@paulr Welcome to the forum! Looks video gamey. Have you tried experimenting with hald-cluts? In GIMP go to Filters > G’MIC-Qt > Film emulation. Let us know if you have any more questions.
@afre I was playing around with those film emulations with GMIC in GIMP, only to later discover that I could not open .jpg files anymore once GMIC was installed. Only .xcf files would open, so I had to unininstall GMIC just so I could open jpg’s again. Nevertheless, I didn’t find a film emulation that replicated anything near this look. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Don’t remember noticing hald-cluts. I get the sense that this effect requires more than just a film look though.
That’s odd – a plugin shouldn’t be able to do that! I suggest that you try using PNGs or TIFFs.
See http://gmic.eu/film_emulation/index.shtml for samples. However, I don’t think it has all of the emulations. If you want to try this on other apps, search hald-clut with the name of your app of choice.
my very crude attempt at producing these crazy colours (using darktable and the clut module), as well as removing much of the frequency content in the luma channel (dt and equalizer):
i think i was able to reproduce much of the aggressive colour palette without counter weighting it with the big flat surfaces… i think it looks very terrible now but should be possible to reproduce your image given the raw with this toolset.
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@hanatos This looks like you’re on the right path. I’m suspecting that a major amount of luma adjustment is required for such an image.
@paulr In any case, you need a newer version of GIMP and G’MIC. An AppImage is available here: GIMP AppImage (continuous integration). I personally use @partha’s builds here: partha.com.
This is where this image came from when I do a reverse image search. The thread provides you hint on how to achieve the look, albeit in Adobe’s apps.
More samples of that look: http://benthomas.co/
In darktable, several instances of the color zones module.
I wrote a quick simple G’MIC filter. I may add to it later. You may try it out by creating a user.gmic file and placing it in the correct directory:
At startup, G’MIC automatically includes user’s command file $HOME/.gmic (on Unix) or APPDATA/user.gmic (on Windows).
@David_Tschumperle Just added it to gmic-community for me! Just update your filters.
Edited: see date in screenshot.
#@gui Gamify : fx_gamify, fx_gamify_preview(1)
#@gui : Lightness = int(50,50,60)
#@gui : Chroma = float(2,1.1,5)
#@gui : sep = separator(), Normalize = bool(1)
#@gui : Contrast = float(1,1,1.5)
#@gui : sep = separator(), Preview type = choice(1,"Full","Forward horizontal","Forward vertical","Backward horizontal","Backward vertical","Duplicate top","Duplicate left","Duplicate bottom","Duplicate right")
#@gui : sep = separator(), note = note("Filter by <i>afre</i>. Latest update: <i>2017-01-05</i>.")
fx_gamify :
-if $3 -n 0,255 -endif
-rgb2lab -lab2lch
-s c -n... $1,100 -*.. $2 -a c
-lch2lab -lab2rgb
-split_details 2
-l.. -adjust_colors 0,{-$4/1.5*20} -endl
-*. $4
-+ -c 0,255
fx_gamify_preview :
-gui_split_preview "-fx_gamify $*",$-1
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Vaguely similar thing here -
@paulrl Can you show a picture you want to change to a pastel tune. We could try what we could do and we would show how it was done.
You should also decrease global contrast and increase local contrast. That gamifies it even more.
@McCap I will look into it when I have the time. In general, I like filters and tools to be dead simple so as not to confuse the user. It might be easier for the user to use another tool where needed.
Sorry didn’t mean that you should include it in your filter. Just ment, that in my eyes the videogame look always has strong local contrast and weak global contrast (thus also the run for that over the top HDR look).
Wasn’t directed at you. Just expressing my own struggle. When I look at the majority of filters and tools in post processing apps, the litany of parameters make me feel like I am in a drug store looking for the right toothpaste or shampoo.
PS I updated the script again, adding a contrast slider and using older code for compatibility.
@afre, I think it is time you get an access to the gmic-community repository, where you will be able to modify your afre.gmic file, including new filters if necessary.
Do you have a github account ? I could just add you to the contributors for this repository, if you wish.
Thanks for the vote of confidence 
. I guess I have gone from a newbie to everything discussed here to a 1 year old newbie 
. No, I don’t have an account and am unfamiliar with git. I will eventually get around doing both.
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It’s actually quite simple to manage, once you have set up an account and uploaded your SSH key, just clone the gmic-community repo and you are ready to go ! 
Indeed, it is not too hard. I’d be happy to help you learn git/github if you’d like!
What was the original question?
@yteaot I think we are still on topic if that is what you are asking. I could explain what Gamify does. Basically, it increases L and C from LCH, which is a polar transformation of LAB. Contrast lowers global contrast while emphasizing the finer details.
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