Colors! v1.06 is now released.
Colors! is a simplistic digital application for Nintendo DS based on modern painting-techniques developed for drawing tablets in programs like Photoshop. By taking advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the DS touch-screen it becomes a perfect portable digital sketch-book.
Current features
——————-
Hard and soft circular brush
Pressure-sensitivity can affect opacity and brush-size
512×384 image resolution with 2 stage zoom
Replay the whole painting process of an image
Hue-circle and luminance and saturation-triangle style palette
Load and Save to memory card
Send painting as e-mail using Wi-Fi
Major updates in v1.06
————————–
Major precision overhaul
Opacity slider in brush-screen
Pressure-Controls-Size option in brush-screen
New user-interface with graphics by madwurmz.com
Playback controls with the option to continue painting from mid-playback
The possibility to send your painting directly to an e-mail address
Unlimited save slots
One additional zoom-level
Available at http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors
Enjoy!
Awesome. I just love to spend hours on this. Its like just discovering watercolors as a child
Excellent program. Would be world class if it had an undo feature, at least of the most recent stroke. I dont know if there’s enough memory to do it, but i’m an undo addict, cant work without it.
Sweet program!
As another user said, please make it selectable to use the d-pad and/or buttons.
I often put my hand on the A button and the screen moves away instead of paiting on it and then I draw in the wrong place and then no undo button ;)
So just fix the d-pad/button selection and skip the undo =)
4 the people who are freezing when closing the lid to sleep…
if you hit start first to go into the menu before closing the lid, you should be fine.
“Comment from Evalei.
Time: December 30, 2007, 3:38 am
Just letting you know that the COLORS app somehow freezes everytime I put my DSLite into sleep mode (ie: whenever I close the lid down). Hope it’s corrected in later versions.”
when is the new version of colors! going to be out?
will this version have DS-to-DS collaborative painting?
I recently transfered to my ds, colors! v1.05, after being quite dissapointed to find that the latest version does not work on my ds.
I was again dissapointed to see the screen display: FAT was not initialized, colors! wont be able to load or save paintings.
I did what was suggested on the screen and tryed to solve the problem in the FAQ, but could find nothing of hepl.
Please could someone provide me with some form of technical support, so that I may be able to run colors! on my ds properly.
Thanks
Heay Max, it’s not clear what card you’re using..
Just reply on the forum at:
http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?p=140721
where technical support is coming from many users.
First I must say that I bought DS just for this program only and it ROCKS!
I do have few suggestions though:
First about the main interface:
– I’d put the option for choosing the interface for left/right handed under Start somewhere. The reason for this is that then for example flip canvas (and other upcoming features) could be placed to some of the A,B,X,Y buttons (since now the flip canvas it is quite hard and slow to get access to, because the start button is so small).
– Also if possible, I’d let the user map the keys how they want. For example I’d like to have palette mapped where the move canvas tool is now, and move tool could be in the shoulder button
Then some features:
– Zoom: Can we have at least one step AWAY from the canvas too? :)
– Line tool (could use the current brush size)
Hmm this clipped the last part of the message…
So here’s the rest:
– Line tool (could use the current brush size) Would be really useful for perspective / architecture stuff.
– I know this is on the list already but one step undo would make life so much easier.
Thanks for this great piece of software!
This is just amazing… and to think, most overpaid developers don’t even use the pressure capabilities. Great work…
Remap keys – I guess if I had to choose a feature it would be… remapping any action to any key available.
(For example, I keep wanting to sample a color using the bumpers and flip the canvas on x using the up and down d-pad buttons. I never zoom so panning, flipping, color picker and undo would be on the d-pad whereas the menu, the playback, the email would be on the buttons and sampling colors would reside on a bumper. That’s just me but I am sure everyone would work differently if you allow for more flexibility in this way.)
Other than that this program coupled with the DS are a marriage like none other. Thanks!
hi there!!! i hope you have fine, i think a good addition to colors! be a other stroke brush, and a really thin-to-bold brush for detail work.
cheers!!!
Really good tool for painting.
For my point of view, i’ve 2 request:
1- undo button
2- possibility to listen music(mp3) while painting (i don’t know if CPUs permit….)
I saw some people talking about pixel art… and I totally agree! Plus, it takes almost no memory. Another nice thing would be pixel art animation but now I’m dreaming! :)
Thanks for such a wonderful software!
I got some serious problem, and I don’t see anyone reporting it… I don’t know if it only happens to me… Sometimes (very often) when I just put the stylus on the screen, or when I take it off, a line is drawed to the border of the screen (screwing up my drawing). I use a NDSLite, black and an R4DS.
Hey sarkw, I have the same problem. This occures at least every other time I cange colors from the color wheel menu then the next stroke is like you say. Sometimes it happens durring painting but mostly just after changing somesetting in the color wheel screen. I have the same setup as you. Frustrating little bug when it just draws a line all the way across the screen right through your whole painting.
Please fix :) Thanks
I suppose I am not the only one to praise, but first of all, thanks for making such an amazing software. I think it’s perfect! It gots exactly what it needs and nothing more. Nevetheless, I have an idea for a feature which would be quite useful. In photoshop you have this function called “New Window”. Basically it creates another window for the same file which allows you once zoomed to keep an eye on the overall result. I think it would be a great thing to benefit from the dual screen by displaying the actual pixel image in the top screen while you are drawing in zoomed mode on the bottom one. Well… That’s just a suggestion to contribute, nothing that will prevent me to carry on drawing on my DS like a crazy monkey! :D
Hello I am an animator/filmmaker and I LOVE Colors! Its so great! I’m planning on storyboarding my next animated feature film with it… I have a couple dream requests to make it the perfect storyboarding tool… It would be great if you could switch the top screen so it shows all your previous drawings while you are drawing… Just like the images are shown in the mosaic view when you save or load an image in Colors… If only that was visible in the top screen while you are drawing… When doing storyboards it helps to see the previous frames… Also if there was a way to number an image and display the number in the corner of the image at all times…and a shortcut so that you could press one button to save the current image and clear it. I can send you a copy of the 2 DVD set of my last film in trade for these great features and give MAJOR credit to Colors for my next film. Well keep up the great work!!!
M dot Strange
Shame on me, the feature I requested is already in there. Forget what I said obviously everything was very well thought.
Really impressive software! I tried to draw something with it and it felt like all common drawing software, but on my ds. There’s just one bug I came across : I’m not sure but it seems that when you close the ds while Colors is still running, it “forgets” if you did a flip in either direction while recording the strokes.
And it would be so nice to have at least a one step undo XD (I see some people here share my opinion) and perhaps the possibility to launch a music player while painting (but this might not be a priority =p)
Anyway I really enjoy it and already use it anywhere I can’t bring my pc :)
Waiting for other wonderful features o/
When is the new version Colors! coming out?
I can’t wait anymore I had to ask
Incredible software! A lovely feature to have would be some kind of contrast/brightness or color correction sliders, only second after the multi user wifi painting goodness, that is.
Tack så mycket!
Thanks again for all the compliments. It seems I’m getting slower and slower answering all the requests here. Most of you should have personal responses, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve missed a few. As you might have seen I’ve been sidetracked with another project, but with that out of the way I’m going to strive to get another version out the door. I don’t have an estimate for when that will be.
Thanks again.
i put my rumble ram pack in my ds lite without the m3 real cartrige, and the ds don’t show it as is set in the 2 slot. i still don’t have an micro sd, so i haven’t set my m3 real, and i was testing the rumble ram to see if it work with my original game( not the m3), so is the rumble pack defectid or it just work with the m3 system?
Hey, first time posting here and I have to say I LOVE the program. I am having one major problem, however, and that’s the program’s ability to export accurate drawings. I have a picture that I’d been working on for days – lots of shading and it turned out great.
Important to note is that I use the ‘Soft Brush’ a lot – but it seems this is a problem for Colors!. The image looks fine when I load it up in Colors! and the PNG thumbnail that the program automatically creates looks normal as well….BUT…
When playing back my drawing, anything that was drawn with the soft brush ends up being redrawn as thick, 100% opacity lines. Same thing happens when emailing the image to myself. On places like the face, where intense shading was used, the face just looks like a bunch of scribbles upon redraw…
I know it’s hard to understand, but as an older example I have a link to a picture that shows what I mean but I don’t wanna post it and get banned or something.
I hope you know what I’m talking about – it’s just that I put tons of effort into this picture and now it’s ruined. I have to settle for the tiny PNG file as everything else is being redrawn [very] incorrectly…
-Age
Hi,
I’m really impressed by this awsome homebrew. I thinks that the main 2 features that lacks are :
– Possibility to select a region (rectangle) and then to move that region by draggin it with the stylus, it would be great to correct proportions.
– Undo feature, but this one was already requested I know ^^
About memory restriction, I there is memory expension of 16 MB in some GBA Slot2 cards (I have one :p ) and it should boost the ds memory, you could add an option to activate or desactivate some features if the user have or dont have the expension, or by desactiving the animation feature…
Anyway, thank you very much for this awsome tool, and please update it when you have the time and mood ^^
bye
ps : sorry for my poor english >_< my first try :
Hey Jens, I have v6 and Max Media Dock and it’s patched to work with it, and your program is great!
Anyways, i can’t seem to connect to the gallery but i’m in my house with my router. Perhapss you could update the menu to not confuse people… Because connecting to the gallery go email a picture is kinda… weird. But ya still gotta connect!
Is there something wrong because it just won’t go there, it just stops at ‘connecting to gallery’, and the wifi light is flashing (Homebrew Style).
-Thanks, Mgamerz
Not sure if you guys saw this yet, but:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/22/gdc08-hands-on-inchworm/
The Gist: Bob Sabiston of Waking Life wrote a program he calls Inchworm that allows drawing and animation on the DS. I find it interesting to compare and contrast his program with Colors, and wonder what this might mean for Colors’ development.
some suggestions,
L and R should flip pages when loading/saving your paintings (rather than pressing down, or sliding the right bar for a long period of time, it gets tedious when your working with 30+ paintings)
When you hit the clear button, there should be an “Are you Sure Yes/No” to confirm. (this way its consistant with the rest of the gui, and had bad experiences with that button)
I love it to death.. keep up the great work~
Mgamerz,
You still need to connect to my server, since you are not sending an e-mail directly from your DS. The painting is repainted in a higher resolution on the server (the DS has to little memory for this). I don’t know why it won’t work for you. Have you configured your connection properly using the Wi-Fi setup in a retail game?
Well, I don’t know what it would change for the Colors! development. I will definitely not try to implement all the features that Inchworm has. It looks very cool though and I really hope it makes it to retail. In my opinion, consoles like the DS can’t have enough of applications that allow you to be creative. :)
Hello! I would like to say i love this program! I bought a flashcard for my ds mainly for this program. I dont know what features that could be added.. maybe a rubber, but i welcome any!
Oh, one issue.. sometimes when i playback an painting, some of the strokes got more concentrate than what they actually where, but luckily, i got the orginal picture saved.
Keep up the good work. I am looking forward to the next version!
And honestly, this is one of the best homebrew for DS out there.
Tackar så mycket! :)
Needless to say, I love Colors!, but I guess it’s always good to hear it ;)
I hope you continue working on it, as there is still a lot that could be added/improved. Most of all I’ld like to see a “snapshot” function, much like an “undo” but not one step back but to a user defined state.
I’ld imagine it like this: When you’re at one point of drawing where you are not sure how to continue you make that “snapshot”, then you try something, reset to that snapshot and try something else until you like where it’s going. That way you don’t have to redraw when you mess something up.
Thanks for all the time you put into making Colors!
It’s time well spent ;)
As iv already said, I love this program! :D One suggestion would be to always have an empty save slot right at the top… cause now I have 50 or so it takes AGES to scroll down to a free slot. Just a suggestion due to my laziness though. :)
Managed to get your great looking program onto my ds, touch screen is totally unresponsive. Help?
I have an Ewin2.. and trying to find a sysupdate on the chinese BBS is a nightmare….. the most recent rar file was filled with crc errors….
It seems I need a slot 1 card instead. Never mind. :(
I’ve heard of this problem for people that doesn’t have the latest system-files their flashcart. So, try updating that and see if it works better. If it doesn’t work I’d like to know what type of cart you are using.
Awesome, awesome game! I love to draw (despite sucking bad at it) and never really got more into it because I don’t carry around a pad and pencil with me everywhere.
However, with this game I can practice drawing on the bus to and from work or school or when I am bored in class. Needless to say I have many sketches of lectures halls and bus seats =D
All in all I love it!
One minor thing is that the pressure controls are a tad strange. I apply pressure, but the brush stroke doesn’t increase quick enough for it to be any use…but, I see that the planned upgrades in the next version will include a tinkered-with pressure calibration, so I’ll just keep opacity and thickness on manual for now.
Awesome, awesome work!!!
I just got an idea! What about the ability to see the time you have spent on the picture? I’t should be an option though, because some people might be stressed by it. Of course the time should not be on the picture itself:P
hands down the greatest program I have ever seen… ever. The playback feature is definetly a really unique item. a lasso/marquee feature would be cool. it could work like the lasso tool in PS.
this tool could ten be used for…
-copy/paste
-creating brushes
-editing selected areas
-deleting unwanted sections
ect…
Still an amazing piece of software.
2 thumbs up.
Voted *Best* Homebrew App for now ^_^
I know you’re still improving It and we like to thank you 4 improving our creative side…
WishList:
1-The Ability to Rewind Or Forward during Playback
USING advance Bar…(by simply pointing anywhere on the Bar…)
2-The Ability to name the files & directly send the drawings via http://FTP..! (allowing nearly real-time website updating !! could be useful… ;)
Thanks 4 your (good) work…
I’m an artist that sucks at photoshop because of it’s inprecision without a touch screen. I consider this to be a photoshop for the DS. It works great, and works on Games N’ Music, which is hard to find things that do.
I suggest, how ever, an easier way to navigate the play back. I like going through my drawings and seeing where I mess up (I save several copies of each drawing) so that I can fix it. With this, you have to wait quite a while before it gets to the correct part of the play back, and then, you have to consider the chance of you missing the part and having to play back all over again.
I would also suggest other brush styles, but that wouldn’t be needed, so you guys probably shouldn’t worry about it. :)
Fab program (now I have it running) though I keep having problems with the “jump” line, I had so many in a minute I thought my picture had gone to warp speed.
Wish list:
Undo (for those jumpy moments)
Thank you.
I email my doodles to a doodle blog. I would love your application to have the ability to change the “subject” of the email you send.
The main reason for this request is that blogs take the subject of the email and make it the title, all my titles on my blog are exactly the same “you have received a painting from…”
Also it would be nice when I email someone with a piccy to let them know what it is in the subject.
Maybe if no subject is entered your app could default to the standard message?
Great App though, blows every other paint app for the DS out of the water.
I started with v1.06 and I just want to say that I think Colors is a great app for the DS. Thank you for your hard work.
First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to produce Colors!
It is, as many have said before, more valuable than many – if not most – commercially available games.
However there are some features I’d like to see implemented… I’ll present them as suggestions I’d like you to consider.
First, the ability to ‘quicksave’ the current state of a painting, and I’d suggest the creation of two modes: one that saves just the PNG and *.tmb file, and other that saves it with the *.drw aswell.
This could be later used in a slideshow fashion – which would be quite useful for me for I’ve gained the habit of scribbling notes with Colors! during college classes, instead of using paper.
I would suggest an automatic numbering algorithm that could be reset, generating filenames such as colors-3-4.png ; colors-3-5.png ; colors-3-6.png ; *reset* colors-4-1.png etc…
There might be other – better – ways to look at it, tough.
A similar feature has already been mentioned by Kim Taylor.
Secondly, the implementation of a custom color palette, on the palette/brush screen. Also, still linked to this subject, a tool in the same screen to quickly toggle between the ‘brush’ and an ‘eraser’ – which is essentially, just another brush with a user-specified color (supposedly, the backgroung) and another size, opacity and style. This would really save a lot of time, at the expense of a small amount of memory, as I see it.
Thirdly, and just a thought, one of the shoulder buttons (user-specified) could be used for a different purpose than opening the palette screen. I’d suggest, for instance, that this button should be used as a disabler – that is, while it’s being depressed, the brush wouldn’t paint, but it’d still show its circular outline. This would be useful for previewing/practicing a stroke or for correctly placing the brush before a precise stroke. This could be achieved by setting the button press as an opacity toggler. However, I feel this would probably interfere with the recording feature, resulting in garbage data being recorded (null strokes).
I surely don’t intend you to waste unnecessary resources on this matter – it’s just a minor optional feature.
Also, regarding the palette screen, I think an option to make it toggle would be appreciated.
A «overhaul» of the main menu is due to happen at some point, too. The controls, as noted by tsenzen, could be slightly improved. Like he suggested, it would be easier to navigate the files menu if the shoulders were user to skip pages. The load and save screens should also be reversed, showing the most recent files on the top, and on the load menu, an empty slot should be visible on arrival.
The addition of new features would also call for an ‘options screen’ – maybe a replacement of ‘calibrate’ that would also link to it – that if keeping the main menu layout is a must.
Simplicity is one of the main themes behind Colors! and I understand that the addition of such new features shouldn’t interfere with this – for that I would suggest an off-by-default ‘advanced mode’, less suitable for children or casual users, but much more appealing to more advanced ones, such as myself and most frequent users.
I think that’ll have to be it, by now – I’m reaching the critical point where I’ll have to tl;dr myself. I hope you take my ideas into consideration if you would.
One last question, as I’m studying to be able to program myself: is or will the source code be available?
Thank you, once again.
I wish you the best of luck and inspiration on your algorithms.
See you soon.
I’m waiting for the next relase… It’s a beautifull soft!!
I love this thing, it’s amazing. Best painting program out for the DS so far with little to no problems, but.. I can’t get the connection portion of it to work, so I can’t see the wifi bits.
Searched for an answer in the technical questions bit of the forums, so I’m just taking a more direct route now. Might just be a bug with my stuff.
Thanks for the awesome, and keep it up. Have you considered a donation thing?
Thank you for this beautiful program! I have only just found it, but if I had known about it, I would have certainly brought the DS earlier than I did, just for the sake of Colours
To second some of the requests above:
* undo
* line tool (maybe)
* simple layer function – in combination with:
* ability to load my own images for work in Colors
– ie
I would like to load a (scaled down) photo (street scene, landscape, whatever), in order to use it as a backdrop to draw over.
Partly for the sake perspective practise/cheating ;)
But also because it would make a brilliant hands on method of re-rendering a pre-existing image – much more satisfying than going through layers/filtering/etc in Photoshop.
Hey, jen, you can actually do that. I used it for one of my drawings. Just get the picture to twice the deminsions of the screen and then, name it as the file (just start a new file), with .png. So, for slot one, it would be Colors_slot.png at deminsions 512 x 386, I do believe, and then, you can use it as a background :) (sorry, had to help her lol)