WIP - Wood Laminate floor

[TVboyCanti]

Trying to make a wood/vinyl laminate floor for a fighting game backdrop, but I'm having trouble nailing the texture.



Right now I've got the dithering on the two tiles on the left vs. the pattern on the middle tile. I'd like to know which one looks better and how I can improve them. I'm really bad at detail work like this and on this kind of scale, and because it's a fighting game with a fixed vanishing point I don't think I have the option of making a tile set.

[Mathias]

Yeah, unless the ground tiles are going to programatically skew as the camera moves, or be drawn to a 3D quad angled away from the veiwpoint, which is a bad idea with pixel art, I think you'll have to create one large image. Perhaps slicing it up and assembling it with code when the game is drawn to the screen - either way you're making one large image to achieve diminishing perspective. I'm already worried about the business and contrast your floor is taking on, though. Watch out for creating a bg that loses the characters. But, for the record, I like the wood grain plank on right the most. The left planks could nigh pass for stonework so I like how the right one conveys wood, not stone.

-BUT-

You're not enslaved to making a huge perspective ground sprite. See here:

Retro Remake: Kung Fu


Notice the successful oblique perspective (there's a million terms for every isometric perspective, "oblique" may not be technically correct)  -AND-  the wood texturing. See how low-contrast it is? Yet you know it's wood and it does it's job well.

[Tourist]

Here's a source of reference pics if that helps.  I'd recommend looking at the oak selections, I think they will be more obvious as wood floors than some of the more exotic species.

http://www.fastfloors.com/_library/search.asp?qcat=Hardwood+Flooring

Tourist

[ndchristie]

Notice the successful oblique perspective (there's a million terms for every isometric perspective, "oblique" may not be technically correct)

Oblique is the correct term here, where the drawing consists of a flat, undistorted plane facing the camera (similar to orthographic drawing) and the Z axis is displayed on an angle (as opposed to orthographic, where it is perpendicular to the viewing plane and therefor "invisible".

This is not isometric perspective, which is always and must be where the three axes are displayed at equal measure (120 degrees apart) and equally foreshortened.
THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE ISOMETRIC PROJECTION.

Isometric commonly is misused when referring to game art, which is not isometric but actually dimetric (where only two axes, usually x and z, are equally measured and foreshortened, but the third, usually y, is not).  There are many types of dimetric projections, including videogame "isometric" (2:1), and all oblique projections.

Trimetric is completely arbitrary, but still measured about each axis with internal consistency.

[Mathias]

Yikes, nd, thanks for the info; welll explained . . . I'll never get them straight, though.  (hmm, your av is dead)

TVboyCanti, another detriment to your design is the shapes of the planks. Right now they're more indicative of stones, than wood. Wood flooring tends to use longer, more slender boards. And stone, chunkier fatter blocks, like you're got now.

Also, as your floor "vanishes" into the horizon the boards don't consistently get smaller.

[Rydin]

You mention that you are having trouble nailing the texture.  When you say "laminate" flooring, don't you get the impression that it's supposed to be reflective?  I know that I do.  Be careful not to focus more on the shapes within the wood grain than the actual physical characteristics of wood flooring.

I found this on Google to show what I mean:


And as I say this, I think of the title screen from A Link to the Past.


Notice the mountains, trees, sky, and castle reflected in the water?  Wood laminate flooring has a similar property to this.  Only while a reflection on water is crisp and clear, a reflection from wood flooring is going to be far more blurry.  I'm sure somebody knows a specific term for this physical property. [Edit: The terms I was looking for are "diffuse" and "specular."  I found this http://www.huevaluechroma.com/021.php that describes it. Basically, the more diffuse a reflection is, the more soft and blurry it is, like the reflection on cloth or matte paint.  The more specular a reflection is, the more hard and accurate and clear it is, like the reflection in a mirror or a glass table.  Wood laminate is going to be more specular than cloth, but more diffuse than a lake of water.]

If I were you, I would go with the simple pattern in the middle, and add a subtle, blurry reflection of whatever you plan to have in the background over it.

[TVboyCanti]

So this is what I've got so far. The white space is how big the full backdrop will be, the colored part is for the mockup that I'm making this for.  Contrast slightly decreases as it moves away from the viewer. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the sheen on there. It's meant to be a boxing gym floor, so it doesn't need to be anywhere near as shiny as the picture that was posted above.

Actually, now that I look at it, it doesn't really look like laminate at all. But I really like the way it looks, and I think that if I tried to do draw those super-skinny planks with hardly any detail in them, it would be extremely tedious and would no-doubt look very boring and have no character to it, so I'm gonna stick with this new type of wood floor. 

[CrazyMLC]

I think that if I tried to do draw those super-skinny planks with hardly any detail in them, it would be extremely tedious and would no-doubt look very boring and have no character to it, so I'm gonna stick with this new type of wood floor. 

If you look at what Mathias posted...



You'll notice that the planks get plainer and lose their texture as they get further back, and I think that generates a nice effect.

[Zoggles]

Must admit, I quite like that swirling wood-grain pattern you've got going on the flooring too.

However, my only concern is in your perspective. The tiles/floor boards on the far left and right are much wider than those in the centre...

-Z-

[Altoontoon]

Hello. im agree with Zoggles, i think perspective is the big problem. I had make this little demo of how building a basic grid for your floor and then you can use as guide
to paint texture or whatever. I hope this helps you and be explanatory. Oh, texture also follows perspective laws, so in depth you must draw with less detail and with a thinest line.