Thou shalt get terrain art.

[Reepurr]

I was experimenting with the 1.9 maps and I noticed that the orcish keep was sort of hanging over its little podium, so I started making changes to it, so that it wouldn't.

After all, someone has to do it.

First, older version with a square bottom.

keep-concave-tl3.png (7.32 KiB) Viewed 3728 times

Second version with a rounded bottom.

keep-concave-tl.png (7.3 KiB) Viewed 3728 times

And I'll throw in an extra bit for free.

keep-convex-br.png (7.91 KiB) Viewed 3728 times

[em3]

You cut it pretty sharp. Notice, that generally terrain in Wesnoth is anti-aliased.

[Reepurr]

Ah, I was wondering what was wrong with them.

But for now, I think I'll try and get them all to a decent pixel artist's standard and then stick some transparents on.

[Eleazar]

Terrain art isn't, nor is it supposed to be "pixel art" in the way that unit art is. By design it's smoother and more painterly. Look at any of my new stuff to clarify what i mean.
You'll need to produce something of a different style than what's currently in your art thread to get these edits in the game-- though i'm glad for you to try.

[Reepurr]

Ahh, thanks for clearing things up Eleazar. So basically,
I need to use a heck of a lot more colours.
I need to do some serious anti-aliasing.
Probably some differences in lightness of the outlines?

Well, I'll try to sort this out... I should have something for you to avoid looking at because it's so bad look at by tomorrow.

[Fog]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "hanging over its podium"? While I'm sure there is an issue, a visual of a before and after would certainly help my understanding.

[doofus-01]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "hanging over its podium"?

I don't understand either. There are some things that need to be shifted, but I'm not sure if that is what you mean.

Don't pencil in one colour at a time, use a little paintbrush. And you can use partial transparency for it too. If you do that, the anti-aliasing will mostly take care of itself.

[Reepurr]

Urgh...Okay, it's gonna take an awful lot more work to try and sort out this stupid terrain thing.
Painting with a 1px brush is the right thing to do for this, right?

@ Fog/doofus: Oh, sorry. I guess it wasn't that clear. By platform, I mean the slab of rock that's underneath all the castles automatically. The orcish keep has a big slope that obscures the slab and makes it seem like it floats.

Here's what I mean.

Picture 7.png (28.48 KiB) Viewed 3374 times

[doofus-01]

@ Fog/doofus: Oh, sorry. I guess it wasn't that clear. By platform, I mean the slab of rock that's underneath all the castles automatically. The orcish keep has a big slope that obscures the slab and makes it seem like it floats.

Oh, I thought you were referring to something about the -tl image you posted right below it.

Painting with a 1px brush is the right thing to do for this, right?

Yep. Scaling the image is not helpful for multi-hex images.

[Reepurr]

Photoshop is rubbish for terrain art. I tried using the brush at 1px. I got a half-transparent gray blob. I tried using it at 2px. I got...er...a half-transparent gray blob.

I think I might take a break and do a sprite for Liberty.

[thespaceinvader]

A bad craftsman blames his tools. I'd be shocked if Eleazar ISN'T using Photoshop or an equivalent program. If you don't know how to do something, ask, learn. Don't say it can't be done, it makes you look silly

[Yoyobuae]

I think what you need is to increase the "Hardness" of the brush (to max probably). Or maybe select a non-fuzzy brush.

[thespaceinvader]

Probably the opacity setting, actually. Making the brush too hard will simply result in jaggies again.

[doofus-01]

I don't know about photoshop settings because I drew those with GIMP. Mostly with a regular 1px brush at 100% opacity, sometimes using 50% on the edges and shading. The only other "trick" I can think of is to zoom in when drawing.

[Eleazar]

A bad craftsman blames his tools. I'd be shocked if Eleazar ISN'T using Photoshop.

Yep, I love my Photoshop. Jetrel uses it too and some of our other terrain contributors.

What he's trying to find is the Pencil tool for pixel-perfect pixels, but that's generally not what you should be using for terrain art.

Sounds like Reepur is really coming at this from a "pixel-art" standpoint, it's probably not a good task for him unless he's up for some serious unlearning and relearning.

I don't know about photoshop settings because I drew those with GIMP. Mostly with a regular 1px brush at 100% opacity,

Sounds like you too are giving yourself unnecessary work.

My general process: start with big opaque brushes, blocking in the major details. Progressively move to smaller and less opaque brushes as i turn to the smaller and/or subtler details. Very rarely would i use a 1pix 100% opacity brush -- for some really strong specular highlights perhaps.

Of course the end result is all that really matters, but some methods are a much more efficient means to the desired end result.