AuthorTopic: some land/cliff tiles  (Read 6150 times)

Offline alspal

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some land/cliff tiles

on: July 21, 2009, 01:22:18 pm
I'm just wondering how these tiles are coming along. Any feedback would be incredible


I'm trying to do them in a perspective similar to Zelda's, although I'm mainly concerned about the left ramp, is it very readable/understandable?



tile size is 10x10 btw.

Offline JJ Naas

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #1 on: July 21, 2009, 01:53:59 pm
Considering how tightly geometrical and formal the rest of the tiles are it seems a bit smudgy. What goes on in the upper part of the left ramp is indeed a bit mysterious, although it's very readable as a ramp. The upper part of the left ramp seems to indicate that the flat top area reaches far before the ramp starts sloping downwards, whereas in the lower part the sloping starts almost immediately. Also, it seems to reach much further than the front ramp, but that may not be a problem, A Link to the Past made a good use of some weird angles and horizontal lines.

Offline alspal

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #2 on: July 22, 2009, 02:25:58 am
cheers JJ!
I tried changing the ramp, I hope it looks better. I'm not sure if it needs a shadow on the top side of it though



should I make the ramp a lighter green? or is it best to just keep the grass a solid colour


edits: I changed the shadow of the cliff thing and made some grass!
« Last Edit: July 22, 2009, 04:38:10 am by alspal »

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #3 on: July 22, 2009, 09:21:25 am
The ramp needs a lighter green yes. Although this is highly geometrical, it has a flair to it. Especially if you break it up with non geometric elements like the plant. Beware to keep the top down perspective for the plant too though

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #4 on: July 22, 2009, 11:52:46 am
cheers JJ!
I tried changing the ramp, I hope it looks better. I'm not sure if it needs a shadow on the top side of it though

edits: I changed the shadow of the cliff thing and made some grass!
imho, you don't have the proper shadow yet. Okay for seeing the cliff at the "top" despite top-down perspective. It works in Zelda's odd perspective and player can accept it if the object is not too cubical but rather a truncated pyramid. Okay for having a shadow there if the sun is low enough, but you'd certainly have the object drop more shadow on the side (where shadow starts at the bottom of the object) than on the side: you have to compensate for your perspective.

Offline alspal

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #5 on: July 22, 2009, 12:46:08 pm
cheers JJ!
I tried changing the ramp, I hope it looks better. I'm not sure if it needs a shadow on the top side of it though

edits: I changed the shadow of the cliff thing and made some grass!
Okay for having a shadow there if the sun is low enough, but you'd certainly have the object drop more shadow on the side than on the side: you have to compensate for your perspective.

not quite sure I understand that bit

Offline Elk

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #6 on: July 22, 2009, 05:10:59 pm
cheers JJ!
I tried changing the ramp, I hope it looks better. I'm not sure if it needs a shadow on the top side of it though



should I make the ramp a lighter green? or is it best to just keep the grass a solid colour


edits: I changed the shadow of the cliff thing and made some grass!


You're choice of colors is a nice beginning in terms of colors, to start with!
Yet, there are things I would suggest you by doing the cliffs and some advice for grass (just colors,yet)

You should adjust the colors on the cliffs a bit by modifying a dark one to an even darker one and vice versa,
same with the lights, by doing so, you will make the edges pop out way more and the cliffs look more interesting as a whole,
not just like a brown big blocky outline (if you're looking at it as a whole, that is!) You should not aim for the correct zelda minish cap style
(which I assume you're trying to take on), but create a somewhat semi-realistic (in terms of proportion and sources of light) style yourself
to completely understand the cliffs and other environments by giving them a somewhat plastic feel.

First, I would delete those 2 pixel wide brown things that are possibly supposed to be some kind of edges seperating the cliffs and the grass a bit more
other than just having a line that has no gradient or any other transition. Followingly there needs to be, as said, a transition on the cliffs to the grass...
could be either a dirt path that merges to grass, or even having some of the typical classic-styled grasses that just pop up once the dirt ends, those kind of work,
but it would not fit the style so I would suggest you looking at other transitional possabilities, pretty wide here really.
Back to the cliffs, imagine it like this, the cliffs, are built by rocks, each rock is an individual and therefore partially shown in the very construction,
 be aware that certain dither techniques do not - atleast they just make it seem- make rocks look like rocks! (although this can be discussed endlessly..., my opinion, atleast)

The shadows from the cliffs are not bad, yet I would reduce it to a somewhat own perspective removing the shadow that goes beyond the backcliffs having it compact as tiles!
(If you're going to have tiles in the end, that would be a good solution), no other real critique for that part for now!

Now to the color of the grass, imagine a big big surface with just that color, and now think if it either hurts the eye, or if it's boring to the eye being simply "a color"
For me, the color is a little too saturated, it's so aggressive, even thought Zelda tends to use pretty much partial highsaturated pastelcolorvariations.
But worry not, for I am here!
You can make a somewhat similar and more effective style by using different green/yellow/blue-greentones and using...*drumroll*...
a dithertechnique for once! Coincidently almost the same that you used on your cliffs, just more dense and smaller!
You can weaken that effect by making the colors more similar but yeah...that's how I'd do it! But don't forget to make it somewhat simplified! It is Zelda-influenced...

The grass NPC for once, is looking pretty flat...
Why? Because there is an outline that seems to seperate it from the entire grassland!
How do we deal with it? By simply using lighter colors instead of a dark outline, and don't you dare to selout right there, or else!
I would only use the outline to define the thickness of the leaves, and to PARTIALLY seperate it from the other grass, so it stands out a bit more...

And now to the point, to answer your question about the ramp
The best thing you can do is keep it 1 solid colorSHEME for all the grass. You CAN use different colors to define some kind of layers on the ground,
but to have an effect that you're seeking for, I would simply work on the feel for heigth there, adding grassdefinitions and other of the sorts!
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Offline Elk

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #7 on: July 22, 2009, 05:11:32 pm
arg i doubleposted delete this please
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Offline alspal

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #8 on: July 23, 2009, 03:03:41 am
thanks Elk.

Haven't been able to get a better looking cliff or grass texture thing yet  :-[
Although I did try changing some colours and the long grass thing




but I'll keep trying I guess
« Last Edit: July 23, 2009, 05:16:04 am by alspal »

Offline Elk

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Re: some land/cliff tiles

Reply #9 on: July 23, 2009, 05:06:58 am
grass looks significantly better! Try sharpening the edges a bit more though
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