RPGDX > Forums > Graphics > New tilework

Ren · Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject:

That's pretty damn good. I like the new work on the houses, and those cliffs are pretty fantastic. The only things i'd suggest for them is stuff you proberbly already know, like how there's no join between the cliffs and the grass tiles, and the noticable outline around the edge of the cliffs. The cliffs themselves are pretty much perfect, no fault there. Love the layering effect you've got going on too.
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js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

biggerUniverse · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:59 am Post subject:

I hope the scenes are made with Tiled. ;)
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js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

Actually, I made it all with Character 'mucker' (as it's commonly called) 1999. Essentially just a basic pixelling program with a somewhat limited, though customizable, palette and useful feature which enables you place chunks of an image on an invisible grid on the image itself, sort of like a map editor. Only it saves as an image. Great for making tilesets. ;)

DeveloperX · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:12 am Post subject:

OMG Josiah!

Damn those cliff tiles are amazing!
How come you didn't draw like this when I had you as an artist? ;)
J/k, I KNOW why.....its cause you hate me right? :P
heheh nah, joking again, I really know why, its cause you didn't
HAVE such skill at the time, heh, man you have come a LONG way!
Certainly, your art is among the best that I've seen in awhile.
Well man, gotta run.
ttyl.
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js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

Thanks very much... :)
I find I don't improve gradually, actually, it's more sudden bursts of inspiration to decide to suddenly improve. An amusing analogy I use is "It's like getting a level up" :p
Actually, while I am quite satisfied with my progress I'm not completely happy with these cliffs. I know, maybe I set overly high standards for myself... but while I'm relatively happy with this art it just doesn't have that feel to it I'm looking for.

Funny, I mean, it applies to lots of things... never really written a piece of music or a story that I really felt had something, even if I was 'happy' with it. It's like... well, two games that are good examples of this sort of feeling (for me) are Chrono Trigger and Terranigma-- if you'll forgive me for being corny for a moment, they have a kind of soul-- Now, let's say I did manage to somehow produce a game of that calibre, even if other people saw it as having all this feeling put into and having a kind of proverbial soul (once again, I apologize. corny corny corny corny), I probably wouldn't simply because I'm seeing it from an inside perspective, if you get me.

anyway, I'm kinda searching for some way to get past that, somehow. Eventually, as a kind of goal I want to just produce a game that has that feeling for me in all its aspects, though I haven't really come close yet and I'm not sure how I will. :p

I mean, theoretically I could do something that was somewhat of a rip-off of Chrono Trigger or Terranigma or whatever, but as most of you (should) know I'm really not the kind of person to do that. ;)

Anyway. Sorry for the rambling. Point is, I've actually been thinking about 'donating' these graphics to either a game project or RPG Maker project like Chaotic Harmony suggested, after all. I'm thinking maybe I just don't want them if they seem kinda 'dead'. Anyway, I'll decide later. I'm going to finish up a complete tileset or two first.

Oh-- one more thing. I was thinking about doing a tutorial on some of this art, mainly the cliffs. What do you think?
Oh, and here's just a really quick mockup to show off some new tiles that make the cliffs look more 'round':

LeoDraco · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 8:12 am Post subject:

This may have been mentioned in another's post about your cliffs, but I have a minor problem with one aspect (and, oddly, it has nothing to do with the cliffs): your shadows are too hard. (This is most evident in that last screenshot you posted.) As there is no such thing as a "point" light source (meaning that all light sources come with some amount of surface area), two rays of light coming from the same source reaching an object simultaneously do not necessarily originate from the same surface area of the emitter; this causes the penumbra/umbra effect of real shadows.

While I realize that emulating the above might be difficult to perform in a perfectly generic fashion, I certainly do feel it would improve the look of the tileset.
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js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

DeveloperX · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:57 pm Post subject:

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

RuneLancer · Mage Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 441

That's very nice, though the lighting/shading looks pretty bad IMHO. Too much dithering. It looks NES-like. Mostly shows on the flames themselves and the dark inner wall parts.

However, I kinda wonder if that isn't intentional. PSP says there are 18 colors in use in that image. It could be off (image compression et all) so I'm wondering, is this for a QB game? If so, my god, that's absolutely stunning!!

Considering the amount of colors used, however, that's a very, very impressive-looking piece. Thumbs up man. :D
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js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

18 colors? I dunno, I don't keep track (though I do try and conserve them) but that sounds about right. It probably has to do with my palette (though I'm working on a new one) and the fact that there are only small sections of colors I ever really use. This is an early mockup, so things are likely to change-- the flames are somewhat temporary, for example ;)

Yep, there is a lot of dithering, mainly because there's not a lot of shades in my palette-- fairly sudden transitions from one color to the next, so it's needed in thing like the light spots from the torches. I've still got a lot to do on this one, like I said, so it should improve in the future.

As for what these graphics are for, they kinda go with the grass/cliff stuff I posted earlier, just a different location. Gotta get practice for all locations/styles, that's kinda the intent of this whole 'excercise' :)

DrunkenCoder · Demon Hunter Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 559

those are awsome you won't be releasing any publicly availble tile-sets to the public domain now will you? :p
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