GR#048 - Cyberpunkish RPG Tiles

[Corinthian Baby]

Yeah, always use the sprites as a unit of measurement for the scale, in this case, 1 x 2 tiles, (16 x 32). And idk if silhouette is the right approach, it may be cool to see a blue/dark tinted sprite with his eye closed, maybe even floating animation (moving vertically by 1 or 2 pixels.) Amazing ref if you haven't already seen it:
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/43377.htm#
And the top right/bottom left wires look weird because they look like they should be connected to the wall. Oh and for some floor variation, why not try different sized panels? 32x32, 32x16 versions of your original would look great.

[Perihelion]

@Mathias: I tried messing with it, but it didn't look right to me with the highlights moved. I think you're gonna have to show me if it's a big concern.

@Corinthian Baby: Yeah, I love that piece by Adarias. And great idea about the floor panels!



Okay, I made some changes. How's this? I feel like I need more animated light around the tank now. I'm thinking about making the pipes look like they're full of glowing liquid with bubbles moving through or something, but the lighting might be annoying to make tile correctly, so maybe not.

[Dusty]

Would probably look leaps better if it was very slow. And I personally love the tubes, I don't know why though. They're very smooth, and the highlight works so well for them, as well as the lighting on them gives them some nice depth.

[Perihelion]

You're right, it was definitely way too fast.


Is this better?

[Helm]

Why slow? I liked it better fast. If you're going to do it so slow you'll neeed to make inbetween frames and possibly subpixel animate at that. Harder, but it might look better. You need almost subliminal movement, if you're going to do it slow. Faster is more 'campy' but it works better for a videogame, perhaps?

I have to say I disagree with the way you've shaded the ground tiles themselves a lot now, but it's something that if I saw it on a game I would learn to live with. Just an aesthetic consideration.

I feel like I need more animated light around the tank now.

Absolutely, by the way. Don't be afraid, you just need a few variations to make the animation work. Do it, it'll enhance the effect very much.

Also another idea. The 'rim' of the tileset, the scaffolding around the tiles, I suggest you try this trick. Duplicate the palette entries and give them complementary tints (complementary color to green and cyan and blue and purple on the color wheel are the exact opposite), so make the border of the image warm while the interior is cold. It might mess with the red tint you have on the walls however, so if you try this, remove that tint (I know, it's hard to remove something as cool as that, right?). So the rim has a complementary palette and pops up, shows elevation and cradles the composition.

It might look like ass, but it's worth a try!

I really like this, I just wanted to say

[Perihelion]

Thanks, I'll try that! If you don't like the floor, how would you suggest I shade it? I always have problems texturing flat metal.   The way I had it before doesn't scale as well to the big floor tiles, but I can probably go back to that if that was better.

Also, about the tank, I felt that the rapid flashing of the animation was too distracting and eye-grabbing and looked weird with everything else still. I think the slower version looks more convincingly floaty and less distracting. It's supposed to be a mostly background element. I see what you mean about needing more frames at that speed, though. I'll mess with later tonight. I don't really want to add a bunch more frames, so maybe an in-between speed would look good.

[Corinthian Baby]

About the floor, peep this example from the old masters: (A scene from ff6)

Not the best, map, and maybe not as noisy as this, given the smoother style you have, but it should give some ideas. Also, check out how they used machinery here, an interesting way to use a tech aesthetic, without it really serving a purpose outside of decoration.

[Helm]

Heh it's been a while since I did art like this.

Personally I prefer soft washes on metal like this



but that might be too realistic for the style. It's worth re approaching though.

[Dusty]

Why slow? I liked it better fast. If you're going to do it so slow you'll neeed to make inbetween frames and possibly subpixel animate at that. Harder, but it might look better. You need almost subliminal movement, if you're going to do it slow. Faster is more 'campy' but it works better for a videogame, perhaps?

I dunno, I feel slow is more fitting for an object in a container of water with mostly no movement. I don't see why they'd be bobbing up and down so fast, and it felt unnatural to look at. I think slow portrays the stagnation of the body better, though I agree simply slowing down the three frames is not looking right.

[Perihelion]

@Corinthian Baby: Yeah, I love FF6's tiles. That gives me some ideas, although I may save them for later tilesets.

@Helm: Wow, thanks for the edit! That was incredibly helpful. I just learned a TON about shading metal. Also, I tried your idea about the border pipes, but I couldn't get it to look right. I did add some more red into their palette, but I can't decide if I preferred the original or not.



I really want to avoid doing more frames for the pod if I can, so I reduced the time. Does this look goofy still?

I may need to fix up the walls so they match the floor better. Gonna animate the sprite eventually.