06_palette_8bit.md

Christie's Nine Colored in Black 'n' White, Ye Olde' Sepia Tone, Blue or Futuristic False 8-Bit Color Palette - Free Downloads - Right-Click and Save Image

For the first time, 5,184 pixels' worth of a revolutionary non-fungible token project will go up for auction at a traditional auction house, courtesy of the project creators and pioneers [- Matt Hall and John Watkinson, founders of New York-based software company Larva Labs -] themselves.

[...]

The CryptoPunks are a collection of 24x24, 8-bit-style pixel art images of misfits and eccentrics. There are exactly 10,000 of them, each with their own ostensible personality and unique combination of distinctive, randomly generated features.

[...]

As of early April 2021, over 8,000 sales had been recorded in the previous 12 months, with an average sale price of 15.45 ether ($30,412.40). The total value of all sales is 127,360 ether ($251,620,000) - and that value grows daily.

In February, CryptoPunk #6965, a fedora-wearing ape Punk, sold for 800 ether - equivalent to $1.5 million. And on 11 March 2021, CryptoPunk #7804, the previously mentioned pipe-smoking "wise alien," was sold for the equivalent of $7.5 million - the highest amount ever paid for a Punk at the time.

[...]

Larva Labs' set comprises nine CryptoPunks [#2, #532, #58, #30, #635, #602, #768, #603, #757], all from their original collection [24 x 24 pixels each], in a single lot that highlights the series' best features: muttonchops, earrings, big shades, crazy hair, a hoodie, a mohawk and more. [...] Estimate: $7,000,000-9,000,0000. Offered in 21st Century Evening Sale on 13 May at Christie's in New York.

--10 things to know about CryptoPunks, the original Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Christie's, April 2021

Sold? What's your bid? Be bold. Come on now. No regrets!

Let's have a closer looksie at the Christie's Nine line-up in the original Larva Labs 24 x 24 pixel design series. Let's mint a fresh copy:

require 'cryptopunks'

punks = Punks::Image.read( './punks.png' )

ids = [2, 532, 58, 30, 635, 602, 768, 603, 757]
ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punks[id].save( "./punk-#{name}.png" )
end

Voila!

Can you spot the super rare alien?

Punk Philosophy Aside: Two New York hipsters auction off million dollar 24 x 24 pixel art. Is that punk?! Or a cash grab of greedy fraudsters?

Whatever. Fuck the establishment. Let's generate some freebie punks.

Let's change the color to black & white or more scientifically known as 8-bit grayscale, that is, 256 shades of gray starting with black (0x000000) and ending with white (0xffffff).

Let's try the magic grayscale method:

require 'pixelart'

ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punk = Image.read( "./punk-#{name}.png" )

  punk_bw = punk.grayscale
  punk_bw.save( "./punk-#{name}_bw.png" )
  punk_bw.scale( 4 ).save( "./punk-#{name}_bw4x.png" )
end

Voila! The Black & White Series.

How does the black & white magic work? Let's look at the colors of punk #2 before and after using the show_colors helper that gathers and prints the insider pixel statistics:

def show_colors( img )
  colors = Hash.new(0)

  img.width.times do |x|
    img.height.times do |y|
      color = img[x,y]
      colors[color] += 1
    end
  end

  puts "#{colors.size} color(s):"
  colors.each_with_index do |(color,count),i|
    print "  [#{i}]  "
    print '%3d pixel(s) - ' % count
    print Color.format( color )
    print "\n"
  end
end

Let's try:

punk = Image.read( "./punk-0002.png" )
puts "before:"
show_colors( punk )

punk_bw = punk.grayscale
puts "after:"
show_colors( punk_bw )

resulting in:

6 color(s):
  [0]  326 pixel(s) - #000000 / rgb(  0   0   0) - hsl(  0°   0%   0%) - α(  0%) - TRANSPARENT
  [1]  165 pixel(s) - #000000 / rgb(  0   0   0) - hsl(  0°   0%   0%)           - BLACK
  [2]   76 pixel(s) - #dbb180 / rgb(219 177 128) - hsl( 32°  56%  68%)
  [3]    4 pixel(s) - #a66e2c / rgb(166 110  44) - hsl( 32°  58%  41%)
  [4]    2 pixel(s) - #d29d60 / rgb(210 157  96) - hsl( 32°  56%  60%)
  [5]    3 pixel(s) - #711010 / rgb(113  16  16) - hsl(  0°  75%  25%)

and

6 color(s):
  [0]  326 pixel(s) - #000000 / rgb(  0   0   0) - hsl(  0°   0%   0%) - α(  0%) - TRANSPARENT
  [1]  165 pixel(s) - #000000 / rgb(  0   0   0) - hsl(  0°   0%   0%)           - BLACK
  [2]   76 pixel(s) - #b8b8b8 / rgb(184 184 184) - hsl(  0°   0%  72%)           - 8-BIT GRAYSCALE #184
  [3]    4 pixel(s) - #787878 / rgb(120 120 120) - hsl(  0°   0%  47%)           - 8-BIT GRAYSCALE #120
  [4]    2 pixel(s) - #a6a6a6 / rgb(166 166 166) - hsl(  0°   0%  65%)           - 8-BIT GRAYSCALE #166
  [5]    3 pixel(s) - #2d2d2d / rgb( 45  45  45) - hsl(  0°   0%  18%)           - 8-BIT GRAYSCALE #45

See the black & white difference? In the rgb (red/green/blue) color scheme all colors are now between rgb(0 0 0) and rgb(255 255 255) with every rgb triplet having equal values and in the hsl (hue/saturation/lightness) color scheme the hue is now always 0° degree and the saturation is 0% resulting in 8-bit grayscale, that is, 256 shades of gray starting with black (0x000000) and ending with white (0xffffff).

Now having an 8-bit color palette, that is 256 colors from 0 to 255 lets us swap the colors with different 8-bit color palettes. Let's start with the ye olde' sepia that is in the real world a chemical process but in the digital a special effect for an old fashioned and aged vintage foto look.

Let's try:

ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punk = Image.read( "./punk-#{name}.png" )

  punk_sepia = punk.change_palette8bit( Palette8bit::SEPIA )
  punk_sepia.save( "./punk-#{name}_sepia.png" )
  punk_sepia.scale( 4 ).save( "./punk-#{name}_sepia4x.png" )
end

Voila! The Ye Olde' Sepia Vintage Series.

What's next? Let's bring back colors!

Let's try a blue theme:

ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punk = Image.read( "./punk-#{name}.png" )

  punk_blue = punk.change_palette8bit( Palette8bit::BLUE )
  punk_blue.save( "./punk-#{name}_blue.png" )
  punk_blue.scale( 4 ).save( "./punk-#{name}_blue4x.png" )
end

Voila! The Blue Series.

And to wrap up let's go futuristic.

Let's try a false color palette:

ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punk = Image.read( "./punk-#{name}.png" )

  punk_false = punk.change_palette8bit( Palette8bit::FALSE )
  punk_false.save( "./punk-#{name}_false.png" )
  punk_false.scale( 4 ).save( "./punk-#{name}_false4x.png" )
end

Voila! The Futuristic False Color Series.

Now do-it-yourself (DIY) and generate your own punk series in your own colors! Yes, you can!