AuthorTopic: How do I make floor tiles?  (Read 4808 times)

Offline Afelium

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How do I make floor tiles?

on: January 24, 2018, 07:18:44 pm
I wanted to make some floor tiles,but all of them look more like walls.
Im trying to make some graphics for a pokemon-similar game.

-The one in the middle was the first attempt,but the "bricks" were too small so I tried again
-The one on the left was my 2nd attempt,but the light direction(from above)makes it look more like a wall
-The one on the right is my latest attempt,but I still dont like it

The character's size is the same as a pokemon game character
Im using the same palette as pokemon platinum(do you know where I can find the full palette?)

It should be the floor of a sewer
Every tile should be 17x13 px
edit:
still trying

« Last Edit: January 24, 2018, 09:31:31 pm by Afelium »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #1 on: January 24, 2018, 11:20:27 pm
The method I usually use is picking a few "connecting points" and drawing those first, then rough out a pattern before I start detailing. So, like as follows:



Though obviously I'd put enough effort in to make it not look like awful mud.

In essence though, the idea I follow is to make the tile assymetrical as possible to prevent obvious tiling if at all possible. This is obviously different for things like brickwork or orderly materials such as that, but for grass and water and the like you definitely want it to feel as little like TILES as possible.

OF THE THREE POSTED, I like the rightmost one best. However, it's not quite square enough and has a bit of poor tiling going on in the middle. That's kinda ok since cobblestone can have that, I'd just work on the light source there a bit and it'll be golden.

It really depends what kind of area you're looking to do, sometimes it's better to remove shading almost entirely. For example, lets try the last one without the highlights, and one where we "cheat" on the color palette just a little bit for a more subtle lighting:



PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline eishiya

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #2 on: January 25, 2018, 04:50:55 pm
The "trick" to floors vs walls in RPG view is to make the pattern on the floor "squished" a bit, so that a "square" on the floor is wider than it is tall. In real life, we're used to seeing patterns on the floor from a low angle, which has the effect is squishing them (and we're used to seeing walls head-on, with almost no distortion). Even though mathematically RPG view has the same oblique angle on walls and floors, making floors more squished makes it much clearer which is which.

You can push this further by having mostly horizontal elements on the floor, and mostly vertical ones in the walls. It might not always be realistic or mathematically correct, but it subconsciously tells the viewer the orientation of the various surfaces.

Here's an example from Sword of Mana that has both squished floor tiles and very obvious vertical elements on the walls, there is zero confusion about what the planes in this room are.

Also seconding MysteryMeat regarding highlights. We (viewers, players, people in general) generally expect floors to be flat, and having too much contrast makes them look too rough to be floors. We also expect the lighting to come from somewhere above, which means floors don't really get any big dramatic shadows or clear directional highlights, their only shadows are in the cracks and highlights are either unnecessary or should be near the middle of each cobble (or cover the entire light-facing surface, in the case of flat shapes).
Plus, it's much easier to make out characters and objects against a low-contrast floor.

Offline Afelium

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #3 on: January 25, 2018, 05:28:43 pm
Thank you for the advice!
Did this before reading your comment,eishiya

I stubbornly tried to use a color from the original palette as "highlight".
Decided to make 16x16 tiles(found some spritesheets of the tileset from the game and made a few measurements)
Here's the same image with the color MisteryMeat added:
« Last Edit: January 25, 2018, 05:36:12 pm by Afelium »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #4 on: January 25, 2018, 07:30:47 pm
oh shidd is that a muthufuggin jojos rafrance???

Really though, looking a lot better but it might behoove you to pair it with some of the walls before calling it done. That contrast be important, dawg
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Afelium

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #5 on: January 25, 2018, 10:42:28 pm
oh shidd is that a muthufuggin jojos rafrance???

Really though, looking a lot better but it might behoove you to pair it with some of the walls before calling it done. That contrast be important, dawg
Here you go!
added the columns as vertical elements.The canal should work as the horizontal one

-1


-2


which floor is the best?
« Last Edit: January 25, 2018, 11:00:55 pm by Afelium »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #6 on: January 26, 2018, 12:02:08 am
Second for sure. Makes the area feel more cobbled together in addition to tiling better. I'd say it'd be a good idea to have some "edge tiles" for connecting to walls here though, so its easier to see where floor ends and wall starts.

Like so:


The drop-shadows on the floors where they connect vertically to the walls makes it way easier to perceive a sense of depth there, aye? Doing something like that (or perhaps some brick edges to divide the two) would help readability without sacrificing much in the way of color count.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline Afelium

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #7 on: January 26, 2018, 09:19:25 pm

Used a grates to separate walls from the floor

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #8 on: January 27, 2018, 01:58:54 am
I'd say that about does it, ye. I'd have it curve around the corners to better read as a grate, though.
It can be a bit time-consuming to get all the corners and angles set up.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline Afelium

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Re: How do I make floor tiles?

Reply #9 on: February 07, 2018, 08:15:01 am
I'd say that about does it, ye. I'd have it curve around the corners to better read as a grate, though.
It can be a bit time-consuming to get all the corners and angles set up.
Is that what you meant?

Also,I want to make a pixel art of this floor:

But I don't know how to recreate its texture in an 8x8 tile
« Last Edit: February 07, 2018, 08:28:07 am by Afelium »