AuthorTopic: [WIP] game tiles and sprites  (Read 6134 times)

Offline ovle

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[WIP] game tiles and sprites

on: January 26, 2016, 09:19:22 am
hi guys
i'm making a game (i'm actualy a progammer, not an artist) and also trying to implement graphics for it.
i have read some number of tutorials before and also have seen many samples of pixel art (fell in love with it long time ago).
but i'm still a newbie, so at this point i need critique/advices.
here are the parts of tilesets combined together with some of the sprites.





i beieve the main issues i see by myself are the poor colors/lack of palette, contrast, fine light/shadows.
for example wood is greenish, gray is dull and generic, the whole 'castle' tileset looks boring (there's only one color variation used in it). also it looks not contrast enough for me, but idk what contrast will be 'enough' to the eye still can easily recognize sprites on it. but these are only my observations, idk if they are relevant or not.

Offline transilience

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #1 on: January 26, 2016, 06:57:40 pm
Since you humbly admit to not being an artists, your initial priority should be in studying references.

Find all the pictures of castles that you can and study their natural construction, then find all the pixel artwork of castles that you can, study how that artists composed their work, decide what you think worked and what didn't, try to make some practice pieces mimicking their techniques.

You're pixel art is fine if that's the style you are going for, but based on your post I think you want to refine your skills and add more detail and depth to your art. At this point, start considering yourself an artist, and start working the way an artist would, by practicing and using references and re-working your previous pieces.

Really take objective looks at your work and think about what doesn't look right and why, so lets take a quick look:

Picture 1 - Palette, your right on, the palette is a bit monotonous and the picture is blending together except for the bright white guy in the middle. Use some brighter browns, closer to yellows for the table and door, there's a copule windows in the picture, maybe they create some light rays in the room? Consider where you want the light source to be outside and inside, speaking of which, you've got a fire up on that wall, consider the radial glow from this fire also! Maybe the floor of the castle needs a rug or some different color stone?

Picture 2 - again consider your light source, the rocks around there seem to all have their own individual light source, remember that the shape and structure of objects like rocks can block light from hitting lots of other parts of the rock. And other thing to consider is proportions, you're using a rather small scale for your pixelart so take a look at other small scale sprites, they manage proportions of the character and environment differently, some details are omitted while others are exaggerated since you only have a single pixel width for things like the arms and legs of the character or props.

Offline ovle

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #2 on: January 28, 2016, 03:01:06 pm
transilience, thanks for your advices)
it seems that there's a lot of work for me here. when another iteration will be ready i'll post it here.
couple of small notes - related to light, i'm not sure the lightning in game will be implemented with usage of sprites/tiles, but of course i want to be able to draw it anyway.
related to proportions - do you mean this kind of human body proportions for low-res sprites?

Offline ovle

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #3 on: February 16, 2016, 03:36:26 pm
ok, i decided to start from scratch
picking up a palette and learning how to use it is my first priority for now.
i was trying to use Dawnbringer's 32, but it is too challenging for my (lack of) skills. the low resolution i'm using also doesn't helps here, because i'm not capable to dither or draw outline when the pixels are too large related to the sprite/tile. still, i really liked the palette itself. wondering if there's 64 / more color version of it?
so i'm using arne's 64 color palette. here are the results so far

i like it myself, but i need skilled peoples opinion here.
there was already a note about body proportions earlier. i can understand why human figures are distorted this way (previous post), but i still want to keep body proportions closer to realistic.

also, i totally failed when trying to draw any environment/land tiles with this palette and resolution.
with db32/lower resolution i get some result i can att least use in game (there's light-shadow issues, but i will think about it later)

but can't get even that with new palette and higher resolution. of course i'm also trying to find and watch other's textures etc., but i'm probably missing something.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2016, 03:49:24 pm by ovle »

Offline Decroded

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #4 on: March 02, 2016, 02:42:36 am
Sorry i cant offer crit or edits right now but i wanted to say i like the style of what ur doing and i hope ur keeping it up  :y:
Would like to see some updates and environment mockups if u get any done.

Offline ovle

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #5 on: March 06, 2016, 03:33:17 pm
Decroded, thank you. even without any advices, comments like this gives motivation to me)
i'll update thread when there will be the results that are worth to be shown here

Offline ovle

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #6 on: October 05, 2016, 04:16:52 pm
hi guys. i decide to not start a new topic, not sure if this is correct
so, here is the current progress. hope to get any comment/critique
« Last Edit: October 05, 2016, 04:19:08 pm by ovle »

Offline spO_oks

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #7 on: October 05, 2016, 04:44:47 pm
Wow! Looks so much better than the first post. Good job! I'm liking the style, there's a few readability issues though.  The shaft of the wizards staff blends in with the background, the same with the mace on the dude next to him (and all of mace mans clothes).  If that's a chest under one of the lamps it feels quite small, it looks like it could fit about two of your mice in it, at a push.
Everyones posture looks pretty stiff too. Hope that helps, keep up the good work!

Offline ovle

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #8 on: May 01, 2017, 12:56:05 pm
spO_oks, thanks)
still trying to make this, so there's some progress (characters only)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2017, 12:57:52 pm by ovle »

Offline ovle

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Re: [WIP] game tiles and sprites

Reply #9 on: October 29, 2017, 08:01:15 am
updated a bit