python - Is it possible to change sprite colours in Pygame?

Question

I'm making a game in Python using Pygame that includes a small avatar maker before the game starts, but instead of creating a big sprite sheet with 88 different combinations of hairstyles and colours, is there a way that I can just use a generic .png image of each hairstyle and apply colour to it in-game?

The hairstyles are saved as .png images with alpha and anti-aliasing, so they are not just one shade of colour. I've got 8 different hairstyles and 11 different colours. It wouldn't be a problem to load them in as a sprite sheet and clip them in-game, but if there was a way to apply colour (or hue) in the game then not only would it be easier on the memory, but would open it up to more possibilities.

Answer 1

If the image is a "mask" image, with a transparent background and a white (255, 255, 255) mask, then you can "tint" the image with ease.

Load the image:

image = pygame.image.load(imageName)

Generate a uniform colored image with an alpha channel and the same size:

colorImage = pygame.Surface(image.get_size()).convert_alpha()
colorImage.fill(color)

Blend the image with maskImage, by using the filter BLEND_RGBA_MULT:

image.blit(colorImage, (0,0), special_flags = pygame.BLEND_RGBA_MULT)

A sprite class may look like this:

class MySprite(pygame.sprite.Sprite):

    def __init__(self, imageName, color):
        super().__init__() 

        self.image = pygame.image.load(imageName)
        self.rect = self.image.get_rect()
                
        colorImage = pygame.Surface(self.image.get_size()).convert_alpha()
        colorImage.fill(color)
        self.image.blit(colorImage, (0,0), special_flags = pygame.BLEND_RGBA_MULT)

---

Minimal example: repl.it/@Rabbid76/PyGame-ChangeColorOfSurfaceArea-4

import pygame

def changColor(image, color):
    colouredImage = pygame.Surface(image.get_size())
    colouredImage.fill(color)
    
    finalImage = image.copy()
    finalImage.blit(colouredImage, (0, 0), special_flags = pygame.BLEND_MULT)
    return finalImage

pygame.init()
window = pygame.display.set_mode((300, 160))

image = pygame.image.load('CarWhiteDragon256.png').convert_alpha()
hue = 0

clock = pygame.time.Clock()
nextColorTime = 0
run = True
while run:
    clock.tick(60)
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            run = False

    color = pygame.Color(0)
    color.hsla = (hue, 100, 50, 100)
    hue = hue + 1 if hue < 360 else 0 

    color_image = changColor(image, color)

    window.fill((96, 96, 64))
    window.blit(color_image, color_image.get_rect(center = window.get_rect().center))
    pygame.display.flip()

pygame.quit()
exit()

Sprite: