Help with animating water and colors...

[Squinky]

So I was wondering if anybody had any tips for animating the water, and perhaps better colors for the sky and water. I like to use purpleish colors for night skys but it just looks ugly on this one....


Thanks everybody

[PureGhostGR]

Ok, here is a small paintover. I hope you don't mind.



The main idea was to suggest something for the sky and water but keeping everything together at the same shades (purple).

There is a "Loom" wannabe feeling to my addition, I honestly didn't intend for that one to happen.

The rocks and the shore need more work on reflecting the moon hues but other than that this was a great piece to work with.

I love how you did the tree. (and I am giving you a pixel approach here). It has a very intelligent approach to it. Well done.

Again I hope you don't mind me doing the quick paintover. If it offends you or your work ask me and I'll remove it.

as for the animation of the water, I simply made 2 alternative water layouts that I then animated with different intervals to add a wave feeling to it.

Not much of an addition I know.. but at least I hope to give you a fresh perspective.

Great work.. seriously great work.

[EldKatt]

Firstly, very nice, Squinky. And very nice PureGhostGR. But I'd like to see the water moving more distinctly, like swelling up over the shore. This animation looks to me more like something below the water moving up and down, rather than the actual water moving. I might give it a try soonish, but I'm lazy.

[Squinky]

Man, I like what you did there PureghostGR...I'd like to slap that into my game and give it a try if you didn't mind....I really dig the tree, the colors are much more suited to the rest of the scene now, and the little string things are just cool-ass. Now, the sky is perfect, but I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how you went about that...

[BOYD1981]

don't a lot of older adventure games use colour cycling for water effects?

[Evil]

Jeez Boyd, havent you been a bit of an asshole lately.

I think its great though the water line could move a few pixels though it doesnt need to. I love the colors by the way.

[Squinky]

Actually, the way I see it, the beach is in the foreground and would block any view of a forward moving tide....that make sense?


And how was boyd being an A-hole? Did I miss it? Is it some sort of conspiracy to promote birth control? Well, tell me....

[remixor]

Excellent bg, Squinky  I can't offer any help with water animation, but it looks pretty great as it is.

Jeez Boyd, havent you been a bit of an asshole lately.

Hurh?

[Evil]

I dont know if it is just me but he lately has been lashing out without proper explaintion, or giving helpful comments. I'm sorry if I am wrong but it just seems to be that way to me.

Anyway, now that I look I think its fine without an animation. Looks a bit like a lake/lagoon.

[BOYD1981]

evil, i wasn't lashing out, i was merely asking a question, and i haven't lashed out at anyone lately, not that i can remember anyway.
if anything i was trying to be helpful, as colour cycling saves people from having to do lots of animating and making the size of the game bigger, anyway, no need to apologise, i'm used to people being wrong.

[Evil]

Heh, sorry Boyd. I guess I was the one lashing out. And for that I am sorry.

[Squinky]

Can you feel the love, my brothas? It's beautiful....


Besides, I couldn't ever picture Boyd's bobbing avatar head as being angry...

Anyway, I can't do the pallate cycling thingy cause I do the high color route, pure lazyness I know.

[PureGhostGR]

Squinky :

Glad you liked it. Here are the 4 steps used to draw the sky.

Keep in mind that this is probably a "bad" way to go about drawing a sky, and that there are still stuff that need revision.



1. A very simple round gradient.

2. The same gradient with "posterise" filter applied to it. (Any filter that brings down the amount of colors used will do. You could even do this manually).

3. Some stretching, moving and a few "wind" lines.

4. Cosmetic touch-ups. The dark areas should in a way follow the shapes arround the sky. Usually this unifies things a bit.

Thats pretty much it. However if you want to make some serious skies you should consider reasearching some proffessional sites. Or alternatively study references (photographs, other drawn skies).

Hope this helped.

[Ben]

Love the background, Squinky.. Also like Ghost's imporvements.

The water animation is good, but the part closest to the shore seems to move back and forth a bit too abruptly. In my opinion, you don't have to move the waves so far to get a good effect. You can just move the closest wave a few pixels each frame, and it would look smoother.. I guess the biggest problem is working with the four-frame limit. You did really well in that respect.

[Evil]

Wow Ghost! I never knew that there was a good side to gradients. I must try that some time.

[Hollister Man]

I don't have a way to do it now, but I think it would look a bit better if the lighter wave color "rolled" onto the beach a little, instead of apparently bobbing up and down.  Other than that it  does rock.  Great job on the original Squink (I hope I get to work with you over at BluSoft), great job on the touch up Ghost.

[Squinky]

Okay, I've finally learned how to make a gradient! (yes, I am a dumb ass) and now I need help "Stretching" pics in photoshop? Anybody?


Hollister Man
Hey thanks Hollister man, I haven't been over with Blusoft for awhile, but I'm hoping to get back over there.....

[MrColossal]

how do you mean?

as in making a selection and hitting control T to do a transform?

or image resize?

[Evil]

Yeah as eric said or right click and transform selection. Be carefull not do free transform.

[Squinky]

Thats what I needed...Thanks guys.