Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 123: CEL Paint Color Generator

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 123: CEL Paint Color Generator

As an addendum to the spinner wheels used for the CEL Challenge and its associated random engine generator, both of which I have discussed previously in this series, I have chosen to create another set of spinner wheels. This one, however, is different from those two in that instead of a car, or an engine, it can be used to generate a paint color that can be applied to any car in Automation, specifically, for all (or most) of its exterior panels. Here it is:

Above: An overview of the CEL Paint Color Generator.

The functions of the wheels above are as follows:

• Base Hue: The basic color of the paint material. If this lands on Black, Gray/Silver or White, ignore the effect of the next two spinners.
• Base Saturation: The amount of saturation the base color has.
• Base Value: The amount of brightness the base color has.
• Flake/Shine: The amount of flake and gloss the paint material has. This must be spun twice: first for shine, then again for flake (although the order can be reversed if desired).
• Pearl Strength: This determines the strength of the paint color's pearl effect - if it lands on None, the results of the next three spinners can be ignored.
• Pearl Hue: The color the pearl effect will impart. If this lands on Black, Gray/Silver or White, ignore the effect of the next two spinners.
• Pearl Saturation: The amount of saturation for the color provided by the pearl effect.
• Pearl Value: The amount of saturation for the color provided by the pearl effect.

For all spinners other than Base Hue and Pearl Hue, the values (as shown in the materials tab) that the options refer to are as follows:

• None (Flake/Shine and Pearl Strength only): 0.00
• Very Low: 0.01 to 0.19
• Low: 0.2 to 0.39
• Medium: 0.4 to 0.59
• High: 0.6 to 0.79
• Very High: At least 0.8
• Full: 1.0

Here is an example of a randomly generated set of paint color attributes using the above set of spinner wheels:

An example of a randomly generated set of paint color attributes using the CEL Paint Color Generator spinner wheels. The color generated here is a kind of yellow/gold with full saturation and value, full shine but no flake (due to the the Flake/Shine wheel landing on Full on its first spin, leading to a 1.00 value for shine, and the second such spin of the same wheel yielding a result of None, leading to a 0.00 value for flake), and no pearl effect.

The results of the CEL Paint Color Generator can also be applied to a randomly generated car from the main CEL Challenge spinner wheel. If you wish, try generating a random color that would be a realistic option for the car created from the CEL Challenge. Have fun exploring the possibilities!