Planets for space tileset on Shangri-La

Skrobo2 · #1 12-24-2005, 10:01 PM

This is the start of my first tileset from scratch.
I haven't had a lot of time to work on it because of school and it's not the top priority on our server right now. I made them using the air brush tool in Serif PhotoPlus 6.0.

Any opinions or suggestions are welcomed.

haro41 · #2 12-24-2005, 10:20 PM

turn down the fuzzy

Codein · #3 12-24-2005, 11:13 PM

Not so much a tileset, just a few images of planets. Great work though

Zero Hour · #4 12-25-2005, 02:36 AM

Not bad, but we have to admit they would be very simple to do with a brush tool - and even more to improve.

AuronX2056_P2P · #5 12-25-2005, 02:53 AM

I like the Red Planet xD

Skrobo2 · #6 12-25-2005, 03:55 AM

These are just decorative tiles that will go into the tileset. Actually, I've already added them to a tileset template. And yes, they were pretty easy to make with the airbrushing tool and I will add more detail. These were made in about fifteen minutes when I had some free time. I've also made some wall tiles but didn't really like the way they came out. But, I'll post them so yall can tell me what you think. Thank you for your opinions and input.

Zero Hour · #7 12-25-2005, 04:23 AM

Not bad, would be nice to see some examples of them in use. Otherwise I like the textures. Also, "I made it in 15 minutes" is an excuse, and nothing more

Skrobo2 · #8 12-25-2005, 06:28 AM

I'm not trying to make an excuse lol. I'm just explaining that I haven't had a lot of time to work on this tileset. I can show you an image where I've been testing the tiles as I make them. But, I have a problem with the program I use because I can't export an 8 bit png. Only 24 bit pngs and it wont work right in the editor.
So I have to export as a gif and then convert it with the gif2mng convertor which results in color loss. So I'll show the picture but it is going to be 256
colors.

I haven't gotten time to finish the wall tiles. And eventually I'll have tiles around the room which will look like a space station.

AuronX2056_P2P · #9 12-25-2005, 07:10 AM

O_o Nice Tiles!

Skrobo2 · #10 12-25-2005, 07:38 AM

Thank you
This is the second tileset I've done (even though it's unfinished), but the other one was just a few simple tiles that I made for Madrox a player house on Shangri-La. I haven't done a lot of graphics since I stopped making my video games about four years ago. And even then I didn't use the air brush much. So I'm still experimenting with the air brush tool and like it a lot. Hopefully I'll get better and be able to make this tileset as good as S64's. I really need to get Paint Shop Pro or something equivalent so I won't need to rely on Shawn to convert my 24 bit png to 8 bit.
Thank you for your input and opinions, I appreciate them a lot.

Curt1zzle · #11 12-25-2005, 10:37 AM

Yay now maybe you can learn to take/save a screenshot correctly, hehe.

Codein · #12 12-25-2005, 02:28 PM

Can you travel to different planets? If you can, it'll make my server look shabby and unoriginal

Zero Hour · #13 12-25-2005, 06:56 PM

Looks nice - but I have to disagree, you can do some nice stuff with limited colors, just need to trick the eyes a little.

Tom · #14 12-25-2005, 08:40 PM

The plannets look a bit like blurred smudges, you should do a circle, and think, what planet will this be?

For example, say i wanted to do something like the moon, id make it white. Then mix with with shades of yellow and grey, then investigate whats on the moon, what revolves around the moon, for example, craters, so i would add craters.
Then create a glow, either in the program im using or with a gscript.

http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d4/moon.jpg
a lovely example.

As for the building tiles, they look too repetative, the left one looks to flat with flat shading, and the outside looks too buttonized.

How my critz helps

Skrobo2 · #15 12-26-2005, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curt1zzle

Yay now maybe you can learn to take/save a screenshot correctly, hehe.

Does it really matter how I took the screen shot? Pressing print screen works just fine...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero Hour

Looks nice - but I have to disagree, you can do some nice stuff with limited colors, just need to trick the eyes a little.

I probably could have, but the tileset will be exported as an 8 bit png when it is finished. Shawn64 aleady said he'd convert it for me. I do agree that you can make nice images with 256 colors though since a lot of older games were made with qraphics like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Codein

Can you travel to different planets? If you can, it'll make my server look shabby and unoriginal

It was just going to be a small part of the server with a few space stations and the planets were just for the background. I've decided not to make it for Shangri-La and instead am going to finish it and give it to a friend for a server I used to be server admin on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

The plannets look a bit like blurred smudges, you should do a circle, and think, what planet will this be?

For example, say i wanted to do something like the moon, id make it white. Then mix with with shades of yellow and grey, then investigate whats on the moon, what revolves around the moon, for example, craters, so i would add craters.
Then create a glow, either in the program im using or with a gscript.

http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d4/moon.jpg
a lovely example.

As for the building tiles, they look too repetative, the left one looks to flat with flat shading, and the outside looks too buttonized.

How my critz helps

I used the airbrush on everything including the wall tiles. So, the planets will look a little blurry because of the airbrush. Personally I think they look ok the way they are, but I appreciate your opinion.

Soul-Blade · #16 12-26-2005, 10:55 PM

No offense, but those look terrible. It looks like it was done with airbrush then smudged insanely to eliminate "flaws." What you ended up creating are spheres with no detail. Also, you've go solar flare dealios on the sun in a still frame. Shouldn't those a) be animated or b) removed so the sun looks like a sun? Also, why is the sun a maroon-ish color? It needs some yellow or a more vivid red.

Don't be afraid to have some boldness in graphics. Use massively contrasting colors to display the finer more important details. By blurring and blending it takes away all the important details in an image. Thats the mistake people make with non-pixel art - they think it is easy because of all the great tools available. But the fact of the matter is, if you plan on making good images, those tools are much harder to use to create great images then pixel art ever was. Those tools just make it possible to make realistic images in less than 100 years. Anyway, I'm done running my mouth...just try to improve them.

On another note, I'm glad people are doing the space theme. I wish someone would continue my old deal with spaceships, but oh well. In v4 I bet it would be freakin nice...

Skrobo2 · #17 12-26-2005, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soul-Blade

No offense, but those look terrible. It looks like it was done with airbrush then smudged insanely to eliminate "flaws." What you ended up creating are spheres with no detail. Also, you've go solar flare dealios on the sun in a still frame. Shouldn't those a) be animated or b) removed so the sun looks like a sun? Also, why is the sun a maroon-ish color? It needs some yellow or a more vivid red.

Don't be afraid to have some boldness in graphics. Use massively contrasting colors to display the finer more important details. By blurring and blending it takes away all the important details in an image. Thats the mistake people make with non-pixel art - they think it is easy because of all the great tools available. But the fact of the matter is, if you plan on making good images, those tools are much harder to use to create great images then pixel art ever was. Those tools just make it possible to make realistic images in less than 100 years. Anyway, I'm done running my mouth...just try to improve them.

On another note, I'm glad people are doing the space theme. I wish someone would continue my old deal with spaceships, but oh well. In v4 I bet it would be freakin nice...

Thank you for pointing out that I suck. I wasn't trying to act like I was good at making graphics, I just thought they looked pretty nice for me not making a lot of grahics other than some small pixel art from time to time. I only used the air brushing tool and not the smudge tool at all. Personally I think they looked pretty good, but I guesse I was wrong. Anyways I've scrapped the idea since everyone thinks it looks bad anyways. Thank you again for your opinions.

excaliber7388 · #18 12-26-2005, 11:24 PM

I love it, it really looks like things you would see in space (aparently these people havn't ever looked through a good telescope) keep it up!

Skrobo2 · #19 12-26-2005, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by excaliber7388

I love it, it really looks like things you would see in space (aparently these people havn't ever looked through a good telescope) keep it up!

I agree with you on that they haven't looked through a telescope. I am not trying to draw our solar system and there are different types of suns in other solar systems. Planets all look different and there is no right way to draw one. If I made them all look like our solar system, that would be boring. And I didn't add a lot of detail to the planets because they are backround tiles and shouldn't get a lot of attention. When you go to Zone, you don't look at the space surrounding the levels a lot because they would rather have you look at the wall tiles and other tiles that you will be looking at when you watch where the character is going. Also my art should look the way that I invision it and not the way others think it should look. I started this thread to see what people would say about the planets and show them off a little. I do appreciate your imput and opinions, because they help me to improve my art. But, I will make my tileset the way I want it to look and the way I see it in my head.

Soul-Blade · #20 12-27-2005, 07:08 AM

*sigh*

Look, I wasn't trying to offend you. I was trying to give some friendly advice. I have looked through a telescope and I've seen many pictures taken by the hubble telescope, and I promise you those look nothing like anything seen in reality. The fact is yes, it is your own style and it may have turned out the way you wanted it; however, when you build graphics based on something seen in reality the objective is to get it as close to believability as possible. If a cartoon style is what you're aiming for people still need to be able to recognize what the object is.

Regardless the excuse "it is my style and it came out the way I wanted," that does not mean it is high quality. No matter what style someone uses there are different levels of that style. I was trying to give you advice on how to improve in whatever style you use.

Anyway, if you aren't looking for anything constructive say so in the initial post.

Zero Hour · #21 12-27-2005, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soul-Blade

Regardless the excuse "it is my style and it came out the way I wanted," that does not mean it is high quality. No matter what style someone uses there are different levels of that style. I was trying to give you advice on how to improve in whatever style you use.

I find this is rings very true in general. Recently I've been concentrating more on removing "my style" and trying harder to obtain a more realistic or more convincing image.