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Messages - ndchristie
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11
Pixel Art / Re: OctoroC64 (C+C would be awesome)
« on: March 29, 2011, 02:38:41 am »
the green into the red is a hard sell to me, just visually and for theory reasons.  the red goes into the blue so nicely, why AA at all?

12
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: [WIP]Tileset for a bar
« on: March 28, 2011, 10:07:54 pm »


Just messing around, haven't added any objects in yet, the floor hasn't been placed properly at all...but what i noticed, for me at least, is that your shapes get lost in the grain of things and your colors fall flat.  This has very limited texture, the hearth is a placeholder and like i said is missing the furniture, bottles, postings, straw on the floor, etc that would make this even more engaging, but i think already you're sucked in better, particularly by the introduction of windows and warm/cool contrast.

13
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: [WIP]Tileset for a bar
« on: March 25, 2011, 04:32:53 pm »
I think there's an issue that you're detailing the tiles rather than the scene.  If this set is for a bar/pub/tavern/inn, or really any setting, try thinking of things that can go in it to add interest without adding pixel noise.


For instance, when I think of a pub, today or way back (for some reason I'm going to the late victorian era with your palette), I come up with:

walls:
* narrow front windows across an entire wall, or nearly so.
* routinely built on a corner-lot, for 2 walls of windows.
* a nook or two
* shelves with bottles
* photographs, papers, advertisements, and other flat memorabilia
* soot from cigarettes, cigars, and in old times kerosene lamps or even candles depending - concentrated near the ceiling.
* tchotchke
* heating. these are warm places.  a hearth should be found somewhere in any bar built pre-war, even if it's closed up.
* coathooks and hathooks, generally under the counter in front of the barstools, as well as by the door.

floors:
* boards stamped and pounded so hard you can only tell the cracks if they've been replaced or are otherwise a different color from the boards next to them.
* pits, stains and scratches more visible than cracks or wood grain.
* Straw and peanut shells on the floor - a necessity, grouped under furniture and in corners.
* if there are cracks, they're actually lighter than the boards, because they're filled with pulverized bits of the above.
* a particularly smooth, ashy ring in the largest standing area or most-used path of traffic.
* tobacco stains everywhere

I can imagine a very engaging bar with very little texture/noise and even just half of these things.  don't spend so much time on individual tiles, spend time creating an environment and then detail if you still feel the need to once that's done.

14
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP]ISO tactic sprites (C&C Welcome!!:D)
« on: March 21, 2011, 07:10:53 pm »
I tried to go in a different direction as much as I could but it's hard at such a small size.

Yeah at this size, there's very few options without making things look strange.  I was sorta forced into my version.  If I was concerned about you borrowing an edit at this scale, I wouldn't have made it :).

It's still on you to animate everything...I do not envy the job :P

15
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP]ISO tactic sprites (C&C Welcome!!:D)
« on: March 20, 2011, 09:18:56 pm »
Be careful of your perspective lines.  You've got a lot of things approaching straight horizontal.  in this perspective, though that's generally forgiven and you don't have much space, you really don't want to get more shallow than 1/3.

Also take a keen eye towards body language; females should be obvious from pretty far away even without details.  lastly, watch your shading methods - you don't want the female shape, though it's more complex, to become significantly darker than the male.

Here's my attempt at guiding these points, see if you like anything that's happening :


16
2D & 3D / Re: How to achieve seamless low res textures in Maya?
« on: March 04, 2011, 03:13:25 am »
I've never had this particular problem, but I have had some things like it.

May I see your exact UV coords, your material rendering properties, and may I ask what you're using to render this?

Those half-pixel cuts suggest a very simple problem: that you're snapped to the center of the pixel, and not the border, resulting in something like this:

17
DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT USE THE PIXEL-ZONE ISOMETRIC TUTORIALS.

Whoever wrote them does not understand 2:1 isometric fully.  he loses a lot of compression in places, and gains some in others.  the square on which he defines the circle is not actually square, invalidating his form.

a real vertical square will end up about 88% as high as its undistorted width, or in perspective close to 125% of the distance covered (so if your tile block is 32px wide, then the height of the cube should be 20 pixels, *not* 16).



Here are some common cube sizes drawn in this method:



The astutue will notice that this is not 100% accurate - the value is actually a bit less than 125% (true ratio involves an arctangent), and the higher sizes should estimate accordingly - 1 pixel less starting at 32.  However, I keep the 5:4 method, as this ensures that all smaller cubes can tile on themselves to line up precisely with the larger ones, and that patterning can be achieved with relative ease.

18
Pixel Art / Re: Terrain and House - "Sidescroller" style landscape.
« on: February 01, 2011, 03:48:27 pm »
this could be the monitor I'm on, but does anyone else think the 'wood' color is pink/mauve?  makes it feel like some of those ramps are made out of skin.  tidbit creepers.

19
General Discussion / Re: how would i do this?
« on: January 28, 2011, 09:12:26 pm »
keen observation is needed, and simple math (like 4*4=16 kind of simple).  the eye generally knows when things are off, even if finding what's correct can be harder.

precision is a given - if you place single pixels, you are precise, if you do not, then you're not making pixel-art.

drawing quality and projection accuracy do require practice or technical knowledge, but this can be picked up through any of the numerous tutorials or, for those really interested in an academic sense, books on the subject.

but no, you don't need to be a draughtsman to make a decent building.  looking at what you're doing, paying attention to others, feeling what is right and what isn't, these are the most key.  

for instance, if you have a particular question about a piece of pixel art, such as how to space these windows, posting in the appropriately-labeled "Pixel Art" section of this board is the best way to begin!

20
General Discussion / Re: how would i do this?
« on: January 28, 2011, 07:51:52 pm »
hey chief,

line tool is fine, but try to just post the regular image rather than screencapture, that way it's pixel-perfect and we can use the forum's built in zoom to make it larger.

you'll often find in isometric that using even widths (n*2) is often preferable to odd widths, as they won't repeat so easily.

there's a million ways to draw and subdivide a surface.  on planes or in lower pixel counts you can just measure, nothing complex about it.  More intricate shapes can be easily produced with a basic knowledge of technical drawing too complicated to describe here.

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