The Resource WIP Thread

[Celianna]

@Aceri I quite like the brick wall myself! However, it seems you do not fully grasp autotiles yet. For one, this autotile will give you plenty of strange tiling errors. You haven't made it seamless, you see. Your sides lineup, which is good, but the important part is the middle - which is not seamless in either your rooftop or bricks.


Here's a quick anatomy guide of an autotile:

As you can see, the middle should be seamless as well

 

[hyde9318]

Hey guys, would you mind giving me a bit of feedback on a logo real quick?


This logo is for a world that I have been putting together for years. This world is the setting for many things that I wrote in my creative writing classes over the years, as well as a two part youtube show and a possible set of games (Maybe a book as well if I can ever find the time to finish it up). Essentially, what I did was create a world and over time populated it with its own history and lore. However, with the fact that I soon plan on bringing some games into the mix and possibly more, I wanted to somewhat reboot it to make it more organized and sleek, while broadening the lore. So, what I have here is a new logo. I had a logo before that I used whenever I did something within this universe, but I thought that I needed a new one to go with my newer version.


This is the old logo...

Spoiler

This is the new one...

My idea was to make it a bit more professional looking, while incorporating one of the main symbols used in this universe (symbolizing the six elder races).


What do you think, is the new logo better in any way or should I revise it?

 

[amicable]

wow talk about a jump in quality
the new one looks like it could be out of a published game by a studio, if you do decide to keep tweaking it, you're going in the right direction

 

[Aceri]

@Celianna:

Yeah I guess my inexperience really shows haha. Usually once I've made a tile I just do, like say for these autotiles, is load it into the game and just make a 4x4 splotch of it in Ace so I don't really see the looping errors, but after reading your comment I went in and drew it bigger in the editor and the problems you pointed out were noticeable to me. Thank you for helping me, and it makes me feel better about my abilities knowing someone as talented as yourself liked something of mine .

 

[??????]

@ Hyde

Does the Orange/Brown Symbolize anything ?

imo it could look alot better just by changing up the colors slightly, making them gold && neon-red (or candy red, or blood red, ect..)

and possibly each of the symbols ( that are for each of the six races ) having its own color... maybe to symbolize the element that particular race is adept in ?

Obviously i dunno much about how the world is run, or whether each race even has its own element.. but i think it would improve the logo slightly..

Also not to criticize but the T & D look a little "rough" around the edges at the top + bottom..

Im no graphic artist , this is just my opinion, dunno how much that counts for...

either way, the new logo is a HUUGGGEEEE improvement on the old one and it does look great, i just love red

 

[cosmickitty]

was a tad far back but since no one really critiqued...

@ Sleep: the anatomy is actually quite bad... you need to go study muscles and general anatomy.

http://debido-san.deviantart.com/art/Musclepedia-Arms-320902941

http://debido-san.deviantart.com/art/Musclepedia-Legs-319168190

http://whimsi.deviantart.com/art/Muscular-System-Diagram-124278252

http://candy2021.deviantart.com/art/Female-Body-Type-Chart-vr-2-0-202225264

the lines on the throat aren't really there unless you're drawing a severely muscled person or a person with 0% bodyfat.  Your face also really lacks any type of personality.  give the person a smirk... or a frown... or a pose that identifies their personality otherwise you might as well not make characters because as is I don't think this really adds to a project.

sidenote: the purpose of flatting a lineart is so that you get spaces filled before you start shading, you have hot pink showing in one spot, white showing in lots, and you went out of the lines in others.

@hyde9318: the edges of the logo look really rough, if you added a drop shadow or beveled edge or another of those gimpy/photoshopy techniques that are beyond me it'd probably add a lot to it.

On to mine

I decided the palette for my forest/grassland was darker than the game calls for so i reworked it, worked a little more on the sprite template, made my first version of the first character and have the first go at two of my portraits:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[amicable]

@cosmikitty i'd really have to disagree that the lines on the throat are perfectly fine. when you twist your head to the side, even a little like in the image, and even if you have body fat, you can usually see the bones on your neck. if you want examples, one two three four five six seven eight nine ten. i tried to find women with the body type similar to what is being drawn or with the same head turned to the side pose. also if you're looking for feedback on the portraits, um, if the lady with the scarf isn't supposed to have odd proportions, then i would advise removing 90% of her neck. (i can't tell if that's on purpose or not since the second lady has a much shorter one )

also re dekita, i'd avoid using hot bright colours in a rpg that's supposed to be 'ye olde fantasy' which is the vibe i get off the title hyde posted. blood red as well is more 'bloody dark' game, so it really depends on the mood they're trying to set.

 

[Aceri]

@Cosmickitty:

I love your artstyle, it's so pretty! My only real critique on your first screenshot though would be that the clump of trees at the bottom left of the picture, one of the trees in the middle look like it has a double tip, it's really distracting.

Edit:

After looking at it again kitty, my other comment I would make would be on the other side of the road, the dark patches of grass you have make the map look tiled when the rest of the map looks seamless. My suggestion would be to make different clumps of different shapes and sizes and space them out accordingly. If you want big long patches like that, make some tall grass tiles, but little rogue tall blades of grass won't in reality clump together like that, they'll be random and scattered.

Those are just my two cents though.

 

[cosmickitty]

guess i should've mentioned that it's not a map... just testing the tileset. Also I'm having a fairly hard time getting the trees to tile, single clumps aren't an issue but I can't get figure out how to get it to actually tile... if anyone had any tips I'd appreciate it Not ready to post the actual tileset yet.... but here's one of the clumps of trees if someone has a tip (think it's at 200% zoom)

oh and the woman is supposed to have inhuman proportions, she's fae... although I'm still trying to decide if her neck is too long regardless.  She's roughly 10 heads high, I usually draw my women 7, at 7 heads the neck is about half a head long, so at ten...that puts it at about 3/4 so maybe it's a tad too long

 

[Aceri]

@Cosmickitty:

If I understand you right, then the answer to your problem is simple enough I guess. I'll post a screenshot of what I'm talking about:



I've circled what I am talking about in red here. If you analyze it, you'll see that they overlap the mid/top sections of the tiny bushes on top of each other once, then leave the tip and bottoms off and that's how they make the small standalone type bushes have that tiled effect.

The other is a little bit trickier, but I think the basic principle is still the same. They took one tree/bush whatever and plopped it in the middle, then took fragments of that one, evenly spaced them all around that one so that when side by side and top to bottom they tile themselves. Though they are just bushes, I am certain the same can be done with the trees too. The samurai tilepack has actual tiled trees but the basic concept is the same.

Edit:

As far as your clump of four trees though, I think you would want to cut the top/bottom/sides off in a way that if afterwords you put the cropped center side by side each other they would match together, if that makes any sense.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

@cosmickitty


I have to admit that the really long neck on your first gal is the kind of thing that I generally find distracting, but I find your portrait to be overall pleasing to the eye, and it just blends into the overall effect of the figure, so I like it in the end. Art always surprises me that way. =]


May I suggest/request that you make a version of your princess without boots so she can flex to be a Middle Eastern char - she'd be a great asset with her dark skin tone and she has enough personality to make an really great main char in an Arabian themed kind of game. I love her facial expression.

 

[cosmickitty]

they're not character art that I'm sharing, they're for my own personal characters so no sorry I won't make another version of her

 

[hyde9318]

@ Hyde

Does the Orange/Brown Symbolize anything ?

imo it could look alot better just by changing up the colors slightly, making them gold && neon-red (or candy red, or blood red, ect..)

and possibly each of the symbols ( that are for each of the six races ) having its own color... maybe to symbolize the element that particular race is adept in ?

...

I guess you can say that the orange color symbolizes the reboot of my world that I made. It is actually a color in between the darkest and lightest colors from the original logo, and then made to be less saturated and added in a texture. So I guess you can consider it to be ode to the original logo, due to the somewhat recycled color. I actually planned on making the different parts of the emblem different colors, but there are two things that made me stop and think... 1. The true meaning of the symbol is a little bit up for debate right now due to the transition from the old stories that take place in this universe to the newer rebooted ones. It is either going to be a truly political symbol or a religious symbol in a vague sort of way. Then, 2. I didn't want all attention to be averted to the symbol. It is there, it is important, but it isn't the center of the logo. I like to try and keep an 'equal attention' aspect to my logos. What I mean by that is I like to make logos to where the viewer looks over the entire logo as a whole instead of first being drawn to a single part. My favorite thing to do with that is to have something interesting on both sides of the logo, so it has things to attract attention, but the entire logo is still equal in a way (with that logo, notice I colored the right most and left most sides only).Now, I kind of have some more things from this universe I want an opinion or two on... One is a world map, and two is an image of the different elements that preside over magic in my world.

Now, when I say 'world map', I mean that in the most literal sense possible. Most video games have a world map that is actually only a single country or continent on a much more vast world, but with this... well... you'll see...

Spoiler

That is Terra Diversus. The entire planet in which all TD related materials take place. That is a world view image, so it doesn't show kingdoms or anything.

Then I have the elements...

Spoiler

There are six main elements in which all magic in Terra Diversus comes from. These six elements are ruled over by an even greater element that near nobody has ever learned to control, and those who did learn had died thousands of years in the past. The six main elements are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, and Darkness. The seventh element never had an official name and has been known by many different titles, but it is commonly called the Creation Element because legend says that it is powerful enough to create whole worlds in a matter of minutes. Some legends even speak of the element in a darker sense saying that it can also stop creation, and even cause mass destruction, but due to it not being widely practiced, nobody knows for sure what kind of power it holds.

With the elements, I essentially reused my template that I used to create the element icons for one of the RMC packs, but I made sure to take them a step further and make them higher quality. I had to significantly shrink them all down cause I decided to work at a much larger scale this time around (so that they could have better detail overall). If you would like to view them each individually on their original scale, I have them in my DA folder...

http://hyde9318.deviantart.com/gallery/44156307

If you scroll down a little bit on that page, just click on the one(s) you want to see up close as they are all there. So, I would maybe like a bit of feedback on this stuff. Is the map and elements easy enough to understand and do you think they are high enough quality to be ready use or should I head back to the drawing board?

 

[??????]

LOVE those elements

Also like the knot of elements on your DA..

Not sure about the shape of your world map.. i mean, if someone gave you a world map in game, you would expect it to be on parchment or cloth, and a square shape , no ?

 

[cosmickitty]

i love those elements really pretty  

few things on the world map... first if you're going to go to the trouble of making a world map really think about the layout, they should more or less be able to fit together "pangaea" style

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18pefyttaq6i1jpg/original.jpg

seems like a small thing... buy your eye will notice.  besides that if you need the hard outline, i'd try a brown instead of black, it looks really harsh.  maybe some more variations in texture, looks like the whole world is mountains... unless of course it is.  i'll attach some links to maps that have the type of style it looks like you're going for:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/attachments/regional-world-mapping/17390d1254679140-nameless-fantasy-world-map_original.jpg

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs15/f/2007/035/1/3/A_Map_of_a_Fantasy_World_by_Echowinds.jpg

http://www.cartographersguild.com/attachments/regional-world-mapping/47976d1346523488-fantasy-world-map-20120901-140440.jpg

@aceri - I'll give that a try when I have some time to get back to it, but I'm not sure if it'd give the effect i wanted, I wanted it thick more like the forest autotiles except.... not autotiled

 

[hyde9318]

@Dekita, you know what, shove it buddy. LMAO, just playing. Seriously though, you do have a good point. Mainly, it is shaped like that cause it is a full map of the world. Each story or game within the TD universe would probably focus on a certain section or kingdom, so the world map to go with those would be much more zoomed in and only include the area they talk about. So this mainly is a reference to show the composition of the entire planet. However, to appease your overwhelming demands for perfection ( ), I have done something for you...

Spoiler

@Comsmickitty, thank you very much. I do like how the elements turned out. And may I say, I am loving how your tiles are turning out. Can't wait to see your whole set finished.


On the terms of the map, you do have a very good point with both the harsh outlines and the texture. The outlines were in black cause I meant to also divide out the countries so that everything was visible, but I figured that it was too far zoomed out to show countries as well, so I left them out. I guess I completely forgot to change the black outline back to a better color afterwards, so that needs to be fixed. On to the texture, I am ashamed of that, lol. That was a result of my laziness and I had planned on changing it up more later on. Judge if you will, but I actually just put an edited version of one of my stone textures behind the map and then just layered it right to show up and look like mountains. The good news is, this map was more of a 'beta' map, and I am still working on it to make it more realistic, and I have already changed up the textures quite a bit. I think you will like the newer version a bit more, but I will post it for feedback when I am done.


On terms of shape, the continents actually do somewhat fit together right now if you move them right, but even then some big chunks are missing. This is actually due to a story within the universe that explains what had happened when a king had improperly used the 7th element. I am eventually going to start a wiki that will contain the entire lore of this world, and it will have the story of why the world is the shape it is, including a world map of the world before the incident (yes, my dedication to this world has even made me create different maps for different time periods in the world's history... I have no life...).

 

[cosmickitty]

really like the map style i think it looks much better that way.  on a side note.... the islands on the right side look like a fire breathing dragon

 

[hyde9318]

Lol, thank you for noticing that. It is, in fact, shaped like a dragon. There are little things like that on the map that were a result of me messing around. That island is actually meant to be home to a sentient race of dragon kin. The shape came from me thinking dragon, and then realizing I just made an island that kind of resembled a dragon's head... so I kept the theme and added the fire shaped island up front and somewhat of a spine behind. Before, it was just the larger island.


Also, notice that just below that island is a very small archipelago with a moon shaped island. The moon shaped one is home to a very rare race of elves that worship the moon. I just for some reason threw in a couple little oddities like that. Do you think they are too distracting?


EDIT:


Okay, make a few changes... Smoothed out some of the lands a little bit (but kept a texture on them so that the land is not just plain colors across it), fixed the dark outline a bit, and added in more shading to the water to give it some different depths.


Here is the old one for comparison.

Spoiler

Here is the new one...

Spoiler

 

[Aceri]

Here is my second attempt at makign a bush/tree thingy. I don't really like how the trunk turned out but I don't know what I can do to make it look better.

 

[hyde9318]

Actually, I find the trunk to be fine. I am not horribly sold on the leaves though. I feel it is too many dots, not enough structure. The leaves themselves should be defined a bit more in my opinion. And as for shading, you are on the right track, but remember your light source. If you are doing all of your tiles with a light source coming from above, that is fine. But if you are trying to emulate the RTP tiles, their light source is from above and to the left.


Other than that, you are certainly on the right track and I would love to see the finished product.