Colour and glow
Moonstone, silver and teal for the base; warm light for people, cool light for magic; a budget for both.
Palette
Base colours take 60 to 70 % of a day frame. Glow colours are emissive and the only saturated colours.
Never in Alvheim: red, orange, saturated yellow-green, gold metal, brown earth paths (trodden ground is dark teal-grey #3E5F66), black. Nothing on screen is darker than the night floor #1B2740.
Glow: two families and a budget
Warm light is where people are, cool light is where magic is. A lantern, a window and the seat ring's lamp are honey. Water, runes, flowers, thread and gems are cool. Nothing mixes them: no blue lantern, no golden rune.
- One brightest thing. Where Månebrønnen is in view it is the brightest object in the frame, day, dusk and night. No lantern within 8 m of it; its water's core may reach white, a lantern's glass may not.
- Budget per frame (below). With halos, the family's 10 % stands.
- Night balance in the square: cool cores at least as many as warm. The night key is 4 to 1. On Lyktestien and at the arch warm may lead (1.6 to 1): the way in is lit by people.
- A halo is at most 3 times its lantern's glass on screen and never clips to white outside the glass.
- Glow is small on the thing that carries it: a rune stroke, the heart of a bell, the last row of a cloth, one gem. Never a whole object, a whole plant, an elf's skin or dress.
- Runes glow only on stone, one per run of seven path stones.
| Time | Glow cores | Median luma | Pixels under luma 0.08 | Balance in the square |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | at most 1 % (sky excluded) | 0.40 to 0.50 | under 1 % | the well glimmers; lanterns unlit |
| Dusk | at most 5 % | 0.25 to 0.35 | under 1 % | about half the lanterns lit |
| Night (hero hour) | at most 4 % | 0.22 to 0.30; 2nd percentile at least 0.10 | under 1 % | cool cores at least as many as warm; on Lyktestien and at the arch warm may lead |
Do
- Warm honey for lanterns, windows and the seat lamp.
- Cool glow for water, runes, flower hearts, gems and the sky.
- The well brightest in the frame, at every hour.
Never
- Ember orange, red, gold metal, black.
- A blue lantern, a golden rune, a lantern brighter than the well.
- Glow over a whole object, plant, or an elf's skin.