next »

[lucasblucas]

I'm trying to tackle some environment pixel art for my studio's roguelike adventure game. We are going for a toony or cel shaded pixel art style that has no border. I'm a programmer so this is all kind of new territory for me. We are referencing SNES Zelda and Earthbound a lot to force ourselves into a cartoon mindset. We are trying hard not to be too derivative of those games artistically though.

The biggest challenge we are facing is getting a toony look without either adding borders or noise. The hay stack below is the best example of this. Zelda's obstacles had only a couple colors but they had the luxury of borders to give shape and contrast. Our hay stack looks like a hay stack but has a ton of noise. I'm much happier with the look of the hay above it which has just enough detail to convey the object.



Any advice out there about how to conceptualize objects in a toonier way? We've thought of mantras like "let patterns emerge whenever possible" but I'd love to hear some thoughts from pros.

Also any advice on the tileset or style as a whole would be greatly appreciated. I'm embarrassed by the barn which I've not put my full attention towards yet.

Thanks!

Here's the tileset in action (grass is a little different):

[cynicalsandel]

I assume when you mean borders, you mean outlines? If not, I'm not sure what you're going for. However, what I think is strange is how half of your artwork contains outlines despite your aversion to it. The tilled soil, the water and dirt tiles, the cliff and dark green grass atop said cliffs all have outlines.

If what you want is no borders, I'd start by actually applying that to your tiles.  As of right now, it seems like only the fence posts fit that vision.

edit: Also, it looks like in your gif that the pixel art isn't all to scale.

[The Translocator]

Remove the outlines for anything that's at the same depth level, keep it for anywhere that has a jump in depth to SHOW the jump in depth.

Like so:
http://puu.sh/cSAvn/29009a2ca6.png

I'm not an artist, all I did was remove the borders that don't show depth in any significant way. I think if you put these in the game it will be noticeably better- although it's still not perfect.

What you need to think about for cartoony graphics, is whether a border is needed. For example, the pumpkins use it to show the depth, and it works quite well, but don't force all objects to have a border when they don't need to.

[Alicecomma]

Your farm plots, water, elevation and road tiles have outlines. Try using blades of grass and shading to make transitions instead of outlines.



These tiles show a nice transition between grass and dirt, without outlines, and the cliffs have a nice transition too. Such transitions fit the character sprite more.

Also, does your character have hiccups?

[lucasblucas]

Remove the outlines for anything that's at the same depth level, keep it for anywhere that has a jump in depth to SHOW the jump in depth.

Thanks! Good advice. Definitely helps.

What you need to think about for cartoony graphics, is whether a border is needed. For example, the pumpkins use it to show the depth, and it works quite well, but don't force all objects to have a border when they don't need to.

Thanks again. That is a useful way to think about it.

[lucasblucas]

Your farm plots, water, elevation and road tiles have outlines. Try using blades of grass and shading to make transitions instead of outlines.

Yup you're right. Not enough thought went into those tiles. That's a great cartoon style in those screenshots. Really useful.

Also, does your character have hiccups?

Hah ugh yeah that breathing is way too fast. Is it more than just the speed that's problematic?

edit: Also, it looks like in your gif that the pixel art isn't all to scale.

Thanks cynicalsandel for pointing that out. Our camera settings are off by a bit.