[WIP]Starry Tiles

[Siren]

Hello guys, I'm trying to make a tiles with a very large influence of starshapes in it, so far this is what I have, grass is still not yet done. The guys there are just for height reference. Unfortunately, I'm really bad with Tiles because of lack of experience, can someone give me advice on how to shade the tree? I think there's a huge misunderstanding going here so I'll clear it up! English isn't really my first language so forgive me for not being direct. What I wanted help on was how should I do the base shading for the leaves? I'm really, really, realllly stuck there.

Stuff:



Older Variation:
http://i.imgur.com/KUiOs.png

[Yuri]

The tree shading looks pretty good. As a general rule I'd say just keep the shading consistent through the whole scene. Here shading goes from top left to bottom right. I would shade the 2 bottom right leaves a littlle bit darker and the top right lighter. Although it doesn't strike me as unrealist as it is. The trunk has better shading than the leaves so I would focus on this to make the piece consistent. I prefer the leaves with 2 tones and the middle separation, maybe try that with the other 1 color leaves too. hth

[Mathias]

Tree trunk is really good, though it needs some grounding; appears to be floating.

As for the canopy, you have an inherent problem - you're created large smooth shapes with pixel art. If it wasn't pixel art, some gentle smooth gradation would fulfill the task, but no, your palette is too limited of course. Do you dither? Do you create texture? Your detail resolution is high in certain places and that basic cell-shaded canopy isn't fitting in yet.


And wait a minute, why the stars theme? With such an odd cartoony concept, why is everything so mundane and earthy? Shouldn't things be all weird - blue grass, strange vegetation, cosmic bg, some surreal flavor, etc.

[Siren]

Oh boy, replies! 

Tree trunk is really good, though it needs some grounding; appears to be floating.
As for the canopy, you have an inherent problem - you're created large smooth shapes with pixel art. If it wasn't pixel art, some gentle smooth gradation would fulfill the task, but no, your palette is too limited of course. Do you dither? Do you create texture? Your detail resolution is high in certain places and that basic cell-shaded canopy isn't fitting in yet.

Ah I am not actually done with it yet, specially the grass and cliffs. I'm really stuck on how to shade the tree, that's why I'm asking for advice!
I thought of it a while ago while I was doing shopping that maybe I should go lily (pod?pad?) shading but I haven't touched it yet 

Do you dither? Do you create texture?

I honestly am not a big fan of dithering, but I'm trying to do textures though!
 

And wait a minute, why the stars theme? With such an odd cartoony concept, why is everything so mundane and earthy? Shouldn't things be all weird - blue grass, strange vegetation, cosmic bg, some surreal flavor, etc.

Oh no no, I meant star shapes, not really a star area. I was thinking some art style? I'm not sure how to explain it. But it starts first from a village worshiping star deities, starry-like forests, surreal starry temples and all that sort of stuff. I wanted it to go from tame to downright surreal and crazy slowly. I hope I'm making sense!

@Yuri, oh man, that is the light source I was aiming for but I didn't know how much I messed up. Thank you very much for that! This will help me a lot when going back to it again 

For the curious, this was the draft where it came from: http://i.imgur.com/CRUDQ.png

EDIT: I applied the suggestions and came up with this :3

[pistachio]

First let me say, it's very uh... Kawaii. I know I told myself never to use that word but it's the only word that can describe this thing.

Right now I'm pretty sure it's a stylistic thing, but that tiny character of yours seems to be staring blankly into the distance, which is odd given the sidescroller perspective of this game. At least the character, as well as the current tree (trunk) seems to suggest that. Lack of pupils suggests the character is being hypnotized (so I added some in the edit), but that's just me. If the target audience of this game is people who are more familiar with these sorts of expressions, and tend to think otherwise, go ahead and take that direction.

If you're getting stuck on the grass tiles, although I don't know if you are or not, try looking at some examples of well-done isometric grass tiles, quite a few tossed around the forums. They're basically the same thing. Shouldn't be much of a difference, if any, when used as reference.

This should be a good example ( but I suppose you're aiming for an even more stylized approach, like moderately sized leaves patterned along the ground. Might wanna toss in a few "star" leaves in there for good measure.

Here's an edit. The purple color on the canopy was bothering me. Put a shadow beneath it, which I'm pretty sure is what "grounding" means. To further amplify this, roots now pop up from the ground. A bit of highlighting on dark leaves. Redid the trunk; highlights on trunk looked strange and distracting and there wasn't much of a shadow that the canopy casts on it. And bonus character design, which I hope retains the "cute" look you were going for while giving you some inspiration. I couldn't really figure out his/her gender, but I'm pretty sure it's female now. And if I may, it originally seemed pretty off-balance, (especially the taller one,) so I built off of the more midgety one and just stretched that out.



(Also, are you a weeabo--

[Siren]

First let me say, it's very uh... Kawaii. I know I told myself never to use that word but it's the only word that can describe this thing.

Right now I'm pretty sure it's a stylistic thing, but that tiny character of yours seems to be staring blankly into the distance, which is odd given the sidescroller perspective of this game. At least the character, as well as the current tree (trunk) seems to suggest that. Lack of pupils suggests the character is being hypnotized (so I added some in the edit), but that's just me. If the target audience of this game is people who are more familiar with these sorts of expressions, and tend to think otherwise, go ahead and take that direction.

Well, like I said in the first post, it's just a placeholder XD
This is the real sprite look but I'm planning to make it thinner?smaller?:

If you're getting stuck on the grass tiles, although I don't know if you are or not, try looking at some examples of well-done isometric grass tiles, quite a few tossed around the forums. They're basically the same thing. Shouldn't be much of a difference, if any, when used as reference.

As for the grass, I really wasn't working on that yet, I just wanted a base to work on later as soon as I finished the tree, but for reference, here's what I was using: http://i.imgur.com/tpw6Z.jpg

I wanted to see how to shade the leaves since I was really stuck in there because it's huge. I did checked st0ven's tutorial, I mean I know those but I really don't know how to apply at huge leaves like that. But I'll work on it. I think there's a huge misunderstanding going here so I'll clear it up! English isn't really my first language so forgive me for not being direct. What I wanted help on was how should I do the base shading for the leaves? I'm really, really, realllly stuck there.

Thanks for the edit though!

As for the weeabo comment... weeabo means someone using japanese words/cultures based on anime they just watch and use it on every single piece of work they have and acting like a complete fanboy/girl and attempts to act as if they were Japanese. Which is not what I'm doing I think? I just like anime style because it delivers the expressions that I wanted to do. That's all there is to it. Just like how some prefer dynamic cartoons for their work.

[EyeCraft]

-snip-

I wanted to see how to shade the leaves since I was really stuck in there because it's huge. I did checked st0ven's tutorial, I mean I know those but I really don't know how to apply at huge leaves like that. But I'll work on it. I think there's a huge misunderstanding going here so I'll clear it up! English isn't really my first language so forgive me for not being direct. What I wanted help on was how should I do the base shading for the leaves? I'm really, really, realllly stuck there.

-snip-

My suggestion is, don't go too crazy with detail or texture on the tree. Otherwise it is going to be an overload for the eyes. Pistachio's edit does a nice job of defining the tree, but not making it too busy. I would actually dull the contrast a tad in the palette just to push it back in priority moreso.

Love the star theme, though I can't help but think Mathias' suggestions of weirding it up a bit would work WONDERS for the atmosphere of the piece. Just try some bizzare palette-swapping... pink leaves! Blue grass! Purple... uh... people? 

[pistachio]

Or differently tinted clusters of grass or leaves, perhaps? Blue-green, purple-green, yellow-green, red. And how about generic mushroom people?

No, that was just put there to make this longer than a one-liner. But good suggestion, EyeCraft.