05_alien_invasion.md

Nine Super Rare Aliens (in Cyan)? Start the Alien Invasion from Mars - Mint Little 24×24 Extraterrestrials (E.T.s) in Green, Chartreuse, Yellow, Orange, Red, Fuchsia, or Magenta

Crypto collectibles are all about rarity - the more rare the punk type the more valuable the 24×24 pixel art in theory.

Let's check if the theory holds up. Only nine super rare aliens in cyan color exist on earth out of a total collection of 10 000 [with a certificate of ownership in the CryptoPunksMarket blockchain contract state storage].

Let's mint the alien line-up, that is, punk #635, #2890, #3100, #3443, #5822, #5905, #6089, #7523, and #7804:

require 'cryptopunks'

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

ids = [635, 2890, 3100, 3443, 5822, 5905, 6089, 7523, 7804]
ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punks[id].save( "./punk-#{name}.png" )
end

Voila!

What's your favorite? What's your offer bid?

The highest ever punk price, that is, $7.5 millions as of March 11, 2021 - goes to...

Yes, it's punk #3100 - the blue-white headband wearing alien in cyan color.

In cyan color? Let's look at all the colors in use in the 24×24 pixel art.

require 'pixelart'

punk = Pixelart::Image.read( './punk-3100.png' )
punk.pixels.count         # total pixels - 24×24
#=>  516
punk.pixels.uniq.count    # total colors - unique colored pixels
#=>  7

And let's print the seven colors:

punk.pixels.uniq
#=> [0, 255, 3371957247, 4294967295, 443471359, 1975369215, 2615206143]

Okkie? Let's convert to the standard rgb - red/green/blue - and hsl - hue/saturation/lightness color schemes with alpha channel (for transparency):

punk.pixels.uniq.each_with_index do |color, i|
  hex = Pixelart::Color.to_hex( color )   # rgba in hex (string format)
  hsl = Pixelart::Color.to_hsl( color )
  print "[#{i}]  "
  print hex
  print "  "
  print   hsl.inspect
  print "\n"
end

resulting in:

[0]  #00000000  [  0, 0.0,  0.0,    0]
[1]  #000000ff  [  0, 0.0,  0.0,  255]
[2]  #c8fbfbff  [180, 0.86, 0.88, 255]
[3]  #ffffffff  [  0, 0.0,  1.0,  255]
[4]  #1a6ed5ff  [213, 0.78, 0.46, 255]
[5]  #75bdbdff  [180, 0.35, 0.6,  255]
[6]  #9be0e0ff  [180, 0.52, 0.74, 255]

The color 0, that is, #00000000 is the transparent color - the fourth elment in rgba 00 or hsla 0 is the alpha channel - the opacity from 0 (fully transparent) to 255 (fully opaque).

The color 1, that is, #000000ff is black - it's #00 00 00 or rgb(0,0,0) with the alpha channel set to ff (fully opaque) or rgba(0,0,0,255).

The color 3, that is, #ffffffff is white - it's #ff ff ff or rgb(255,255,255) with the alpha channel set to ff (fully opaque) or rgba(255,255,255,255).

That finally gets us to the three colors with a hue of 180° degrees on the hsl color wheel - the main colors for aliens:

[2]  #c8fbfbff  [180, 0.86, 0.88, 255]
[5]  #75bdbdff  [180, 0.35, 0.6,  255]
[6]  #9be0e0ff  [180, 0.52, 0.74, 255]

If you look up 180° - that's cyan (a greenish-blue) primary color.

So what? Let's start the alien invasion from mars. Let's mint little 24×24 extraterrestrials (E.T.s) in green (120°), chartreuse (90°), yellow (60°), orange (30°), red (0°), fuchsia (°330), and, magenta (°300).

ids = [635, 2890, 3100, 3443, 5822, 5905, 6089, 7523, 7804]
ids.each do |id|
  name = '%04d' % id
  punk = Pixelart::Image.read( "./punk-#{name}.png" )

  [180, 150, 120, 90, 60, 30, 0, 330, 300].each do |hue|
     saturation =  0.13
     lightness  = -0.30
     color_map = {
      '#c8fbfbff' => [hue, 0.86+saturation, 0.88+lightness],
      '#75bdbdff' => [hue, 0.35+saturation, 0.60+lightness],
      '#9be0e0ff' => [hue, 0.52+saturation, 0.74+lightness],
     }

     new_punk = punk.change_colors( color_map )
     new_punk.save( "./punk-#{name}_#{hue}.png")
     new_punk.zoom( 3 ).save( "./punk-#{name}_#{hue}x3.png")
  end
end

Note: To make the colors a little more "intense" let's turn up the saturation by 13% (that is, 0.13) and darken (turn down) the lightness by 30% (that is, -0.30).

Voila! The alien invasion army!

And in 3x zoom factor:

What's your favorite color? What's your offer bid? (Hint: Right-click and download the 24×24 pixel art image for free).

Now ask yourself - if you can mint any alien in any color for free anytime - what's your price target for the "super rare" blue-white headband wearing alien in cyan color for 2022? Is it zero or ten millions?