AuthorTopic: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)  (Read 10929 times)

Offline eishiya

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Re: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)

Reply #30 on: January 21, 2018, 08:12:51 pm
I'm no pro, I might just have a little bit more experience with pixelling dirt. If you keep working at it, you'll have me beat in no time!

Try to work from dark to light when you're drawing in the tiles, and maybe use a larger brush. Instead of adding shadows, instead start with a solid shadow (your darkest brown), and add in the lighter areas, colour by colour, and avoid the tempration to add in 1px details unless you feel you really need them. It'll be easier to get nice clusters that way (especially if you use a larger brush instead of 1px), and it approximates how light interacts with clumps of dirt - it hits the flat/rounded surfaces, and the cracks between them remain dark.

To make the colour transitions feel more natural, try to think of the dirt clumps as a giant, irregular dither pattern. Don't cut your use of the brightest colour all at the same horizontal level - mix in some highlights lower, some darker clumps higher. Same goes for clump sizes, don't be afraid to have larger clumps lower too, and some more small ones higher.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2018, 08:14:51 pm by eishiya »

Offline B-Rokal

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Re: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)

Reply #31 on: January 22, 2018, 02:22:38 am
I'm no pro, I might just have a little bit more experience with pixelling dirt. If you keep working at it, you'll have me beat in no time!

Try to work from dark to light when you're drawing in the tiles, and maybe use a larger brush. Instead of adding shadows, instead start with a solid shadow (your darkest brown), and add in the lighter areas, colour by colour, and avoid the tempration to add in 1px details unless you feel you really need them. It'll be easier to get nice clusters that way (especially if you use a larger brush instead of 1px), and it approximates how light interacts with clumps of dirt - it hits the flat/rounded surfaces, and the cracks between them remain dark.

To make the colour transitions feel more natural, try to think of the dirt clumps as a giant, irregular dither pattern. Don't cut your use of the brightest colour all at the same horizontal level - mix in some highlights lower, some darker clumps higher. Same goes for clump sizes, don't be afraid to have larger clumps lower too, and some more small ones higher.

What are clusters? ._. sorry, I'm kind of a newbie at this XD


So I applied what you said about "dithering the ground", is like so?

I'm... kind of starting to like it  ;D

Offline eishiya

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Re: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)

Reply #32 on: January 22, 2018, 02:39:08 am
Yes, like that! That looks a lot more interesting and natural.
I don't think you really need that 2nd light colour, it's not that distinct.

Clusters are shapes made of connected pixels of the same colour, or of multiple colours that still read as a unified shape. Modern pixel art is less about individual pixels, and more about these clusters, since the clusters are what the viewer actually notices, and they're what come together to create more complex forms.
Check out the PJ pixel art tutorial, it has a lot of useful information and terminology commonly used by pixel artists.

Offline B-Rokal

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Re: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)

Reply #33 on: January 30, 2018, 04:56:41 am


Sorry, I havenīt posted in ages XD

I know there are some quirks I should be working on like that cluster stuff and some continuity things like the smaller rocks and some literally mirrored tiles (I made for the sake of testing), I think the most valuable thing here is how much i'm learning, doing other kind of terrains from scratch will be way easier for me  ;D

Team leader said he liked the rocks a lot but not the grass, he thinks looks a lot like moss, should I pay attention to him?

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Re: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)

Reply #34 on: January 30, 2018, 06:58:25 am
 I.can see it. Its the way it clings to the sides like it does, try keeping it from going fully vertical like that, leave the sides bare rock or exposed roots
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline aamatniekss

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Re: Stage Mock-Up (Feedback, Critique)

Reply #35 on: January 30, 2018, 10:52:06 am
Yes, I can agree to that too. It does look a bit more like moss, since it doesnt have much of a grass texture.
Another thing you might want to look into is, making the background tiles more desaturated, so the player can easily understand which tiles are interactable and which arent. Readability is important.
Sort of like this