AuthorTopic: [CC] Tiling water  (Read 2153 times)

Offline Talbone

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[CC] Tiling water

on: May 07, 2019, 05:09:10 am
Hi! im not a really frequent visitor but i decided to ask for some critique on this tileable water i am doing for a freelance job


also made some 'animated' rocks to place in the water (the whole game happens in water only)

Offline eishiya

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Re: [CC] Tiling water

Reply #1 on: May 07, 2019, 01:28:37 pm
The water tiles themselves look nice, but could really use some alternate tiles to break up the tiling, as there are some very visible dancing "lines" of repeating elements.

The water level around the rocks seems to change too quickly and uniformly compared to the water tiles and apparent scale of the scene.

Is the water shallow or deep? The water caustics lines make it look shallow, since those are usually along the bottom and seen through the water. Deep water would have no visible button and would be all about reflections from the waves/ripples instead. If it's shallow and transparent enough that we can see the water caustics, then we should also see through it to see some of the submerged parts of the rocks. Even in deep water, if the water's transparent, we should see some of the submerged rock near the surface at this high angle.

Offline Talbone

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Re: [CC] Tiling water

Reply #2 on: May 07, 2019, 08:46:08 pm
thanks for the thoughtfull criticism. my intent was for this to be deep water, and i didnt make caustics, instead i believe i made it too ambiguous but the intent was for the light blue to be wave crests, the and the dark blue to be wave shadows. any suggestions on how to make it less ambiguous?
thanks again for the patience and attention.


also, here is a gif with all ingame elements that i made so far


and the main menu


the scale of some stuff is intentionally off because it is an arcadey mobile game.

maybe this will sell the scale better? or maybe make it look worse i dunno

« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 08:52:11 pm by Talbone »

Offline eishiya

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Re: [CC] Tiling water

Reply #3 on: May 07, 2019, 11:02:05 pm
The huge undulation of the waves by the rocks looks even more off-scale with the ships in place. Even if it's an arcadey game, some sense of cohesion is good to have, even if things aren't fully to scale or realistic. If you like the exaggerated undulation, why not make the ships rock with the same intensity?

Also, try having the water by the rocks undulate rather than merely raise and lower, that is, have the crest(s) pass by the rocks rather than having the entire water level drop and raise. Right now, the undulation looks less like wave action and more like bobbing because it's so uniform across the entire surface.

As for how to make the water surface look appropriate, I'm not sure what to suggest specifically, besides avoiding the latticework of highlights that suggests water caustics. Focus instead on directional highlights, since you're dealing with waves. Potentially useful reference image? You could also have some variant tiles with a bit of sea foam (having sea foam on the detailed tile would create too much obvious repetition).

I think the rocks could do with being recoloured. Right now, they're hard to tell apart from the water at a glance because they're the same hue and value. If you want to use the same palette for them, then consider using the darker colours more and using the midtones and highlights less, so that the rocks can have a different overall value from the water.