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Tutorial Collection / Re: Tiles... they really aren't that hard, guys.
« on: November 11, 2014, 12:09:15 PM »
Lesson 5: Refining Details.
So... not sure how else to really tackle this other than just showing you before and after side by side, along with the source material (new stuff in quote box to set it apart):
A lot of this step just comes down to having an eye for detail, and that can really only be learned through practice. If there are any specific areas you'd like to see discussed more thoroughly by all means ask.
One big reason for the differences are that some areas on the original just don't work with NES color limitations. Things simply have to fit neatly into 16x16 chunks, there's no getting around that. Take the ladders for instance... the top of the side platforms can't have that silver bit so high, so that had to be squared off though I carried a stripe of black between the two to try and keep them linked. The ladders were also a weird size and that needed to be narrowed, as 2-tile wide ladders are okay (7, 8 and mm&b justifying it) but 3 with the slides not climbable just doesn't fly. Likewise the corners of the 'frame' walls had to be squared off, but I moved the diagonal deeper in to keep that general feel intact.
With the pipes, clearly changing the shading pattern does a world of good in making it much sharper and distinct. In particular I noted the presence of a second smaller pipe as the most interesting detail and made color choices that, while less true to the source gives a pleasing sharpness and emphasis to it. In this area in particular, as well as the frame above and the bricks to the left, I want to draw special attention to the importance of making the common black color more a part of the design and how much sharper and cartoon-like this makes everything, a key part of maintaining the classic Mega Man style.
With the large blue background graphic I actually deleted half so that the reference showed through directly next to it, then mirrored the finished result. While time consuming, this part section was just an exercise in bringing back the sharpness that the earlier color simplification obscured. One technique used the most in this section is using parallel lines at a progressively variable spacing to emphasize a feeling of roundness.
Going back to the bricks, I made a judgement call here to make them a more regular as they just didn't feel classic megaman-y enough. I also decided to swap the colors of the exposed bricks to match the other area to better tie them together as being the same stuff. Artistic license, but I think it works. I might take another shot at the 'lights' in the brick that still aren't quite distinct enough for my tastes though.
Perhaps the most obvious change is the dam area, owing to the extra pallette swaps I discussed the other day. Adding new shading options there makes the sky work MUCH better, and as a consequence also means I can bring back the yellow pipes in the underwater area as well as letting me kill those troublesome sky blue bricks that were just plain weird earlier. Still on the underwater area, In refining the non-bacground bits of rock that you're supposed to be able to actually stand on I felt it needed to be more separated from the purple. The original was brown, but giving it a violet shading job ties it together while keeping it visually distinct... chalk the color difference up to distance and water opacity. I didn't make all the brownish rocks in this style though to keep it pushed back into the background, and they needed to be squared off anyway as we can't have parallax effects here.
Oh, and one last thing... the outside dam area had those foreground pillar areas that simply can't work in NES, so I reworked those a bit by getting rid of the perspective and fleshing out that exposed section to fill the full width of the column for that area where the player will pass through it. The NES certainly CAN do foreground tricks like that, but it does so by putting the sprites behind the tile layer (hence why such stages tend to use a solid colored background everywhere, as in airman or toadman), and doing that would kill far, far too many other sections of the map to make that a worthwhile.
Next time: Some original new tiles to fill in a few gaps and the completely rebuilt stage map. After that we'll get to animation and finally adapting it to MM8BDM.
So... not sure how else to really tackle this other than just showing you before and after side by side, along with the source material (new stuff in quote box to set it apart):
Quote
A lot of this step just comes down to having an eye for detail, and that can really only be learned through practice. If there are any specific areas you'd like to see discussed more thoroughly by all means ask.
One big reason for the differences are that some areas on the original just don't work with NES color limitations. Things simply have to fit neatly into 16x16 chunks, there's no getting around that. Take the ladders for instance... the top of the side platforms can't have that silver bit so high, so that had to be squared off though I carried a stripe of black between the two to try and keep them linked. The ladders were also a weird size and that needed to be narrowed, as 2-tile wide ladders are okay (7, 8 and mm&b justifying it) but 3 with the slides not climbable just doesn't fly. Likewise the corners of the 'frame' walls had to be squared off, but I moved the diagonal deeper in to keep that general feel intact.
With the pipes, clearly changing the shading pattern does a world of good in making it much sharper and distinct. In particular I noted the presence of a second smaller pipe as the most interesting detail and made color choices that, while less true to the source gives a pleasing sharpness and emphasis to it. In this area in particular, as well as the frame above and the bricks to the left, I want to draw special attention to the importance of making the common black color more a part of the design and how much sharper and cartoon-like this makes everything, a key part of maintaining the classic Mega Man style.
With the large blue background graphic I actually deleted half so that the reference showed through directly next to it, then mirrored the finished result. While time consuming, this part section was just an exercise in bringing back the sharpness that the earlier color simplification obscured. One technique used the most in this section is using parallel lines at a progressively variable spacing to emphasize a feeling of roundness.
Going back to the bricks, I made a judgement call here to make them a more regular as they just didn't feel classic megaman-y enough. I also decided to swap the colors of the exposed bricks to match the other area to better tie them together as being the same stuff. Artistic license, but I think it works. I might take another shot at the 'lights' in the brick that still aren't quite distinct enough for my tastes though.
Perhaps the most obvious change is the dam area, owing to the extra pallette swaps I discussed the other day. Adding new shading options there makes the sky work MUCH better, and as a consequence also means I can bring back the yellow pipes in the underwater area as well as letting me kill those troublesome sky blue bricks that were just plain weird earlier. Still on the underwater area, In refining the non-bacground bits of rock that you're supposed to be able to actually stand on I felt it needed to be more separated from the purple. The original was brown, but giving it a violet shading job ties it together while keeping it visually distinct... chalk the color difference up to distance and water opacity. I didn't make all the brownish rocks in this style though to keep it pushed back into the background, and they needed to be squared off anyway as we can't have parallax effects here.
Oh, and one last thing... the outside dam area had those foreground pillar areas that simply can't work in NES, so I reworked those a bit by getting rid of the perspective and fleshing out that exposed section to fill the full width of the column for that area where the player will pass through it. The NES certainly CAN do foreground tricks like that, but it does so by putting the sprites behind the tile layer (hence why such stages tend to use a solid colored background everywhere, as in airman or toadman), and doing that would kill far, far too many other sections of the map to make that a worthwhile.
Next time: Some original new tiles to fill in a few gaps and the completely rebuilt stage map. After that we'll get to animation and finally adapting it to MM8BDM.
