AuthorTopic: [WIP] Artwork for new game project  (Read 3491 times)

Offline MasterRaichu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • The Games Page

[WIP] Artwork for new game project

on: January 24, 2010, 11:23:10 pm
Hi everyone!

I've been lurking in this forum for quite sometime, and I figured I'd finally start posting some work that I've been doing.  I've worked on freeware games with pixel art in the past, but I've never done anything extremely detailed and lush before.  A few friends and I are starting to build a new game that we hope to take to commercial levels sometime within the next year or two, and my goal is to take my pixel art to a whole new level.  I want to use this topic to post work as I get close to completing it, as I love the constructive criticism that you all give here.  It's really helpful, and I've been using the information I've been reading here to get my artwork looking better and better.

Our game is going to be programmed in Flash using Flashpunk, but for the artwork, I'm sticking with my longtime pixel-art friend, Multimedia Fusion 2.  By trade, I'm an animator and used to vector and 3d artwork, but I've always loved pixels, and I've just gotten accustomed to MMF2's editor.  ;D



The first world in our game is going to be a "grass-ville" of sorts.  It's going to be somewhat woodsy, but will have lots of open areas with rolling hills, vegetation, and will also have some housing and fencing.  I plan on drawing more trees like this one, but I wanted to start with one and get the colors and shading just right.  Just for reference, the environment that you will see in this area will be during the earliest point in sunset, so I tried to keep a light source slightly over top and toward the back of the tree.  We may do different times of day with each stage, so I may change this tree in the future to reflect that light source, but I'm not really sure yet.

Please post any criticism you may have for me!  I'm only getting started with this fleet of vegetation and I'd love to get it looking even more nice  ;)  Thanks everyone!
~MasterRaichu of The Games Page
http://www.thegamespage.com

Offline Mathias

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1797
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Goodbye.
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/9542.htm
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Artwork for new game project

Reply #1 on: January 25, 2010, 01:22:40 am
(image broken, please fix)

Offline linx

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 75
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Artwork for new game project

Reply #2 on: January 25, 2010, 02:48:44 am
Weird, i can see the image just fine :-\

Offline Mathias

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1797
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Goodbye.
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/9542.htm
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Artwork for new game project

Reply #3 on: January 25, 2010, 05:37:56 pm
Can see it now. It's quite huge. What's your targeted resolution? (dimensions of one game screen?)

Your tree is very rough, I assume it's WIP yet. And awfully dark. If your lightsource is indeed above and behind, I doubt you'd see any branch detail. Right now, you're rendering some edge highlights on the boughs as if there's no canopy there.

A small plant may grow at a slant like that, due to it's source of sun being difficult to reach, but I doubt a tree would develop so skewed.

Offline MasterRaichu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • The Games Page

Re: [WIP] Artwork for new game project

Reply #4 on: January 25, 2010, 06:48:40 pm
This is going to sound a bit strange, but the target resolution of the game is going to be 960 x 320.  without going into to much info about the game itself because its very early on in development, we actually did a beta with simple graphics, and that tree is the size we came up with.  The in-game camera is very dynamic and moves quite a bit, so you do end up seeing the whole thing.

I see what you're saying about the edges.  If it actually had those highlights there would have to be some kind of light coming through the leaves onto those branches.  Maybe I'll cut some holes into the leaf bunches around those dark middle areas.

Mathias, as for the tree roughness, do you think I need more distinction inbetween the colors?  I wasn't thinking about going much more detailed than that.
~MasterRaichu of The Games Page
http://www.thegamespage.com

Offline Mathias

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1797
  • Karma: +2/-0
  • Goodbye.
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/9542.htm
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Artwork for new game project

Reply #5 on: January 25, 2010, 10:23:10 pm
. . . the target resolution of the game is going to be 960 x 320.

Wow, that's quite large for a pixel art game. I'm starting to worry you don't fully understand pixel art, or this undertaking of yours, but you probably do.

Let me ask you this though, why pixel art at all? Why not just a typical painted style?

Here's a quick "mockup" with your targeted screen dims: 960x320.




Mathias, as for the tree roughness, do you think I need more distinction inbetween the colors?  I wasn't thinking about going much more detailed than that.

Depends on how you use them, the style you choose. You've got two distinct ramps - green and brown. Both ramps' highlight colors jump significantly in luminosity. You way you've chosen to use the brown ramp's reddish color (#270707) is pretty odd; doesn't make any sense to me.