get rid of the horrid brown stuff where the trees are cut.
perhaps add leaves or make the wood pattern where there cut.

ummm... its a cave with stalagmites and stuff, not a forest.

I lightened it up, darkened the ceiling/tops and removed the animation. Its been truly challenging placing a cave in a box. Maybe this idea is not going to work.

wow, thanks Shark, the caveman/deer look better here and the browns are good. What do u mean first is better? animation or colors (except for the tops which I agree with you)?

I think the thing to do is to shade it all piece by piece, taking in account every little lighting place. Right now it looks like the whole place is flickering; I think there should only be a bigger flicker nearest to the fire, slowly diminishing as it moves away. And also it can't flicker where light ain't reaching it.

Also, after that, you can even add rain or lightning from the outside if you are daring enough.



oh, and different variants of the time between flashes. Make it like a real flickering fire.


Edited by alkaline

oooh but I am.

I will try all your ideas.


Edited by jalonso

Psychotic_Carp - It took me a while b4 I saw what you did. I tried that and felt it made the stalagmites look like they are paper mache or a set somehow. They are made of rocky materials therefore solid I felt is best. Its been challenging becuz a cave inside a box area (walls) is hard to achieve convincingly.

@kwigbo - you may be on to something there. I got hired for a huge iso job so I've had to put this aside for the moment, but I keep thinking about it. thanks

My plans are to take over the Joint

Well I think you're all wrong. I loved the first one you posted. It wasn't too dark for my monitor at all, and it would be boring without the rock hangings.

My main problem was with the fatness of the girl's legs. I know it's the style to make iso character all chunky, but I'd prefer something more realistic. The deer is awesome.

I like the flickering light effect in the first one aswell. You don't always have to be obvious, sometimes a little ambiguity can go along way, and theres nothing at all messy or hard to appreciate about this piece. The flickering lighting reveals the subject, so theres not need to lighten the work further, and any attempt to do so would probably lose the implied detail. Subtlety in pixel art is a very attractive thing, and I don't even like isometric pixel art!

i like it, but the fire looks irregular, if u could make it move, thad be great, and smoke