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Selasa, 28 Februari 2012

Building isometric art in vectors - step 1


I have had a few request to do something isometric - usually the requests cover characters and animation or more complex elements like buildings. As usual I am trying to start a little easier to ease the learning curve and create a simple isometric grass block (how boring of me ;) )... but... the next tutorial is already in the making and I find isometric art a lot of fun - well more fun now than back in the old days when I had to pixel them in 16x16 blocks with a handful of colours and still make them look good...

Anyway... What is isometric art? 
According to wikipedia isometric projection is: 'Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings. It is an axonometric projection in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and the angles between any two of them are 120 degrees.'

Now that's a mouthful... and please... don't ask me to explain it.... I just use it...  ;) Basically it's an attempt to fake a three dimensional feel in 2D by rotating the ground 45 degrees and ignoring the perspective scaling (objects do not get smaller when they are further away). 

Let's get started with some basic steps into isometric projection. This is close to 'true isometric' but not quite there - but a lot easier to handle artwise. 

Note:
With different game engines you might encounter slightly different proportions as far as the vertical scaling goes... but the process of creating the elements would be very similar.


 
For my little scene I added a quick tree - with a couple of circles (keeping the 1/2 deformation ratio in mind)  and some simple rocks based on the same circles - and it's already starting to look like something you would expect to see in a game. 

The main problem you will encounter when creating whole scenarios in inkscape based on 'isometric blocks' is the depth sorting. It will only look right if the tiles are stacked properly and the furthest away (top left corner of the screen) are on the bottom of the pile and the closest (front right corner) are on top of the other shapes.

I hope you enjoyed this quick post and it's a start into the creation of isometric tile-sets. I will continue this tutorial with props and buildings next (and yes.. I will do characters and animations as well... ).

Note:
Turning on the snapping in Inkscape makes aligning nodes in step 5 a lot easier. 
Turn on the snapping View/ Snap (%) to align nodes precisely to others. In the snap button bar there is a button  to 'snap nodes or handles' (7th from the top) and by turning on the sub-function 'snap to cusp nodes' (10th from the top) allows you to snap nodes perfectly. 
In case it's still not as responsive as you would like go to the Inkscape Preferences (Shift+Ctrl+P) and change the weight for the snapping there.

Get the source art (svg file) of this tutorial for
USD 3.00


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Rabu, 22 Februari 2012

Working with bitmap output in mind

Here's another request (or a a combination of requests) put into a tutorial. How to create vector art that looks good in a small e.g. 48x48 px size. 

One of the advantages of vector graphics is it's lossless scalability. You can easily create an image and scale it up and down without sacrificing the quality. There will be no jagged edges or visible blocks when you increase it's size by a tenfold. It also works nicely the other way round by creating source files that can be used for smaller in-game images. 

To me it's a lot easier to create a few circles and boxes than to pixel a character from scratch. It can then be animated in inkscape and exported to bitmap and worked on with a bitmap tool (e.g. gimp) afterwards. 

I like to work with files 2x the output image for a slightly larger work area - and because I find the scaling algorithms work better in bitmap tools then exporting straight to the small size in inkscape.

The main elements are there and it's time to check what our little character will look like in its small in-game size. I primarily want to check if the outlines will still work in 48x48 or if they become too thin to be readable or are just too big and overwhelm the character. 

Now we have our character and it's exported to a bitmap file.

Note:
I skipped the adding of more detail (e.g. the shadow line of the hair (which is basically just a copy of the hair shape without the stroke and coloured in a 50% alpha dark violet) and the highlight in the hair (which is a quick squiggle with the freehand lines tool).

You should have something like this: a 96x96 px image with a transparent background and the little guy in his full glory. Thanks to the antialiasing it doesn't look much different from our vector shape. 

Now we open the file in the bitmap tool (e.g. gimp).

In gimp we reduce the size via 'Image/ Scale Image' to 48x48 and should get something like this. It still has the antialiasing which rounds of the edges and smoothes the steps. 

If you are after a more pixelated look I suggest reducing the colours (e.g. to just 16 colours) and manually touch up the image, removing AA outlines and redrawing the outer lines to be even. 

This would be a topic for a whole new tutorial - and I will add it to my todo list. For now I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and keep creative with inkscape. 

Note:
Some engines (especially for the iOS and android require set dpi (dots per inch or x and y resolution). I find it hard to adjust my art properly in inkscape to export to the right dpi straight away. Instead I change the dpi in the bitmap tool whenever needed. In gimp it's done in the 'Scale image' tool. You can set the x resolution and y resolution (e.g. to 72 dp[i for iOS applications) when scaling down.


Get the source art (svg file) of this tutorial for
USD 3.00

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Senin, 20 Februari 2012

Creating a brick building

This is a tutorial requested by one of the readers on how to create a building made of brick. In order to clarify what he meant I quickly created this one and wrote up the tutorial to explain the steps. 


There are a few  problem when adding pattern added to a shape. You have to make sure it's seamless (it tiles properly horizontally and vertically). You have to make sure it scales well with your object (too much detail might be lost in a smaller view and too little detail will look boring) and you need to make sure it matches the illustration style (a bitmap photo in a vector illustration might cause serious inconsistency in the look and feel). 


This is a brick building. We all recognize the pattern but it looks boring because the blocks are too big and too even. It's also not the best design for a house. 


Let's get started with a bunch of rectangles and build a more interesting looking house and then add the nicer brick pattern to it.



So... We got a simple yet decent looking house...


put into a row with varying colours it looks rather nice. It's open to a lot of designs now (e.g. you could add wood boards as a pattern and place it in Scandinavia.).  


For now we are after bricks so let's add some pattern.


When creating a pattern always try and look at the larger project rather than the one element you are working on. Will you need to reuse the pattern? Will there be colour variations? Do I need to make it scalable? You can save a lot of time and repetitive work  if you keep those questions in mind. Work with e.g. transparent elements for shaders rather than tinted variation of the base colour or convert your lines into paths to allow for a proper scaling.


I hope you enjoyed the tutorial as much as I did creating it. Have a great day and keep your creativity flowing.




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Kamis, 16 Februari 2012

Creating a character with outlines

Here's one request I have read a few times now: 'How do you make a character with outlines?'. It's not much different from any other character creations you just add a little more difficulty and a few problems to work around. 

The main problems I see with a lot illustrations using outlines are: a) the inconsistent line weight (different thickness of the stroke for different elements on the screen). It's a little more complicated and takes some thought to design the screen balanced. My advice is to keep it either keep it all at the same thickness or use a thicker brush for all the focus elements (eg. characters, logo, UI elements) and create the background with a thinner stroke. b) the colouring of stroke vs. the colour of the shape. c) the line weight does not correspond with the illustration. You might have noticed it in comic books, illustrations or animated cartoons - the stroke is not consistent in thickness. It starts thinner, goes thick and ends thin again giving it more of a brush feeling. If it's done right it really enhances the image but it's a time-consuming art. Simply using tools in Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw to create dynamic brushes usual ends up looking wrong.  

All those problems aside. Let's start with something simple.In this tutorial we will do a little piglet with a plain black stroke that stays consistent throughout the elements. In one of the next tutorials I will cover more complex and modified outlines.

The last two steps show one of the main problems with outlines - the overlapping of elements creates lines we don't want to see. You could just combine the snout and the head. Simply making it one object would result in problems animating it afterwards. This becomes even more visible in arms and legs. I prefer just adding shapes to cover those overlaps.


The tail might not the usual corkscrew design you see in a lot of pig illustrations - it was one of those cases of thinking you know how it looks versus the way it looks. In the end I checked on Google images [the best invention since sliced bread] and had a look at real piglets and found this cute little tail more appropriate.


And the last step - I forgot to add it to the tutorial pages - (remember I am fresh off the vacation) is a cover shape for the legs to join them with the body. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Get out inkscape and start creating!
Get the source art (svg file) of this tutorial for
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Vacation is over!

I am back from the vacation and glad to be home. The two week cruise to NZ is over, the suitcase unpacked and it's time to post. 

Besides doing nothing, eating too much good food and sleeping 2x as much as usual, I used the time on the ship to draw and sketch on my iPad and I might just do the odd tutorial on how to get the most out of the drawing tools available. 

After two weeks of not having computers or internet [ship's internet was painfully slow and overpriced to the point of being ridiculous] it's good to be back...

All refreshed, recharged and ready to roll I will try and work through all the requests for tutorials from you guys. :)


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Rabu, 18 Januari 2012

Cartoon Cactus

After a not quite so smooth start into the new year - with health problems [starting to really get annoyed with those] and my work laptop dying on me [thanks to a dead graphics card] - I am finally back in the swing of things and working through the wish list of tutorials I received. 

Here's one from Andrea - a cartoon cactus - which happens to be an extra element I created for the BlockBuddies Cowboy Bundle.

 
I hope this is helpful, Andrea. Enjoy!

Get the source art (svg file) (does not include the BlockBuddies cowboy) of this tutorial for
USD 3.00

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Sabtu, 31 Desember 2011

Happy New Year

All the best for the New Year! It's already started here and even though I was not down in Sydney to see the fireworks first hand they still looked amazing on TV. Being the designated driver meant I was restriked to a sip of champagne at midnight and by the time I got home I was to tired and forgot about the nice, cold, German beer in the fridge - on the up side: I am up early to experience a nice and calm first morning of 2012. 

I am looking forward to an exiciting year, with a lot of tutorials in the works and your feedback to keep me pushing on and trying to reveal more fun with vectors. 
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Jumat, 23 Desember 2011

Merry Christmas...


As usual I am a little late sending out my Christmas emails... I just couldn't decide on a nice design, got carried away with fun projects and now Christmas is here... and I will have to go with the 'naked truth' about my Australian Christmas - it's too hot to wear anything but shorts and t-shirt, way too hot for the roast for lunch, simply too much food (it starts with a brunch this year, a lunch with the family and a dinner (that I am not too sure will happen at all) and in the end a beer [or two :) ] in the pool... I can't wait!

Thanks for all the feedback and praise, the critique and support. Have a great holiday season and all the best for 2012.
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Minggu, 18 Desember 2011

Game Assets - BlockBuddies

Instead of working on the next tutorial I spent the weekend working on some easy to use game assets and am wondering if there is interest for something like it. 

So far I have done 16 sets of ~50 frames (each in 4 sizes from S (64x64) to XL (256x256)) covering zombies, cowboys, adventurer, soldiers and the odd blue alien with samurai, ninja, romans and a range of animals in the pipeline.

[Click to get to the character sheets]

The sets sell for USD 15.00 with the bundles (containing 3 characters) selling at USD 37.50 and two character sets going for USD 20.00.

Here's a sample sheet of the Block Buddies Dummy character:


[box (6 frames), kneel, doze, fall flat, ko, big gun [stand and crouch], gun [stand and crouch], flat, flying after a knock, idle, jump, jump high, jump higher, jump joy, jump land, jump far, push, run (8 frames), sit, stab, walk (8 frames)]

Here's the download link for the png files:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/BlockBuddies/Dummy.rar
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Minggu, 11 Desember 2011

Back with a BANG!

I was asked to write a tutorial on explosions, which didn't seem that hard until I started... It's become common practice to use particle effect for most ingame explosions, so doing an explosion by hand was a bit of a challenge.

I stared out with a simple very generic explosion and took it from there, added to it and added some more. Let's start with the first simple explosion.


It's a fairly generic, cartoon style explosion - quick and easy to create [and animate - by scaling the elements and fading to either light or dark as the explosion progresses]. 

Usually blowing things up leaves more than just a flash of light. Dust and smoke clouds and debris are part of a good explosion. Let's add some of that.

This is still a very cartoony look. Let's try something a little less 'flat' and add some volume to the explosions.

 
 This explosion is a bit more work to animate. You would start with a smaller light centre that would grow and add more circles to it that go darker as they reach the outside. The flash in the centre is just that - a flash - don't keep it on for too long or it will look more like a light source than an explosion. As this explosion dies down the dark circles would go grey and black, shrink and fall apart [either by imploding or falling to the ground]. 

As this is way too much fun - let's try another one. Similar to the last one but a little more compact, detailed and with some shading.


I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do... It's just too much fun to blow things up in style and I have to stop myself now and try and catch up with work (before writing the next tutorial that's already playing havoc with my imagination). 

Have fun and as always let me know how you go with the tutorial.
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