RATING CRITERIA (unfinished)

This guide is based on the "output.log" textfile usually found here: <C:\User\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Passpartout\Passpartout_Data>.

Everything is speculative (and 3 years old data in 2020) but you can help this guide by testing things yourself, see how the output.log file reacts and posting your findings/theories in the comments :)

rating example

So when I found this file I started some testing. The file updates everytime you start and load a (save)game.
Scroll down and as long as you have paintings for sale in that savegame, you will see something like this:

Name: example name	[the name of your painting]
Valid: True	seems to always say “True” ?
Originality: 0.7133451	decimal between 0 and 1
Color Complexity: 0.15	decimal between 0 and 1
Brush Length: 1	seems to always say “1" ?
Brush Time: 0.7547913	decimal between 0 and 1
Brush Strokes: 0.12	decimal between 0 and 1
Brush Velocity: 0.09007332	decimal between 0 and 1
Time Spent: 41.66052	time spent painting in seconds
Color Dominance [1]: 0	amount of color 1
Color Dominance [2]: 0	amount of color 2
Color Dominance [3]: 0	amount of color 3
Color Dominance [4]: 0	amount of color 4
Color Dominance [5]: 0.3367013	amount of color 5
Color Dominance [6]: 0.3639404	amount of color 6
Color Dominance [7]: 0.03839286	amount of color 7
Color Dominance [8]: 0	amount of color 8
Color Dominance [9]: 0	amount of color 9
Color Dominance [10]: 0	amount of color 10
Color Dominance [11]: 0.2609654	amount of color 11
Color Dominance [12]: 0	amount of color 12
	...
Color Dominance [22]: 0	amount of color 22
Color Dominance [23]: 0	amount of color 23
Color Dominance [24]: 0	amount of color 24
Color Dominance [25]: 0	amount of color 25
Base Price: 27.77368	base value of the painting - gets multiplied

Factors

? = unclear

1. Name of your painting

   the name of your painting one can set before displaying it
   
   

2. Originality

   ?
   
   

3. Color Complexity

   ? - color variation of the painting?
   
   

4. Brush

   - Lenght
   ? - has said "1" in every of my tests so far.
   
   - Time
   how long one has used a brush/tool ?
   
   - Strokes
   amount of strokes/lines the painting has
   
   - Velocity
   how fast these strokes were painted
   
   

5. Time Spent

   time one has spent on a painting (no matter if you actually drew something - starts counting with every new canvas)
   
   

6. Color Dominance

   amount of a certain color ("1"=100% - "0.1"=10%) adds up to "1"
   
   

7. Base Price

   base value of the painting - each customer-type seems to have a different multiplier which also grows everytime you finish an act.

field tests:

you will now see the results of some of the experimenting I did:

Act I

Paintings for the punks:
this arrangement of quickly drawn lines in 3 (bright) colors was enough to convince both punks and to turn off the old men Steve & George.

[kcire]

AAA

[BunnyboyCarrot]

Look at the LUA files of characters in the CES folder: There are a lot of hints the dev put there

[BunnyboyCarrot]

originality (0-1) - Originality compared to other paintings
colorComplexty (0-1) - Number of color islands in painting
brushLength (0-1) - Average length of brush strokes
brushStrokes (0-1) - Number of brush strokes
brushTime (0-1) - Average time of brush strokes
brushVelocity (0-1) - Average dist/time of brush strokes
timeSpent (0-Inf) - Time spent in painting ui (in seconds)
name (text) - Name of the painting
complementaryColor (0 or 1) - If painting uses complementary colors, to be used as money multiplier

This is all from looking at the LUA files of certain characters.

[Occi]

I am 90 percent sure it works like this:

"Does this painting have color in/near the same places as other paintings created?"

"Does this painting have the same look as other paintings created?"

"Does this painting represent a famous real-world painting?"

[Endgunner]

how close to your other pintings?

[Lazergurka]

How does originality really work I wonder

[Frank H. Peabody]

For the "old men" use really dark colors, basically make a mountain shape with dark and light brown, add some dark red, dark blue, and dark green here and there. Works every time

[Raye]

Curious about act II (b) where you go to the wrecked building, what those weird blond hair dudes like. So far I can only please the punk chicks and the old guy that only likes when you use 2 or so colors.

[ᖜ ᙈᗩᕮԵ𝖨Տ ᖛ]

Basically for Act I, the Hipsters are who buy basically anything at the beginning of the game until you become "cool". Critics like it when you use a select group of similar colors, like variations of blue or black, grey, and white. The Punks like it when you spend as little time possible and streak the canvas.
In Act II the Business Men will buy most paintings if you spend a moderate amount of time on them, they're not too "Complex" and the colors aren't too out there. A lot of the same paintings that sold well in Act I. By that point you have three brushes, the Noble Women in the dresses will buy it if you utilize those different brushes, spend a longer time on the paintings, at least four colors that go well with each other and different kinds of strokes which will get about 700 - 2,000. I'll post more on Act III

[Captain Blud]

So maybe the slower the lines are drawn, the more it will appeal to them? Which doesn't really make sense, especially for abstract. Nice guide though, I hope you continue to test and build on it.