Dwarf Fortress Sprites - dwarves, tree, boulder, grass

[Cyangmou]

I think it won't bother anyone as long as you keep environment perspective on it's own consistent and the charakter perspective as well. From my experience i can say that it starts to look odd if you'll mix up 1/4 1/2 and 3/4 (as you rendered) so that it looks that each thing has it's own perspective. And the angle between the charakters and the environment shouldn't be to big - If you think of Zelda-perspective like backgrounds with sideview sprites the credibility isn't the best as long as you don't use a very low-res and simple style (e.g. 8x8 NES sprites with high symbolic look).
I really like the stuff you have so far, keep on working.

[jams0988]

Looking great, imo. What's with the patchwork grass, though? Is it staying like that? That'd be interesting...

[mikemayday]

The patchwork is due to the way the visualizer currently works - it transfers data from DF pretty directly- thus it retains the colour variation of the grass tiles that is present in DF. (it doesn't help that in DF every tile is a different species of grass... hopefully that will be changed).

[mikemayday]

Ok, here's some old stuff I've been reworking lately. The frontend will be using different zoom levels and I'd like to have dedicated icons for at least both 16px and 32px.
So while I work on some larger icons I'm interested in your opinions on these fellas.
The original civilian dwarves were made by Tocky- fantastic lineart and old-school colours- but sadly those colours didn't match the rest of the graphics that have already been made for DF. Back then I remade them to some more vibrant colours.

The soldiers are: recruit, wrestler, swordsman, axeman, hammerman, maceman, spearman, pikeman, lasher, crossbowman, bowman, blowgunman

[jams0988]

The patchwork is due to the way the visualizer currently works - it transfers data from DF pretty directly- thus it retains the colour variation of the grass tiles that is present in DF. (it doesn't help that in DF every tile is a different species of grass... hopefully that will be changed).

DF....? Dwarf Fortress? I'm not familiar with the game, sadly. =(
Does it really have so many random tiles everywhere like that? Is it a really pulled out view or something?
The grass actually does look kind of cool like that, anyway. In a charming nonsensical sort of way, at least. =)

[mikemayday]

Yup, Dwarf Fortress and charming+nonsensical is a perfect two word description of the game
In the game itself the grass only alternates between two shades of green and four symbols. The visualiser pulled out the game inner data though- hence the wacky patchwork- which, I agree, looks interesting.

Now, I've cleaned up the tree animation a bit:


And this guy is up for critique:


step2: (trying out various thinks, tell me what you think works and what doesn't!).

[API-Beast]

Actually your renders aren't accurate as you rendered them with a perspective camera and not with a orthographic one (as you have always in a 2D game). That makes quite some difference. I've made some similar renders before, no idea if they help:
http://files.mrbeast.org/ArtStuff/LPC/30.png ~3/4 view
http://files.mrbeast.org/ArtStuff/LPC/50.png ~1/2 view
http://files.mrbeast.org/ArtStuff/LPC/70.png ~1/4 view

[mikemayday]

Well, the subject of those renders was the sphere, not the cube. And I think drawing a sphere with elements of linear perspective wouldn't clash with the surrounding cubical geometry being orthographic- the outline stays the same.
EDIT: just to explain more- I also thought it'd be a GOOD idea to just draw the tree in linear perspective, that's why I did those renders this way. But when it only comes down to half a pixel of a difference...

[mikemayday]

Did some more work on the 16px military. It's tiny!



And just a boulder.

Does it match the tree in style?

I'm gonna have to do my own grass tile now I guess. Sad! Dusty's tiles are all very good, but that grass is a masterpiece. Don't know what else to do besides copying it :/

[jams0988]

Boulder is nice and matches your tree. =)
Your little guys are a bit hard to read though, especially in regards to what they're holding. Are these meant to be viewed at 1x, or?