AuthorTopic: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]  (Read 29343 times)

Offline Jad

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A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

on: November 16, 2006, 10:47:32 pm


Ba-dinng! I figured I'd post the beginning of this mock-up I made. I just realized that the light source is off between the rocks and the incussion in the middle so I figure i'll just flip it. But please do CnC and edit away. Yay.

This is for a Zelda 2-style metroidvania game that I will make in a hundred years. It is also my first BG art like evarr. So go easy on me. Not. :P
« Last Edit: June 18, 2007, 10:33:40 am by Jad »
' _ '

Offline ZoSo

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #1 on: November 16, 2006, 10:52:49 pm
I love it.. The backround is the only thing i dont like, dont really know why, must be the colours. Anyway very nice work on the rock texture.

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #2 on: November 16, 2006, 11:05:01 pm
Oh, but the backgroud is supposed to be über-detailed forest of lushness, this is simply a placeholder. That the two colours are dark green and some yellowish light green is just to remind me of that the end result I want is a dark lush forest with magical greenish shining-through-leaves-light flowing down below. :]

So don't you worry :D

Also, I was on the phone while posting the thread so I have a few more things to add;

The big 'hole' thing is supposed to be filled with water, so the background and possibly also the rocks are going to change colour as it goes deeper and the bottom is of course filled with seaweed, bubbles and nice fishies. This is also supposed to be a forest village; Plus that the screen size is supposed to be that of a Nintendo DS so you're not supposed to see this much in the vertical space; When you're up walking on the grass, you will only have a vague idea of what is down under water, and in the beginning of the game, you can't dive very low, so it's supposed to be a kind of secret-in-the-middle-of-a-village-type of thing.

Oh yes, this is a forest side village, so If I'm able, I'll add a house and so. Maybe a nice bridge over the water too.

And coming is a diving main-character and a GUI. :]

Rant over, go on now, you all.
' _ '

Offline st3ady

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #3 on: November 17, 2006, 12:15:54 am
lookin real good Jad, can't wait to see more...
if ur serious about developing for the NDS you might want to check out www.palib.com and read the tutorials.

or find urself a coder
and maybe another few artists? :)

Offline Andy Tran

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #4 on: November 17, 2006, 08:07:09 am
 The tiles look really nice. I don't know about the forest, I hope to it done. The grass is nice. Just get it done, we want to see the final piece. Good luck!

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #5 on: November 17, 2006, 09:12:55 am
Delicious! I can picture the final product in my head and it makes me salivate.

The shading on the rocks seems to uniform and sharp. Maybe have more of a light fall off as the rocks get deeper into the "void", that is, looking at the rock wall there, there's a bit more of a gradual light fall off as your view moves from right to left of the tiles.

I don't like how the grass is shaded...but thats early days I assume.

Looking forward to the next update  :)

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #6 on: November 17, 2006, 11:23:48 am
Delicious! I can picture the final product in my head and it makes me salivate.

The shading on the rocks seems to uniform and sharp. Maybe have more of a light fall off as the rocks get deeper into the "void", that is, looking at the rock wall there, there's a bit more of a gradual light fall off as your view moves from right to left of the tiles.

I don't like how the grass is shaded...but thats early days I assume.

Looking forward to the next update  :)

Actually, I am having a bit of trouble with the grass; if you have a suggestion, please show me :3

the bottom shade of bright grass is the "platform" where the player and NPC stands, that's why it's highlighted in such a blatant way, the player should be aware of where you will be landing once you jump.
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Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP.

Reply #7 on: April 19, 2007, 04:55:59 pm
RESURRECTION! PHOENIX DOWN! REVERSAL BOMB OF LIFE!

==>

I did stuff. ô wô Some for the better, some for the worse. Oh, and the screen-size is impossible of course. It's supposed to be Nintendo DS-sized.

I also added a crapload of colors into it since I'm thinking more about getting the feel right than putting restrictions upon myself and the picture.

And gah, I hope that I manage to come up with a better way of rendering the main character. I want the simplicity to stay, but more dynamic shapes would be great. Hmm.

Anyways, edit and c&c is more than welcome since I've stared myself blind at this :\
' _ '

Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #8 on: April 19, 2007, 05:16:06 pm
excellent progress, just continue polishing!

Offline Stitchy

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #9 on: April 19, 2007, 05:54:33 pm
Hm! This is very nice. :'D Though you're probably working on it, I would definitely put some more minimal detail in the middle ground trees. The big detailed one looks a lil outta place, but I have a feeling you were gonna do that anyway. The tree looks great, but I don't particularly like the way you have rendered the leaves with that mock dithering type of thing. I think it just looks too uniform at the moment.

I wont comment on the water plants because those are totally WIP. But, I will say that the health bars look really out of place. It's good for them to be noticeable, but perhaps you should try to give them a look that goes better with the theme of the game. It just looks too pristine for the nature orientation this seems to have.

And for the figure... I would definitely first change the dithering on the hat. When you dither with just the two colors, most people wont get the sense of it being made of straw, but that you just shaded it (that's what I thought at first, but then discovered it must be made of straw.) Try adding some dithering with the darker shade you used under the brim to the extreme shadow of the hat. I also think the brown you used for his hair blends to much with the hat. Perhaps try tweaking it a bit?

Overall, though, this is simply amazing. C:
Be it, so be quick
Don’t run, just walk and walk and walk
Don’t lose yourself, to decorate
Somewhere on your wall 'Cause somewhere in your mind You know you are doing fine Holding secret hair locks You’ll pluck before you hide

Offline vellan

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #10 on: April 19, 2007, 06:26:59 pm
IMO it is crying for a midground layer with a fair amount of detail to buffer the character from the distant background.

really like the WIP :)

Offline Turbo

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #11 on: April 19, 2007, 07:37:17 pm
Extra sweet :) Love everything! but..

the grass. 1st, it looks too plain, compared with the depth of the rocks under it and the background's more detailed sections. I'm guessing unfinished? I'd recommend some texture to show strands (as you've done at the top of the grass layer, but spread all around, fading according to lighting).

2nd, the grass' double shading planes suggest some depth, some perspective to the ground plane, as if the observer is placed slightly above the character. However, the water plane and the placement of the character's feet on the brighter grass suggests a "straight on" 2d view. I'd either place the character halfway between the planes of grass (up a few pixels), and redo the water surface to keep that new perspective , or redo the grass, maybe adding some in front of the character, and lowering the height of the grass on the background.

Offline Faceless

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #12 on: April 19, 2007, 09:13:47 pm
I love the latest update.
I'd add more contrast, and saturation to the foremost tree, render the dark green trees similarly to how you've rendered the tree you have at the moment, and leave the brown ones as silhouettes with all the necessary AA.

Offline gliding

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #13 on: April 20, 2007, 12:18:43 pm
This is really nice jad!
I'm loving the colours and the unique semi-dither thing going on with the leaves on the tree. My only personal style choice would be to add a stronger outline- maybe even a black one- around your cute little character because
he needs to pop out somemore, before we lose him! I'm not really loving the health and mp bars, perhaps a darker outline around them would rectify my issues with them. Other than that, i'm loving the bubbles, trees, and pretty much everything else. Nice start ^^. :y:

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #14 on: April 20, 2007, 02:06:58 pm
Quote
Hm! This is very nice. :'D Though you're probably working on it, I would definitely put some more minimal detail in the middle ground trees. The big detailed one looks a lil outta place, but I have a feeling you were gonna do that anyway. The tree looks great, but I don't particularly like the way you have rendered the leaves with that mock dithering type of thing. I think it just looks too uniform at the moment.

Yup. The reason to why just one tree had any detail is that it's the only one I had managed to do. More trees are planned, and an infinitely detailed BG (but with smooth colors that won't distract you) I'm inspired by the battle background in the forest areas of Tales of Phantasia, where a flock of birds occasionally will take off in one of the background layers, stirred up by the battle, it's really atmospheric and immersing and I'm a sucker for details like that. I want the viewer to go 'Oooh, a forest', not 'Oh, nice tiling' or so. Okay, so I'm not using any tiling right now but it'll probably come as I hook up with a programmer in about a hundred years from now. :]

The 'mock dithering type of thing' is a brush in graphics gale that I used because I grew tired of dotting out leaves by hand. As such, it's merely a placeholder, but I've played around with it with my latest update, and maybe that'll stay. I dunno. Your input partially decides it.

Quote
I wont comment on the water plants because those are totally WIP. But, I will say that the health bars look really out of place. It's good for them to be noticeable, but perhaps you should try to give them a look that goes better with the theme of the game. It just looks too pristine for the nature orientation this seems to have.

The water plants are just a big questionmark for me right now, so yup. The healthbars, ARGH, it's a darling that I don't really want to kill, I want it to have that cuddly cute-game look and ... well, the pristine look is to make the player eventually forget about them. It's like the hearts in zelda, they're so stylized you don't take much notice about them. I want the health bar to give the feeling that 'it's the representation of my health' and nothing more.

Adding nature-ish things to it would somehow take away from the feeling I'm going for, plus, I want a health bar that could fit in in a town, a forest, a dungeon, a tower, sewer, mountain, steam punk fortress, tropical island, pirate ship, floating island, swamp, anywhere. I just want them to be simple and .. pristine :\ But I WILL tweak them to make them more discreet, the palette colors, even though I love them, since I want the player not to take too much notice about them.

Note that health will be gained partially by gathering health blobs from fallen enemies that will have the same color as the bar, thus connecting the GUI with gameplay and making it fit in better with the environment. .. I think. > _>

Quote
And for the figure... I would definitely first change the dithering on the hat. When you dither with just the two colors, most people wont get the sense of it being made of straw, but that you just shaded it (that's what I thought at first, but then discovered it must be made of straw.) Try adding some dithering with the darker shade you used under the brim to the extreme shadow of the hat. I also think the brown you used for his hair blends to much with the hat. Perhaps try tweaking it a bit?

I did it in another way, I just dithered the hell out of the whole hat. I think it gives a better 'straw'-feeling now, especially with the strands poking out. Aw, your opinion is welcome again~ :]

Quote
IMO it is crying for a midground layer with a fair amount of detail to buffer the character from the distant background.

Indeed it is.

Quote
the grass. 1st, it looks too plain, compared with the depth of the rocks under it and the background's more detailed sections. I'm guessing unfinished? I'd recommend some texture to show strands (as you've done at the top of the grass layer, but spread all around, fading according to lighting).

The grass was the first thing I did in this mock-up and thus clashes in style with the rest of the environment. Since I'm kind of lost regarding it, I'm redoing it.

Quote
2nd, the grass' double shading planes suggest some depth, some perspective to the ground plane, as if the observer is placed slightly above the character. However, the water plane and the placement of the character's feet on the brighter grass suggests a "straight on" 2d view. I'd either place the character halfway between the planes of grass (up a few pixels), and redo the water surface to keep that new perspective , or redo the grass, maybe adding some in front of the character, and lowering the height of the grass on the background.

Going with alternative two~

Quote
This is really nice jad!
I'm loving the colours and the unique semi-dither thing going on with the leaves on the tree. My only personal style choice would be to add a stronger outline- maybe even a black one- around your cute little character because
he needs to pop out somemore, before we lose him! I'm not really loving the health and mp bars, perhaps a darker outline around them would rectify my issues with them. Other than that, i'm loving the bubbles, trees, and pretty much everything else. Nice start ^^.

You're loving my GG brush debacle? Gahahah, aw well :]

About the character, I really do want to go with the simple 'HALO IM RIPPING OFF CAVE STORY' non-outlined type of sprites, but I'll probably saturate and brighten him up some more.. I guess :\ Anyways, he's going to be moving around a lot so as long as he pops out enough, it's going to be alright.

I'll tone down the bars, gah D; I have a hard time killing this darling, seriously!

Anyhow, a little update, still very WIP. :] Some stuff is fixed, some is not. Do you have any comments or even edits for my rock walls? 'cause they're so damn hard to get right ;<

Anyhow, dithering makes the hat more straw-like but also butt-ugly :\

He now has his own head floating above him because that's my artistic vision 0:

The fishes look like crap :\ Placeholders I guess.

Vegetation would probably look rad and life-like with a little parrallax :3

==>

' _ '

Offline philipptr

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #15 on: April 20, 2007, 02:23:45 pm
great work on the grass, but I liked the darker background a bit better. also I think the lower water should be darker to make it more atmospheric (maybe with some fine light rays?).
you're making great progress :)

Offline Xion

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #16 on: April 20, 2007, 11:38:00 pm
This
Is
Awesome
!

I liked the old grass' way of like going back a bit. Now it's just straight side on.
I really like the way you did the treeses leaveses. Also, those underwater rocks...son muy bonita.
The character is perfect. She just makes everything else that much more awesome. I <3 the straw hat. Don't get rid of it. The dithering on the rim could use some tweaking, though.

Offline Generic

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #17 on: April 21, 2007, 04:17:17 am
I don't have much advice to give but I thought I'd like to say that I support philipptr's idea of lightrays in the water. Besides it looking more atmospheric, any light ray when done properly makes the enviroment look so much better in my opinion. Overall though, excellent job. The rocks were done so extremely well. I hope you don't mind, but I actually was inspired by your mockup to practice a few of my own.

Offline Josiah

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #18 on: April 21, 2007, 05:53:13 am
It's coming along great I must say!
I love the colors, it gives the mock-up a great atmosphere.
And a few suggestions I would like to put out would be some light beams coming from the outside of the forest mabye?
Also I would think a few more rocks showing in the darkness of the ground would be a bit better. Can't think of anything else since this is in WIP stages. Oh well great job so far can't wait to see it finished!  :D

Offline ndchristie

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #19 on: April 23, 2007, 12:32:04 am
looks fantastic so far, i thought i had already posted on that actually.  No real crits yet...although one thing i was sad to see go was the green in thebg, i thought it gave it a really nice atmosphere.  new one feels a little bit dead.

love to see where this leads :P
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #20 on: April 24, 2007, 12:26:50 am
  -->

Added some random light rays because YES, rays own the shit out of everything ; 3; They're extremely crude ATM, will tweak into niceness. EDITS ARE WELCOME :]

Some more depth in the woods also, which automatically makes it cry for some more depth in the bottom on the lake as well. But I'll get to that :]

Also blocked out the other rock wall. A bit of copy pasta there since I want to make it tileable later.

Speaking of copy pasta, the grass has been tweaked and another layer of grass has been placed in front of our hero (who is a guy, Xion, sorry ; 3; Girl heroes are TEH BEST but as it happens, this is a boy) but I'll need to tweak the looks, because it's too harsh right now. Almost only copy pasta from behind.

About the hat, I won't lose it, I'll go with the idea of hats as the only interchangable clothing piece. Except for special suits which are nothing but recolors (I'm thinking of adding craploads of animation for this boy and since I'm naively serious about this project/concept, it'd be too much of a hassle to make new animations for the suits)

So a little bonus dump:

Armless steambot, will add arms when I come up with the way he's going to move and attack so I can have appropriate arms. I know that one attack is going to be a completely ownagefilled tranformation where he points the boiler towards the hero and spouts out a cloud of ZOMGHOT steam that hurts. But that one doesn't require arms :] (transparency got fucked up in the gif, will fix later, must sleep now)



An example of how a hat and recolor makes a character into winyarr
' _ '

Offline Xion

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #21 on: April 24, 2007, 02:18:02 am
 :0' <seriously neglected smiley. I demand more people use it.

Okay then. Where was I...? Oh yeah: :0'

Now then, I love this.

Quote
(who is a guy, Xion, sorry ; 3; Girl heroes are TEH BEST but as it happens, this is a boy)
:(

The lightrays in the wawa look way bright, methinks...unless you make some sort of thing where the water gets lighter near the bottom...! (I mean you've already got the walls & floor lighting up down there...)

And yes, the grass looks much much too messy. Might I suggest losing entirely the darkest green except on the edges (as you had it before) but just maybe adding some patches of grass and plants and flowers in the layer above the hero instead?

This would look sooo awesome with mad parallax scrolling among the trees...

Oh, who said something bad about the HUD, because I meant to state earlier that I completely and utterly disagree. It is wonderful.

The robot is t3h pwnage. Steampunk for the WIN, baby! Though I find the boiler tube[?] very dark and hard to spot. Might look otherwise on a different bg, but on this dark blue one...nyeh.

The face on the dude looks like this: ^_^...You see it? Like that "Oooh, so cute" or "I'm happy" face used in animes. I just find it odd that a hero would run through a big adventure with that look plastered on his face.

Quote
...naively serious about this project/concept...
Woohoo, that makes two of us!

Good call on the hue-shifting armors. I think I'll take that route with my "game" too.


edit: (By "woohoo, that makes two of us" I mean I'm naively serious about my own project, not yours.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2007, 03:34:45 am by Xion »

Offline Draco9898

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #22 on: April 24, 2007, 03:23:43 am
Love the details dood, it's very easy on the eyes. It's kinda eerie, as I'm working on something very very similar....

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #23 on: April 24, 2007, 09:41:48 am
GAH about the "^^"-eyes, that's NOT what I've been making, it's his hair combining with his eyes, eugh!

His eyes are simple two-pixel high ' ' eyes like a ' _ '-smiley, not a n _ n one. But it connects with the hair which strangely enough creates perfectly symmetrical n _ n eyes.

Gyah, I'll fix that > _>. I'd like a neutral face in which the player can project her/his own feelings. Not a kirbytastic psycho grin.


About other things..

Hard-to-make light ray is hard to make D; The reason to why the colors are as they are is because I made them in 10 minutes before going to sleep. So when I have got time, I'll cook up something better. I'll have to think a bit before I can decide how I want the lake bottom to look 0:

Again, regarding steambot, the (what the heck is it called boiler tubic thingie?) is hard to spot because graphics gale seriously messed up with transparency. That program's got real issues with that. So it has replaced the bg color with the dark blue. For some reason.

I'll re-upload it when I get home :3

Quote
edit: (By "woohoo, that makes two of us" I mean I'm naively serious about my own project, not yours.

Hey, I'll be naively serious about your project and you can be about mine :]

Speaking of YOUR project, you'd better start posting some mock-ups *hint hint*
' _ '

Offline mangust

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #24 on: April 24, 2007, 10:02:36 am
I very pleased to see this.   :0' (yes, it's nice smile)
Few thinks:
Lightrays, when i see progress i think light from top right and in lake you did it in right side a shadow - "it's nice idea" - I thinking. But now rightlays in left and you have too spotlit side in lake - it's not very interesting. If you do light from top right and right side of lake do more shadow, almost like a on sketch - there have a play light and shadow, they talk with each other ;), now you lose this.
And do it more brightness on grass (Xion talk about this, like in old version), he evidently say for we - THERE IS SPOTLIT SURFACE, nevertheless.
Depth in forest a great! ))

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #25 on: April 24, 2007, 10:12:27 am
Regarding playing with light and shadow, I think I will first make an uniform tileset and then make versions with varied brightness to be able to achieve the effects you are talking about.

You are right, though. The piece needs defined light and shadow :3
' _ '

Offline Faceless

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #26 on: April 24, 2007, 01:23:12 pm
This is beginning to look really weird now:
The nearest trees look like 2d cutouts, and are in need of more contrast.
The ones immediately behind them are much too dark, and need much less saturation.
Finally, the grass has become really messy.

Offline Gil

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #27 on: April 24, 2007, 01:35:35 pm
I TOTALLY disagree with Faceless, keep it like it is, cause it rocks for me. I really like that grass, and the dark background trees create a lot of depth. Paralaxed I presume?

Offline Sharm

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #28 on: April 24, 2007, 05:15:45 pm
I'm with Gil.  More contrast with those trees would mess with the readability.  Maybe a bit more coloring on the midrange trees.  The grass has become a bit messy, but it's probably just too much contrast.

With the light in that direction, wouldn't the left side of the pool be darker and the right the light one?

Offline vellan

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #29 on: April 24, 2007, 05:36:13 pm
still think the biggest issue with the piece is still the lack of seperation between foreground and background. there needs to be both a clear seperation to create a sense of depth, and to allow the character to stand out from his/her world.

A major part of this will be achieved through giving the mid and backgrounds an actual light source - presently it is almost completely lacking one, although the light-rays are there.

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #30 on: April 24, 2007, 09:12:05 pm
I'm with Gil.  More contrast with those trees would mess with the readability.  Maybe a bit more coloring on the midrange trees.  The grass has become a bit messy, but it's probably just too much contrast.

With the light in that direction, wouldn't the left side of the pool be darker and the right the light one?

More coloring on the midrange trees, I was thinking of that. If the different parrallax layers somehow blen with each other I think that's going to be allright. The bg is a lush forest and as such, every tree doesn't have to stand out on its own, so if they happen to blend together that'd be alright. The forest is an entity after all.

With the light in that direction, you're one hundred percent right and more dynamic lighting inside of the lake pool will be coming in the next update 0:!

Yeah vellan, I'm both with you and am not. I want the character to blend in nicely with the environment also. Immersion is also a part of gameplay and I'm not sure if the greatest immersion is achieved by making everything easy for the player (e.g. to spot the character) or by enhancing the atmoshpere (not detracing from the background in favor of readability but making the character a natural part of the environment)

I think he has some of the contrast he needs by 1: being the only thing in the environment who has red details and 2: of course being the only player-controlled part of the environment.

Now regarding separation between foreground and background, I'm kind of working agains my own purposes since I'm blending colors between parallax layers in hope of achieving an uniform feel. I'll try and see how it looks with parallax = w=
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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #31 on: April 24, 2007, 09:46:08 pm
If you intend to finish this game - PLEASE DO! - move on to other level elements.

Offline Gil

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #32 on: April 24, 2007, 11:30:30 pm
I really can't stop looking at this. This the kind of feeling (we can safely dub it the Kenneth feel) that makes you want to play the game so much. I can just imagine the simple paralaxing, the mood, the story line. DON'T DISSAPOINT US  :'(

Offline ndchristie

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #33 on: April 25, 2007, 12:49:23 am
only crit - light rays are typically strongest nearest objects, especially the ground it strikes, because more light rereflects into them (really they are brighter when they are in the open sky, but the whole damned sky is so bright you dont notice them...).  were i you, i might go that road or putting the bounce light in at the bottom.

I too <3 the trees as is, it's very fresh and not jarring enough to sacrifice originality for the tried and true.

your redorange character looks great in a bluegreen forest, but when he gets out of there into a mountain road or a bright hayfield, he is going to wish he brought some darker shades
« Last Edit: April 25, 2007, 12:51:24 am by Adarias »
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The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #34 on: April 26, 2007, 11:53:47 am
I broke my silence to say that this is absolutelly amazing. very impressive.

Respekt
Image size doesn't matter! It's what you do with your pixels that counts!

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #35 on: June 17, 2007, 11:42:07 pm
If you intend to finish this game - PLEASE DO! - move on to other level elements.

If 'other elements' as such are enough, here, have a WIP run!



õ _ õ .. Having him on a background almost the same color as his short(edit: Shirt, dangit)  is really killing him. Note that this is but a 'block-out-colors-against-black-bg-to-get-the-movement-right'-kind of WIP, and as such isn't tweaked to work against many backgrounds.

And if you wonder why half of his head is a red blob, that's where the hats/hair'll go, depending on what he'll be wearing. I figured fully visible armor changes would kill me, seeing as I want to crank a lot of animation into this fellow, but the head, well, that, I can live with. Since a lot of animations probably will use the same head angles, a bit of copy pasta will save me from a lot of work (EUGH, PUTTING IN EFFORTS AND STUFFS, WHO DO YOU THINK I AM, ADARIAS?) so I'll go with that. Since most of the hats will be placed on the red spot on his head, I decided to leave it like that.

That enough info for you? .. Maybe you need to see it against a black BG? Does the animation speed work in IE and Firefox?

CC (Crushing Criticism) greatly appreciaded! (or you could just pop in and boost my ego ; 3;)
« Last Edit: June 18, 2007, 10:28:43 am by Jad »
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Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #36 on: June 18, 2007, 12:08:17 am
"Ego Boost" GET!

This rocks dude, great run, stylish and effective and clear.  His close hand may move backward just SLIGHTLY too fast, when you stare at it for a while it starts to look a bit odd, but then maybe I stared at it for too long?

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #37 on: June 18, 2007, 12:21:09 am
Have no idea about the hand myself. Maybe I could smoothen it up.

Or add more frames, but that'd be overkill for this size, I reckon.

Heh, I'll get done with this, then I'll maybe attempt a walk cycle. Problem with that is, I kind of need to know how fast he's going to walk, how many pixels per frame and so, so that I can avoid moonwalking.

This run is a completely different story, his feet only touches the ground one frame each, making moonwalking an impossibility, assuming that the animation will have the right pace.

(his toes kind of flap around as he goes, but it's very hard to avoid. Plus, he's gonna be moving around with background elements obscuring his feet and so, so I guess that won't be any problems.)

Anyhow, thanks, Adam. I'm off to bed now, it's 02:19 here in suecia and I need to sleep if I'm gonna get up in time for shopping tomorrow (hehu, no school :D)

So post kritiix while I'm asleep so I have something nice to wake up to :D
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Offline Arne

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #38 on: June 18, 2007, 07:57:53 am
That's like totally sweet. The only thing I can think of is that the light on the roots of the trees come a bit too much from the left, making them feel flat. Higher up on the trunks the forms feel more round.

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Re: A mock-up is born. WIP. [->A mock-up is growing.]

Reply #39 on: June 18, 2007, 08:27:29 am
*VERY* beautiful! :y:
The only thing that personally does not feel right is the way light kind of "expands" at the bottom of the well. I'd prefer seeing those hues and reflections (and the sun beams) mostly on the upper part, with the bottom growing darker.

saimo

Offline am_pm

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #40 on: June 19, 2007, 03:26:30 pm
At one frame his far leg completely disappears with his foot still remaining, but otherwise, great job!

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #41 on: June 19, 2007, 10:33:36 pm


More done now. I'll consider myself done with the run as of now and move on to something else.
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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #42 on: June 20, 2007, 09:44:08 pm
Left mine


I quite like the runanimation, but I think it has some bits which could be improved.
You go from legs apart and in air straight to passing position (where the legs cross like a 4) without having any contact of the heel with the ground in the frame before.
I changed that by moving the frame before the passing one down a pixel and then the passing one up a tad because when you run that is the bit where the body jolts back up.

Your guy then stays 2 frames in the air, and then goes down. I made this smoother by making the down gradual. I think these things make your animation too snappy and a bit robotic looking.

I also edited the ease out frame after the extremes which was very minimal in yours, I mostly edited the back foot a bit.

Keep it up, this is getting really nice  :y:
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Jad

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #43 on: June 21, 2007, 10:34:04 am
About snappy- and robotic-lookingness, I actually kind of aimed for that. I wanted him to do a really energetic run, and I quite like the 'snappy' part.

But robotic? :( Not really what I aimed for. Well, thank you for the critique, I'll see the run in-game (I wonder when) and I'll of course consider your critique. Right now, though, I'll leave it, as I have to get on with other stuff.

(note that your edit seems to look better and less snappy at 2x, while the eye fills in a lot of the snappy gaps in mine at 1x, at least that's how I see it. In that case, mine would be favorable on a DS screen. But now I'm perhaps just rambling :>)
« Last Edit: June 21, 2007, 11:29:07 am by Jad »
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Offline Conzeit

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #44 on: June 30, 2007, 03:53:46 am
just posting to post someone else's work, but Pegwo did the best snappy happy run anim I've ever seen
Thinking it might help you, I tried to reduce it to 8 frames with the least loss

I never posted here because I never really had anything to apport, but I love all the stuff you've done in here =)

Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #45 on: June 30, 2007, 08:34:17 am
Nice updates Jad!  He doesn't look very robotic to me.  Conceit, not to discount the reference and frame-trimming effort, I don't really see how any part of that image could be construed as helpful at this point.  The legs on that one are too busy and confused, and the far arm's position doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  The attitude and posture of the character is vastly different, and there is no trunk motion to reference in it either.  Just sayin!

Offline robotacon

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #46 on: July 02, 2007, 04:18:53 pm
The snappy version looks better to me. It gives the character... eh... character.

Offline o_8

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #47 on: July 05, 2007, 06:40:28 am
oooh this is great- i love those run cycles too- so charming T^T/ can't wait to see this as a completed game or whatnot~

Offline TomF

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Re: A mock-up is growing. WIP. [-> A boy is running! WIP.]

Reply #48 on: July 05, 2007, 07:59:20 am
I have nothing to offer critique wise, but I'd just like to say how beautiful this looks and I hope you'll release some sort of demo soon.  :y: