested in seeing it looking like its original concept art...which, unless I'm mistaken, had golden fur and golden hair? I also think a burnt copper hair color for SSJ3 would look neat. And either red, maroon, or purple eyes for the SSJ forms in general.
Lots of ideas, but I wouldn't be good enough to turn pure black into color, so I'll leave the golden hair/fur Super Saiyan 4 to the numerous fan arts depicting it. :)

The rest would look something similar to this, I guess.

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And I'm even throwing in the golden eyes as a bonus, for those that wonder what it would look like if the eyes followed the hair and aura into the realm of gold.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Demon Prince Piccolo » Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:42 pm

Cold Skin wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:50 pm
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And I'm even throwing in the golden eyes as a bonus, for those that wonder what it would look like if the eyes followed the hair and aura into the realm of gold.

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Well done! I'm a fan! :)
The story of DRAGON BALL starts from the moment Goku met Bulma. I don't really mind the Z, so long as it's understood that it's not the true beginning of the story.

I actually prefer the Goku vs Tenshinhan and Goku vs Piccolo Jr. rivalries to the Goku vs Vegeta rivalry.

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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by jjgp1112 » Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:52 pm

I've always wanted to see either golden or brown-furred Super Saiyan 4. The original red-eyes Super Saiyan has always been a curiosity to me, but I think the final teal complements the gold well.
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Re: Reinventing colors: some ideas you would consider

Post by Cold Skin » Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:32 am

While I can experiment with lots of ideas I wouldn't really apply, changing the weather when Vegeta and Nappa attack is definitely something I would do. It is a gloomy day that was expected to be gloomy and does turn out gloomy with allies dying one after the other as the minutes go by.
I'd say to convey the stress and seriousness of this dark, fated day, I would replace the clear blue sky with a total grey sky, like those bad days where you constantly feel it's about to pour rain in the next 10 minutes.
The sky would slowly get back to blue when Goku is arriving, and be fully back to blue when he's about to start Vegeta so that it can soon switch to the sunset colors.

Of course, those pictures are quick demos that might seem weird because I just recolored the blue and you can see white clouds, but it does give you the overall color feel of the dark cloudy almost-rainy day I would go for.

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And back to the more casual tests: what if we took the characters' references more litterally?
- Raditz is based on a radish, let's give him colors closer to it.
- Kakarotto is named after a carrot, so orange is already fine, but let's add the green too (although technically, I guess it's his hair that should be green if we go all the way with the image of a carrot...).
- Vegeta is the prince of vegetables, and vegetables are mostly green and orange when you see a collection of pictures on Google.
- Nameks are based on snails, let's give Piccolo two common colors for snails. That's... very... special?

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In the West, when we think about Martial Arts, it's mostly the white karate dogi that comes to mind.
Let's forget about the original Buddhist monk intended vibe and go strictly for that Western Martial Arts vision.

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A typical vision of Chinese dragons is the red one (like Mushu in Mulan), so let's try that on Shenron.

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Finally, we can retro-apply the blue hair on Trunks, something the anime only dared to do with teenage Trunks, as other flashbacks were monochromatic to avoid having to choose what to do with his hair (supposed to be purple back then in previous renditions, but stated as always having been blue in recent renditions).

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Strangely enough, while the Dragon Ball Super colored manga has corrected Kid Trunks' hair to be blue, Gotenks still appear having partly purple hair. Let's see what it would be like if he logically had Kid Trunks' blue hair.

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PurestEvil wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:49 pm I just wish Vegeta's armored clothes stayed grey for all of DBS.
At least, here's what the DBS colors would look like if applied to the original armor in the color remake.

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