AuthorTopic: yoshi island style forest  (Read 3029 times)

Offline oxysoft

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 39
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

yoshi island style forest

on: August 10, 2015, 01:58:16 am
I decided to do some daily pixel art for the next 2 weeks to hone my skills before Ludum Dare and I would like feedbacks on this piece I worked on today



After playing around for a bit, I found a style that is manageable for me and fast to produce assets with, which is very essential in a 48 hours game jam like Ludum Dare.

The rocks are what gave me the most trouble. One of the two variants doesn't look too bad I think but the other isn't very polished and should be reworked. I might as well drop it tho since it's so similar in shape to the better one

The path is the newest addition and is where I am stuck currently. I just have no clue how to texture it and make it look like a muddy/earthy passage in a forest  :-\

To be honest, it kind of feels like the whole thing is lifeless? Not sure if that's the right word to describe it but it's like something is missing ...

Offline Gil

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1543
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Too square to be hip
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/475.htm
    • View Profile
    • My Portfolio

Re: yoshi island style forest

Reply #1 on: August 10, 2015, 08:46:44 am
Color use is missing. Get a bit more creative there. Study Yoshi's Island use of color. Don't be afraid to give stuff weird colors. Why not make the trees red and the rocks purple? Visual interest will be higher.

For reference, study Van Gogh, that's probably your best source of inspiration for this style.

Offline oxysoft

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 39
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: yoshi island style forest

Reply #2 on: August 10, 2015, 12:57:58 pm
Ah I see it now, the colors were a bit bland now that you mention it. I was so caught up in trying to get these colors to look good that I forgot to make sure they work all together in harmony

I think this is a step forward, have a look



- As you can see, I laid down the colors and trying to make them work better together. I'm still not really sold on the greens though
- Removed the uglier rock until I make some newer ones
- I also reworked one of those tree trunk; It should be a bit more 'dynamic' with that slightly crooked/curved look

I just woke up but I'll definitely do more work on this later today!

Offline Gil

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1543
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • Too square to be hip
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/475.htm
    • View Profile
    • My Portfolio

Re: yoshi island style forest

Reply #3 on: August 10, 2015, 01:52:56 pm
Having a fixed palette ready for Ludum Dare might work. Should save you time.

Offline oxysoft

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 39
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: yoshi island style forest

Reply #4 on: August 11, 2015, 06:17:54 am
A few new changes



I reworked that tree trunk a little bit now and I think the shape is looking much better. I added a new rock which has given me a lot of trouble again, as rocks always do. I tried my heads at making a little dude to see how that would work and no matter how long I played around with his shirt, I just cannot wrap my head around shading cloths. It's like it never looks good?

Finally, I added a new little grass pattern to make things look a bit less boring, but I think I need a less saturated green for it to work?  ???

Also, I now realize that it seems like I just took all the assets I had made and just spread them around, except maybe for the little arrangement above the character? I didn't want to have too much composition going on however because I felt like it would have been harder to c+c the individual assets if they were all layed out on top of each other everywhere. I will probably make a more composed version of this later to see how they would work in a real situation (video game, etc.)  :y:

Having a fixed palette ready for Ludum Dare might work. Should save you time.

That would probably help, but I've used premade palettes before (dawnbringers' and arne's for example) and they seem to just slow me down because I don't know how to make these colors work together properly, and I haven't studied them enough

Offline Conzeit

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1448
  • Karma: +3/-0
  • Camus
    • conzeit
    • View Profile
    • CONZEIT

Re: yoshi island style forest

Reply #5 on: August 13, 2015, 05:17:51 pm
yeah, so if you have some time before ludumdare make a pallete yourself. Something that covers most colors of the rainbow from light to dark in a way you enjoy.

I do not see any of your pictures form some reason