My graphics showing/scold my art topic.

My graphics showing/scold my art topic.
by 3gengames on 2011-05-03 (#77583)

Well.....wanted to try my hand at some simple graphics today. I went for some simple little screen and graphics. Here's what I have so far:

Most of it is palette 0, the rock [Which will probably be removed] is palette 2, and the water is palette 1, but all 3 colors will be used. [I have to change that back, water will be shaded the bottom pixels of the white to a light blue for texture/height.] Palette 3 is unused for now and later on palette 2 should be free, too. So with only 2 palettes, I'm happy at how much art I got out of it.
All critique is welcomed.

Thanks!

by Drag on 2011-05-03 (#77584)

Your graphics look nice, but the actual palette you're using (RGB-wise, not the color choice) looks really strange. o_O I wouldn't trust it. :S

by 3gengames on 2011-05-03 (#77585)

Yeah, I will find the correct correct colors later if needed, and they are quite a bit different from YY-Chr to NESst, so I actually already have two palettes. That is just the approximate one.

I also discoved with this that even though the green in the plants and grass is the same green, the grass looks so much darker with the black around it. Quite cool. And I also have two waters in there, and I think we can actually get two different pond types on the screen at the same time with animation, so that can be cool.

by tepples on 2011-05-04 (#77597)

A field of green birds.

The dark green tile $09 looks like a cartoon bird, with the wing at the upper left and the beak at the right. Make it blue and I've found myself a new "follow me on Twitter" icon.

by 3gengames on 2011-05-04 (#77602)

tepples wrote:
A field of green birds.

The dark green tile $09 looks like a cartoon bird, with the wing at the upper left and the beak at the right. Make it blue and I've found myself a new "follow me on Twitter" icon.

Damn. That's true now that I look at it. I'll work on another one later, but it looks fine to me if I can't make another. I also need to fix the fence graphics (dots on end piece vertically) and maybe make some grass not from a certain game with the same viewpoint. Also, the pathway needs rounded and fixed (Am going to make a palette of browns for trees and use it with the pathway to make texture) and the last palette we'll see what it can be used for when that's done hopefully. It was pretty fun making the screen, my first screen making with my own graphics so it's kinda cool to see it all come together.

by qbradq on 2011-05-04 (#77603)

I think your graphics look very good. I did not think the bushes looked like birds until Tepples pointed it out. I think it's a little bit like finding shapes in clouds at that point

I really respect how much graphical detail you've been able to achieve with so few patterns. I need to be taking notes from your work

I am reminded of the first Pokemon games by the screen. Are you working on an RPG?

by 3gengames on 2011-05-04 (#77604)

Sort of. Everyone has an idea of a game to bring to the NES, and mine is just an RPG, and I like the Pokemon style. I made these by look at the main pokemon screen and just trying each time after it. I hope the 8x8 tiles are big enough. I don't like the slopes either, but they work for now. I fixed the fences, and need to add the new palette for browns.

And I can't draw a straight line and have no artistic talent, so that'd be a huge mistake!

Here's the water detail added back and some nicer looking "mosh grass", I cant find another way to make it look like a plant, but this makes it look more swampy so I guess I achieved something! And the grass that is just a checkered pattern will blend on a TV so that's my idea behind that. Now I have to make new lake water, since I also realized the graphics for the water seem more like a waterfall and not a lake, although the one to the right might suffice with the same graphics.

by Ian A on 2011-05-04 (#77608)

I was gonna say that this looked very pokemonish, especially the water.

Okay, now to the critique. Keep in mind I am often wrong, and sometimes it's better to do the opposite of what I say.

I had no there were supposed to be slopes. It looks like thinner grass maybe? I don't think the thick plants looked like birds at all, but they did look like they were in a different perspective than the rest of the screen. A little shadow around their base would've been nice to make it look a little more 3D.

I think the water needs some sort of transition to it, like a slope downwards, even if it is only a slight slope, or otherwise it looks weird to me. Also, I kinda like the old water better?

You did a really good job of making it easy to read, especially with the few colors you used. Keep it up!

by 3gengames on 2011-05-05 (#77691)

You mean the thick grass? The slopes were above the pathway, are brown and black.

Well, here's a new one. Tried to get a bridge, but doesn't look so hot. I couldn't even make a nice one with 16x16 graphics and a whole palette. I'll have to work on that later. Also, water changed. Looks like a lake now, not a waterfall.

by qbradq on 2011-05-06 (#77752)

Personally I liked the first one better

by tokumaru on 2011-05-06 (#77759)

I think you should stop trying to do too much with just a few tiles. You can't make anything convincing if you don't use different tiles for the different parts. You can't make a convincing slope with just one tile repeated over and over, you need more tiles for the left and right edges. The same goes for the water, you can't make a square lake and expect it to look good, you have to make a few rounded water/ground tiles and surround your lake with them.

by UncleSporky on 2011-05-06 (#77761)

Remember your perspective. You're not showing a straight top-down view, as evidenced by the stumps/logs (otherwise they'd just be perfect circles).

Notice how other games like FF1 do their walls:

You can see both the top and side of the horizontal walls. I'd say likewise, your vertical fences are fine but the horizontal ones should show us a side view of the fence. Also consider adding thickness like this:

by Denine on 2011-05-06 (#77768)

I don't know why, but It feels (for me) like pokemon style grafics
As for shades...bridge shade is good,but ground is looking strange(to me, at least)

by cartlemmy on 2011-05-06 (#77773)

To me NES graphics become WAY easier when you start thinking in 16x16 as opposed to 8x8.

by 3gengames on 2011-05-06 (#77775)

cartlemmy wrote:
To me NES graphics become WAY easier when you start thinking in 16x16 as opposed to 8x8.

That was going to be my next step. Plus some serious palette thinking, as with the black as the main color, I'll need to have all water square. That is bad. I am probably going to fix it up more to 16x16. Then I can also not be so restricted on the different tile combinations I can use in a 2x2 block, since then the tiles will be that big in the first place.

And that bridge is way better, I'll try to do something like that later. But now it's time to shower and rest. This day sucked. Thanks guys, I'll update it when I have something. I'll also maybe look at the Pokemon NES clone and see how exactly their graphics are done and learn from it. Since besides the houses, they are damn good with the tress and such.

by Ian A on 2011-05-09 (#77969)

Okay, here's a quick, late night, edit. Maybe something like this?

The bridge uses only two colors plus black, your background color, so you can use your pathway color with the stump.

The water uses three, but uses one of the three for shading to indicate depth.

I'm not too proud of that grass there, but maybe something more like that?

I didn't touch your grass at the bottom.

EDIT: btw, totally lifted that water style from cartlemmy

by 3gengames on 2011-05-10 (#77981)

Yeah, that looks awesome. I will mess with it, I need to add the palette back to green as the universal background color though, but that isn't that bad. I'll mess with adding this bridge to it later and redesigning it when I have time. Cool! Thanks!

by cartlemmy on 2011-05-10 (#77994)

Ian A wrote:
EDIT: btw, totally lifted that water style from cartlemmy

And I totally lifter that water style from the older Final Fantasy games