A couple grass tiles.

[Relic]

If you read the Introduction thread, you'll have seen that I'm here to improve my pixeling as much as I can, so after registering, I started make a small tileset as a little project to see what happens with it. Here are a few grass tiles that I made for this tileset and I'd like to see what you guys think.



The tiles on bottom are what I originally drew and colored. The tiles are top are the same, but I played with the contrast, brightness and saturation in irfanview.

Thanks in advance

[Red_Mist]

I like the grassier version on the right and cant wait to see how you implement it in your grid system.

The only thing to keep in mind when tiling is that you want to hide the grid as much as possible when you build your maps.
heres a quick edit I think is an improvement but not quite there; with a little more time tweaking you should be able to get it perfect.

[Kcilc]

Another problem with these tiles, is that they are a ramp of full-sat green; when applying shades, it helps to think of where the setting takes place.
Is it in a jungle, forest, or maybe in a park? because once you figure out where your tile is, it will help you figure out what colors to use in your ramp,
and how saturated those colors become; with the "generic" grass tile, it takes place in (I'm guessing) a park, on a sunny day.

Parks have nice cut grass to walk on, as well as some bushes and longer grass to look at. We also know that, when the sun is out,
all of the highlights get tinted a nice, but not too noticeable yellow; while in the shadows we can sometimes make out a little bit of blue
because of the second-most prominent light source, the sky! the only way grass could be only green would be if all of the light sources were green too.

[Relic]

Thanks for the reply

I see what you mean about the grid, I tried to eliminate it as much as possible but I guess I somehow overlooked what you pointed out.. Perhaps it had something to do with editting the brightness, contrast, etc that made it stand out more when tiled? Anyways here is an update that should not make the grid as obvious and also shows a few of the bushier pieces of grass tiled onto the normal grass. That is how I was intending to use those tiles but I just got a much better idea as I was doing up that shot



Edit: @kcilc - I must've been just typing this reply as you posted yours, because I missed it. But I'll take a look at what you mean for my next update. Thanks!

[Opacus]

Colour suggestion? The high satured green aint really pleasant to the eyes.

[tehwexxl0rz]

Just kinda sprinkling the bushier pieces around a plane of flatter pieces accentuates the grid if anything. If you're gonna take that approach, the overgrown patches have to blend a lot better. Just a suggestion, but another good way to break things up is with a feature like a flower or weeds. Also, I like Opacus's desaturated pallet, but it's a little bright....

[ndchristie]

Colour suggestion? The high satured green aint really pleasant to the eyes.

this is is pretty burn right now, though it does display a nice temperature shift.

this grass tile is jsut way too busy though, it will never look nice so long as it's just noise.  simplify, simplify, simplify.

[sharprm]

http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/cannon-fodder/screenshots/gameShotId,41670/

To improve on Opacus' edit, I'd say you need to use different colors (or a different range of colors) for the trees, bushes than grass. I think noise has its place on grass tiles - you should just use colors that are close for the noise.

[Relic]

Alright, thanks for the input guys!

Is there anywhere where I can see a tutorial or guide to help me out with color, contrast, etc, since a few of you guys mentioned that the color isn't the greatest right now and I'm not sure exactly what you guys are trying to say :p.

Also, since I assume most of you haven't seen how Graal online's tiles are usually made, I'll try to explain it as best I can..
Usually, with Graal, you have your basic grass. Then you have all those little things, like long grass, flowers, little things that add needed detail to an otherwise plain level. These little tufts of grass I posted on the right of the shot are a crude beginning to these small details. I plan on adding much more like bushes, flowers, rocks, etc.

Just hoping that clears up what one or two of you commented on about the longer clumps of grass.

Thanks again

[Relic]

My apologies for the double post, but can we let it slide, considering my last post was 3 days ago?
Besides, I've been working on a newer grass tile and I think the colors shouldn't be as bad now. What I AM having trouble with is the damn grid.



If someone could do a quick edit to show me how I can effectively get rid of that horrible grid, It'd be greatly appreiciated.
I spent about an hour switching one particular spot's tiles over and over just to find that if I put more dark to offset a lighter grid mark, I'd get a dark grid mark there and vice-versa.

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Edit: Another grass tile that doesn't seem to have a bad grid, thought I'd get some C&C on this aswell.


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Thanks

[Helm]

I never understood this fixation with creating the perfect one 16x16 grass tile. Does this all come from Tsu's grass tile tutorial or what? I don't see the point of trying to completely eliminate the grid on a single grass tile. Use a few more tiles to create pleasant variation. Something like this



Less contrast would also help as you see, as grass doesn't have to devolve to noise. I'd rather look at a few stylistic patches of grass than SUPERENDERD 16x16-tiled plots of bright contrasty green forever. Do you have a reason to be working with a single tile or did you think 'well I'll just do what everybody else did!'? It seriously pays off to have even another 2 or 3 tiles to work with. Your other tile doesn't suffer from gridage as much, but is it something a player would like to look at for endless repetitions?

[Relic]

I have a reason for working with one tile. The newest tiles, the second one listed is one that tiles 32x32 and I agree that no, players would not want to look at it for long distances, but I am planning on adding A LOT in the way of small details, such as logs, shrubs, bushes, trees, etc, so that will not be all that the player will be looking at.

Also, about the contrast comment.. I asked earlier in this thread aswell but never recieved a reply.. Is there any good guidelines or tutorials I can use to help me in figuring out color, saturation, contrast, etc?

Thanks

[crab2selout.png]

Sometimes it's a lot easier to figure out the proper contrast by creating some foreground objects like buildings, trees, people or whatever to go with your background objects like grass,. A little helpful tip I've learned about colour is that warms like yellow, red tend to pop out, while blues and purples tend to recede. That's something to keep in mind when you're trying to make your peoples pop out against the background. I forget if saturation means it lacks grey or its full of grey, but more grey makes it duller and thus pops out less.

I mention a lot about making things pop out or make them look like theyre receding. Mainly doing this because you need to keep in mind when making your grass that it isnt what the players eye should be focusing on. A lot of people forget that when making their grass tiles.

I'm also going to quote something Helm said. He put it nicely and it is a great piece of advice that few follow

Do you have a reason to be working with a single tile or did you think 'well I'll just do what everybody else did!'? It seriously pays off to have even another 2 or 3 tiles to work with. Your other tile doesn't suffer from gridage as much, but is it something a player would like to look at for endless repetitions?