My walls are bland and crappy lol

[Keiyu]

I'm ok with small sprites... but when it comes to giving detail to big, open spaces like walls.. Lord help me cuz I really don't have a clue. All I can think to do is scatter random pixels using the spray paint tool then switch to RGB mode to use a blur tool... but I really want to stay in indexed mode and keep my color palette. (And just blurring doesn't look professional in anyway.) IN ANY CASE... Please help me for I am helplessly lame here. How to give detail to broad, open tiles like walls n stuff? Especially simple wall surfaces, like just plain ol plaster or something. I've included my.. my mess of an attempt lol!! Oh god I know it's awful.. please don't laugh. And nvm the pink roof (coughilikepinkalotcough). I was just playing with color since I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not gonna go all out on the detail and color until I feel I have some idea on how to make it look good. Anyhoo! Any help or ideas would be SO appreciated! Thanks much

(Btw, I hope this is the right place to post this.. Sorry if it's not. I'm new to forums.)

 

[SGHarlekin]

Who would've thought that walls, plastered or otherwise look boring even irl... That's why you put stuff on them like windows, graffity and other things so they aren't just repeating tiles. Blank walls are always gonna be just that. Blank walls.

 

[123edc]

yep, as the previous poster said ...
clutter, clutter and even more clutter on and infront of the walls ...

aside from the obvious (yes, doors, windows and side alleys already do give a lot of personality )

a wall in some slums may have graffiti on it,
it may have "broken out" pieces at parts ...
maybe blood (or dust) stains on it ...

if nobody tends the walls, it might start to get overgrown with weeds,
maybe there's that broken antenna cable hanging down from the roof (breaking up the repeat and repeate structure)

meanwhile some noble villa might have a flowerbed ... some trees ... a garden table infront of it ... it might have window-flowers or a balcony ...

... even the bland, typical canal wall will have it's staircase / entrance / fence / mechanism / dripping water from time to time ... so ... yeah

 

[Danatoth]

There are a ton of clutter resources you can gather here and use Yanfly's Doodad's plugin if you're on MV, or learn how to paralax map in any other version. Those 2 options give infinitely better looking maps, and you can have un - bland walls at the cost of the time it takes to make them.

Brooms against walls, windows, paintings, bookshelves, desks, cracks, fireplaces, there are tons of things to add to walls.

 

[gstv87]

.....do note that as you tile the texture, the middle square will be repeated.
so you might want to leave that empty to begin with.

 

[Keiyu]

yeah, ok.. makes sense, yeah. just pretty em up with clutter. I just hated to have, like, a big ol' white BLOB for a wall.. like, "it's not just a white blob, it's PLASTER!" Lol. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to make for walls n' stuff anyway (like, brick tiles and wood shingles.. the textures are hard to make without looking like simple repetitive shapes). The A3 tile is tricky. I read a different post how the tiles repeat and autotile.. but it's still taking some work to get used to. I think I'll still try SOME sort of texture.. so it's not just OMG LOOKIT THIS BIG WHITE SPACE. lol. Anyway, thanks for the ideas and stuff!

 

[Kes]

As you're using VX Ace, there are a lot of free tiles that you can take a look at to see how they were done, and then make your own version taking those aspects which appeal to you and do them in your preferred palette.

Here are some wall tiles by Aye (Credit needed if used). I haven't bothered to separate out just the ones closest to your own example, but the others may have ideas you can use. One of the things to note is that often the central part is blank (needed for seamless tiling) with 'interest' at the edges.



I would suggest avoiding thinking about doing parallax at this stage. Until you have the basics down it is better to learn to frankensprite or make from scratch. That way you build up a better understanding of why some things work and others don't. Parallax is not a free pass to quality. I have seen a great many parallax maps which basically were awful.

 

[Keiyu]

As you're using VX Ace, there are a lot of free tiles that you can take a look at to see how they were done, and then make your own version taking those aspects which appeal to you and do them in your preferred palette.

Here are some wall tiles by Aye (Credit needed if used). I haven't bothered to separate out just the ones closest to your own example, but the others may have ideas you can use. One of the things to note is that often the central part is blank (needed for seamless tiling) with 'interest' at the edges.

View attachment 264838

I would suggest avoiding thinking about doing parallax at this stage. Until you have the basics down it is better to learn to frankensprite or make from scratch. That way you build up a better understanding of why some things work and others don't. Parallax is not a free pass to quality. I have seen a great many parallax maps which basically were awful.

I haven't even began to ATTEMPT parallax mapping cuz i frankly don't understand it ( i havent tried very HARD to understand it tho, mind you) but yeah.. And yeah, I understand the center tile is one you gotta make seperately and use the tile feature so you can see it .. well, tiled, lol. the hardest thing is sticking to my limited palette. Hard to keep it visually interesting with only a few colors.. I think I have 6 shades or so of each color im using. I'm currently trying to decide whether to stick to (duller, simpler, more repetitive) indexed color... or add shading, highlights and more interest with RGB mode.. i think i may allow it for the walls and large spaces and things like glass, only.. cuz they look so much better with more detail and color. Anyway! Those are very nice examples to help me come up with some ideas of my own. Thank you for the input!

Oh. and I came up with some sorta asian-ey temple lookin tiles that im... sorta happy with. the one on the right has the matching roof tiles for the walls. Havent made windows to match yet.

 

[wilpuri]

Your walls look good! It’s a matter of taste and style, but clear and simple is sometimes preferable.
Everything just need to look like they belong together, that is the key.

 

[Keiyu]

Your walls look good! It’s a matter of taste and style, but clear and simple is sometimes preferable.
Everything just need to look like they belong together, that is the key.

well thank you very much xD I really don't know much about HOW youre supposed to do pixel art.. I'm just using my artistic eye and years of gaming experience to eyeball it and see what looks good or not. Nehoo, thankee!