GR#165 - Isometric Construction

[Mrwhitepantz]

Hey all, this is a piece I'm currently working on, based off of the temple of time in Zelda Ocarina of Time. I'm having some serious problems with the area circled in green. I'm trying to recreate the same angle and look on the other side, should be fairly symmetrical. I can't seem to get the angle or the intercept point or something right when I try to make the roof pieces. I would greatly appreciate any help you are able to give me on the subject!

[Probo]

i dont do any isometric stuff really, but i had a go^

as far as i can tell you wouldnt see that tall, thin roof bit on the other side, itll be hidden by the tower

[Cyangmou]

1 you take the groundplane
2 you find the middle of that line
3 you consider the fact that t he roof is on a different plane than the wall (dark blue line)
4 you draw the middle line and a line to the inner point of the roof
5 you draw the outer line and look where the end of the roof would be if it won't be obscured by the tower
6 you fix that line
7 you mirror those construction lines on your middle line
8 you draw a line for the lower point of the roof (vto the outer line)
9 you draw a line from the inner point to the other inner line
10 now you can draw in the shape of the roof
11) remove obscured black lines
12) remove help lines

you should construct everything out from the ground plane. THis prevents from the biggest mistakes.

[Adam]

Turned out to be something similar to that of Cyangmou. Slightly different, because I measured the extension of the roof instead of estimating. Added help lines to show why top level is not visible.



I would also like to point out that all of our edits are a bit faulty, because the left wing of the temple is wider as the right. All of our edits assumed it is symmetrical, and it's not. There you have a corrected version:

[Mrwhitepantz]

1 you take the groundplane
2 you find the middle of that line
3 you consider the fact that t he roof is on a different plane than the wall (dark blue line)
4 you draw the middle line and a line to the inner point of the roof
5 you draw the outer line and look where the end of the roof would be if it won't be obscured by the tower
6 you fix that line
7 you mirror those construction lines on your middle line
8 you draw a line for the lower point of the roof (vto the outer line)
9 you draw a line from the inner point to the other inner line
10 now you can draw in the shape of the roof
11) remove obscured black lines
12) remove help lines

you should construct everything out from the ground plane. THis prevents from the biggest mistakes.

Thank you so much. This will be a huge help in the future. This is my first isometric piece, and also my first larger scale pixel art. None of the tutorials I read mentioned the ground plane thing. Hopefully it will be much easier for me in the future!

I would also like to point out that all of our edits are a bit faulty, because the left wing of the temple is wider as the right. All of our edits assumed it is symmetrical, and it's not. There you have a corrected version:

Thank you! I knew something was off about it, I'd been having problems with some other places as well, but I couldn't figure out where I had messed up the dimensions. I don't suppose there's really any easy way to tell besides counting pixels is there?

[Adam]

I don't suppose there's really any easy way to tell besides counting pixels is there?

A pixel editor with layers may help a lot. Using one or more planning layers, copy-pasting measured distances might be able to substitute the bothersome pixel counting.

[Mrwhitepantz]

A pixel editor with layers may help a lot. Using one or more planning layers, copy-pasting measured distances might be able to substitute the bothersome pixel counting.

That's a good idea. I use paint.net, so I've got layers. Maybe I should make more use of them.

[Johasu]

I use graphicsgale and make good use of the Custom-Grid function which allows you to set mark outlines at whatever intervals you want.
(2x4, 8x8, 100x100, etc.)
It helps to keep everything even when you are working on symmetry and the snapping functionality allows quick grabbing and moving whenever the need arises.

I haven't used any other pixel programs in so long that I don't know what some of the others can do.  If yours has something like that, it definitely helps.

[Mrwhitepantz]

I use graphicsgale and make good use of the Custom-Grid function which allows you to set mark outlines at whatever intervals you want.
(2x4, 8x8, 100x100, etc.)
It helps to keep everything even when you are working on symmetry and the snapping functionality allows quick grabbing and moving whenever the need arises.

I haven't used any other pixel programs in so long that I don't know what some of the others can do.  If yours has something like that, it definitely helps.

That does sound nice. Is graphics gale free? or how much does it cost?

[Johasu]

There is a pro version that I think costs a one time of around $20

But it's free if you don't go for the frills of being able to save .gifs and a few other minor things that aren't really necessary for your basic pixel art.
Not to hard to find it; just go for the free version.