AuthorTopic: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique  (Read 7868 times)

Offline IIRawsomeII

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RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

on: March 07, 2016, 10:48:42 pm
Hello and I am just a beginner at pixel art/spriting

So I have made a stone wall autotile (For RMXP) And I would appreciate some critique on this



Please dont say anything too negative
im just a beginner at this

« Last Edit: March 08, 2016, 01:17:47 am by IIRawsomeII »

Offline Glak

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #1 on: March 08, 2016, 04:23:58 am
What is an autotile?

As for your art: It isn't clear to me how this would be used.  It almost looks like a floor to me.  I think that people would be better able to critique if you showed it in context (a mocked-up scene using these tiles along with some other tiles, monsters, doors, etc...)

Offline IIRawsomeII

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #2 on: March 08, 2016, 04:51:31 am
This is meant for a game engine called RPG Maker XP
it is a file where the application can automatically place edges and corners without doing it manually

Ill quickly prepare a map using it

Edit: I've made it
i made it in a rush i i haven't made sprites to go well with it
so i used the bundled pre made sprites that came with the engine


« Last Edit: March 08, 2016, 05:20:56 am by IIRawsomeII »

Offline kilenc

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #3 on: March 08, 2016, 03:14:37 pm
it's hard to tell how your tiles look with all the default tiles "clogging" the screen

but my first notion is that the tiles you made are very monotonous, or in other words they are all very similar. try adding some variation to your tiles, like two or three copies of each tile, to break everything up and have everything look more natural.

for example, look at this stock image of a brick wall:



it has varied shapes and colors; some bricks are cracked and faded; some bricks are more inset than other bricks. variation is what makes it look realistic.

take a look at the default tiles gamemaker, provided, even. there are cracks in the walls, crack tiles on the floor. these are all tiles, too, but they're not the default, generic tiles. instead, these tiles are used to give personality to the setting.

another lesson you can learn from gamemaker's default tiles is their use of hue. the tiles are very saturated (more grey), just like yours. but the default tiles also add a green-ish hue to the wall, which gives it character. grey walls are boring, because they tell us nothing about the building or environment, except maybe that it's boring, too. green walls tell me that the environment is in nature, or that the environment is plagued, or that the environment is on the sea in some way.

the fact is: color speaks volume. imagine if i painted a dog in a bright red and then in a dull brown. a bright red dog would be angry, menacing. a dull brown dog would be subservient and loyal. the same should go for your walls. what are they? where are they? why are they there? this should influence the design of your walls, and also, what little bits like cracks you add to them, too.

both color and detail in mind, i made a quick, rough wall, which should serve to illustrate my points. it's not tile-based, because i'm short on time, but it should show what i meant well enough.



i wish i had a bit more time to make a better edit, but i'm not a great tile-r myself, so id need a while. nevertheless, think about variation and hue to your tiles to give them more interest in the viewer's eye.

Offline IIRawsomeII

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #4 on: March 11, 2016, 04:02:56 am
Here are the tiles i made using your help


StoneWall1
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StoneWall2
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StoneWall1Moss
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StoneWall2Moss
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StoneWall1Alt
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StoneWall2Alt

I probably shouldn't put this many pictures but i have no idea if i should show 6 Pictures or 3 or 2 or 1 so I am just gonna show these pictures

I want to tell the player that the place is old or was left out for a long time so i put moss. The reason why there is moss on the wall is because it's been through lot's of rain

I plan to use this on some old church and / or some old and ancient ruins but I don't know if this wall will look good in those places, What do you think

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My thoughts :-\:

Firstly: The cracked part's for the last two tiles seem a bit weird to me (Probably because I was a bit lazy when i made the cracks)

Secondly: I have no idea how to make moss for my stone walls so I just put some green stuff here and there between the bricks

Thirdly: Did i made the bricks different enough in size or not enough / too much

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have no idea if these are good or not so i need help on this

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #5 on: March 11, 2016, 04:15:08 am
Bricks are a bit small, honestly.
That's fine if you're going for a sort of medieval ruins aesthetic, but can be a bit noisy visually.
That's a judgement call though, I haven't seen the relative style of the player character to see if they contrast well or not, so take this with a grain of salt.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline IIRawsomeII

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #6 on: March 11, 2016, 04:27:47 am
The main character currently looks like this:



So the character would probably contrast with the wall

However I am probably going to change the character sprite to something that looks very different from this sprite sometime soon or lots of time soon. But I would probably change the character to something that still contrasts with the wall.

As for the wall itself I agree with you. I probably used to much stuff everywhere that it look's a bit like noise
I have no idea what to do to make the walls less noisy though I could just paint over some parts (Yeah I guess that would work)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(edit1: Do you mean make the bricks bigger or remove a significant
amount of colors on the bricks)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(edit2: That character sprite is just a character from the default run time package with some extra clothing from a site)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(edit3: is anyone going to respond?)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
« Last Edit: March 15, 2016, 04:58:58 pm by IIRawsomeII »

Offline IIRawsomeII

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #7 on: March 21, 2016, 12:37:54 am
Here I made another wall from scratch :

---------

---------

Why did it take so long?

Well I was lazy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions to focus on:

Firstly: I experimented a little bit and I did some dithering (I think that's the word) 
On the bricks so does it make it look better or worse?

Secondly:I made the bricks bigger so it does not look noisy when viewed normally in a game but is it better or worse?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit:Did i double post?

Oops :o

Edit 2:I realized my other sprites other than this one had no depth (I think that was the word) meaning the bricks didin't look 3D.

Edit 3: I need critique on this please
I hate it when no one replies to your post in a while
« Last Edit: March 22, 2016, 12:02:13 am by IIRawsomeII »

Offline aeveis

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #8 on: March 22, 2016, 02:45:13 am
1. current dithering is better than your tiles before, as it shows a more consistent light source from the upper left. That being said though, dithering can added unwanted textures, especially for small tiles like this. You can try experimenting with solid shading as well.

2. it is more readable than before.

I think it's okay if it takes you long time, but saying that you were lazy feels like you didn't try very hard, and makes it harder for people to potentially respond.

I would also look back to kilenc's post and think about varying colors (at least hue shifting the colors a bit so it's not just all greyscale). To add to that a bit, it can help to look at references to help inform how you make your tiles, especially if you don't know/not sure what something may look like. Right now you have very small/thin bricks, is there reasoning behind that? Either way, answering that question can help better define what you want to brick wall to look like (for example, a wall made out of stones of various sizes vs a regular brick wall).

Offline IIRawsomeII

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Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique

Reply #9 on: April 01, 2016, 01:27:48 am
I made the wall again with some of them having different hues

------

------

The Facts ::):

1: The reason the bricks in the wall are the size they are is that the building that
used the tiles have been made with effort on a not that big budget but not that small
budget

2:  I choose some bricks to be a bit green in hue because it's been through many rain's (is that even correct grammar?)

The Questions  ???:

1: Did I make the hues correctly? Is the saturation good or not so good? I need feedback.

2: Is the reason of why the bricks are the size they are logical / make sense? If not i can change the brick size or the reason why or both.