Moonpearl wrote:I will be commeting on both tilesets at once if you don't mind since I have the same things to say.
No problem at all, makes perfect sense.
On the positive side:
- nice style, love the overall feeling of lost villages with stone buildings and all
Thanks! I want to focus on variety, while still having 'realistic' housing styles. I still have one more building design present on the tileset, yet to make a town setting with. It's my favorite thus far and will be for the desert area. I'll try and add that screenshot today.
- well-assembled tilesets, with natural looks, not blocky like RPG Maker VX
I'm glad you noticed. I tried to not make everything line up at the edges of the 32x32 blocks. Giving it a less blocky feeling.
- wise use of shadows in the few places there are
I should have put a note about this. There is actually no shadows on purpose because what was happening was I would finish a design for a room, or town then think 'it doesn't look right' then I would add shadows and it would look great. But then I would notice edits needed, for whatever reason, and it would effect the shadows. So I was essentially creating double work for myself by having to redo the shadows if I changed designs. So I know it ruins the feeling, but you have to pretend the shadows are there for now hehe.
- relatively well-scaled items, nothing looks too big nor too small
Thank you. I took large steps to ensuring that all items, doors, sprites, counters, etc, all lined up in realistic proportions.
- nice-looking water, just lacks animation as far as I can see
The water is actually animated. It's a 4 frame animation done through the auto tiles. It 'breathes' by going in and out of the shore line and leaves foam and faint water behind. The sand graphic that lays underneath it has a darkened patch underneath where the water leaves to emulate moist sand. It looks pretty good, not perfect but good. When I eventually make a demo, you will be able to see all the subtle animations I made. Smoke from cooking pots, fires rumble in stoves and furnaces, etc.
- carpets, in all other items, look absolutely gorgeous
Some things I deserve more credit for than others. I have always had a knack for perfect duplication/recreation of others work. Things like the pillar and the armored statues I created from my head. But things like the carpet and the piano, I looked at real life pictures and drew pixel recreations. The later method seems less creative and artistic to me so I only use it if I can't already envision the object in my head. However when I recreate pixel art from a real life picture it turns out nearly twice as good as my own unique art. The carpet is by far the individual piece I am the most proud of, as of this post. It looks identical to the one I was looking at.
- you actually went through the trouble of pixel-arting, again! (no really it's the kind of work I would never be able to do so I am genuinely impressed)
It's been a long time learning it. But I'm finally at the point where I feel comfortable that I could create nearly anything. Thank you for your kind words.
On the negative side:
- contrary to your sprites, colors are too flashy in my opinion. For example I'd expect the mud or wood to be, if not darker, at least less saturated. However the tilesets use full contrast, so another reason as to why I would be curious to see how the sprites fit in that scenery
Yes. The reason for this is again my poor use of colors and color palettes specifically. I didn't limit myself in any way, where as I should of. This is mainly because I didn't know that at the time. The mud is actually dirt, so it's not wet. I think most of what you point out could be fixed with an in game overlay of color in order to shift the overall feel of the tileset one way or another. Also remembering that this is intended to be a graphics pack, I expect people to edit the colors, contrast, etc when they use it so I want things to be as vibrant as possible so it is more versatile. It's easier to make things have less color, then it is to add color. The sprites look good in my opinion, I test them for everything I make, both world and clothing. I'll get some screenshots up so you can tell me for yourself, as I am not the most objective person.
- lack of shading. I bet you get that a lot, because unshaded graphics look less realistic, and here we are with the eternal debate once again. So I'm staying true to myself by saying that beyond the aesthetic purpose, shading helps for the eye to get the perspective right. For example the perspective buildings in the first screen is clear and easy to make out, but when you look at the trees they somewhat seem to be oddly laying down in a manner we don't quite understand. A better shading on the leaves (even though I can see how hard it see) and a shadow under it would help correcting this misinterpretation (your roofs, however, look perfect). Also, from a more personal point of view, it's not like I absolutely require fancy graphics to be satisfied, but I like it when there is an atmosphere in games. Even if the graphics are pixelated and unrealistic and whatever, if the colors are beautiful and there is nice shading and stuff, there's a point when you forget you're looking at tiles assembled together via a computer. For all the reasons above I'm not quite there yet with your tilesets. I'm sure just a few quick gradient effects with Photoshop could do wonders with what you have there.
I will likely replace the entire tree. It was a failure for the most part. But without any other foliage I am stuck with it for now. It took me 2 whole days to make, and I'm not happy with it. Shadows are left out on purpose for reasons explained in my other post. Yes the shading is poor in some places. Primarily because I didn't really know how to shade before. I finally found a great tutorial that taught me to use blues and purples on a semi transparent to add shades to me colors. It works perfectly. I have yet to go through and add this where necessary. I however will not use any gradient tools, or anything that does the work for me. For this project I am limiting myself to hand drawn pixel art in every regard.
- paradoxal perspective which adds up with my comment on your sprites. It's okay if you choose to have barrels and columns displayed from an angled top view but I fear it doesn't mix well with characters in frontal view
I think when shadows are added, and shading is fixed they will look better. I'll make a setting that has shadows and my best shaded stuff and put some sprites in there so we can see what needs tweaking.
Overall feeling - a lot of work again with varied tiles that fit well together. However from the comments I made it looks less profesionnal than your sprites and some relooking would be nice.
Understood. I've had trouble 'moving forward' but you're right I should move back a bit and rework some of my older stuff, then move forward. This will be my first official time to go back over my work, it's exciting and scary at the same time.
Again I sincerely appreciate all of your excellent feedback. It's crucial and extremely helpful to the creative process.
I'll be working on that today, if I get anything worth posting I will do so.
Cheers!
