A few items I've made - Critique appreciated

[DigitalWombat]

Evening everyone, I've been stalking these forums for a while now, learning a lot in the process and I've finally got to work on creating some of my own resources. This is my first attempt at creating art in this style, digitally that is. I'm actually more of a pencil and paper man in general so this has been an experience.

These are just a couple of bits I've been working on for practice and figured I'd post them here for others to use if they'd like and also so I can get some opinions from far more talented people than I on the quality of my work or recommendations for improvement. So here they are:

Pendulum Clock Sound Effect  

Edit: Apologies it's taken so long to update this thread. I've been absorbed in getting my own project off the ground! As you can see, on the advice and feedback of you kind people I've tried to add more dimensionality and shadow to the pieces. As I use parallax maps myself I've set these up to be used as such. The clock has a replaceable pendulum window and if set up correctly in an animated parallax the pendulum will swing from side to side. I recommend that you use a 1,2,3,2 frame set up so that the pendulum returns to the centre before starting it's cycle again. I've also added a pendulum clock sound effect that you could use in conjunction with this for ambience.

I've done the same with the fireplace, allowing you to have an animated fire that's behind a fire guard giving a slightly different effect than what's possible using an evented fire animation. Once again, as I'm new to this whole process I'd really appreciate feedback.

As I didn't mention it before either:

Feel free to use in any non-commercial project, please give some credit if you do! 

You can edit and re-arrange into use for a normal tileset if you wish, I might even do this myself later.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Alkorri]

I'm no artist, just to warn you, but these would look nice in some cosy mansion or house! I especially like the firewood with poker

One thing though, does anyone else think the top of the clock and the mantelpiece looks cut off?

 

[Bastrophian]

They look really nice, though, i also think the clock looks cut off. Like, half the clock is protruding from the wall.

 

[mlogan]

I do agree about the clock, it looks like someone chopped the top off.  The area around the face needs to be a bit taller.  Also, the fireplace looks flat to me.  Despite all that, they are beautiful tiles with so much potential.  Tweak them a bit and they will be amazing!!

 

[Mrpaulyshore]

i really like what you did with the detail. I am new to drawing tiles but you seem pretty knowable.

 

[ninjalex]

They are very nice!

 

[Neverward]

I really like these, they look lovely especially for some of your first resources. I'm going to try and give you as comprehensive a critique as I can.

When I squinted for a long time and tried to find a definite light source for these tiles, I could not. You should de-centralize your highlights and your shadows and give more dimension by picking one light direction for all your tiles. A good example of this is that your clock, around the edge, looks like the light is falling on it from the left, however on the door of your cabinets the darker outline is placed on the left side, so the lights coming from the right.

The color is really nice on the golden brown part of the fireplace, though once again the lighting looks like it's coming from above which doesn't match the other tiles, and I can tell by looking at the highlight on the bottom right side that it is a reflection of the other side of the fireplace, which is fine! But when you reflect something you should change the shading on it to make it appear like a different object.

I like the poker a lot but it looks to me like it has no dimension like it's balancing on a twig, and it's too close to the base of the logs. Try to give it an oval base, and move it a bit so it doesn't look like it's coming out of the logs and it will look a lot more like a fireplace poker.

As others have said the cloth looks a bit cut off on the top, and for that matter I can spot little bits of loose pixels around it that make it look rough and not too clean, so I would clean up the edges. The base of the clock doesn't have 3D dimensions, because theres a part where the base is wider then the frame, and the top of this base is completely flat and in line with there it meets the thinner part of the clock. To give it dimension, add a lighter bit like on the top of the clock, except at the top of the base. This is kinda really hard to explain so tell me if you need me to take that image and point out where I mean ;P

The white fireplace texture is a bit flat. It should have shadows from where the light is falling on the golden-brown part and casting the shadow onto it. Also, it looks rough and pixelated around the part where the black is. Try to give it a little dimension and shade/highlight that area more until it looks more natural.

Alright that's it for my critique I hope it was helpful. I know that when I first started making resources it was very confusing and took me a while to come up with good methods, and I'm still learning a ton. But these are very high quality for your first resources, I know that if you practice and keep on then you will be able to go far with it!

 

[DigitalWombat]

Thank you all so much for the help! I'll take a look at the points raised when I get in from work this afternoon.

 I can spot little bits of loose pixels around it that make it look rough and not too clean, so I would clean up the edges. 

You know, I noticed that myself just after I posted as it was the first time I'd seen them on a white background rather than a transparency background. I'll update the original post when I've spent some more time with them, thanks again. 

 

[DigitalWombat]

Hi all, I've updated the original post with some more information and updated assets. Thanks for your feedback so far!