Need help with my CLIFFS!

[Punika]

Allright, im working on something thats called RPG in an online version..nothing new to most of you..

I saw some amazing artists here and i think you can help me..

SOMETHING is weird with my cliffs .. i don't get it ..can you find whats wrong with them?

[ptoing]

Hello, welcome to Pixelation.

Atm your mockup has some quite big issues. I opened it in Cosmigo Promotion and it does not seem like you are working on a tile grid. It is not entirely necessary but if you want to have a world with repeating bits it certainly is recommended. I think something like 16x16 tiles would be good for this.

Now to some core issues.

• Most of the texture you have is just noise, it is not discriptive of what you want to show with it. The grass also reads much better if it is just a pure green colour (compared to what you have atm)
• It is better to make proper cornertiles, not just have a grassfill and then draw borders around it.
• The main issue with the cliff is that the outline it has suggests it is bending, but the actually cliffside gfx are not. Here it would help to have some shading on the sides.
• The crates are overlapping atm. You are working in a orthographic projection, so the the space the top of them occupies is the same space as the bottom takes up.
• Also you are having LOTS of colours which are not visible. The grass looks like 2 colours, but you have way more in there. If you can not see a colour there is no point of having it.

If any of this is unclear feel free to ask.

I hope these crits are not overwhelming. The main colourscheme in your mockup is quite nice as are the stoneshapes on the cliff, but it needs a lot of work still to become nicely readable.

[Punika]

hey that was fast =)
thanks a lot for cc

a) i got a 32x32 grid but this picture is just a pice of a whole map
b) yes IN THIS picture there are ..uhm i havnt counted..a lot of green tones, but i use only 3 .. i dont know why the quallity is so messed up :x
c) proper cornertiles? any examples?

# The main issue with the cliff is that the outline it has suggests it is bending, but the actually cliffside gfx are not. Here it would help to have some shading on the sides.
# The crates are overlapping atm. You are working in a orthographic projection, so the the space the top of them occupies is the same space as the bottom takes up.

dont really understand what you mean--sry

im sorry but english is my THIRD language and as hard as i try to master it, i cant =P
looking forward for answers :3

[ptoing]

Top left shows what seems to be the shape of the cliff, flat.
Top right roughly shows what the outlines of the top and bottom of the cliff suggest the form to be. These 2 things are not in sync, which is why it looks off.
Bottom shows what I mean with shading on the sides, simplified.


Here is what I mean with the crates are overlapping.
On the right you can see the space the bottom of the crates would be occupying in the 2 versions. In yours there is overlap.
I made an edit to show how the boxes could sit to look correct. The outlines could overlap since double outlines might look odd and it still looks fine.


Here are 3 approaches to grass to dirt transition. I especially like what Scruffs did. Take a look at these, I am sure it will help.
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/18159.htm
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/13592.htm
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/16419.htm

[Punika]

got the boxes thing and grass/land transitions too ^^

well..i also understand now what you mean with the cliffs shading ...
but i stzill dont know how to manage them to look the way they should >,>
making cliffs is a pain in the a**

allright for the first i will try it with the grass to land transition and i will get some new land/path tiles since the ones i got look more like desert/sand ^^

[Hishnak]

Hi Punika, you might try putting deeper shading where the grass overhangs the rocks. That will make it look like the grass is meeting a cliff and not just slapped on top. Also, you should think about how the grass interacts with the top of the rocks. If there's a rock that projects from the cliff face then the grass will also project out. Currently, the edge of the grass seems a little to strait and perfect. Does that make sense?