animal crossing graphics

[.TakaM]

I've been working on some animal crossing tiles and sprites for a couple weeks, and theyve been coming along nicely with the exception of my trees.

as you can see they dont stand out enough infront of the grass and it looks like theyre paints on the ground.
There arent any outlines in animal crossing and I didnt want to use them whilst transferring them to 2d, so that option is out.
I was wondering if there was some way to make it stand out better without darkening the leaves or adding an outline 
small mockup example:

the trees just merge with the ground too much



also, character anims so far:


edit-
oh btw Im a new guy here 

[Faceless]

You move quick.

I've already told you what I think of these, and have you considered using shadows to seperate the trees and the ground?
Only just occured to me, but it would add more depth between layers.

I don't think the trees are that problematic to begin with though.

[.TakaM]

I tried adding shadows, but it gets very complicated. since animal crossings shadows chnge every half hour or so I think, that means I'd have to make 48 different angles of each shadow, it isnt that complicated of a job but I doubt anyone looking to make an animal crossing game would bother coding in alternating shadows..

i suppose I could just draw one angle of each shadow tho..
or maybe have darker leaves around the edges of the tree.. that could work actually 

[FaeryShivers]

Shadows that move that much are often best left to programming.
You did a really wonderful job on these. Is there a size restriction?
I honestly think some of your problem with the trees is that they
are not proportionate the same way they are in animal crossing,even  if only slightly.


(Edit: Another thing that made the trees stand out in AC was the fruit that grew on them,
so you may want to try making some of the fruit objects seperately so you can also place them on the tree.
If you're making an actual fan game out of them you may want to do it this way so you can use it as an item drop as well)

[Kennethfejer]

looks really nice
didn't they make a GBA version of the game though ?

EDIT:
found a image http://pocketmedia.ign.com/pocket/image/animalcrossing_081602_island5.jpg
your graphics looks much better then this though. not sure if the gba game, was a game you automatically
got when connecting you gba to your gc, but meh anyways..

[Mercury Rising]

They made a DS version and I am still awaiting its arival...

About the tiles,
In the mountain side things... the tan circulars... I see many similar tiles yet different by a few pixels.  I know this probably wont mean anything right now I just wanted to point it out.

[.TakaM]

thanks for the comments.
the GBA screens are just the linkup with GCN, although there are some wierd rock paper scissors screens that I never saw in the game myself 

anyways, I think Ive fixed the problem:

what do you guys think (new version on the left)

[Sawtooth]

Wow, this stuff is really complete, and very polished.  A very accurate emulation of the animal crossing style, too.  I love it.

The tree revision looks great, the darker leaves really help separate it from the grass.

One crit on your animation, though:  the side view doesn't have the head bob the back view has.

[.TakaM]

yeh the head moves forward and back rather than up and down. it actually barely moves in the gcn game but with no movement in 2d it just doesnt look right 

and thanks

[FatalFetus]

Damn sexy. Looks to me like every pixel was utilized to its fullest potential, it's practically identical to the '3d'? version on Cube, style and graphicwise. Sorry for the lack of crits but I don't see much "wrong" with these, they're just awesome.