Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Linaru on June 15, 2017, 08:52:26 pm

Title: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Linaru on June 15, 2017, 08:52:26 pm
Starting a project, where a full top down tileset, and character will be displayed on a piece of parchment, looking at 16x16 tiles
I am trying to decide on a colour palette that will capture both the retro pixel art style and the parchment paper look, however picking colours has always been really difficult for me (impartially colour blind so that doesn't help).

I'm worried if I picked the wrong colours I wound get enough depth in the details or that the character will blend into the environment too much.

(http://i.imgur.com/i8HIUol.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/zXbgWSf.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/nAsK26h.png)

Since everything is made out of parchment id imagine I should keep the colour palette, small.
Any ideas/ thoughts?
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Portokal on June 16, 2017, 01:28:11 am
Personally, I'd probably go for something like this:
(http://i.imgur.com/pv8ETcQ.png)
where the objects look more like ink drawings (or stains, for the lighter shades), and with an emphasis on blotted lines rather than on areas of solid color. But that's just my personal take on it— if you look at the colors Civ 6 uses for its parchment-style fog of war, for example, it's totally different. Actually, taking inspiration from that might not be a bad idea!

I'm slightly colorblind as well, but, assuming that you're also deuteranomalous (the most common form, where you have trouble perceiving greens), it probably shouldn't come into play too much for this particular project— not a whole lotta green to be found in parchment  :P
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Ink & Parchment Style Pixel world
Post by: Linaru on June 16, 2017, 11:23:02 am
After playing around some I think that limiting to 4 colours was not working too well for me, in addition, when I played with the concept of links I was trying to do them in a blueish colour...

I noticed in your idea that your darker colours were redder, and match much better with the parchment colours so I am now looking at something a bit like this:
(http://i.imgur.com/chN6mRv.pngm.png)

in the right there I attempted to draw a small ink blob creature to test the palette out.

===========

Have spent some time playing around with the main character am still a little unsure using so many similar colours, so could use some opinions:

(http://i.imgur.com/yru5Brc.png)(http://i.imgur.com/AdoKeaO.png)


Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Curly on June 17, 2017, 01:46:24 pm
The new character looks much better :)
The darkest color looks too dark compared to the others. I would add one between that and the next or lighten it a bit.
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Linaru on June 19, 2017, 07:37:01 am
The new character looks much better :)
The darkest colour looks too dark compared to the others. I would add one between that and the next or lighten it a bit.

Will look into that, I don't wish to add too many colours tough as it will defeat the point of a limited palette.

in game screen shot gives me an idea of how it comes together.. have a few ideas for improvement but any ideas will help, i have not really worked on anything of this art style before
(http://i.imgur.com/8kEgeWO.png)
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: MysteryMeat on June 19, 2017, 07:47:37 am
hmmm....
I'd say some fraying around the edges! Make it look like an old piece of paper instead of a doily by giving it a rougher more torn-off organic sorta shape.
Like this!
(http://www.psd-dude.com/tutorials/resources-images/old-vintage-paper-textures-for-designers/torn-edges-old-paper-background.jpg)
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Linaru on June 19, 2017, 12:13:50 pm
hmmm....
I'd say some fraying around the edges! Make it look like an old piece of paper instead of a doily by giving it a rougher more torn-off organic sorta shape.
Like this!

the image does not seem to work.

ill work on the border some later, as currently, it I am just trying to get the basics in place,

I've had another attempt at the character having added another shade and tweaked my pallette have also made the dirt path tiles lighter, I branched off from the original theme a bit for the wood table tiles as I felt this would help separate the paper, a bit from background elements but im still not happy with those colours.

(http://i.imgur.com/kDCNjNt.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/ysfpjoy.png)


Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Tycho Magnetic Anomaly on June 19, 2017, 07:39:58 pm
try something like this:

(http://fractalscapes.net/-DUMP/4545.png)
(http://fractalscapes.net/-DUMP/ghghghghghdretyr5.png)

bare in mind the method uses a bit of beveling/light direction so to get this style you would have to put some work into making separate tiles for flipped tiled vertically. Also the variant of tiles (with paper tears, dimples, frayed edges, corner curl.etc) are just to demonstrate some ideas you could use to get a more parchment look, again depends how much time/work you want to put in to created variants, but I see your style is keeping minimal so perhaps be subtle with some of the ideas I have shown

keep up the good work

EDIT: forgot to say, i changed your white to an off white HSL: 242. I might recommend not using pure whites or blacks for a number of reasons.
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Portokal on June 20, 2017, 01:04:01 am
To be completely honest, that looks more to me like cookie dough than like parchment :P I think your edit adds a little too much depth— parchment is very thin and somewhat translucent, so it won't be casting that deep a shadow, and there won't be much bevel to speak of. I'd probably introduce a more saturated yellow for the edges, to represent where light is shining through (like when you hold a flashlight up to your finger, and it glows red, only yellow in this case). I also might try to add larger off-color areas to represent undulations. Here's a crappy example of what I'm talking about— I payed absolutely no attention to the grid, sorry about that:
(http://i.imgur.com/DHFmRII.png)

EDIT: Forgot to mention earlier, but I like the new colors a lot more. That ink monster is great!
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: MysteryMeat on June 20, 2017, 01:05:56 am
The two above me illustrated the idea better than my sample did, haha. Look at what they did!
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Tycho Magnetic Anomaly on June 20, 2017, 09:34:46 am
Linaru

heh, yea it did turn out a bit dough like.. but eh,, isn't dough made of paper? ;)

Originally it was looking like a stone tablet, .. spotted this post , never did paper type before so thought to have a bash... I had another earlier version with less detailing and more of a burnt edge look.. but i posted the (above) more developed one instead.. here is the simpler one:
(http://fractalscapes.net/-DUMP/bnbnbnnbnbnb.png)
not great I'll admit, i think your mod is better then both for sure
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Linaru on June 20, 2017, 02:25:29 pm
Taking into consideration all your advice, I have moved the parchment border tiles into their own .png and reworked them to look nicer.
The originals were 16x16 tiles designed to make different sized pieces of parchment as screen resolution in the game will vary.
The colour palette has been tweaked again, I have also removed the wooden background tiles for now as the colour seems off and blends too well with the parchment.
(http://i.imgur.com/d0XT3sd.png)

I have also done a quick lazy mockup of world tiles border and character so far:

(http://i.imgur.com/Z621q2O.png)

I'm still struggling how best to draw the characters so they will not blend with the background, it is hard to so while using the same palette for all the world tiles


====

Some more attempts at character variation, still having issues with them blending into the background tiles..
(http://i.imgur.com/A8WWtpp.png)


====

Programmer sent me a screen cap of the new parchment border in the game editor.
(https://i.gyazo.com/9927f4dafae69abfb5007fb5f14dc9b6.png)
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: RAV on June 22, 2017, 10:07:09 am
Regarding the problem of the characters blending with the backround. Is there a reason you avoid outlines for the main characters? Do you think it would take away from the parchment style? Do you think it costs too many pixels for other details? I noticed from looking at old games with these sort of restrictions that they go for very heavy outline anyway, and try to use the outline for working the details.

An example is a game screenshot that Ryumaru posted in the game art appreciation thread:

(http://i.imgur.com/R224QjK.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/rWCEyjh.png)

I know that it also very much relies on colours to differentiate things. But still, maybe it helps to study the style of how it manages outlines on this small space.

Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Linaru on June 22, 2017, 01:15:45 pm
Regarding the problem of the characters blending with the background. Is there a reason you avoid outlines for the main characters? Do you think it would take away from the parchment style? Do you think it costs too many pixels for other details? I noticed from looking at old games with these sort of restrictions that they go for very heavy outline anyway, and try to use the outline for working the details.

An example is a game screenshot that Ryumaru posted in the game art appreciation thread:

(http://i.imgur.com/R224QjK.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/rWCEyjh.png)

I know that it also very much relies on colours to differentiate things. But still, maybe it helps to study the style of how it manages outlines on this small space.

I was trying to limit the entire colour pallet to the 6 parchment colours I did attempt drawing a version of the character with an outline but it became difficult as the outline would join or blend with the hair colour and make the character look odd if the outline was light and it would look incredibly weirdly shaped and out of place if the outline was dark:
(http://i.imgur.com/cATlZIm.png)(http://i.imgur.com/xShDt6f.png)

Trying to make the characters look like they are on the parchment along with world details and only using 6 colours is proving difficult for me, it's not a style or palette limitation I am used to working with

a lot of the older games that use outlined characters have the luxury of using a completely different colour (such as the green and red in your example) to separate it from the outline.. but working with 6 shades of very similar colours for the parchment look and feel makes  the outlines blend into the appearance of the character?

having issues explaining what I mean here, hope that is clearer...
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: eishiya on June 22, 2017, 02:08:37 pm
Are you going for a "stains on the parchment" effect, or a "drawn on the parchment" effect? In the latter case, you should certainly have at least one dark colour for important gameplay elements (characters, interactive objects) that isn't found on in the parchment texture itself.
In the former case, you should study GameBoy games like Wario Land and Trip World, which use monochrome 4-colour palettes to great effect.
Personally, I think allowing yourself one darker colour (doesn't have to be an additional colour, you could darken your darkest one) would be best. Your current palette looks washed out and dull to look at. Even if that's intentional, most players prefer something with more contrast.

The trick in either case is to avoid using your darkest colours anywhere the characters might overlap, have them always on top of your lightest colours. This is as much a palette challenge as it is a tile- and level-design one.
Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: RAV on June 22, 2017, 02:16:43 pm
I was trying to limit the entire colour pallet to the 6 parchment colours I did attempt drawing a version of the character with an outline but it became difficult as the outline would join or blend with the hair colour and make the character look odd if the outline was light and it would look incredibly weirdly shaped and out of place if the outline was dark:
(http://i.imgur.com/cATlZIm.png)(http://i.imgur.com/xShDt6f.png)

Trying to make the characters look like they are on the parchment along with world details and only using 6 colours is proving difficult for me, it's not a style or palette limitation I am used to working with

a lot of the older games that use outlined characters have the luxury of using a completely different colour (such as the green and red in your example) to separate it from the outline.. but working with 6 shades of very similar colours for the parchment look and feel makes  the outlines blend into the appearance of the character?

having issues explaining what I mean here, hope that is clearer...
Ah, thanks for detailing the issue. Sounds tricky indeed. Hrrm. I am not actually qualified to help, but until someone comes along who is, I will throw in what things I stumbled upon, okay, because I like how dedicated you are to your work no matter what. (Oh, eishiya already stepped in, good. Anyway:)

I suspect that despite the difficulty of the outline, you will have to find a way to make it work, even if it means a bit of a sprite redesign, because otherwise I see no real way you can ever make the chars work on the backround at all. But whatever the case, I just remembered another piece that seems to have a similar restriction, maybe it's a more useful reference. Maybe look more classic Gameboy Titles for inspiration, (likewise to what eishiya just suggested).

(http://pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/nightpearlallmockupspj.png)

by neofotistou (http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/94910.htm) on PixelJoint.

Title: Re: [WIP][C&C] Parchment Style Pixel Palette
Post by: Linaru on June 22, 2017, 02:46:10 pm
I was trying to limit the entire colour pallet to the 6 parchment colours I did attempt drawing a version of the character with an outline but it became difficult as the outline would join or blend with the hair colour and make the character look odd if the outline was light and it would look incredibly weirdly shaped and out of place if the outline was dark:
(http://i.imgur.com/cATlZIm.png)(http://i.imgur.com/xShDt6f.png)

Trying to make the characters look like they are on the parchment along with world details and only using 6 colours is proving difficult for me, it's not a style or palette limitation I am used to working with

a lot of the older games that use outlined characters have the luxury of using a completely different colour (such as the green and red in your example) to separate it from the outline.. but working with 6 shades of very similar colours for the parchment look and feel makes  the outlines blend into the appearance of the character?

having issues explaining what I mean here, hope that is clearer...
Ah, thanks for detailing the issue. Sounds tricky indeed. Hrrm. I am not actually qualified to help, but until someone comes along who is, I will throw in what things I stumbled upon, okay, because I like how dedicated you are to your work no matter what. (Oh, eishiya already stepped in, good. Anyway:)

I suspect that despite the difficulty of the outline, you will have to find a way to make it work, even if it means a bit of a sprite redesign because otherwise, I see no real way you can ever make the chars work on the background at all. But whatever the case, I just remembered another piece that seems to have a similar restriction, maybe it's a more useful reference. Maybe look more classic Gameboy Titles for inspiration, (likewise to what eishiya just suggested).

(http://pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/nightpearlallmockupspj.png)

by neofotistou (http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/94910.htm) on PixelJoint.


Okay yet another attempt, this time I reworked the pallet to make a few of the darker shades  darker this might cause issues when working on tile maps further down the line I'm not sure yet, your references are actually quite a lot more useful than some of the Gameboy tilesets I have looked at for reference so hoping this is better:

(http://i.imgur.com/AVVMqer.png)

these new darker shades look a bit 'Grey' to me but its hard to tell

===========

more work on the character:
(http://i.imgur.com/E8f4HL1.png)(http://i.imgur.com/oeQcC3Y.gif)

 struggling a little with the face on the side profiles

===========

Started playing with characters standing rotations

(http://i.imgur.com/DlyCdlx.gif)