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The death of pixels
LockeZ- 03/15/2015 07:34 AM
- 2555 views
When I started making the Shark Factory I had every intention of using nothing but found resources in this game. And I valued having a wide variety of neat stuff to be able to put in my maps far more than I valued the graphics looking cohesive. My typical process when making a map would be to first decide what structures and objects and surfaces and layout I wanted, and then to search through my 12 GB of downloaded miscellaneous resources until I found those things, and then add them to the tileset, and then add them to the map.
This, unfortunately, led to a lot of very badly mismatched graphics. There were at least eight different very distinct graphical styles in the Shark Factory alone, and probably more if you have a better eye for pixel art than I do.
Over time I have tried to edit or replace some of the graphics, mostly the ones that were the most severely mismatched with the others or the ones that were rips from commercial games.
Here are some of the graphics I've redone. Old versions on the left, new ones on the right.
I am not a good pixel artist, and I'd prefer not to be a pixel artist at all, but I am pretty gosh-darned competent with Photoshop. So as you can see, the style I've tried to push everything toward is tiles with photorealistic textures. This is a style that I am capable of making tiles with. It's also a style that's very easy to convery the existing tiles to in most cases. If I can find a photo of a similar surface that doesn't have much glare, I can copy and paste the texture onto a piece of pixel art to create not-pixel art. You can see that's literally exactly what I did for the dumpster and the wheely cart at the bottom there, as well as the file cabinet, the meat hook and the chain roller higher up. I think the result looks pretty good.
Are the tiles on the right better? No. Not really. In several cases they're definitely worse, in fact. But they match each-other. And they will match most of the walls and floors, and hopefully, eventually, most of the other objects. So using the new tiles will make the game look better. Even in just those dozen or so objects, you can see five different graphical styles on the left column, and hopefully only one style on the right (maybe one and a half if I'm honest with myself).
This is all vastly less interesting to me than balancing damage formulas or writing AI scripts for boss battles, so some of the crappy tiles will undoubtedly remain in the game until the heat death of the universe (or until I win the lottery and hire an artist). But at the bare minimum I definitely plan to replace all the graphics I "borrowed" from Tales of Phantasia and Suikoden II (and whatever other games I took enemy graphics from).
This, unfortunately, led to a lot of very badly mismatched graphics. There were at least eight different very distinct graphical styles in the Shark Factory alone, and probably more if you have a better eye for pixel art than I do.
Over time I have tried to edit or replace some of the graphics, mostly the ones that were the most severely mismatched with the others or the ones that were rips from commercial games.
Here are some of the graphics I've redone. Old versions on the left, new ones on the right.
I am not a good pixel artist, and I'd prefer not to be a pixel artist at all, but I am pretty gosh-darned competent with Photoshop. So as you can see, the style I've tried to push everything toward is tiles with photorealistic textures. This is a style that I am capable of making tiles with. It's also a style that's very easy to convery the existing tiles to in most cases. If I can find a photo of a similar surface that doesn't have much glare, I can copy and paste the texture onto a piece of pixel art to create not-pixel art. You can see that's literally exactly what I did for the dumpster and the wheely cart at the bottom there, as well as the file cabinet, the meat hook and the chain roller higher up. I think the result looks pretty good.
Are the tiles on the right better? No. Not really. In several cases they're definitely worse, in fact. But they match each-other. And they will match most of the walls and floors, and hopefully, eventually, most of the other objects. So using the new tiles will make the game look better. Even in just those dozen or so objects, you can see five different graphical styles on the left column, and hopefully only one style on the right (maybe one and a half if I'm honest with myself).
This is all vastly less interesting to me than balancing damage formulas or writing AI scripts for boss battles, so some of the crappy tiles will undoubtedly remain in the game until the heat death of the universe (or until I win the lottery and hire an artist). But at the bare minimum I definitely plan to replace all the graphics I "borrowed" from Tales of Phantasia and Suikoden II (and whatever other games I took enemy graphics from).
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I noticed this style when I commented on your screenshot for RSXIII, and I do agree with orochii; the game ends up having a rather unique look of its own.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
People thought that the trend of making everything in every video game be as photorealistic and as brown as possible was annoying. But hey, they thought, at least sprite-based 2D games are immune to that, so RPG Maker should be a safe haven.
THEY WERE WRONG
I think it is possible that I might be "part of the problem." However, it's what I'm capable of doing, so it's what I'm doing. It beats using the RTP at least.
Character sprites will continue to be pixel-based sprites, because reasons. I think it looks fine and makes them pop out.
THEY WERE WRONG
I think it is possible that I might be "part of the problem." However, it's what I'm capable of doing, so it's what I'm doing. It beats using the RTP at least.
Character sprites will continue to be pixel-based sprites, because reasons. I think it looks fine and makes them pop out.
I actually prefer the stuff on the left because the lines are a lot clearer - especially with the rope. The rope on the right looks like you just blurred the rope on the left and it looks pretty bad.
That said, some of the stuff on the right is pretty neat... but I do prefer the stuff on the left. It looks more coherent and fits together better. Just an opinion, though.
That said, some of the stuff on the right is pretty neat... but I do prefer the stuff on the left. It looks more coherent and fits together better. Just an opinion, though.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Well, the stuff on the left definitely doesn't fit together better.
From top to bottom:
1) The tall cylinder and the trash can mostly use immediate color transitions between lighter and darker shades to create shading, but in some places there is mild dithering. Texture is implied through greater and smaller amounts of dithering, and through the color-shaded areas being regular vs irregularly shaped. There are no outlines anywhere. Lighter-colored highlights are used on the edges of certain surfaces to simulate a reflective glare, but only rarely.
2) The X crate uses random color placement to create a texture despite being flat, uses that same method more strongly to create shading, and has a bunch of black outlines around the sections of it.
3) The metal electrical box uses only a single row/column of darker pixels at the edge of a section to create shading when needed, and has no texture with completely flat colors. There are borders around its sections, but rather than black, they are a darker version of the color that the section is.
4) The pipe with holes is the same style as the tall cylinder at the top (because it's ripped from the same game)
5) The meat hook uses a single solid color for the main surface facing the screen, and randomly placed individual pixels of different colors to create texture and shading in the darker areas. There are no outlines. Due to the small size of the object, this looks similar to the pipe and tall cylinder and trash can, but the shading has far less contrast, giving it a washed out look. Larger objects using this style are more noticably different, due to the randomly placed darker pixels.
6) The chain roller uses a very clean style of shading with two- to four-pixel wide areas of each shade of color. It has a high level of contrast and makes almost no attempts at texture. It uses near-black lines on the interior of the tile to create darker zones meant to represent crevices or holes, but has no other outlines.
7) The ropes use the same style as the metal electrical box, since they're from the same RTP graphic set.
8) The warning light uses something similar to this style as well, despite being from a different game. However, it only has dark-colored borders separating the sections of the interior of the tile. There is no border around the outer edge.
9) The file cabinet and dumpster use EXTREMLY heavy dithering, though it's hard to see due to the bad color choices. The dithering isn't used consistently; some color transitions are dithered while others are immediate, depending on how close the two colors are. The shading is shaped very irregularly to create texture, and additional texture is created by using colors that are not alternate shades of the base color for small amounts of the shading, such as brown and red shading on the green surface.
10) This brick wall looks like the same style as the RTP ropes and electrical box, though I think it's actually from somewhere else.
11) The green cart with wheels is so different from every other tile here that it hurts my brain. It uses randomly placed pixels and blotches of totally different colors, including solid black individual pixels, to create an extremely intense texture. Shading on the tires is extremely high contrast, using solid white highlights on a surface that is actually solid black.
Like I said, individually, I also prefer a lot of the stuff on the left. But it looks terrible when it's all on the same map.
From top to bottom:
1) The tall cylinder and the trash can mostly use immediate color transitions between lighter and darker shades to create shading, but in some places there is mild dithering. Texture is implied through greater and smaller amounts of dithering, and through the color-shaded areas being regular vs irregularly shaped. There are no outlines anywhere. Lighter-colored highlights are used on the edges of certain surfaces to simulate a reflective glare, but only rarely.
2) The X crate uses random color placement to create a texture despite being flat, uses that same method more strongly to create shading, and has a bunch of black outlines around the sections of it.
3) The metal electrical box uses only a single row/column of darker pixels at the edge of a section to create shading when needed, and has no texture with completely flat colors. There are borders around its sections, but rather than black, they are a darker version of the color that the section is.
4) The pipe with holes is the same style as the tall cylinder at the top (because it's ripped from the same game)
5) The meat hook uses a single solid color for the main surface facing the screen, and randomly placed individual pixels of different colors to create texture and shading in the darker areas. There are no outlines. Due to the small size of the object, this looks similar to the pipe and tall cylinder and trash can, but the shading has far less contrast, giving it a washed out look. Larger objects using this style are more noticably different, due to the randomly placed darker pixels.
6) The chain roller uses a very clean style of shading with two- to four-pixel wide areas of each shade of color. It has a high level of contrast and makes almost no attempts at texture. It uses near-black lines on the interior of the tile to create darker zones meant to represent crevices or holes, but has no other outlines.
7) The ropes use the same style as the metal electrical box, since they're from the same RTP graphic set.
8) The warning light uses something similar to this style as well, despite being from a different game. However, it only has dark-colored borders separating the sections of the interior of the tile. There is no border around the outer edge.
9) The file cabinet and dumpster use EXTREMLY heavy dithering, though it's hard to see due to the bad color choices. The dithering isn't used consistently; some color transitions are dithered while others are immediate, depending on how close the two colors are. The shading is shaped very irregularly to create texture, and additional texture is created by using colors that are not alternate shades of the base color for small amounts of the shading, such as brown and red shading on the green surface.
10) This brick wall looks like the same style as the RTP ropes and electrical box, though I think it's actually from somewhere else.
11) The green cart with wheels is so different from every other tile here that it hurts my brain. It uses randomly placed pixels and blotches of totally different colors, including solid black individual pixels, to create an extremely intense texture. Shading on the tires is extremely high contrast, using solid white highlights on a surface that is actually solid black.
Like I said, individually, I also prefer a lot of the stuff on the left. But it looks terrible when it's all on the same map.
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