GR#175 Xedrai's Sprites - Gameart

[Xedrai]

You use a lot of colours where a few would also do well. On the left the colourcount on the sword was reduced to 8 including background, and it looks the same as the original. The right has 6 including background.

I only replaced colours though, except on the guard where it looked segmented otherwise. You woudl probably have to redraw some things. Also, the contrast on the blade is very weak.

I tried to make it with 6 colors at first, but felt like it was too few colors. I'll study your edit and try making something more with just the colors you used!

Seems you got a lot of thougths on your icons, but none for your environment stuff.

For my edit I chose your anvil, but the principles should also help your other environment pieces, since a lot of the stuff I am pointing out can be applied 1:1 on other graphics.
It's not really palette-restricted pixel art, rather low res digital painting, but yeah, no problem if you want to go for that (Tibia has pure pixels - saw some stuff on PJ and that kind of style - I dunno).

The underlying forms and proportions you have going on are pretty solid. The peak of your anvil seemed a bit detached (to wide at the left) and wrong in terms of perspective (the straight line looks nice there, but is construction-wise off) - I suppose this is more a matter of taste - I just adressed it since I remarked it and applied it to my edit.

What's actually really bad are the internal lines

I talked about internal lines here: http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=16261.msg148111#msg148111
(example number 2)


You should avoid them if possible, since they really easily destroy the form impression of a drawing and rather go with contrasts -
It's ok to use them if you have stones with gaps when the line illustrates a shadow (like at your street tile those shadows are missing).
You just shouldn't illustrate boarders with dark lines. Someone mentioned that looking at an edge of your room helps you to understand that principle.

The next thing which isn't solved optimally is that the top and side plane are in terms of value pretty similar (shows up once you remove the internal line). The light seems to come from the side (brighter than the frontplane) and the positions of the highlights confuse the lightsource further (front one at the peak seems fitting, rear one at the knob seems to come from the left side) - that's bad.

All in all the anvil seems to be to bright for the material - it rather looks like platinum, than iron or steel. The ones I know are significantly darker and look somewhat like this



If you study it you will see that there isn't a lot of saturation, the highlights aren't that bright and that it can get really dark.

I applied this observations and some small little details (like the form of the base and the hole at the top plane) in my edit and also changed the direction of the light from the side to the front - why that?

If you are going to add an additional cast shadow which will anchor the graphic in the surrounding environment I suppose that this angle for the light direction is one of the best options you have (I just went ahead that the top plane is brighter than the side planes - sunlight, ceiling lamp?).
Can't say for sure if it's the best direction for cast shadows which will be casted from-the-object on-the-object as well.

Read carefull ythrough all points and compare my version with yours



Do you see the big differences:
That your anvil seems to be floating?
That your anvil has a weaker form?
That your anvil seems to be to bright?

Actually that isn't my anvil. I noticed that I didn't really explain in detail in my first post that the image with the well and anvil etc. I wrote underneath the image that "Here are my sprites", but I admit that it was a bit misleading to have that image there. I'm sorry I didn't make it clear enough from the beginning, but from now on I'll try to explain better in my posts!

But I will definetly try to make an anvil first thing tomorrow, your edit looked amazing in comparison and I'll study it when I make my own.

The lighting and perspective is a bit special, they explained that everything from the top is seen straight from the top, but everything else is at an angle. Will find an image where the pixelartists of Tibia explain it in detail.

Again, sorry for not explaining it properly. I removed that image so it doesn't confuse anyone.

[Cyangmou]

Shit happens.
No need to search for how the "perspective" which is exactly called a "projection" works (just for me, I know it).

The problem I talked about was the following one if you'd draw it out with some construction lines)

look at the red and the blue line and at the red and purple area



If there would be a hard edge the Tibia anvil would be significantly off.
If there is a soft edge it might be alright - but it is really hard to say, fact is that the tibia peak of the anvil is placed to far at the left.

However:
If the edge is hard the plane is symmetrical
if the edge is soft the plane is asymmetrical

that was what I was talking about exactly.
Although it also always depends how you render it with limited pixel space.

[Xedrai]

I tried to make one based on your anivl, used colors from your too.
Mine was a bit smaller and not so much space between the base and the anvil itself, so there is no highlight underneath. I don't know if this is correct but it doesn't look wrong imo, might be wrong though.

I also tried to add a curve to the "north" end (as seen on the stock image you posted and here http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/3257/600443-anvil.jpg)

Also it feels like the "south" bit is off centered. I believe this is what you was demonstrating with your skecth? I tried to fix it by adding a line to the outline on the <- side of the south bit.




Made an edit to try to fix the south thingy:

[Tapsu]

I like the scene and the perspective, but the trees, especially the fir trees, make me dizzy. That is because they don't seem to be in the same perspective. Maybe I'll illustrate it with a little drawing, but I am busy elsewhere right now, I hope you are not in a hurry.

[Xedrai]

I like the scene and the perspective, but the trees, especially the fir trees, make me dizzy. That is because they don't seem to be in the same perspective. Maybe I'll illustrate it with a little drawing, but I am busy elsewhere right now, I hope you are not in a hurry.

The trees aren't mine. Only the stonetiles for the streets are mine in that picture. I will make my own trees though so your advice will be helping either way, but just so you know those trees aren't mine.

And I think that the creators of Tibia didn't use traditional pixelart when they made those trees, cause some sprites looks scaled down or dodged/burned.

[Xedrai]

I made another stone, feels like the perspective is kinda off though... Anyone got any ideas on how it could be fixed? I tried tilting it a bit ^ that way and making the top a bit lighter and it helped, but still feels like it's leaning <-

[Xedrai]

Triple post

I've made some stone and framework walls. Also the stone tiles inside the house I've made too.
I'm really pleased with the wooden texture, the clay/plaster could be better but I think it's atleast decent

[Xedrai]

Tried making a custom grass tile:



I think it might be a bit contrasted, made it on a laptop so the colors were a bit off on the screen. And I'm also gonna do some variation tiles so it doesn't get to repetetive.

EDIT:
I noticed that the pictures shrink somewhat and become blurry when I post them on this site, so open it up in a new tab/window and it becomes a bit clearer.

[Xedrai]

Made a set of walls.

ONLY THE WALLS ARE MY SPRITES!!! THE REST I'M REPLACING AS I GO ALONG!!!

[Neirda]

@Xedrai, sorry that can be a little bit rude, but this perspective is almost unreadable, I think you should really restart entirely, based on a real isometric perspective like this : " deleted "

edit : Wtf that was a wrong link, sorry about it : http://www.google.fr/search?q=dofus+game&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Q6YhU5K0GIWK0AWo_4DABw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ