AuthorTopic: GR#206 - Sideview Houses - Gameart  (Read 19514 times)

Offline jahasaja

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GR#206 - Sideview Houses - Gameart

on: August 01, 2014, 12:40:00 pm
Hi all,

Working on backgrounds for my game. Trying to make houses but the ones i make becomes quite boring. Any C&C is appreciated.

Offline Mathias

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #1 on: August 01, 2014, 01:36:49 pm
Without context, knowing what it will be used in, it's hard to say. Might be perfect, since it possibly matches the environment's style in which it'll be placed.
Can you post a mockup yet?


Is it wise to analyze this isolated?

COLORS
All dark, all muted. Uninteresting.
Try mixing colors from all over the thing to other parts. Have you heard of the "all colors everywhere" ideology? It says that limiting all of one color group to one element or section may not be such a good idea. By spreading your colors around you're able to achieve stronger harmony.
Very little value (darkness/luminosity) variation.
Reads as excessively 2D and flat. Thanks goodness for that roof shadow at least.

SHAPE
Basic rectangle.
Monotonous repeated elements.
Except for chimney it's symmetrical.
Would it be appropriate to innovate some more interesting architecture? Different levels of roof heights, smaller annexed rooms that break up the rectangle silhouette. Look here. Scan all the cabin images and break them down into their MAIN shapes. Notice how they're put together.

How about some decorations, some ambience?
Meat hanging up to dry.
Farming tools hung up.
pair of boots
barrels
plants
rocks

Your door. At 1x it doesn't read well as a door. Looks like the doorway is blockaded or something. Reduce contrast of lines inside door.
Those hinges would read better if they were logically spaced - why is the distance from the door's top and the top hinge not =equal= to the distance from the door's bottom and bottom hinge?

Offline jahasaja

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #2 on: August 03, 2014, 01:08:45 pm
Thanks for all the input.

A mockup is still a couple of weeks away.

I am still fumbling with the colours but at least I tried to do little of the "all colors everywhere" not sure if I got it though.

Did some fake 3d for some depth and spiced up some things. Still kind of boring though.. 

Offline revolver

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #3 on: August 03, 2014, 07:55:42 pm
Its hard to say weather its bad or good without seeing the background on which it will sit, i like it with the bush at the side and the spade leaning against the wall

Offline astraldata

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #4 on: August 05, 2014, 05:38:43 pm
You should at least give some idea as to what z-plane this is going to be on -- i.e. will the character walk next to it or will there be some grass or bushes between it and the character periodically, or will it be beside a clearing in a deep forest layer in front of some mountains on a separate layer, etc. etc.?

If it's close to the player's layer, I'd suggest variations using the bundled-up hay and the bush + shovel, sometimes 2 of them, 3 of them, all with different house widths and different locations of the shovel/hay if possible, with perhaps some plants separating the houses periodically.
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Offline Mathias

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #5 on: August 07, 2014, 12:39:22 am
Good improvement.

An edit suggestion:



The palette control sucks, but the edit is only meant as a face value suggestion.

Offline jahasaja

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #6 on: August 07, 2014, 03:13:56 pm
Thanks for all the input. I am full at work at creating a mock-up (the clouds elude me)

here is a new version where I started with Mathias edit as well as a new house:



Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #7 on: August 07, 2014, 04:22:26 pm
Perspective is twisted on your new house. You can see the right wall of the house, so everything should go to the left (and you see the right plane), but you can see the left plane of logs around windows and doors. Because of this it looks very weird.

Also outlining all plates on the roof with the same bright color isn't very good idea. Try to find some good reference for this type of roof and see how light bounce of it. I think that it would look at least slightly better if you keep bright color on bottom and right side of the plate while top and right should be dark. This way you will simulate feel of directional light.

And when I'm already talking about lighting, shadow on the left side of the house, cast by end of wall logs is also weird. It suggest that light is coming from the left, while lack of that shadow on the right part of the house and shadows of grass suggest that light is coming frontally. You should think this things through cause they can ruin your piece.

If you don't have that level of 3d perception you can use google sketchup to create simple model of the house and observe shadows. Program is very simple and user friendly.

Offline jahasaja

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #8 on: August 08, 2014, 09:51:57 am
Wow Sketchup is amazing thanks for the tip.

here is a new version tried to fix the roof, windows, door and changed the axe a little..



question: is not the light on the grass correct if the light is coming from the left and slightly front?

Offline astraldata

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Re: How to make my house more interesting??

Reply #9 on: August 11, 2014, 02:36:53 am
Looks great man! Grass and all. :)

The only thing I can really add that hasn't been addressed already is that this dude has a lot of axes at his house. Might want ta ax him what he plans to do wit' all dem axes.

Kidding aside, I do think you should keep a version with the bush as well as a shovel, and perhaps bushes in front of the house too if this level is going to be more than one screen wide.

As far as I know, you never addressed my question about where the player will be distance-wise, relative to this building, so I'm not sure if the coloring/values/etc. are correct. Most 2d game art tends to be developed at the same time (i.e. bg colors, character, tileset, bg, and fg layers, in that order), but as a standalone graphic, not knowing what context it will  be used for, it looks very nice otherwise dude. :)
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