RPG Tiles...

[jams0988]

Well, took a break from the caves I was working on...figured I'd get some practice doing random pixel art before I worked on anything I planned on actually using in a game, hahah. So now I'm working on an RPG tile set, with the goal of getting a little town next to the ocean finished. Grass, dirt, and trees came out okay, I think, but I'm having a lot of trouble on the house. I must have put about four hours worth of work into it so far (I keep on revising, then starting over), and it keeps on looking like crap. The main problem I'm having with it is what to do with the empty space on the walls between the boards. They're supposed to be made of a smoothish stucco-like material, but I can't get them to look interesting at all, no matter what I try, it seems. My second biggest problem is the wooden planks. They're not looking so hot, either. The roof, like the walls and the boards, also looks like crap, but it's just a placeholder. I think with some work, I'll be able to figure out the roof myself.



So...yeah! Any help would be great. I'm stumped!

Ah, also...I'm thinking about pushing the palette more towards something like this for certain situations, if I ever do end up using these sprites in a game down the road:

Is the tree more appealing in this sort of blue light, or under the natural sunlight in the first mockup, do you think? I think it looks nice, but if a whole game was tinted blue like this, it'd probably tire me out. So I was thinking it'd be nice to use in deep forests and stuff like that, using the regular palette for most of the game.

Edit: Ah, for full disclosure: Referenced Seiken Densetu 3/pixel art tutorial for the dirt and grass. Referenced Seiken Densetsu 2 for the general shape/height of the tree, along with an old painting of mine for the colors/leaves. Building used a thousand references, but none of them helped. XD

[coffee]

The tree looks Good. However, it looks like its made in
A different style then everything else. And as you said they
Fit better in a forest with mystic light. I would put the shadow
Below the tree instead ( the lightsource from above). It will make it a lot easier to keep track of
The lightsource for other sprites/tiles. Any additional lightsources can
Then easily be added at the sides. Like the blue light on your tree.

If i were you i would go outside and get a good look at some trees.
They usually dont have the shape of a compact cone.

I would also suggest you to rework the ground tiles and then
Go from there. There are also quite a lot of places  where the tiles, tile
Bad. It doesnt take that much extra effort to make 1 or 2 more
Versions of grass ect.

Gl bud

[jams0988]

Necromancy time!
Thanks for the crits, Coffee, and sorry for taking so long to respond, heheh.
I'll consider keeping the light source from mostly above for the rest of the sprites I make. What you said about making it more readable makes a lot of sense. I know most trees aren't shaped like that, but like I said, the shape of the tree is a throwback to the old RPGs (specifically Secret of Mana) that drew them in such a simple shape. I'll be making other more realistic trees, too. The ground tiles need to be reworked like you said...I'm thinking of doing them in groups of four instead of just having them all tile together. It should help make the grid much less obvious.
Anyway, a small update:

I stopped working on it awhile back, because it seemed no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the detail on the house to be noticeable without inducing eye-burn. Today I looked at this picture with someone else's monitor, though, and the detail was easy to see, so I think my monitor might just be garbage. = \
Of course, there's plenty of other pixel art out there that I can see fine on my monitor, so obviously I can improve my art enough to look good no matter what monitor it's being shown on. X3

And then, a small sketch from today:

I suck at clouds, too. I'm not sure if I should use more colors, or what. There aren't a lot of realistic-style pixel art clouds out there, as far as I can see.

[jams0988]

Quick update today!

Changing over to a much simpler style. Thanks Mathias, for reminding me how awesome Link to the Past looked, hahah.
Chicken and fence are pretty much done. Water hole is almost done, I guess.
Everything else is extremely WIP. Not sure how I'll transition to the beach tiles, yet.
I like the way this looks because it's much less noisy, but now anything I mess up on at all looks extremely MS-Paint-y. No matter what style I draw in, pixel art kicks my ass, hahah.

Ah, one thing I was wondering about, for anyone who knows better than me: for a style as simple as this, where some of the objects are only using two colors (such as the dirt hole), should I be using any anti-aliasing? Or should I just try making my pixel clumps as un-jaggy looking as possible just by using good shapes?

[Mathias]

Haha np!

As for AA, I would encourage you to try using sparing AA. Definitely use AA, but not on everything. Edges with sharp contrast only, perhaps. LTTP does this.

[jams0988]

^Alright, thanks for the clarification, Mathias. I'll have to start AA'ing some things, heheh. =)

A small fountain thing as an update...I freaking love drawing water and stuff. Anything shiny and refreshing looking makes me happy, heheh.

Will probably have some more later today...

Another question, for you Pro Motion users...do the layers in Pro Motion work anything like regular Photshop layers? I turned them on, but they don't seem to do anything...I just want simple layers so I can rough things out/easily move different elements around. I'll probably have to just watch the tutorials, because these layers don't seem like the layers I'm used to...

[JJ Naas]

The water of the pond and the fountain shouldn't be completely blue, unless it's reflecting the sky completely, in which case you wouldn't see the bottom.

References:

Completely reflecting (no bottom visible)

Partly reflecting (a hue between brown and blue)

(Almost) no reflection (bottom clearly visible)

Here's how it was done in Kyrandia with full reflection, I've always liked this.

And here's how it was done in Secret of Mana. Partly reflecting. Notice how the rocks have brownish shades (shaded towards blue) under water.

[Elk]

This thread is so confusing... I'd like to help you...what are the current things you need help on?

[jams0988]

Thanks Elk; I appreciate the sentiment. I'm a "so-so" artist all-around, imo, so I need to work on everything. Feel free to comment on anything you see that looks wrong...I'm working on an update right now, though, so you might wanna wait until my next post. Don't want to have you waste your time critiquing things I'm already fixing up, heheh.

JJ Naas: Thanks a lot for your comments on the water; I thought "water = blue!" worked fine with the simple style I'm using, but I did a quick color edit to make the water more greenish to look more transparent, and you were right - it looks much better than the nuclear-coolant looking water I had for my last update. I'll post the new water along with the next update soon.

Thanks again for the interest, guys. =)