Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Bollie on September 24, 2016, 07:55:15 am

Title: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Bollie on September 24, 2016, 07:55:15 am
Hello. I'm struggling to make a jungle tileset's background to work:
(http://i.imgur.com/oWhqJXp.png)
And here is the tileset itself:
(http://i.imgur.com/IQb3xxJ.png)
If i make the tiles too green, then the wines and flowers become indistinguishable from the background, but now it looks really wonky. Any tips?
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Nirel on September 24, 2016, 01:02:06 pm
I'm honestly not sure what was your problem exactly.
I tried playing with the colors a bit to make it more clear and still somewhat maintain the same feel,
it might give you a direction.
(http://i.imgur.com/xmWmSqA.gif)
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Bollie on September 24, 2016, 03:31:35 pm
After a couple of iterations, i have landed on something i like:
(http://i.imgur.com/mJfN3qn.gif)
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: BadMoodTaylor on September 24, 2016, 04:28:34 pm
I would try playing with making the light around the player bigger and/or brighter.  Everything is pretty dark so it would give it a chance to show a little more
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Tezca on September 24, 2016, 06:29:06 pm
This is unrelated to the question in the original post, but that light surrounding the main character looks really good within the retro style pixel environment. I don't think I've seen that combination before, and it looks good.

But I agree with BadMoodTaylor, the environment is pretty dark so maybe extending the size of the light would help a little.
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: lpflicke on September 24, 2016, 07:23:05 pm
Unrelated to the tiles but It reminds me a lot of spelunky with the edge grabbing.Also love the trail behind him and the light he's causing.I dont know if its the video or the tiles/game itself but theres also some wierd noise on only the background tiles.

With the tiles, I think they look really good and don't really know about what part of them you're talking about.They could do being a bit more clear against the background but the light from the character helps a bit with that and also making it not so desaturated that the setting doesn't feel vibrant enough for a jungle.

Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Bollie on September 25, 2016, 05:44:12 am
Thank you all :) I made the light a bit brighter and bigger, and call this finished now.
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Vinik on September 25, 2016, 04:00:21 pm
Quick question while you are at it, does the light effect respects the pixel matrix or the palette? I have always considered how it was done in snes zelda, most likely a palette swap for light, and wonder if something similar can be achieved in current engines, all unity or game maker light effects I see break the "resolution" and are unrestrained by the palette. It does looks awesome by the way.
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: eishiya on September 25, 2016, 04:33:43 pm
Quick question while you are at it, does the light effect respects the pixel matrix or the palette? I have always considered how it was done in snes zelda, most likely a palette swap for light, and wonder if something similar can be achieved in current engines, all unity or game maker light effects I see break the "resolution" and are unrestrained by the palette. It does looks awesome by the way.
Not the dev, but a way to do this kind of look is to have the light as a series of layers that blend with the rendering underneath. In this case, it looks like there is a Screen-blended layer that creates the brightest part of the light, and a Multiply-blended layer that creates the dark areas. These layers have discrete levels of transparency to avoid overly soft transitions while still allowing something that feels like a "smooth" falloff. It isn't properly paletted, but because it uses a very small number of colours to blend with, it keeps the overall colour count low.
The pixel resolution is easy to respect by designing everything for 1x resolution, and internally rendering at 1x, and then scaling the result for display on the screen.
Title: Re: Jungle tileset background.
Post by: Vinik on September 26, 2016, 02:47:37 am
Thanks, that is what I thought. The solution for properly pixelated light effects surely must be setting everything for the 1:1 internal resolution. The paletted lights and shadows, however is something I've never seen in action aside from 16-bit era videogames, and I am not sure it is worth the trouble (but it is sweet in link to the past shadowy dungeons, I refuse to believe they doubled the tileset and sprites just for shading). Having a palette swap system working, however, seems very useful for various reasons besides light effects. Oh, and sorry for hijacking the thread, I was just curious and I learn something everyday on these boards.