Terrain Art Request - Desert Terrains

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Rhuvaen
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Terrain Art Request - Desert Terrains

Post by Rhuvaen »

I posted my ideas for new desert terrains in the Ideas Forum. I am looking for contributors of terrain art for these, and will include them in UtBS when I have art that is good enough.

Here's the list (including only info related to the visual / landscape concept):

1. "Salt Flats"
The dried-up remnants of former seas and lakes, a completely flat, salt-covered surface.
might look like: probably a whiter version of the current sand terrain would do, perhaps a little less grainy

2. "Parched Ground"
Ground baked into a hardened surface, with cracks and crumbled earth providing some cover for desert dwellers.
might look like: something of a mix between desert/dirt/desert road with some cracks added

3. "Depression / Desert Gorge"
Simply a chasm suited to the desert environment.
might look like: chasm with desert coloration / texture (if done right)

4. "Oasis" (multi-hex)
Self-explanatory. This would be based on the shallow-water to desert transition (for multi-hex oases).
might look like: oasis vegetation on the shallow water to desert transitions

5. "Dried Riverbed / Wadi"
A dried riverbed or wadi would still contain enough water to give swimmers a chance.
might look like: perhaps something like a sandy ford with a slight slope on the transition to desert.

This post is for art contributions for these terrains, discussion of the terrains should go in the Ideas post (link above).

Sorry for the sort-of double post, I am hoping to attract more artist attention by posting here and will reserve the other post for concept discussion.
Last edited by Rhuvaen on September 17th, 2007, 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Blarumyrran
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Re: Terrain Art Request - Desert Terrains

Post by Blarumyrran »

Rhuvaen wrote:2. "Baked Earth / Baked Dirt"
Ground baked into a hardened surface, with cracks and crumbled earth providing some cover for desert dwellers.
might look like: something of a mix between desert/dirt/desert road with some cracks added
how about this?
YaymeQ
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Post by YaymeQ »

I think that looks nice, but I see a lot of baked earth here and I might have an idea for a different version, lighter and more what I saw as a kid. I'll give it a try. :)
Rhuvaen
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Post by Rhuvaen »

YaymeQ wrote:I think that looks nice, but I see a lot of baked earth here and I might have an idea for a different version, lighter and more what I saw as a kid.
Yes, it does look good, but it shouldn't have lava glistening under the surface, be a bit lighter or blend a little bit better with the desert terrain. Also that wasteland lava is made to look like it covers the surrounding terrain which is unfitting. Other than that, it's a lot like 2.).
YaymeQ wrote:I'll give it a try. :)
:D
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Post by YaymeQ »

Hiya! Alright I know this isn't perfect, but I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to add too much shadding because it's supposed to be pretty flat. Then I thought, maybe more stuff between the cracks or something ... but the cracks aren't that deep and nothing grows there. Or maybe if they were closer together , but I thought that probably wouldn't look like baked earth then ... I wanted to make the edges of some of the baked parts look crumbly, or slightly curled, (As a kid I thought they looked a lot like my moms cookies x.x!) I just coudln't figure out how. So I really really really want advice ... please?
I feel like I could tweek this forever and never get it right.
Attachments
BakedEarth.png
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thespaceinvader
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Post by thespaceinvader »

Looks good, but it needs some anti-aliasing. Maybe just a HINT of blur.
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Na'enthos
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Post by Na'enthos »

Perhaps yet another desert terrain could be rocky desert.. a desert consisting of.. well, not sand but rocky ground layered with rocks of different sizes.

Also there could be a one tile which is basically a bunch of rocks in a sandy desert.

Then again, if the above will come into being I doubt it´s necessary. But I just wanted to note these real life varieties.
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Weeksy
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Post by Weeksy »

Camera angle appears to be top down... squish the texture about 25% and you'll be doing great.
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YaymeQ
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Post by YaymeQ »

Alright, I can add a hint of a blur but ... how do I "Squish" the image? I'm using Photoshop
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Post by Weeksy »

make the image one third taller than it is now, by drawing extra stuff, then resize the image down to the height it is now.
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Fishion
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Post by Fishion »

Since someone menthioned it: my go at a stone-desert tile. The Hex structure is still too easy to see with this one.

It's based on the sandy tile (that have sometimes stones in it...)
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sone_desert.png
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YaymeQ
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Post by YaymeQ »

Hey that looks pretty neat, except you left the t out of the files title :) I'll post mine later I need sleep now. Oh, and I was looking at pictures of salt flats for reference and I don't think I could do that, it'd look too much like snow. I was also thinking that another desert terrain could be those layered hills. I'm not sure what they're called but they've got different colored layering because of the way the sediment settled on the land. Just a thought. Which led me to think of the huge granite domes of northern california, but that's not desert ...
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Post by YaymeQ »

Alright, so I lied about the sleep thing... there's some blur on it ... and I tried the whole draw it bigger and mush it thing ... don't know if it's an improvement or not ...
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BakedEarth copy.png
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Post by irrevenant »

[Deleted as so not up to the standard of this thread]
Last edited by irrevenant on September 14th, 2007, 8:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Rhuvaen
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Post by Rhuvaen »

Thanks for all your work, I was postponing replying here, hoping we'd get some expert terrain artist feedback (*cough* freim, mog, eleazar, pekka... anyone else?). But I guess this is under their radar at the moment.

YaymeQ, thanks, it does look better. I agree about the 25% vertical squishing that's needed. You probably want to do that with an area that's bigger than a hex, squish it, then rearrange the graphics for continuity along the hex borders again...

I've attached a screenshot of how it would look in-game at the moment. It looks surprisingly good already!

There's a couple of things (besides the squishing):
  • 1. Black lines because the graphics don't fill out the full hex (1 pixel borders along the NE, NW or SW, SE edges)

    2. Colour-mismatch with the desert. I don't want it to be the exact same colour as the desert. But I'd think it could use a little less saturation (it very much reminds me of caramel at the moment :wink:), bleaching, I don't know.

    3. Lack of shading of the "patches", they could use just a bit of texture.
I was going to ask why the cracks were brighter than the patches of baked earth, but now that I see it I'm not sure it would be better the other way around... :?:

Fishion, thanks for the stone-desert attempt. I think it looks promising, but the stones are way too regular in shape and size (copy/paste? :wink:). It looks more like a paved path than a rocky desert currently. I'd appreciate if you wanted to continue working on this, but it's not one of the terrains I see much use for game-play wise currently (we already have the dunes as a rough desert terrain). If you could help me out with one of the other terrains though, that would be great.
One more thing, the areas outside the hex need to be transparent, not white.
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YaymeQ's baked earth in-game... :)
YaymeQ's baked earth in-game... :)
bakedearth_ingame.png (560.46 KiB) Viewed 3932 times
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