Castle Paradox

[Mr B]

Hey one'n'all,

I am considering writing a series of articles for OHRWeekly about tileset topics.

It would focus on the way that different materials look and react to light and each other. I would not be doing anything specific, but looking at things in general material categories. For example; wood, stone (dressed and undressed), water, ice, glass, metals, etc.

I am also considering "higher-level" topics like visual interest.

I want to make certain that what I write is something that people find interesting and useful, so I would appreciate it if you people would respond and tell me the types of materials (or even those "higher-level" things) you are interested in my covering.

Please keep in mind that I want to focus on the most general ideas, so that they would be broadly-applicable.

I am not going to try anthing definitive -- just notes from one artist to another, so to speak.

Please give me some input on what you would like to see me write about.

-B

[Squall]

Start simple. Do something like grass (something more than the airbrush with random greens ) and foliage and stuff like that. Grass with varying amounts of flowers, weeds etc. poking through. After that, go through several different types of paths. Once that's done, work on showing how to make several materials into tiles (wood, metal, stone) and show how to make a house using each. Then you can move onto the inside with tables, beds (we NEED help with beds ), chairs, fireplaces, rugs, carpet, windows, pictures, books, etc. Finally, you could head on over to some more obscure topics.

It only makes sense to me to use the most widely used types of tiles first. But it's your decision. Hope I gave you some ideas.
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You got film in my video game!
You got video game in my film!

[Mr B]

Hm. I wasn't thinking of doing it with that format, but now it sounds like a good idea.

So it could be a format along the lines of:

Outdoors:
- dirt
- grass
- stones
- foliage
- buildings
-- wattle
-- wood
-- stone
Indoors:
- floors
-- wooden
-- carpeted
-- rugs
-- stone
- furniture
-- chairs
-- beds
etc.

However, I think that doing an outline of this form leads to a great deal of overlap; for example, stone would apply for both indoor and outdoor applications.

What I was thinking of was studying the materials themselves, apart from any specific application, then touch on uses. For example, I would study stone and how it reacts to light. Then I would study how stones relate to one another (rock formations, walls). Then I focus on dirt, and how it absorbs light, the kind of things found in dirt, and how it relates to stone.

Looking over what I just wrote, I see that there are definite advantages and disadvantages to each process. My original conception would meander a darn lot.

I shall have to see a way to synthesize the two.

Nice sig by the way, Squall.

[Komera]

i once contemplated writing about graphics construction (including tilesets), but quickly realized the construction concepts and (more importantly) the lexicon i would use was so over the top that i'd have to start with the VERY basics...

this is a dot .

dots in a row make up a line ____

a thick line is a shape...

etc...

which would have lost me an audience before i even got anywhere good. and before anyone asks, yes that is exactly the stuff they teach at art schools.
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LJ.Art

SD - Ten creatures remaining.

[Mr B]

I know; it drives me nuts. My mom is an artist (no longer professionally) and we have artist friends. I've done art since...oh...age 3. But I have had no training beyond what my mom and our friends have thrown together for teaching the neighborhood kids. We always did the same thing; seashells, bones, upsidedown picture of bifocalled weirdos, drawing things without looking at the paper. I did that for years.

And then I go to college and take an art class, and low-and-behold we draw upside-down weirdos again. It's as if we have to get a Ph.D in seashells and upside-down people before we're allowed to do anything.

But I digress.

I think I could pull it off without relying on such...basic concepts. At least, I'd like to try. Any other pitfalls you think I should know about?

[rpgspotKahn]

There is one very important thing I need to add to your list -
WATER graphics!
*Waves
*Still
*Rivers

I find water very important, and I know that many struggle with it.
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2nd Edition out now!

[Moogle1]

Check your PMs.

Lighting is hard to do effectively. I think just a basic rundown of lighting sources would be good before you delve into textured light reflection.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Friend]

I think other people can benefit from the elements and principles of designs. You don't have to be really through with them; just a basic run-through for them to get the idea. I really do think that I benefit from these basic ideas that they taught us in lower division art classes though. I'm pretty sure others will find them to be helpful too.
_________________
"I am Collins. From my position in the moon's orbit, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land and walk on the surface. I was so close to the ground of the moon, and yet I returned without having trod upon it... I am Collins." -Friend

[Mr B]

Oig, water graphics. Water is always harder because of fall-off, selective absorption, bubbles, and optical effects. I don't even want to try doing the light ripples on the bottom of a pool yet.

But I'll definitely think about it.

Sorry, Friend -- I don't quite understand what you mean by "elements and principals of designs." I don't think you mean patterns, but I'm not certain what.

At this point I am thinking of organizing the write-ups along these lines:

1.) Light source types et al.
2.) Textures and specularity-type stuff
3.) Basic materials (wood-stone-grass stuff would go here)
4.) Complicated stuff combining lots of elements, such as windows, furniture, etc.
5.) Somewhere along the line I would put in a part about tiling patterns and visual interest.

This organization would, of course, is a bit compact -- #3 would compose a large number of issues.

So yeah; I think this will be fun.

[Friend]

oh, I was talking mostly about this:

http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm

but since someone already written about it online, I guess you can just link to it or something. The elements and principles of design tend to differ from each instructors, but they're roughly about the same. They're flexible so you can pretty much apply them to anything.
_________________
"I am Collins. From my position in the moon's orbit, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land and walk on the surface. I was so close to the ground of the moon, and yet I returned without having trod upon it... I am Collins." -Friend

[NeoTA]

I presume one of the steps you are going to include is making the silhouette. In this case i suggest including converting the silhouette to a two-color* "shaded lineart" as a step -- it improves the clarity of the result a lot

* the darkest and lightest colors used for that surface.

[Calehay]

Can you do a section on the color wheel and contrast? I'm still a little confused by it.
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Calehay

[AdrianX]

..you should get (but maybe ask permission too) screenshots of visually-good OHR games/other amateur RPGs so that readers (specifically OHR users) can relate to it easily.topics should include lighting/shading of the tiles..because it's the most lacking aspect when it comes to OHR games..oh,and something about noise and dithering too.