New tileset & general color ambiance
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=25169
Printed Date: 06 September 2025 at 1:04pm
Topic: New tileset & general color ambiance
Posted By: mkd
Subject: New tileset & general color ambiance
Date Posted: 31 May 2016 at 4:13pm
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Hi! I'm working on a dirt/rocks tileset. I like it (it's far better than the previous I used), but the whole scene feels a little weird to me, maybe too contrasted, or not enough, or maybe too bright... I really struggle with colors...  The screenshots I have showing the build using this tileset are big, so I'll post only one here: [ EDIT: image was too big. You can still see it here http://i.imgur.com/BJooIIW.png ] You can see other screenshots of the same build here: http://imgur.com/a/0Buow (EDIT: I don't understand why I can't do a link to this page?!) And you can see screenshot of the older version here: http://mkdgames.blogspot.fr/2016/05/latest-screnshots.html - http://mkdgames.blogspot.fr/2016/05/latest-screnshots.html What do you think of it? What would you change in the screenshot above (especially in colors, and it can be changes in tiles, background or objects) to make the whole scene looking better? Thank you! |
Replies:
Posted By: GameBoy
Date Posted: 01 June 2016 at 1:58am
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Underground tiles are boring. Does they need to occupy that much of screen space? Also I wouldn't use a recolored version of this tile in "background" platforms (I assume you can jump on them?). Make it a rock cliff or something. Background is cool, especially if all these layers are parallax. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 01 June 2016 at 5:59am
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Thank you very much for your comment. The camera can still change, but I did it this way because what's under can be important in gameplay (there can be caves like this: http://imgur.com/a/0Buow [EDIT: I still can't do a link to this album  ] and text messages are shown in the bottom of the screen)About background tileset: I already have a rock tileset... But I agree these tiles could be better. I tried to find a way to make it clear for the player that you can pass through these forms, but still go on them. I don't know how to make it better. About background, yes it's parallax. Great if you like it. Colors of these layers are one of my biggest concern... I don't know if it's good or not after spending so much time working on the game & seeing this background... |
Posted By: Damian
Date Posted: 01 June 2016 at 6:33am
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Okay, first off, big image is big. While I respect that you might play the game at that size, its probably wiser to post image(s) at its original size and then an in game image like this as a link. Especially if you want better critique on a pixel and sprite level rather than the image as a whole, and it would make editing easier too. Btw, I'm not sure how you're enlarging the pixels in this image, but some pixels have been enlarged as 1x2, 2x2 and even 3x3? And I'm not talking about the clear use of different resolutions. There are even semi-transparent pixels around the background layer ground tiles for example.
So you've got a lot to critique in this image. I'd advise posting a few character sprites and and ground tiles and maybe even that background. Overall though just looking at this image I'd say that its desaturated. I made an edit below to show what direction you might want to push those colours. I do think (and this might be preferential) that the tiles, character sprites and even the foliage are a bit noisy and it might lend to the "style" if things were cleaner. Its so easy to be negative find the bad in things so take what I've said with a pinch of salt, I will add though, I love the HUD. Hope that helps. Well, this forum is super broken, url for the link :/ http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img921/5222/KHuxpW.png Edit: Any link URL I set is changed to _blank. Not cool. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 01 June 2016 at 7:27am
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Thanks for your comment. Sorry about the screenshot size, that was the
only way I found to show everything (with UI, and every element in
place) in game. (And thank you for pointing the problems of different
sizes, I'm working on it but pixel perfectness can be hard to get) Here is a clean, not-zoomed pic (but it's not in game, so the background elements are not exactely at the right place, it lacks objects, and there's no UI):  (if needed I can also upload every layer separated) Thank you for your color edit pic. I know the scene lacks contrast, but I try if possible to keep a soft, pastel colors (more like SNES warm colors than Megadrive more contrasted stuff, if you see what I mean). But I agree if you think my version is too grey. Like a veil of grey everywhere. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 01 June 2016 at 10:51pm
I did some changes in sky color. (less bright, less saturated, I think it helps to make every other element easier to see, and watching the screen is less tiring) |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 02 June 2016 at 6:30am
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The new sky looks better to me! The buildings in the background have different perspectives going on. We're seeing some of them from below, and some from directly from the side. That would be fine if the building we see from below wasn't lower than the rest xP The ground being lit from all directions looks weird to me. If you want to have floating dirt blocks, consider having different lighting on different sides, e.g. the sun from above, and the ambient colour of the sky from below. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 02 June 2016 at 4:24pm
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Hi! Thanks you for your help. I'll probably redo all the buildings without perspective (everything will be seen from face like the orange heliport building in my previous pic.) About the tileset, I tried something :  Is this the kind of thing you were thinking about? |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 02 June 2016 at 5:16pm
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Changing the values (brightness) is a start, but I was thinking more about the hues. The sun is yellow-ish, the sky is blue-ish. This is actually something you should think about for all your assets - the shadows aren't pitch black because there's ambient light lighting up the parts that aren't lit directly by the sun, but where is that light coming from? It's sunlight reflected from the sky and the ground, and it carries with it the colours from those things. You can use this to bring a lot of unity to your colours. Your colours are already pretty good, but incorporating ambient light can make them even better. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 02 June 2016 at 6:22pm
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Thanks, I'll try to keep this in mind. I was working on new versions, with more colored side for right and down. I think (or hope) it goes in the way you're talking about.  What do you think of this? I kinda like the colors of 4. |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 02 June 2016 at 6:53pm
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I agree that 4 is the best. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 03 June 2016 at 12:59pm
I'm still working on this... What's the best one in your opinion? I think I'll go for 3, because I dont know how to draw properly the 4, and its transitions from brown to blue colors. |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 03 June 2016 at 2:09pm
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3 works, except for the highlight colours on it, they're oddly yellow-skewed. I think if you're going to have a texture in the middle of the dirt-block, you should break it up as much as you can. ...actually, what are the dirt blocks meant to represent? Are they floating islands that we're seeing the literal side of, or are we seeing a cross-section? If we're seeing the actual side, then there should be grass and rocks and all that visible. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 03 June 2016 at 2:27pm
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Break it up? how? About your question, I don't know. I was thinking of it more like a cross section, but it came after some decisions related to gameplay (only 90° angles for colliders, and no "pass-through" perspective graphics in basic tileset, only face viewed things with obvious colliders) so it wasn't really strongly thought of. I was just trying to make a good looking thing based on these decisions. EDIT : And I'm sorry I don't understand what is the problem you're talking about with highlights and yellow? Can you explain? |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 03 June 2016 at 2:45pm
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"How" to break it up would depend on what it is. If it's a cross-section, then including some single tiles containing bigger rocks, buried objects, etc could work. If it's an actual surface, then you'd want things that can be on that surface, such as grass clumps, rocks sticking out, etc. Yellow highlights: The lightest colour in the "blue" part of #3 is relatively yellow compared to the rest of the hues, which looks weird because there's nowhere for that yellow light to be coming from. Because the highlights are places where the blue light is reflected most strongly, those places should be the bluest. |
Posted By: NancyGold
Date Posted: 04 June 2016 at 4:34am
| the background buildings looks enormous, like they are in front of the character. Their perspective is also weird. Try diving their X and Y by Z. |
Posted By: mkd
Date Posted: 05 June 2016 at 8:23am
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Here you can see new screenshots in game with new sky color and new tileset: http://imgur.com/a/9C9a6 (I still can't make a link... )here is a minimized version of one of these screenshots:  snv : OK thanks for your comment, I'll try to fix this. |