[WIP] Pesky Ground Tiles

[xerus]

I seem to have problems at crafting even the simplest ground tiles to have some sort of coherent style.  I really like where the grass is going on the bottom set, but I'm having a hard time making the ground underneath it match. I don't want it to just be a solid ground color under the grass, but I'm not really sure what to do other than rocks.

After working on the tiles in the upper part of the image, I realized that they are pretty damn noisy and therefore ugly, so I went for more of a sloppy/blobby/paintery style with the grass below that.

I don't really know exactly what I'm looking for here, but maybe just a little guidance on how to approach the ground below the grass, or any comments on any of it that might be helpful to me.  I've never ventured that far out of the realm of super lo-fi stuff and I want to make my next project look as good as I can possibly make it! 

Updates:

[willfaulds]

Here' some thoughts for you.

I prefer the simple shading of the lower variants - much less distracting and the grass has a simple style  .

I had 2 thoughts; patterns and a ant farm link cut-through. Patterns didn't work so well but I think could if you carefully choose the right pattern...



Also edited the skin tone - its really hurting the readability of his face. It doesn't need to be this stereotypical a colour bu its merging with the hair at the moment.

[xerus]

Hmm, the cut through may look pretty cool.

For now I tried to change the shading on the rocks to make them not look like they're sticking out so much.  Also added some blocks I can scatter around.

Pretend scene with old rocks:


New rocks:


Pretend scene with new rocks:


His skin tone and hair.... ugghh yeah there's a problem with those two colors.  But I love them both so much!  :I

[Overkill]

Heya Xerus!

I made an edit to your image.


I made changes to your palette so that there's more contrast and color saturation, and added a fourth shade to your rocks. Your colors were pretty good, they just needed a bit more nitpicking to make the foreground areas to stand out more as in front.

Also I redid the block pattern for fun. I'm not fully impressed with the patterns I made, but it's the best I could come up with on short notice. Point being, your blocks need a little more character

I hadn't really edited your dude at all, he looks pretty good for the most part.

<3 this. Keep up the good work!

[Derek_Reaves]

I was having this exact same problem last night.

Just wanted to say thanks to Xerus and the people that have helped so far for this awesome thread as it helped another user as well =].

[Dr D]

Xerus, do you 'need' to have rocks? Why not just go with dirt, it would likely more commonly be found directly underneath grass anyway, and you could probably accomplish a smoother, cleaner, and flatter look with the dirt, because the grass on the side looks like it is pushing on the screen, like a clean cut cross section.

I don't think the rocks are cutting it, although you might want to experiment with tile variation if you're not fond of the repeating patterns, if you haven't already.

[Mathias]

Charming mockup. Not diggin the overall jittery noisiness of grass, trees, sky. Hopefully just a WIP issue.

[robotacon]

Add contrast to the different depth layers.
My suggestion would be to make the foreground darker and the background lighter.
Keep the "middleground" with the character and the top of the "grass" and the two trees the color you've got now.

[xerus]

Heya Xerus!

I made an edit to your image.


I made changes to your palette so that there's more contrast and color saturation, and added a fourth shade to your rocks. Your colors were pretty good, they just needed a bit more nitpicking to make the foreground areas to stand out more as in front.

Also I redid the block pattern for fun. I'm not fully impressed with the patterns I made, but it's the best I could come up with on short notice. Point being, your blocks need a little more character

I hadn't really edited your dude at all, he looks pretty good for the most part.

<3 this. Keep up the good work!

I like the palette shift change a lot, I think the block tiles though look a little off to me.  Although at this point I've been looking at this thing for so long that I don't know what looks right at all! 

Xerus, do you 'need' to have rocks? Why not just go with dirt, it would likely more commonly be found directly underneath grass anyway, and you could probably accomplish a smoother, cleaner, and flatter look with the dirt, because the grass on the side looks like it is pushing on the screen, like a clean cut cross section.

I don't think the rocks are cutting it, although you might want to experiment with tile variation if you're not fond of the repeating patterns, if you haven't already.

I guess I don't need to have rocks, but having the solid brown didn't really look that pleasing to me.  I guess I went straight for rocks because I didn't really know where else to go with it...

Charming mockup. Not diggin the overall jittery noisiness of grass, trees, sky. Hopefully just a WIP issue.

Arrghh, you're not?  The grass trees and sky were my favorite parts...    Any suggestions?

Add contrast to the different depth layers.
My suggestion would be to make the foreground darker and the background lighter.
Keep the "middleground" with the character and the top of the "grass" and the two trees the color you've got now.

Alrighty, I'll give that a go.

Also, here are some edits done by members of a different forum:

from "Evil-ville"


from "Jim"

So now I just have to figure out how to take all the feedback I've gotten and apply it to the image... oh ho, not an easy task...

[Mathias]

Eh, I'd just call it a matter of taste, don't worry about it. My suggestion would of course be to use "blobbier" forms, less realistic. I just find that my eyes default to exploring the busy textures more than they should.

[xerus]

Okay here is my latest attempt!  Just the tiles, no little mock up scene thing.



I tinkered with the hair/skin of the character but probably not enough.  But yeah, changes should be apparent enough.  BETTER/WORSE Than the original? 

[.TakaM]

I really think you need more contrast between the skin and hair, he basically looks like his face is covered in hair like some sort of wolf man
Also his hand merges with the scarf behind him and looks like some big floppy mutant arm or something.

It's a pretty easy fix, nothing else really needs to change if you ask me.

[Overkill]

This is starting to come together quite nice!

You know, something about the perspective has been bothering me slightly though. The way the grass is drawn, it looks odd that character has his feet across the very top of the tiles, rather than "standing" on the green.

The rocks that are there also look out of perspective, because they are completely sideview, but the grass is kind of topdown. I'd suggest drawing a layer of top rocks to remedy this, or make the grass darker near the bottom segments so it's flatter and pops out less.

I hope that makes sense?

I also agree with .TakaM's critiques. More contrast will make sure that features of the character aren't misread as him as having a yellow hockey-stick/tentacle arm XD

To be honest, I thought he had a scary mutant arm too.

[PypeBros]

Okay here is my latest attempt!  Just the tiles, no little mock up scene thing.

vs. 
BETTER/WORSE Than the original? 

at least, i can spot interesting features of the new tiles:
- interesting and varied shape of the rocks, without the "flatness" of 'edit of April 08, 2009'
- warmer colours (or is that hue shift) on the square blocks while keeping style of yours
- nice balance between texture and fluffiness of the grass.

I haven't tried to tile your grass or your rocks, but i'd say they could benefit of being two half-blocks separately tilable (so that you can have AABABBAABABBA to break the monotony of ABABABABAB...)

Keep going. That definitely looks like an interesting game coming out.

[infinitegames]

I liked the one where the grass and some of the dirt covered the rocks. It made it look a lot more connected and organic, whereas right now the rocks just look like they're standing there.

[xerus]

Thanks for the additional feedback   It might be a little bit before I can work on this again (or show stuff :I), but I'll pop back in when the time comes!