Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Zayko on June 06, 2015, 11:58:38 pm

Title: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Zayko on June 06, 2015, 11:58:38 pm

I have started a sidescrolling-combat game project with a friend some time ago. At that time i drew some tiles to build the platforms and was pretty happy with it, after that i have been doing a lot of animation.
when i came back to see my my tiles after some months i noticed they weren't actually that good at al :P

The stone texture doesn't tile as good as i would like it to and the grass' colors feel weird !

Here's a sample:
Any criticism welcomed and thanksfor it  in advance !

EDIT: the tiles are 16x16

(http://i62.tinypic.com/95soyd.jpg)

Title: Re: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Decroded on June 07, 2015, 06:40:58 am

its not pixel art when u use soft tools like the airbrush.
u have hundreds of colours instead of just a few.

contrast is way too low.

avoid pure grey especially large areas of it.

can't understand why rock texture has long lines hanging off it same as dirt.

there's very little actual rendering going on here besides a similar texture applied across everything including grass.
try adding some form to the tiles, chunks of dirt and rocks, shadows and roots under the grass etc.
example: (http://i.imgur.com/pP8Mtl0.png)

Title: Re: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Zayko on June 07, 2015, 01:35:13 pm

Thank you for your reply,
Beeing new to pixel art and used to higher res digital painting i have been using brushes to paint textures like i would do on full res ones XP

i have been looking at some games and redid the stone and dirt textures:

 (http://i62.tinypic.com/j6toi8.png)

thoughts ?

Also, i haven't done the grass yet, i find this one a bit trickier.

The long line things hanging at the bottom of the platform are my attempt at making it look like a floating surface with stalactites:

(http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/greenliving/uploads/2011/08/carlsbad-caverns-stalactites.jpg)

Here shown in an early test with the old stone and dirt textures :

(http://i57.tinypic.com/i6xwly.png)

Title: Re: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Decroded on June 07, 2015, 02:02:20 pm

i rly dont have time to clean up all ur colours etc (plus u should learn to do it urself) so just a very rough quick edit to give u some ideas.
(http://i.imgur.com/pWuXnre.gif)

colours still aren't great but hopefully u get something out of it.

Title: Re: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Zayko on June 08, 2015, 07:43:05 pm

the point of those textures is that they need to tile... i have a dozen of levels to do and a deadline for august i can't draw each platform in detail DD:
i'm going to try and use a palette of colors more similar to yours :)

Title: Re: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Gil on June 10, 2015, 11:49:29 am

You CAN tile them in Decroded's style. There's plenty of examples of that.

I don't have much time, but basically, it goes like this:
- Draw a non-tiled platform like Decroded's
- Cut it up into tiles
- Try making new platforms with the tiles
- Alter certain tiles to tile better, add new, missing tiles
- Repeat those last two steps

There is no reason in 2015 to create tile maps consisting of just a few basic tiles, we don't have computers with 2Kb of RAM anymore (NES, etc)

Title: Re: dirt, stone and grass tiles [C&C]
Post by: Decroded on June 11, 2015, 01:15:30 pm

a tile map consists of all the pieces around the edges, a repeatable tile to go in the middle and a few variation tiles to spice things up
its perfectly acceptable to fill the centre of the platform with a solid color of pure shadow for example. Nothing tiles easier than 1 colour.
Then u can have a few rocks scattered around that stand out from the shadow to break up the solid area.

You've made things more difficult for yourself by mixing rock and dirt. no drama as u just make some blending tiles but this seems like a bad choice when u have a skill vs time constraint.