Background tiles - any suggestions? (forest-theme)

[A�rendyll (formerly Yurina)]

Hi all, I'm working on some tilesets for some games of mine, but I think some critisism of others will be needed.

I'll change some colours later, but I need suggestions about the colours I already have, and which details I can add/improve.

So far I added:
- plain ground, 2 colourvariations
- rocks, 2 colour variations
- mushrooms, with and without dots
- flowers
- trees, 1 alive, 1 chopped and 1 lying on the ground
- water and wateredges
- water flowers

Click here for the image!

I'll wait for your opinion!

~Yurina

[MarVelo]

I get an error message

[A�rendyll (formerly Yurina)]

I fixed it, something went wrong with the server. You can't directlink, and that's what I tried. '

[MarVelo]

 8)

[seaduck]

Hi! Some nice work there. This looks interesting, for what type of game and what resolution is it intended?

Drawing tiles in IMO quite difficult (also because of the fact that they are repeated many times on the screen and must blend smoothly). I am by no means experienced in this area, my first attempt would probably look similar.

Still it needs a major overhaul. If you tried to actually put a few tiles together, you must have noticed:
- the background (grass etc) is too noisy and repetetive
- the objects do not stand out enough
- the objects look flat
- overall impression is not very neat

What I'd do:
- cut down the contrast of the grass significantly and make it's texture less regular
- drop those black outlines!
- put up a light source to the upper left and shade the objects
- avoid using too pure colors / different shades with the same hue (for example: give the dark green a blue tint and, leave the middle green, and give the light green a yellow tint)
- use different value/hue for a tree's green than for the grass
- make the tree's shape simpler and better recognizable
- The "noodle bushes" look like something halfway between a green fence and a thicket, I beleive you should make them look more like one or another, this looks very unnatural
- Right now there's too much green! That green grass must be only one of several types of terrain, too much green would make the players eyes sick fast

For a great reference play Warcraft I. (Sorry, I can't seem to get a screenshot out of it, but I'll keep trying).

I'll also try to do a paintover, but don't expect very much, as I never tried this seriously before.

[Pet Terry]

The tiles itselves look great, but you could fiddle with the colours. If I were you, I'd use less saturated and lighter colours. Here's a screenie of Terranigma, maybe it gives you some ideas.



For example, if you're creating a normal outside scene during day, instead of just using slightly lighter shade of green for highlights, add a hint of yellow to it. And instead of just slightly darker shade of the colour for shadows, add some blue to it. Colours can easily make your backgrounds a lot more lively and interesting.

EDIT: Amazing, seaduck gave the exact same C&C. Duh.

[seaduck]

Here's the paintover. It's my first try at anything similar, so I dare not claim it's any better.

vs

- removed the black outlines
- added lots of lighting
- tried to match perspective of the bushes with the rest of the tiles
- tried a different green bg

[seaduck]

Ooops, so sorry, wrong button ->double post! Can someone delete this, please?

[A�rendyll (formerly Yurina)]

Thanks for the C&C, I needed this.

I didn't use black outlines, but darker versions of the colours I used in the objects themselves.

I'll definetely take a good look at the screenshots of Terranigma, the backgrounds there look great.

Right now I'll start improving my tiles, I'll post a better version at the download page listed in my first post.

~Yurina