Coloring a sprite (non-multiply)

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hi,

I’m trying to find how to change the color of all pixels in a sprite created from an image sheet. See image attached, the right-side one is what I’m trying to do.

If I use:

 sprite:setFillColor(1, 0, 0)

the sprite changes color, but the dark parts remain (pixel color is multiplied, middle sprite).

I tried a few different filter effects. filter.colorMatrix was close, but I couldn’t get it to preserve the alpha channel.

This seems like a common thing for a game to do (damage/powerup flash on a character), but nothing I’ve tried seems to work.

Does anyone know a good way to do this?

Thanks

#2

Actually, I’ve never seen this done the way you’re suggesting in any of the engines or SDKs I’ve worked with (Corona, Torque, Unity, …)

I’ve seen the effect, but I don’t think it is achieved by fill colorizing the sprite.

I would suggest adding all an white version of the image(s) to your spritesheet and then switch to that frame + call setFillColor(1,0,0) to achieve this effect.  (You’ll have to set the fill to white when you go back to a normal image/frame.)

PS - You might be on to something with shaders and if anyone has an answer that would be great, but I think the fastest and cheapest way to solve this (computationally) is to add an extra image to your sheet.

#3

Thanks for the ideas. I thought of the white sprite too, but I have a bunch of different sprites that I want to have this effect on so it would be a lot of extra work.

Your comment made me look through the shader effects some more, and found something that works – the duotone filter.

sprite.fill.effect = "filter.duotone" sprite.fill.effect.darkColor = { 1, 1, 1, 1 } sprite.fill.effect.lightColor = { 1, 1, 1, 1 }

This gives me a nice sprite shape that keeps the alpha channel that I can color however I want.

Thanks!

#4

That’s great news and now I’m going to have to give it a try too.  - Sweet!

#5

Actually, I’ve never seen this done the way you’re suggesting in any of the engines or SDKs I’ve worked with (Corona, Torque, Unity, …)

I’ve seen the effect, but I don’t think it is achieved by fill colorizing the sprite.

I would suggest adding all an white version of the image(s) to your spritesheet and then switch to that frame + call setFillColor(1,0,0) to achieve this effect.  (You’ll have to set the fill to white when you go back to a normal image/frame.)

PS - You might be on to something with shaders and if anyone has an answer that would be great, but I think the fastest and cheapest way to solve this (computationally) is to add an extra image to your sheet.

#6

Thanks for the ideas. I thought of the white sprite too, but I have a bunch of different sprites that I want to have this effect on so it would be a lot of extra work.

Your comment made me look through the shader effects some more, and found something that works – the duotone filter.

sprite.fill.effect = "filter.duotone" sprite.fill.effect.darkColor = { 1, 1, 1, 1 } sprite.fill.effect.lightColor = { 1, 1, 1, 1 }

This gives me a nice sprite shape that keeps the alpha channel that I can color however I want.

Thanks!

#7

That’s great news and now I’m going to have to give it a try too.  - Sweet!