Graphic Critique - NESdev BBS

Graphic Critique
by Ian A on 2011-04-24 (#77193)

I thought it'd be better to start a thread for the specific purpose of critiques even though I posted some tiles I'd been working on in another thread, but I'm sure the mods will chime in if it's not.

This image

is a redo of this:

I would appreciate some criticism. For example, in my new image there is a rock with a vertical line. To me this makes it REALLY easy to tell exactly where the image repeats, and I'm probably gonna rework that section.

Which version do you prefer?

by 3gengames on 2011-04-24 (#77195)

I can't notice the repeat unless I look for it, so I think it's good. The 2nd looks good to me!

by tokumaru on 2011-04-24 (#77197)

I like the new one better (the old one looked like dirt with rocks embedded, the new one actually looks like a pile of rocks), and I agree that it's not so easy to spot the pattern repetition unless you specifically look for it.

The grass could be less flat though, and you still have to do some different shading on the rocks to use as walls, like I suggested you in the other thread. I'd say you're on the right track! =)

by Grumskiz on 2011-04-25 (#77204)

The rocks in the new picture look nice, but tokumaru is right, they need a little bit of shading.
The grass is very flat. Try removing the outline on the top and then play around with it a little and leave some spaces, so that looks more like grass and not like green carpet ;3
Another thing you can add later is little bushes or piles of grass that stick out. You'll need some more tiles for that, but it'll look far more interesting!

by cartlemmy on 2011-04-25 (#77208)

To me it looks really good. I like it when grass doesn't look real on the ol' NES. The only thing that stands out to me is there are no tiles for the vertical edges.

by tokumaru on 2011-04-25 (#77209)

cartlemmy wrote:
I like it when grass doesn't look real on the ol' NES.

It doesn't have to look real, just less flat, IMO.

Quote:
The only thing that stands out to me is there are no tiles for the vertical edges.

Yeah, those are the ones I said need special shading.

by cartlemmy on 2011-04-25 (#77212)

tokumaru wrote:
Quote:
The only thing that stands out to me is there are no tiles for the vertical edges.

Yeah, those are the ones I said need special shading.

Ah! My early morning mind didn't get what you meant

by Ian A on 2011-04-25 (#77214)

Okay, solid guys. Thanks for the opinions!

by Ian A on 2011-04-26 (#77273)

Okay, which grass style do you prefer? One of these two or the old one? Or blow all of them up and make a new one?

by Shiru on 2011-04-26 (#77276)

That 'shadow' under the grass could look like a ground surface, with grass on back plane, kind of pseudo-3d. That is confusing. If you break border between grass and ground, make it fuzzy, it will look more like shadow.

by tokumaru on 2011-04-26 (#77277)

Ian A wrote:

Definitely this one, but the top is still just a flat line... It should be an irregular surface, even if the collision mask itself isn't.

Like Shiru said, making the bottom more fuzzy would help too. Don't bee so conservative about attribute boundaries... even if the colors don't match, you can still give the grass a sense of continuation, like it overlaps the rocks a bit, rather than the sudden break you have now.

Most NES games that have grass like this use a dark color present in both palettes to make the transition, a color that can shade both the grass and the rocks/dirt. Even if the colors aren't the same the effect still works if they are similar enough (brightness is more important than hue).

by clueless on 2011-04-26 (#77278)

Contra has similar graphics in levels 1 & 3, if you were looking for another example. I'm not stating that Contra has excellent graphics, but I've always liked them. Then again, I'm not that picky about graphics.

Example:
http://www.geek.com/xyzimages/stories/articlepics/side_scroll/contra_nes.jpg

(Pardon the obscene Google Image search url. idk which pieces I can remove and have it still work, and I'm a bit too lazy to figure it out right now).
It doesn't have to be obscene if you use the [url=] syntax --MOD

by Ian A on 2011-04-27 (#77284)

Thanks you guys, for the responses again!

The Contra link was a good one. I don't know how I missed looking at that! Also, when looking at more NES games, there is similar terrain in the second level in Gimmick!, although, I'm pretty certain that white is the background color in that area, which helps out with the color blending between the areas, and is far more thought out than what I am doing at the moment...

by cartlemmy on 2011-04-27 (#77285)

This is the kinda thing I was thinking.

nes7685 by cartlemmy, on Flickr

by Dwedit on 2011-04-27 (#77286)

cartlemmy wrote:
This is the kinda thing I was thinking.

nes7685 by cartlemmy, on Flickr

Sweet!

by Ian A on 2011-04-27 (#77311)

cartlemmy wrote:
This is the kinda thing I was thinking.

nes7685 by cartlemmy, on Flickr

Holy crap man! That looks great! Like really great!

This makes me think that I really need to sit down and think what type of graphic direction I want to go in.

by cartlemmy on 2011-04-27 (#77312)

Ian A wrote:
cartlemmy wrote:
This is the kinda thing I was thinking.

nes7685 by cartlemmy, on Flickr

Holy crap man! That looks great! Like really great!

This makes me think that I really need to sit down and think what type of graphic direction I want to go in.

Thanks You did most of the work y'know.

by Denine on 2011-04-29 (#77387)

This screens make me say "WOW"
Very well done.
Quote:
Okay, which grass style do you prefer? One of these two or the old one?

hmm...
Quote:

I like this one much more.Fits rocks better.
Quote:

And this one...my mind just exploded.
Very,very well done!
I'm hoping to see more

by Ian A on 2011-05-03 (#77570)

Okay, I still need to work on the sides, but I messed with some dithering. Should I continue in this direction?

by 3gengames on 2011-05-03 (#77574)

Awesome. I'd just stick with that, looks amazing to me!

by NESHomebrew on 2011-05-03 (#77575)

Looks good.

by tokumaru on 2011-05-03 (#77576)

Looks good, but I wouldn't use the green to shade the rocks. It's too obvious that the color doesn't belong, and makes you palette look more limited than it actually is. I would just use a dark yellow/brown of similar brightness to the dark green. There will of course be a seam between the grass and the rocks, but it will not be very noticeable (specially on a TV) unless you look for it, unlike the green rocks, which are obvious right away.

by tepples on 2011-05-03 (#77579)

Yeah, if you use green rocks, make them pickup items to power your weapon or something.