Need Critiques on Isometric Graphic Styles

[Dread Spectacle]

I've been working on my isometric illustrations again. I feel like I'm improving but would like some comments. Also I created some lighting effects which I think add a lot of character to the scene but I'm worried that the shadows will be a problem. In order to look correct the character would need some sort of dynamic shadow which is pretty far beyond my AGS capabilities. Below are the examples. This is how the character would look without a shadow when other objects in the room have shadows.

[imgzoom]http://i61.tinypic.com/2z4a1yq.jpg[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]http://i61.tinypic.com/66kksj.jpg[/imgzoom]

All comments and criticisms are welcome. Thanks

[Khris]

I love the style; the fox character is awesome!

My suggestion is a very fundamental one: have you tried 3:1 iso?

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/RWrT5MO.png[/imgzoom]

I didn't fix the proportions of the door and desk, but you get the idea. This way, the rooms need less vertical space.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Khris' suggestion is very interesting.

Another one, strictly graphical: I can see that you understand how cast shadows work. So, push it even further:
- currently you have all the bricks explicitly outlined + a yellow gradient for the light
- instead: remove the gradient AND the bricks outlines, and instead draw the bricks outlines "deeper" and deeper the further you get from the lamp. (just in front of the lamp, don't draw the outlines since the light is cast directly into the wall cracks -- away from the lap, the cracks' "black lines" are quite wide because of the full cast shadows of the bricks edges into the cracks -- even further away, stop drawing the crsks again but draw everything dark: it's as dark on the wall as it is inside the cracks)

Something like that. Keep it simple.
(pro-tip: draw the whole wall "normally" first and then use the "erase" tool to erase the wall cracks were needed)
[imgzoom]https://40.media.tumblr.com/c5fcb6700721956074d6fa33db3e976e/tumblr_nqk98hHUmO1tsfksfo1_250.png[/imgzoom]

[CatPunter]

Hey there!

I like the look of this. It's flat yet you're going to be introducing some nice shadows into it. I think that's really interesting and you can do a lot with it without having to put in millions of mind numbing hours. I do feel you could push a few parts of your colour palette though, so I did a bit of a quick paint over to show you what I mean (since typing takes forever).


(mine on the left, your original one on the right)

To start with I really like how simple you made the main character - the bright red really makes him pop. I'm not sure his surroundings need to be so dark though - you could lighten quite a few areas to give him more vibrancy. Make him really stand out to the player. So I made the lineart on the bricks one of the dark blue colours you used, and changed the outliens on the desp and lamp to dark brown instead of black. For the light source I tried to use a gross yellow to simulate one of those old, dim bulbs. I also added some of that original dark blue around the edges of the room to really drive home how dark and depressing the room is.

I hope this helped a little, can't wait to see more work from you!

[Eric]

There's not a nice way to get consistent angled shadows like that on a character sprite, is there?