AuthorTopic: Questions on Pixel Art for Flash Game  (Read 3953 times)

Offline Tobe

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Questions on Pixel Art for Flash Game

on: May 12, 2008, 07:03:32 pm
Hi all, I've been lurking around for quite sometime now, looking for answers, reference, and of course beautiful artwork produce by the many genius over here.

But I've recently started working on a flash-base RPG game engine interactive piece... if it makes sense to anyone.
Anyway, I am not entirely new to working on pixel art nor flash, though at the same time, I am a master of neither.

I'd like to get some advise here...
Apart from file size issue, is it necessary to produce pixel arts in tiles&grids when working in flash?
What is the rational behind? Back in the days, it was done due to restrictions. So are we doing it now mainly for the style?
What are the problems to face if I'd produce something that looks like your usual SNES RPG, but ignore the grid and tile systems?
What if I just go ahead and create pixel art for the solely the visual?

Let me name a few example I have encounter so far.
1) Realizing the door being too small for the character, only after I finish working on the door.
2) Messy files with endless layering
3) Needs a even better vision of the end result
4) having to change lots of small details manually when you decides a change on the color scheme

Anyway, not to disregard the benefits of ignoring the grid, here are some good things.
1) patterns like floor panels are more random
2) The walking areas are much more forgiving, given the fact that without grid, your character can now walk by pixels, instead of maybe 30pixel a step
3) you can still use tiles at certain point when you deem necessary, just to cut down on workload.
4) Every objects become much easier to composite together without the grid and tiles restrictions.

I'm pretty sure there's quite a handful more for both, but I will add them into the list when I have them.

Lastly, I'm thinking of using Photoshop to draw my pixel art.
I layer them up for the animation, bring them over to flash so that I can export them as gif, and later uses them in flash for the interactive.
Is this gonna cause me any problems? I'm very comfortable with flash, but are there any better software to do so? Or am I gonna face any problem in flash like an auto anti-aliasing tool for animation gifs?


A huge thanks in advance to everyone that reads and replies.
Shall upload the artwork once I have enough to show.

(Pardon for the English, as it is not my mother tongue.)

Offline fil_razorback

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Re: Questions on Pixel Art for Flash Game

Reply #1 on: May 13, 2008, 05:24:17 pm
Hello, I am the programmer for the game Partisan Tactics Battles and our graphics art nearly 100% Pixel art (and the game is made in Flash). I think I should be able to answer some of your questions =)

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Apart from file size issue, is it necessary to produce pixel arts in tiles&grids when working in flash?
This is not compulsory, and that's why most flash games are using Art Based engines, as opposed to Tile Based engines.

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What is the rational behind? Back in the days, it was done due to restrictions. So are we doing it now mainly for the style?
Style is most of the time the main reason to choose tiles. But coding is another one, for it is much easier to code things like collision and pathfinding in a tile based environment rather than in an art based one.

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What are the problems to face if I'd produce something that looks like your usual SNES RPG, but ignore the grid and tile systems?
You would get the visual appeal without making the coding easier. Also you would have to store bigger bitmaps (complete maps) instead of small tiles, thus making your game heavier to download.

Quote
What if I just go ahead and create pixel art for the solely the visual?
Then your game may look good  :P

Also, i would like to draw your attention on the existence of Supertiles engines, which may be what you're looking for without knowing it. Here is a good supertile engine.
Basically, it consists in using differently sized and shaped tiles, but no grid :P


Flash used not to be pixel art friendly because of old versions bugs such as the "one pixel border being cropped", imprecisions in sprite positioning, and antialiasing that would sometimes turn on for no reason. However all these bugs are now long gone, and wonderful things such as the BitmapData class appeared at version 8 and make things even easier to do.

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Questions on Pixel Art for Flash Game

Reply #2 on: May 13, 2008, 06:20:11 pm
Also note that Tile based maps and backgrounds are not a limitation as to what kind of game you have at all.  Most games during the 8-bit/16-bit console generation used tiles to build levels, even action games!  Plus, games like Chrono Trigger are already an example of tile based maps that had characters with pixel based movement, so you are not forced to have the characters move on the grid at all.

Offline Tobe

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Re: Questions on Pixel Art for Flash Game

Reply #3 on: May 23, 2008, 03:52:15 am
Hi KittenMaster and Fil_razor, my computer broke down earlier and wasn't able to log in to thanks you guys for the advise.

Anyway, the supertiles engine seems amazing, except for the fact that since I'm not a programmer, I might be dare to venture into it at the moment.
I have begin to work on further and realize slowly that not working on the tiles system also makes the artwork even more tedious, since there's no restriction,  you tends to overdo, which might not be the most suitable for my case.

I shall make a link when I finally post in the artwork section, and hopefully, you guys can give me some comments on the artwork too ; )

Offline Tobe

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Re: Questions on Pixel Art for Flash Game

Reply #4 on: May 31, 2008, 04:31:19 pm
Hi again for everyone interested ; )

I have previously added my artwork in the artwork section, so heres a link
http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=6436.0

Let me know what are your thoughts.
Thanks!