Ring and Background Colors

QQL renders 153 different colors across seven palettes. Of these, 33 are background colors and 120 are ring colors. Within the different ring colors, there are 41 base or swatch colors that are unique and stay constant across different backgrounds, while the other 79 are used within 36 swatches that each have two or more minor variants. Depending on which background is in use for the seed, a different variant will be used.

There are also three sets of “duplicate” colors where “Austin Blue” (background) and “Austin Mid Blue” (ring), “Miami White” (background) and “Miami White” (ring), and “Austin Dark Brown” and “Edinburgh Brown” (ring) are the same, but never found on the same seed.

Background Colors

While background colors are not selectable traits, the information of which background color was used is included in each seed’s metadata, which means that background colors are visible upon “inspecting” the seeds in a web developer console. They also appear as one of the traits in marketplaces such as OpenSea.

Austin Background Colors

Berlin Background Colors

Edinburgh Background Colors

Fidenza Background Colors

Miami Background Colors

Seattle Background Colors

Seoul Background Colors

Ring Colors

Austin Ring Colors

Berlin Ring Colors

Edinburgh Ring Colors

Fidenza Ring Colors

Miami Ring Colors

Seattle Ring Colors

Seoul Ring Colors

Swatch Substitutes

All of QQL’s backgrounds are tailored to work with the right colors. Just nine backgrounds accept all colors in their respective palette’s range, while the other 24 backgrounds limit rings to a subset of the color palette, or specify which minor variation of a color should be used.

For instance, the “Austin Yellow” background avoids “Austin Yellow” (ring), “Austin Peach”, “Austin Pink” and “Austin Mid Blue”, leaving it with “only” six ring colors available. These limitations mean that seeds that have a palette in common but a different background may have very different overall aesthetics.

Some of the color swatches have three minor variations that have been adapted to pair well with different backgrounds. At first glance, with each seed’s background color changing our perception of the orange rings, it may seem that these three seeds have rings with the exact same color. It is only when we inspect them closely, or when we isolate each ring’s specific color, that we can actually see the difference.

Color Variance

Across all seeds in QQL there is an almost imperceptible variance in color between rings that have been assigned the “same” color (or, at least, the color with the same “name”). Rings may appear to have monolithic consistency, but when closely looked at side-by-side, are different enough to give a sense of depth to the composition.

When we look at monochromatic seeds such as QQL #225, we can notice a certain texture or pattern that goes beyond the variable thickness and slight displacement of the rings. It’s almost as if there were rings of different colors, but they are hard to distinguish one from another individually.

If we look closely at QQL #248 and its same-color rings, we’ll start noticing that some are darker, or brighter, than others. This color difference is particularly visible between the second and third “Fidenza Orange” ring in the first column, or between the first and second “Fidenza Pale Blue” ring in the second column.

Each QQL color is assigned a base HSB (Hue, Saturation, and Brightness) value. For example, Fidenza Pale Blue’s HSB value is 200, 35, 37. Most colors are slightly variable, so the algorithm may randomly nudge each of these values one or two points higher or lower. In essence, what this means is that QQL rings of the “same” color can actually have 125 very similar, but different, colors.

Different colors have different variance settings. So, some may have a completely fixed hue, saturation, or brightness, while others may have large or small potential variance ranges.

Splatter Colors

Splatter rings are rings whose color seems to break apart from the main composition. Sometimes we can find them isolated and scarcely present, such as in QQL #146, where we see four “Fidenza Red” rings and seven “Fidenza Blue” rings. In other seeds, such as in Anders’ seed, we see a lot of splatter from a single color, “Berlin Dim Orange”, that is much more widespread and becomes one of the main compositional elements of the image.

Each color palette has a set of splatter colors that could be chosen, and a randomizing function determines which splatter color (or colors) may actually make it into any given seed. Fidenza, Miami, Seattle and Seoul have just four different splatters colors that can be assigned, while Austin and Berlin have six, and Edinburgh has one for every swatch color except “Red Orange”.

Interestingly, there are two unique colors that can only appear as splatter colors. One of them is “Miami Teal” (HSB 179, 38, 75) which can be seen below in just two rings in the seed found by KREG, and “Berlin Cool Mid Green” (HSB 170, 45, 40), which is visible in a much more widespread green splatter in smolhead’s seed.