next »

[TheShard1994]

Hello,

I'm working on sprites and tilesets for an RPG, but there seem to be some problems concerning the perspective. The sprites of characters and objects seem to be at another angle when related to the tiles.



There are shadows added behind some of the objects (not everywhere, still testing with it. The shadow of the tree on the right doesn't make any sense). I thought this might fix some of the problems, but I don't seem to completely get it right. Does anyone have any tips on fixing this problem?

Thanks in advance!

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

I'm working on sprites and tilesets for an RPG, but there seem to be some problems concerning the perspective. The sprites of characters and objects seem to be at another angle when related to the tiles.

This is common and very hard to prevent without a very specific art style. Thread about it here.

There are shadows added behind some of the objects (not everywhere, still testing with it. The shadow of the tree on the right doesn't make any sense). I thought this might fix some of the problems, but I don't seem to completely get it right. Does anyone have any tips on fixing this problem?

Your shadows seem to becoming from a relatively low angle torwards the bottom of the screen, ie late afternoon or early morning. Shorter shadows that come from very near the top (as in high noon) are usually easier to make look consistent in 2d games. Small circular shadows under characters and subtle shadows for large scenery like cliffs are common solutions.

[JWK5]

EDIT: Another thing to note is that the more squashed the shadow the more upright the object appears (and thus the lower the horizon seems, i.e. the more it looks like you are looking it from the front rather than from above). Looking at your cliffs I believe a 1/2 squash on the shadows would probably work okay, but I could be wrong (didn't have time to test it at the moment).

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Strongly disagree with squashed shadows unless it's totally necessary (ie, you have a moving sun in your game and need a cheap hack to move shadows.)

Because the actual volumes of the tree are such that the crown and leaves should totally occlude the trunk it's a very unnatural/artificial hack to just stretch everything.

The result is what you'd expect if the game was a popup book tilted away from the lightsource -- it forces perspective of the ground plane receding, not the light source being raised.

[TheShard1994]

Thanks for the advice!

Well I tried all variations:

To me, the 1/2 squash seems to fit the characters/objects the most, but the ground still seems to be tilted. The circular shades work well if I stretch them sideways, but it looks pretty cheap on the tree (though I probably didn't do it right. Should the tree's circle be as wide as the top?). The 3/4 squash seems to fit the ground but the player still looks like he's lying down. The 1/4 squash doesn't really help at all so I think that one's already off.

What do you guys think?

[JWK5]

Really, it is a band-aid fix so like I said it isn't going to be entirely accurate (mileage will vary depending on what perspectives your graphics are already in). In this case, part of the problem is that your objects are not all on the same perspectives (for example, you can see the tops of the boxes and barrels but not the top of the character's head). The blob shadows are looking the best thus far, but the problem there is that your scene is front-lit not top-lit, so the shadows should be cast away from the light (behind the objects) but the blob shadows suggest that the light is directly above (and thus they are cast directly below). If you don't mind reworking things:



Forgive the sloppiness or if I've left anything out, it is still very early in the morning and I've not yet had my lifeblood coffee.



EDIT: Another way to think of it is that first you are building it as if it were being built in MineCraft, and then you are converting that MineCraft object into a more refined form.

[TheShard1994]

Great explanation, thanks for the illustrations!

I prefer light from the front, sadly I wouldn't be able to use the simple shadows then..
But from the way I see it now, there's no other option than to rework the characters and trees so that they also show the tops.

If there are any other tips, they're very welcome, I'll start reworking the sprites in the meantime