AuthorTopic: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments  (Read 3350 times)

Offline PanopticPixels

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

[WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

on: August 10, 2016, 04:57:32 am
Hello, I've been starting to make top-down pixel art and it's a bit of a new concept to me. I'm finding I'm having some issues with overall detailing/shading from the top perspective. This is using a new color palette set I made as well, so if the colors seem a bit off just let me know what I can do to improve on them. Any advice is highly appreciated.


(I also hope I'm linking this properly. If not please let me know and I can edit it till it's right)

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #1 on: August 10, 2016, 05:03:44 am
First thing I'm noting is that the water (?) is a bit hard to see as, well, waterfalls.
Try to have it fade into darkness before hitting the rest of the building, give it a sense of depth!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline skittlefuck

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 64
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • skittlefuck
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #2 on: August 10, 2016, 06:17:35 am
I'm assuming the blurriness of the pic was done by you since there's no visible artifacts going on in the pic? I think you should try cleaning up the tiles to reduce this effect, looks like downsized assets from something of a higher res.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2016, 06:19:48 am by skittlefuck »

Offline PanopticPixels

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #3 on: August 10, 2016, 08:37:33 am
Added a bit more darkness to the waterfalls, wondering if it looks any better or if I should add more? Yeah skittle, sorry the original res is pretty high and for whatever reason uploading it to the image site I did seems to make it a bit blurry; the assets sheet and map are a lot sharper on my end I'm a bit of a noob so I'll try to find a better uploading site, photobucket seems to eat the original resolution of the picture, totally wasn't intentional on my end.

Offline heyy13

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 151
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #4 on: August 10, 2016, 09:34:05 am
Photobucket has a maximum image size (both in terms of dimensions and file size), you may have to upload it in pieces if you can't find an alternative.

I think you need to apply your shadows consistently. Is this a self contained work or for use in a project? Because i can see that that plants with shadows like that will likely have tiling issues unless the shadow is applied as a transparency on top of the tiles directly below. There's a reason most assets are self contained.

Try to keep your light source and detail consistent. Whilst also maintaining readability. Your plants are way more detailed then anything else which creates a visual clash. Try to keep the style consistent. The major issue i have is i'm not 100% sure what is going on in regards to the elevation. You have a gate, with high walls, but the top of the wall seems to have a walkway which continues back? Where does the gate lead? I can't tell the elevation of anything.

Also all your plants appear to be floating.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2016, 12:17:55 pm by heyy13 »

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #5 on: August 10, 2016, 09:56:51 am
Imgur.com is the best image host right now. Good ui, lenient filesizes, etc. I recommend hosting there.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline PanopticPixels

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #6 on: August 13, 2016, 08:19:16 pm
Thanks for the imgur referral both of you, it uploads a lot better now. This is just a test image for me, originally assets aren't in a tiled format because I'm just trying to figure out how to do top-down(I've only ever worked on side scrollers at this point). I've been making mock-up maps trying to get it to look right(I can upload the asset file too if it helps any). I tried to make small red lines of the elevation points for better reference and started added a bit more detail to the stone walls. For the plants to look like they're not floating, would adding trunks fix this? If you could give me a hint on how to fix the elevation that would be great too; I'm at a bit of a loss on how to get it right. Also was wondering if using color alpha is considered a dirty tool? Thanks again for everyone who has posted to help me so far, I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me with this. If the image is too large, I can downsize it too; not sure if it's too large for the forum.

Offline Angelonias

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 37
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP]Shading Top Down Environments

Reply #7 on: August 14, 2016, 09:55:39 am


From the shadows in general in the image i understand that the sun comes from up and behind. So based on the elevation points add all the necessary shadows. I did very very quick edit just for you to see my point.
P.S. I forgot to put pointers to show where i putted the shadows :p, find them, i added two shadows.