Yeah, it looks like I'm heading more into a Terranigma style mockup. I'm still not sure what view I would be able to potray better with my current skill. I'm definitely going to make different mockups with different views and better colour choices. I'm going to also try to implement subtle details like shadows and such.Thank you so much for your advice, it's been helping a ton!
I agree that the pokemon game is top-down-ish, with unrealistic but acceptable and readable front views of furniture. They are not as frontal as yours though: compare your pillars to the flowerpots. The flowerpots bases are circles: they are consistent with the ground tiles. Your pillars are impossible to perceive as resting on the top-down floor because everything in them says front view: elliptic bases, proportions and shading. So are the thrones. Also see how the subtle cast shadows of furniture in the pokemon game grounds it to the floor. I think they stretched perspective realism to its extreme limit, but there's no doubt about what you see.
On the other hand, Terranigma is not at all top-down, judging from this. Look at those floor tiles! This looks more like what you've done so far except the tiles.
I wasn't thinking about making it a top-down but rather pokemon view. I'n a pokemon view game you can see the players body as well as some of the face. The trees and buildings are viewed from the front.
Another thing I'm just really confused about is (I'm gonna use pokemon as an example again) in pokemon their tiles are squares instead of rectangles ( Look at number 1http://www.spriters-resource.com/gameboy_advance/pokefrlg/sheet/3722) and they still manage to accomplish the oblique view. I think that the problem is with the characters instead of the tiles themselves.
Another really good example of the view (it's not exactely similar to the pokemon view but it may be aimed towards what Im looking for more) that I'm aiming for is a game called terranigma. You can clearly see all the characters body from the face down.
I tried making the floor tiles rectangles instead of squares but it didn't make a ton of a difference.
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Make the floor tiles rectangles instead of squares, around a small center rectangle of 4x2. That should do the trick.
There's a compromise to make, 'top-down' games are rarely strictly so as the sprites, buildings etc need to show some face and sides. But your sprites and things are way more front than top view, most of all the pillars. If you want to keep it top-down you'll have to redo them.
I'm just curious about the perspective of the floor. From what I've seen of games that use oblique view such as pokemon games use topdown looking tiles. How would I be able to make my tiles accomplish that type of view?
But I must admit I was a bit lazy with my pallet. But I think the main reason of the large colour count is because I made everthing seperate. I made the sprites seperate and then the pillars. I wasn't really thinking of the mockup. Then after I made those I started to think about tiles and such which could possibly explain the colour count.
It took me a while to figure it out, there's a lot of conflicting information in here ;)
Perspective: the floor pattern looks like seen strictly top down, it's impossible not to want to see a wall instead!
Shading: everything should cast shadows on the floor, since the pillars display an obvious lateral light source. Besides, proper shading is the usual trick to make stairs obvious.
Contrast: The sprites with black outlines just insist to be seen foremost: they float in air. I understand there's a potential conflict between the necessity to stress the sprites (but then all or none!) vs stressing fg elements (pillars), I offer no solution! Also the thrones don't stand out well from the bright floor of similar values. Again, shading.
Palette: not counting colors is lazy, but that's no excuse to not recycle them either!
Yeah, as I said before I wasn't really paying attention to the colour count. And I'm still going to spend considerable time on the pillars. Thanks so much for the feedback!
Also, make it a priority to keep an eye on your colors... this is a rule that applies to all artists. It isn't necessarily color count, it's how you make them count. What I suggest is that as you draw the piece, make a global palette and add colors as you go, so that it is easier to keep track and reuse their colors. This piece could be better, but the color choice really brings it down, and is the prominent downfall.. the pillar colors are akward against the floor colors, and the yellow you chose for the chairs is too close to the floor tone, making the readability very low. I really like the characters though :) The color choice and technique is really good, if you take how you shaded your characters and put that into practice with the pillars and other items, you could improve.
What I meant was change it so that the highlight is in the lightest part. At the bottom of your pillars it is more noticeable... the shading to the left of the highlight is lighter than the shading to the right. It doesn't make sense to have a highlight in that location, instead both sides of the highight should be the same color. And in reference to what I said about changing the highlight color, pillare usually do not reflect an almost white shine, unless they are made of highly refelctive glass, plastic, etc. Instead of almost white it should be toned down.
Funny that you say that because I started thinking about this while I was playing a snes rpg called Terranigma.
Thanks! I think that the blue guy being smaller than the 2 silver guys adds the that feeling.
It delivers a certain vibe that reminds me of japanese RPGs. Pretty cool.
Yeah, I wasn't really paying attention to my colour count. I'm kind of confused of what you mean by the pillar's shading although the pillars were the hardest part for me.
You have the pillar shading wrong, the highlight is placed in the lightest shaded area, you have it in the second highest. Also, you might want to tone that highlight down, and fix up the guards spears with some AA. Other wise it looks nice, could use some color optimization, try to vary your ramps so that colors can be reused easier :)
Haha, I dunno, butter knives can be quite dangerouse :P. But yeah, I know what you mean, they don't excately look like wicked weapons.