Color Studies Explained

An in-depth guide to everything Color Studies

Structure

The starting variables for each Color Study are the number of columns and number of rows. The possible values for column and row counts are:

[3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30, 40, 60, 120]

The extremes were set to be less frequent than the intermediate values. 4 and 60 had a lower probability than the values in between, and 3 and 120 had the lowest possibility.

Also, additional rules were applied when the number of columns or rows were set to either 3 or 4. In those instances, the algorithm prevented the opposite value from being smaller than 8. So, the smallest grid possible was 3x8 (24 rectangles), followed by 5x5 (25 rectangles). This also means that 3 and 4 had an even lower probability of occurring since they can only exist in one direction.

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When the number of columns and rows are equal, that obviously creates a perfect grid of squares. And this relationship was the prerequisite for the Circles feature to be activated, where roughly half of the perfect grids were converted to Circles.

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Color

With the exception of the Random and Albers variants, each Color Study is derived from 4 parent colors that are placed in each corner of the grid. These colors are checked for darkness and if any of them are too close to black, they are pushed a little bit closer to their core hue. The parent colors are then blended in equal proportions towards one another, across the determined number of rows and columns.

Color Modifications

Once the basic grid structure and parent colors have been selected, possibilities for different color modifications are then introduced. The most common color modifications were Tinted and Saturated.

Color Studies with the Tinted feature have white added to all four parent colors to create a pastel effect.

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For Color Studies with the Saturated feature, each of the parent colors is pushed to its maximum saturation to create a vibrant mixture.

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The next most common color modification was called Black Corner. As the name implies, this feature simply picked one of the parent colors and made it black.

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And the least common color modification was Complementary. For this feature, the algorithm looked at the first parent color and adjusted the hues of the other parent colors, so that the opposing corner was the same hue, and the other two corners were complementary hues.

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Second Chance

There is also a hidden feature in some Color Studies called Second Chance. Once the parent colors and any color modifications have been determined, the algorithm performs a check to see how similar the four parent colors are to one another. If they are too similar as a group, then Second Chance is triggered, and the algorithm looks to a different portion of the hash to make color selections.

Normally, the parent colors are based on the hexadecimal values in positions 5-28 after 0x in the hash. Segment 5-10 corresponds to the upper left corner, segment 11-16 the upper right corner, segment 17-22 the lower left corner, and segment 23-28 the lower right corner. But for Color Studies with the Second Chance feature, the parent colors are based on the hexadecimal values in positions 35-58 after 0x in the hash, with a similar breakdown and assignment to the corners.

My simulations predicted that about 1% of the output would be Second Chance. I don’t know a good way to automatically check for this feature, but presumably one could make a determination by examining which hash segment appears to be powering the parent colors.

Random

The final possible color modification is Random, which completely obliterates the concept of blending parent colors. Color Studies with the Random feature instead have a randomly chosen color placed in each individual location of the grid structure.

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Lines

Once all of the color selections have been determined, the algorithm then considers whether or not to include dividing lines on the grid.

The most common outcome for a Color Study is to have no lines at all, called Adjacent.

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Then Horizontal Lines and Vertical Lines both had an equal opportunity of occurring.

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And when both horizontal and vertical lines were selected, the result is Grid Lines.

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Albers

The final possible Color Study outcome was an Easter egg paying tribute to my color hero Josef Albers. If the token hash contains the strings ‘a1be’ or ‘a1b3’ anywhere along the hash, the previously drawn Color Study was replaced with an algorithmically generated Homage to the Square.

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Layered Combinations

While some of the features described above were exclusive to each other, many of them had the ability to be layered together in the same Color Study. The following combinations of two or more features are listed from most probable to least probable:

  • Tinted, Line

  • Saturated, Line

  • Black Corner, Line

  • Complementary, Line

  • Random, Line

  • Tinted, Grid

  • Saturated, Grid

  • Tinted, Circles

  • Saturated, Circles

  • Complementary, Tinted

  • Complementary, Saturated

With the following combinations being even less probable than the Albers feature:

  • Black Corner, Grid

  • Complementary, Grid

  • Random, Grid

  • Black Corner, Circles

  • Complementary, Circles

  • Complementary, Tinted, Line

  • Complementary, Saturated, Line

  • Random, Circles

  • Complementary, Black Corner

  • Complementary, Black Corner, Line

  • Complementary, Tinted, Grid

  • Complementary, Saturated, Grid

  • Complementary, Tinted, Circles

  • Complementary, Saturated, Circles

  • Complementary, Black Corner, Grid

  • Complementary, Black Corner, Circles

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Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time learn more about Color Studies. Now explore OpenSea and see what you can find!

https://opensea.io/collection/color-study-by-jeff-davis

Originally published February 24, 2021on CENT