AuthorTopic: Wooden hut - C&C needed  (Read 3108 times)

Offline Blodyavenger

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Wooden hut - C&C needed

on: May 29, 2008, 06:10:55 pm
I was working on wooden hut for my game and here is the result. But it's still too sharp or how can I say.... Wooden material is still something I have to practice more.
However, what do you think?


Offline garland

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Re: Wooden hut - C&C needed

Reply #1 on: May 30, 2008, 06:30:57 am
Definitely not a bad job when it comes to perspective. There certainly isn't anything wonky from what I can tell, although houses are a bit straightforward.  On the whole however, the shading is kinda flat. The light source appears to be coming from somewhere behind and above the camera, which, although a completely valid choice, makes most of the shadows practically non-existent. Unless this is what you're going for, the lack of shadows and the similar colors in your wood textures give the image little definition apart from the dark outlines. I'd like to see the house paired with some of the other graphics for your game, if you have any more drawn at the moment, it could shed some light on your intended style.

Offline Blodyavenger

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Re: Wooden hut - C&C needed

Reply #2 on: May 31, 2008, 11:15:45 am
Ok, thanks for you opinion. Honestly, I was kinda thinking that light is above the house...but I don't know why did I shade roof then. I tried to made wood a bit difrent in the middle of the house and I darkened lower part of the hut as well and make it lower.

Here are the results:

NEW:


MOCKUP (don't have many tiles yet and grass is going to change as well):

Offline garland

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Re: Wooden hut - C&C needed

Reply #3 on: June 04, 2008, 03:29:46 am
The updates are certainly an improvement, looking at the earlier house, it looks unusually tall now.

Bringing your house graphic in Photoshop, it appears that you using a little over 70 different colors. You might want to consider reducing the number, especially considering many of these colors are very similar and perhaps were produced on accident. However, it may be a moot point since most engines these days can certainly handle many more colors than in the old days... But a limited palette does make overall image changes much easier and gives you somewhat more control over your final output.

To give you an example, I have whipped up a quick edit, just using Photoshop's automated color-reducing options. This is your image using only a 16 color palette. (with one of those colors actually being the transparent background)



I would argue that it looks nearly identical to your earlier post. However, this image is much smaller in file-size, and has the benefit of an easily editable color palette.

I do understand that there is some loss of detail in the image, (the doormat has lost most of its texture) since the color conversion is automated and has to pick and choose without really thinking, but perhaps you can take this as an simple example and do your own color-reduction by hand.

On a further note, it may or may not be helpful to increase the overall contrast of your image. But beware, it can be difficult to find a balance between dullness and overly saturated colors sometimes. :)