AuthorTopic: my little world, monsters! ... [please C&C]  (Read 105545 times)

Offline PypeBros

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

Reply #120 on: August 25, 2008, 06:45:37 pm
thanks for those extra explanation, and glad to see we have the same theory for cylindars (actually, i studied that kind of stuff from a theoretical point of view years ago when i was trying to code a phong-shading algorithm  :crazy:). It's just that i haven't mastered how to use them on a more complicated shape, nor have a very good intuition of "how large" each region should be considering my palette etc.

But i *want* it to be a somehow complicated shape as this is (imho) what will make it interesting to look at and to have in the game. I admit that trying to have trunks that tile so that i can make them any width was a mistake that made my former trunks look fairly flat, which did not really speak in my favor.

Well, enough words ...
Now to pixels and try to render

Offline AdamAtomic

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

Reply #121 on: August 26, 2008, 07:03:18 pm
Something I found helpful when I was learning how to approach things a little more scientifically was to shade the big shapes FIRST, then go back and start working on surface stuff.  So for a tree, even if it had cool, gnarly detailing all over it, you would shade it like a big cylinder first.  Then, when you could see how the light was reacting to the basic, major shape of the object, you can go back and start working in the details, using more appropriate colors (and with a better sense of the overall lighting).

BTW you are making great progress, keep at it!

Offline PypeBros

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

Reply #122 on: September 08, 2008, 08:28:45 am
-->
Some newer leaves i made basing on Arachne's technique. There's not half as nice as hers, but they're already doing a nice job (imho). While posting, i realise the major trick that i haven't used : large areas of shadow near the center of the "bunch", which is due to a "hole" in the leaves through which we see the much-darker inners of the bunch. I only casted shadow on immediately neighbour leaves instead.

Yet, starting from the top and going downwards was a much better idea than working from lowest layer and moving up (which i tried to apply with my former "minish-cap-style-trees", but without much success).
I did the outline of the leaves with the darkest shade, then 'filling' the leaves and finally softened the outlines into correct shades (depending on the surrounding, whether they cast shadow, etc.)

Offline Helm

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

Reply #123 on: September 08, 2008, 11:26:47 pm


What I think is most missing from your work is a good sense of contrast and value range. You have too much bright and nearbright colors and a huge range in the middle and then nothing towards the darker edge. You might be doing this to keep the game cartoony, but I think it's hurting the art very much. The relatively straight, full-saturation colors are not a good idea for any sort of game in my opinion.

Also I don't know how you pixel, but your color managment is wasteful. This was 28 colors in your version, it's 14 in mine, do you feel it's less or more colorful? A slight hue tint won't hurt your art nor will it make it instantly GRIMREALIST. In fact, it will make it *less* realistic and more surreal and fantastic if handled correctly.

Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, WIP tree ... [please C&C]

Reply #124 on: September 09, 2008, 08:55:08 am
I have to admit that i'm really struggling with those palette choices issues, and the low contrast of the DS screen doesn't help much here. I confess too that my palette has turned into a real mess, and that more lines of code are required before i can truly reorganize it.

I will investigate your edit further tonight to find out where were those 14 colours you removed. Obviously, the way i stick new art (here the leaves) onto existing mockup (e.g. trunk) lead to an accumulation of "obsolete" colours in some forgotten pixels ... I'll try to put more effort in the "cleanup/post-processing" phase when building mockups.

As you asked "do you feel it's less or more colorful?" ...
Clearly, no. Not less colorful. More interesting to watch, and shooting to my eyes "look, migh leaves and trunk highlights are not finished ! please give me some more polish"... while my version tended to "hide" this. I'm uncertain about the pure-black shadow for the tree in your edit, though.

Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, WIP tree ... [please C&C]

Reply #125 on: September 09, 2008, 12:08:23 pm
still in the process of studying helm's colors and techniques. shadow on the trunk definitely plays a significant role too.
Left to right: helm's, mine after killing exceeding colors, wip color reshaping...

I figured out that i was using over-saturated shadows (which makes them not-so-shadows). Also tried to increase the hue-shifting in the leaves, highlights still being untouched. I'll give casted shadows a try when i'll have a bit more time.

Offline Helm

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Re: my little world, WIP tree ... [please C&C]

Reply #126 on: September 09, 2008, 06:12:52 pm
It's a definite improvement. You took the idea and adapted it to your vision. I still think more shadow would work but eh, when I see it in the full mockup then we'll know.

Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, WIP tree ... [please C&C]

Reply #127 on: February 07, 2009, 05:21:54 pm
<-- old -- run -- new -->

Last month have been heavy at work, but here's a new little walking animation for Bilou (yeah, i couldn't resist with all those great posts on animating walk/run cycles these last weeks). I hope the sub-pixel animation for the eyes do the trick here as they did for the "run" animation.

I guess i'll need to do something on the front feet as it's virtually impossible to see it over the grass right now. Maybe just shading will do it.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2009, 05:28:03 pm by PypeBros »

Offline Lazycow

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Re: my little world, WIP tree ... [please C&C]

Reply #128 on: February 09, 2009, 11:54:17 am
The leg-movements look good! Some minor things: Is his head turning while walking? Then his pupil should move too.
I would change the color of the green shoes. (because of the green grass)
If there is only one movemode, I would prefer the running animation, because it does look more dynamic.

More creatures please!  ;)
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. Yes we can!

Offline PypeBros

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Re: my little world, WIP tree ... [please C&C]

Reply #129 on: February 09, 2009, 12:29:14 pm
The leg-movements look good! Some minor things: Is his head turning while walking? Then his pupil should move too.
The head/body moves, right. But since he's focusing on where he goes, his pupils compensate the head move (or at least, i figured out that if it was me, i wouldn't have my gaze go right and left while walking)
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I would change the color of the green shoes. (because of the green grass)
That'd be the easy way out, but i want to keep the shoes green (he'll cross other lands too where there won't be grass). Instead, i'm trying to fix that with more contrast on the "shoes", but i'm not satisfied with my shading yet.
<- vs ->


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If there is only one movemode, I would prefer the running animation, because it does look more dynamic.
Both walking and running will be available in game. Haven't decided which one would be the default one, though. I'm not that fan of SuperMario run that requires you to hold a button down during the whole game. Clearly running is more interesting, so i could go for the "prince of persia" approach and have a "keep quiet" button to avoid running rather than the other way round.

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More creatures please!  ;)
Heheh ... i'll try the 'fruitbat' tonight. Thanks for your support.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2009, 12:13:15 pm by PypeBros »