AuthorTopic: my little world, monsters! ... [please C&C]  (Read 105534 times)

Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #110 on: August 06, 2008, 09:30:11 pm
The right eye also got a pixel smaller then the left eye, looks weird.
point taken. i tried to fix that (though with sub-pixels, you'll barely notice it). And i think i'll need an intermediate shade if i want to keep the eye outline...
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i'm also working out some transition between the idle stance and running, and unifying some details (outline, shadows) or it almost look like i swapped character between the two animations.

Quote from: dusty
I think an easy way to accomplish this is by having the platforms drawn OVER the player.
Yeah, that was my intent, though i'm having hard time to figure out how i'm going to do that (i have 2 hardware layers for the foreground, but sometimes Bilou need to stand in front of both, and sometimes between the two).
« Last Edit: August 06, 2008, 09:47:45 pm by PypeBros »

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #111 on: August 22, 2008, 01:00:10 pm
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i've got troubles with my conversion scripts, but here comes my latest version. higher contrast on fg leaves, better roots (hopefully, though i seem to have messed them up in the process), real "top" branches, and a place for the Wise Owl to rest between two pieces of advice ...

(*edit*) hmm. There start to be a sort of "vertical band of meaningless noise" in my tree which doesn't please me. I shall re-work that.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2008, 02:01:56 pm by PypeBros »

Offline zeid

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #112 on: August 22, 2008, 03:32:30 pm
Quote
I tried to do some sub-pixel animation on him, but i'm not sure i completely understood the technique.
Well I think you nailed it pretty well.

I think the main issues hurting your piece are colour, contrast and volumes.
A quick volume sample
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Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #113 on: August 22, 2008, 03:57:32 pm
Woaw ! Did you managed to do that with my own colors only ?
Clearly, i'm working 'too small'. I eliminated the lightest shade almost everywhere because it just introduced disturbing pixel and you managed to make it the color of choice for larger details ... Somehow that's natural. Only big disturbance can bring sufficient large "highlight" areas so that they send us enough light. Since i was only doing small ripples, i had no chance to have those required.

I definitely love the look it gives. I'll do my best to manage to get something alike that is tilable too.

Offline zeid

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #114 on: August 22, 2008, 05:13:18 pm
Well I cheated and added an extra shade, but it was a 5 minute edit so I have no doubt you can get practically the same effect whilst keeping the original colour count.
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Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #115 on: August 23, 2008, 08:07:45 am
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wow. the 32x32 edition mode was really helpful here. what a relief to get beyond that 16x16 limitation with the DS' stylus.

Lightest shade has been added afterwards, since with my initial palette only, the result was somehow "washed out" and still lacked contrast (see below), though except around the hole, i've got the feeling i haven't mastered those new light yet... maybe placing them wrong ? the branch will need to be re-done, too. it's really not working this way.


(* aftertoughtedit *) i've got the horrible feeling that my tree should be twisted the other way, given the position of its roots :P
« Last Edit: August 25, 2008, 08:17:05 am by PypeBros »

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #116 on: August 25, 2008, 09:06:39 am
=>

did a dirst try at mixing two depth of trees on a single one as ndchristie suggested ... don't know if that looks convincing to you ... that means "much work still needed" to me :P

Offline Arachne

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #117 on: August 25, 2008, 02:00:52 pm
I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but I think you really need to look into how to shade cylindrical or round objects. Also, leaves! Think of these clusters as a pile of disks. Make them more fragmented. Look at some reference if you're not sure of how to place them or shade them.



Hope that helps! ;D

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #118 on: August 25, 2008, 03:18:09 pm
I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but I think you really need to look into how to shade cylindrical or round objects.
You mean i haven't been frank enough in how dark the tree gets on the edges, i guess ... i'll try to fix that.
Or is e.g. the big branch of the hollow tree flawed too ?


(*edit*) i re-did the trunk focussing on volume only, in a rush, with coarse tools.
Is that proper interpretation of cylindrical shading to your eyes, or am i really to dig for tutorials?

Quote
Also, leaves! Think of these clusters as a pile of disks. Make them more fragmented. Look at some reference if you're not sure of how to place them or shade them.

Hope that helps! ;D
Given how great it looks, i hope it'll help. I initially did studied the "minish cap" style of leaves, which i unfortunately wasn't able to reuse. I came with the current buch of very small and dense leaves as a refined version of those clumsy bunch of leaves with "polka dots" seen in the background of the scene.

those you suggest are brilliant, although maybe a bit too "unstructured" to my tastes (e.g. if i manage to do something that approach that level of awesomeness, i'd love to make the player believe that the orientation of leaves comes naturally from an invisible network of branches, too)

how do you proceed to get something alike ? start with gross BG shape in dark and then add leaves layer after layer, casting shadow on the previous ones as you add new ones ?

Anyway, thanks for your edit and comments. If i manage to apply that, i'll have learned lots i guess :P
« Last Edit: August 25, 2008, 03:57:47 pm by PypeBros »

Offline Arachne

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Re: my little world, new animations ... [please C&C]

Reply #119 on: August 25, 2008, 06:30:49 pm
What I did to learn this was that I went outside and started sketching clusters of leaves. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet, but I like that approach to it. Personally, I find it easier to stylize if I know how to draw something realistically.


(It didn't occur to me that you would be interested in how I did it, so I didn't save all the steps.) I just used the shapes you already had, started from the top with a few bright leaves, worked my way down, divided it up a bit with some darker areas in between and some leaves scattered around it.



As far as cylinders go, here's a rough, but hopefully somewhat accurate explanation. The angle of the surface decides how much light gets sent your way. Well, that and how reflective the surface is. Rough surface means that the light is dispersed more, so it's not quite as simple as this, but it'll give you a guide to where to place highlights and such. I hope this makes sense. Just flip the ray around the line that forms a 90 degree angle with the surface. You can apply this to spheres and flat surfaces too, and it can help you figure out reflections.


So for the tree, I'd do something more like this. It's a bit straight and smooth in places, and not quite right (it's a difficult shape, and you should try to master the basics before you start with the more complicated stuff), but I hope it shows what I mean. I'd tone down the divides between the three parts of the trunk and try to focus more on getting a cylindrical base shape, sort of.

Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on something. I'm better at showing than telling. :)