Resources and Support: Some questions on isometric art?

Some questions on isometric art?

Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9614
Printed Date: 13 September 2025 at 8:02am

Topic: Some questions on isometric art?

Posted By: Cbaker
Subject: Some questions on isometric art?
Date Posted: 26 December 2009 at 5:23am

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

I'm leading a small team working on a currently unannounced strategy game in the vein of the classic X-Com games. One of areas giving me the biggest headache is the isometric tile art, which seems to be done pretty much exclusively by pixel artists nowadays (as opposed to 3D graphics from an isometric view) so I thought you guys would be the best people to talk to about it.

I'm trying to work out how suitable isometric (pixel) art could be for my game. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the original X-Com, it came out about 15 years ago and looks like this : http://www.xcomhaven.com/images/ufo3.gif - http://www.xcomhaven.com/images/ufo3.gif (apologies for the low quality image)

Unsurprisingly, we're looking for something a bit more up-to-date than this, but. Normal pixel art would not be well suited to what I'm looking for, as it's full of bright colours and is heavily stylised rather than realistic. However, terrain art such as is used in Laser Squad Nemesis (eg http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/Manual/BasicTerrainTypes.htm - here and http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/Manual/DoorsAndDoorControls.htm - here ) is more what we're looking for. Do you guys know anything about it? I take it that style of iso tile is painted rather than drawn pixel style? Is it difficult to do? Would an experienced pixel artist easily be able to convert their style to produce that kind of terrain, or are they very different in practice?

I know it's not necessarily your area of expertise, but it's very difficult to find information about isometric art as nowadays everything is just modelled up in 3d and displayed isometrically by the game engine (and that's not really an option for us as we're using a 2D engine). Any info that you guys can provide would be appreciated.

Replies:

Posted By: Blueberry_pie
Date Posted: 26 December 2009 at 6:12am

Hi Cbaker, welcome to PJ.

Judging by the screenshots, I'd say the graphics in Laser Squad Nemesis are pre-rendered 3D (3D models rendered as 2D images and then used as tiles). Games such as http://www.mobygames.com/game/jagged-alliance-2/screenshots - Jagged Alliance 2 and http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/command-conquer-red-alert-2/screenshots - Red Alert 2 also had pre-rendered 3D graphics. This type of graphics can be made relatively quickly and it's not too hard to make it look realistic, so it might be the best option for your game's graphics. Of course, you will need someone who knows their way around 3D modelling and rendering software.

Also, pixel art doesn't always have to be bright and stylised. Pixel art isn't really a style but more of a medium. Just so you know :)

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Posted By: Cbaker
Date Posted: 26 December 2009 at 7:42am

Hi Blueberry Pie, thanks for the welcome.

I'm fairly sure the props in the game are pre-rendered 3D, do you think the walls are as well then? I suppose that would make sense. I was just thinking that drawing a flat surface and painting it would be as easy as modelling a flat surface and texturing it.

The 3D route is a heck of a lot less specialist though so it's certainly some food for thought, given we're already using it for our units.

Thanks for the input.