DISCUSSION: detail tiles

Discussion and analysis of graphics, story, levels, and so on.
KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

Yeah, I can imagine allkinds of nice clouds as well, but it's a different thing to draw them. :) Those are really good, what program you've used? Paint?
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levellord
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Post by levellord »

Yeah.

When it comes to clouds 'n' stuff, if you have a lot of good ideas, all you need is a template that you can alter till it fits what you want. For example, for some 'storm' clouds and some 'in the distance' clouds I altered my origional cloud picture to this in about 1 minute:

Image
KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

Very nice.
Hmmm, I'll have to try sometime -- maybe some brush tool would do tha jobh.
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grelphy
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Post by grelphy »

Nice clouds!

I think that deep grey and black clouds floating in the middle of a big blue sky look kind of misplaced. Dark clouds like that have to cover the whole sky to look real; otherwise it's just a storm cloud floating in the middle of a bright sunny sky. Wierd.
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Post by KeenRush »

But that can also give some bizarre feeling; hey, that cloud isn't supposed to be here! Something's wrong with the nature on this planet! (which is good thing)
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levellord
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Post by levellord »

Fill the sky huh? Like this?

Image
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Boeing747
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Post by Boeing747 »

The dark clouds over the light grey ones are very strange.
But cool work!
KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

i Ph34r those m4d skillz! Very nice.
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CommanderSpleen
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Awesome... just... awesome.

Post by CommanderSpleen »

=(8o)-

OMG! That's some 1337 tileart! Like... woah...

>Commander Spleen
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levellord
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Post by levellord »

And it uses 2 less tiles than the first cloud did. If anyone wants to use them, go right ahead, I'm using my first clouds.

Actually, this thread wouldn't be too bad for displaying tiles and getting feedback about them.
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TileArtFun

Post by CommanderSpleen »

Oom! I'll put 'em to good use. Of course, they'll be a different colour by the time I'm done with 'em.
LevelLord
Actually, this thread wouldn't be too bad for displaying tiles and getting feedback about them.
Sounds like a plan to me.

Actually, there's one other thing that could do with some outside input for CK:MB... the cloud tiles on the map:
Image

I'm definitely not using them as they are. I considered some time ago replacing them with some sort of bubble effect, but that didn't turn out too well either. Any ideas?

>Commander Spleen
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Post by KeenRush »

No, but that's really cool work. I wish I had those tile skills..
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levellord
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Cloudy

Post by levellord »

Okay, I'm assuming these are solid tiles reather than something that Keen will pass under so;

Image

Now if Keen can walk under them, then thats different.
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grelphy
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Post by grelphy »

Those cloudy things look good. From observation, I have deduced that the main thing Levellord knows that the rest of us clear-skied dimwits don't is:

Dither! Dither!

All his clouds and cloud effects have heavily used dithering. The cool-looking background clouds in Keen 4 use lots of dithering. Am I on to something? Probably not. But it never hurts to check. My skillz tend more towards well defined wall-like solids rather than more natural, curved solids. Observations must ensue.

EDIT:
I tried my hand at making a cloud, and this ensued.

Image

Is it as good as LL's? I don't think so, but it's not bad. Here's a step by step guide to how i threw it together.

1. Draw the general outline. This one is two ovals stuck together, although they blend to make an oblong, pearish shape. Circles or ellipses are good to start.

2. Dither select edges (especially corners) with the sky. Not much, just enough to slightly "blur" the cloud.

3. Add shading. White-light grey-dark grey. Maybe black, for stormclouds.

4. Dither shading. Patterned, regular dither doesn't look right on clouds; use a nonregular, "noisy" kind of dither instead.
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Post by lemur_821 »

I haven't done much low-res cloud drawing, but I think that's about what you need to do. I don't draw clouds much anymore, as I feel I've about reached my cloud-drawing peak here (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/2083809/). I played around with some low-res clouds, and it seemed to be working. I like to think of clouds as a collection of squashed spheres that need to me shaded (with dithering!) and blended together.
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