Another pixel art tutorial

abstauber · Thu 14/01/2010 15:19:50

Hi there,

I've just finished a pixel art tutorial covering this background:

I know, that there are quite a lot tutorials covering pixelart so I tried to move focus more towards the creation of a coherent background.

Here it is:
http://shatten.sonores.de/2010/01/12/how-we-make-our-graphics/

I hope you'll like it

Danman · Thu 14/01/2010 15:28:32

Great work abstauber i wondered how you did those backgrounds on aeronuts. I will read through it tommorow

WHAM · Thu 14/01/2010 16:49:25

Great tutorial! Very detailed, and since I use similiar techniques, I got a hell-of-an-inspiration to beef up my old backgrounds with the tips you point out here. (I have a LOT of empty wall space in mine)

IndieBoy · Thu 14/01/2010 17:51:24

Good job abstauber! I learnt a lot. Also that site for colours is awesome.

abstauber · Thu 14/01/2010 18:41:45

Thanks guys! So all the spelling mistakes didn't prevent you from reading

@Indie:
This site is even better: http://www.colourlovers.com/
Kuler is just better arranged and easier to understand

tzachs · Thu 14/01/2010 18:50:36

This tutorial was really helpful, I've put it in my favorites....
If you'll ever feel like making a tutorial about how you did the character portraits in the game as well, I wouldn't complain.

Thanks, Astauber.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Thu 14/01/2010 20:39:48

I added this tutorial to the big list.

ashmc2 · Fri 15/01/2010 00:55:43

I loved this. I am just getting started and this is the kind of help I need. I have a few questions though if you don't mind.

1 - the doors are smaller than the characters are. Do you use scaling for this room?

2 - do you save your rooms with this large black outline?

abstauber · Fri 15/01/2010 08:22:42

yay, my own spot at the fridge

@ashmc2
Great that you liked it. The easy way to answer your questions would be: just play the game already

Quotethe doors are smaller than the characters are. Do you use scaling for this room?

Nope, I've just taken submarine doors as a base. Those are pretty small and sturdy so they can bear a lot of pressure. I remember being on a submarine once and almost hit my head on every door

Quotedo you save your rooms with this large black outline?

The final room in the game has an even bigger black area surrounding it (320x320). That's because the room shifts slightly up and down.

I've chosen the black void around the room to display it's small size. It also drags the focus to the room and strengthens the need for the player to get out of there again.

Of course I don't do this with landscape backgrounds

Layabout · Fri 15/01/2010 09:36:24

That is a really good and comprehensive tutorial. Really nice work there.

InCreator · Fri 15/01/2010 14:35:59

It is absolutely awesome.

I wonder if you could do a tutorial about planning/idea -- I mean, I'm easily able to make such room, but I would never come to an idea to use such angles and shapes on room. Like that one room being higher with ceiling and so: where did you get such ideas?

Anyway, rock on!

Darth Mandarb · Fri 15/01/2010 14:40:47

Excellent tutorial (and the English was just fine).

We actually have a very similar style of BG production.

Anyway, good work.

Iliya · Fri 15/01/2010 15:04:54

I must say that this screenshot and tutorial are really good! Good work abstauber.

cat · Fri 15/01/2010 16:06:39

Thanks for that great tutorial!

abstauber · Sat 16/01/2010 11:58:29

Thanks again

Since I did the tutorial in german first and then translated it in one step, I've been afraid that the grammar somehow "stayed" german. But I'm relieved that this is not the fact (at least not through the whole document).

@InCreator:
I bet, some "real" artist could cover the section of planing way better than I can. I'll try it anyway

I knew that I wanted to take it place in a carrier. And usually ships are space optimized - space ships as well, I took those angeled corners from Battlestar Galactica

So the structure of the room is dictated by it's position on the vessel and because of that, not all walls can be even - another reason for no 90Â° angels. The explaination for the different room heights is pretty cheesy. I simply wanted to draw just one room, but it had to perform two tasks: One being Elfies puzzle and interaction room, the other one being the cell for her dad.
When I had the ceiling on the same level, the cell wasn't uncomfortable at all. It was more like her Dad might say: Come on, let's stay here forever

So I had to make it smaller. Changing the width wasn't an option since I wanted the bed to stay so I chose the height.
Of course these decision are pretty easy if you're aware of the place of your room. Having a smaller room on the right implies (for me) that it might be near the hull and therefore its small. It also makes the prison a safer place because you can't escape through the right wall.

Maybe one day Kastchey writes a tutorial about composition... he's really good at creating convincing locations.

aventurero · Sun 17/01/2010 03:09:35

Great tutorial, and great game, too

I know that this is maybe off topic, but... could you give me the link for the LucasArts verb GUI? thanks!

abstauber · Sun 17/01/2010 09:49:15

Hehe, I'm glad you've enjoyed both the game and the tutorial.

The template is located here
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=38874.0

Though it has been designed to work with AGS 3.2 which is still at beta-stage (or better: Release Candidate).
It's also included in AGS 3.2 RC3.