Rbuck's Junk thread (currently Steelhiveish Villages)

[Paulomat4]

seems good, but i think it lacks a bit of definition

[Crendgrim]

Why is the light coming from that angle?

[Doomchicken]

I like the new one, but I think the bit on the left needs more definition.

[Rbuck]

Why is the light coming from that angle?

I don't really know. I think that was where the light source in my concept sketch was. Maybe I've always done it from there.

@Paulomat4 and Doomchicken: does this help?

Added a dim, red light somewhere in the depths. I should have thought of that long ago.
Why do all of these Steelhive units seem to be shinier?

[Doomchicken]

That's a lot better, and the red light is a nice touch.

[doofus-01]

Most (all?) terrain is not pixel-art, because some blurriness is needed to keep it from popping out like the sprites are supposed to. Changing the light-source to E-SE would also make it fit in better with the other villages (you could probably start by just flipping the image).

[Rbuck]

How the heck do I do this?

Most (all?) terrain is not pixel-art.

I'm using Gimp 2.6, so I tried airbrushing it but the airbrush keeps using the same random seed (some areas are too constricted to go over with the brush several times) and the result is that the village looks like it has smallpox.

Changing the light-source to E-SE would also make it fit in better with the other villages.

Maybe I should just redraw the whole thing.

I looked at some other villages. To do them as pixelart would require a lot of patience and time, plus a gentle mouse and a good palette.

[Paulomat4]

well if you are using gimp, then there's a tool for flipping things. just select it, and click on your image

[beetlenaut]

How the heck do I do this?

One way to make terrain art is to draw it larger, then shrink it. I think that would work pretty well in this case. Terrain art doesn't need extra blurring or randomness, it's just supposed to have natural shading and antialiasing unlike the units.

[Rbuck]

Redrew one of the villages.

Terrain art doesn't need extra blurring or randomness.

I don't know, I've seen a lot of villages -- dwarvish-1 for example -- that looked very much like someone had gone over it with an airbrush.

then there's a tool for flipping things.

That wasn't the problem... I was having trouble with the airbrush, trying to make the village look rougher.

Well, I hope this one is better.

[doofus-01]

I was having trouble with the airbrush, trying to make the village look rougher.

Well, I hope this one is better.

No need to use airbrush, just use paintbrush (as opposed to pencil which is for solid for pixels). It might be useful to reduce the opacity to 50% when shading, or not, up to you.

On a separate note, those dark outlines make it look like a cartoon, only use those if you are trying to depict some sort of shadowy edge. Make the other edges and transitions more like what you did with the edge of the garage -> an implied boundary, not something you explicitly drew with a dark line.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I love everything, so there is no point in saying "I love it!" but I love it. Especially the robots.

One point I have to make about the buildings though: Did you ever notice how the old Starwars ships looked so much better than the newer ones? Well that's because in the old series they used models, in the newer ones they used computer graphic. End result, the old ships look tarnished, pitted, weathered and dirty, the newer ones look shiny, plastic and fake* I like your shiny look, but I still think your steely villages would look better if they had at the least higher contrast, but preferably, dirt, rust, gunk running down the walls in pipes, small pointless lights which flash for no apparent reason, rivets, etc... Sound like a lot of work? Let me just say that I wouldn't bother to suggest these things if I thought your graphics weren't worth something - largely for their originality.

Also, I know that Wesnoth villages never have shadows (makes sense if you consider that it could be on differnt terrain or at night!) but I think these would actually look great with shadows! Perhaps add some on a different layer just to see how they look, these can easilly not be included in the 'read' version.
Carry on with what you're donig, and thank you!

*before I accidentaly start the mother of all off topic flamewars, I should add that these are my personal views, that views expressed on this thread in no way reflect the views of the community regarding starwars and that sort of thing...

[beetlenaut]

Actually, all Wesnoth buildings have shadows; they're just more subtle than unit shadows. Open up the map editor an put in a windmill if you need to be convinced. That shadows moves so it's easy to see.

[Rbuck]

Overhauled the village. It now has: flaking paint or whatever, rivets over the central seam, rust running from exterior features, a new, dark window (with red light) over the garage, a corrugated garage roof, a row of lights (one burned out) by the door.

I like your shiny look, but I still think your steely villages would look better if they had at the least higher contrast, but preferably, dirt, rust, gunk running down the walls in pipes, small pointless lights which flash for no apparent reason, rivets, etc...

Thanks for these ideas! (As you can see) I implemented a lot of them here and I think the village sure looks better for them.

Actually, all Wesnoth buildings have shadows; they're just more subtle than unit shadows. (emphasis added)

What kind of shadows are they? I mean, what color and alpha?

[offtopic]

Did you ever notice how the old Starwars ships looked so much better than the newer ones? Well that's because in the old series they used models, in the newer ones they used computer graphic. End result, the old ships look tarnished, pitted, weathered and dirty, the newer ones look shiny, plastic and fake?

I never actually saw #s 1, 2 & 3 but I've seen pictures of their ships. And I've read a fair bit of how Lucas and his team did their models ("kit bashing" for example).
But to compare these with Star Wars, the Y-wing cockpit might be the most applicable. Instead of "guts on the outside" it's got those smooth armor plates (with seams) which these villages, in fact, are supposed to have. According to my concept sketch, at least.
[/offtopic]

[beetlenaut]

If you look in the terrain folder you can find examples like this:

elven3.png (11.74 KiB) Viewed 5666 times

GIMP says this is color 0,0,0 with 60% opacity.

You can also see that the building doesn't have outlines.