Isorath Art Journal: Welcome to the Jungle Pt. 2

ID:54017
 
Feb 10 2009, 7:01 am (Edited on Feb 10 2009, 10:11 am)
Keywords: updates
Morning everyone, after a few suggestions for additions to the Jungle tileset I have returned with an update. Also, I have a request... I need a name for the jungle region, sort've like my initial tileset which I named the Heartlands. Any ideas? Also, I'm open to suggestions for additions to the tileset.

New things you may notice: Different colored mushrooms, both giant and big, different kinds of shrubbery and the first jungle flowers that I have made. I also added a boulder to the tileset, and with the mapping I have played with tree height. Tell me what you think.




Above, we see a stream passing through the jungle. As the jungle itself is too thick and dangerous to navigate, the natives use streams and rivers as their main form of transportation. Flowers litter the coast, as well as shrubbery and mushrooms.




Here, we see a much larger ancient temple scene, which is surrounded by trees (this is mainly where I played with the height.) There are vines growing on the walls and... gardens? Obviously, this temple is still in use by someone. Could it perhaps be the elves that live here?

As always, I am open to constructive criticism and suggestions for my art. I hope you liked it.

(P.S. Become a fan if you like my art!)

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Feb 10 2009, 7:14 am
Wonderful. Keep it up Z.
Feb 10 2009, 7:28 am
I know the tent is hidden somewhere in those trees!
I like the trees a lot.
Feb 10 2009, 7:30 am
Very nice.
Feb 10 2009, 7:34 am
Vermolius wrote:
I know the tent is hidden somewhere in those trees!
I like the trees a lot.

haha, thanks.

[edit] By the way, if you like what I do, become a fan. :) -->
Feb 10 2009, 7:40 am
Just a few pixel crits :) Your Mushroom like things dont have to be dithered ya know lol Why not keep them smooth heh example: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee237/chrisgregg123/ hmmyh.png

And your Wall is pillowed o_O
Feb 10 2009, 7:47 am
Chris-g1 wrote:
Just a few pixel crits :) Your Mushroom like things dont have to be dithered ya know lol Why not keep them smooth heh example: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee237/chrisgregg123/ hmmyh.png

And your Wall is pillowed o_O

Thanks for the suggestions. :) I pillowed it on purpose to give it a little depth.
Feb 10 2009, 7:49 am
There, ya happy now?
Feb 10 2009, 7:59 am
Needs moar tents.

I like it, good job ;)
Feb 10 2009, 8:02 am
Zxcvdnm wrote:
Chris-g1 wrote:
Just a few pixel crits :) Your Mushroom like things dont have to be dithered ya know lol Why not keep them smooth heh example: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee237/chrisgregg123/ hmmyh.png

And your Wall is pillowed o_O

Thanks for the suggestions. :) I pillowed it on purpose to give it a little depth.

Pillowing is forbidden!(lol well maybe not, but it is pretty ugly and shouldnt really be done), Trust me there is no depth to dither, ill do you a little edit of the brick after dinner to show ya what i mean lol ;)
Feb 10 2009, 8:09 am
It's too blocky.

Adding a few curvy grass turfs where it looks blocky would drastically improve it.

Just make a grassy turf that curves about in several ways, and then lay them on top of the path, also a few things like twigs and maybe a few blades of grass that jut out of the normal beaten path would help it alot.

You can probably make these icons pretty fast and they would help a ton. Anywhere it looks square, round it out, or make it not-so-noticeable.
Feb 10 2009, 8:17 am
The tree leaves look nice. I would redo the stairways and add some shadowed sections to the brick walls so you can tell it has depth.

As said, the grass needs to have some more rounded sections too, or you could also try having horizontal sections of road to help eliminate the blocky look.
Feb 10 2009, 1:00 pm
Chris-g1 wrote:
Zxcvdnm wrote:
Chris-g1 wrote:
Just a few pixel crits :) Your Mushroom like things dont have to be dithered ya know lol Why not keep them smooth heh example: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee237/chrisgregg123/ hmmyh.png

And your Wall is pillowed o_O

Thanks for the suggestions. :) I pillowed it on purpose to give it a little depth.

Pillowing is forbidden!(lol well maybe not, but it is pretty ugly and shouldnt really be done), Trust me there is no depth to dither, ill do you a little edit of the brick after dinner to show ya what i mean lol ;)

Blerg. As I see it, pillow shading has it's places too! I think there was a post on the art society forums about this, somewhere..
Feb 10 2009, 1:04 pm
Chris-g1 wrote:
Zxcvdnm wrote:
Chris-g1 wrote:
Just a few pixel crits :) Your Mushroom like things dont have to be dithered ya know lol Why not keep them smooth heh example: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee237/chrisgregg123/ hmmyh.png

And your Wall is pillowed o_O

Thanks for the suggestions. :) I pillowed it on purpose to give it a little depth.

Pillowing is forbidden!(lol well maybe not, but it is pretty ugly and shouldnt really be done), Trust me there is no depth to dither, ill do you a little edit of the brick after dinner to show ya what i mean lol ;)

fair enough. i tried a few different ways of shading it but i wasn't exactly happy with any of them, post a screenshot up here whenever you're done. :p
Feb 10 2009, 4:15 pm
As always, I am open to constructive criticism and suggestions for my art.

And you are. Respect to ya and cheers!

I like the jungle scene a lot. The trees fit together tightly and give it a real sense of thick jungle.

I actually like your dither style. A lot of people can't pull that off without looking like they've gone spastic with the spray can, but you show control and real style with it. Keep the dithering.

In addition to shadows (which can be a real pain in the arse as far as programming and placing them - depending on how and how much you do it), I'd say you've got a square highlight on the rounded top form of your mushrooms (not unlike the shading you had on the trees). It's not a huge deal, tho.

One thing you may want to try to increase readability and add some depth to the temple is to shade/color the two planes of your cube shapes differently. IOW, you've got a horizontal side to the stone blocks and a vertical side. You can differentiate them by lightening the horizontal side to make that plane pop out show the structure a bit more.

(rough example)
http://www.byond.com/members/TheMonkeyDidIt/files/Misc09/ Zxcvdnm10.PNG

Just an idea
Feb 10 2009, 5:26 pm
TheMonkeyDidIt wrote:
As always, I am open to constructive criticism and suggestions for my art.

And you are. Respect to ya and cheers!

I like the jungle scene a lot. The trees fit together tightly and give it a real sense of thick jungle.

I actually like your dither style. A lot of people can't pull that off without looking like they've gone spastic with the spray can, but you show control and real style with it. Keep the dithering.

In addition to shadows (which can be a real pain in the arse as far as programming and placing them - depending on how and how much you do it), I'd say you've got a square highlight on the rounded top form of your mushrooms (not unlike the shading you had on the trees). It's not a huge deal, tho.

One thing you may want to try to increase readability and add some depth to the temple is to shade/color the two planes of your cube shapes differently. IOW, you've got a horizontal side to the stone blocks and a vertical side. You can differentiate them by lightening the horizontal side to make that plane pop out show the structure a bit more.

(rough example)
http://www.byond.com/members/TheMonkeyDidIt/files/Misc09/ Zxcvdnm10.PNG

Just an idea

Thanks so much for your feedback! Much appreciated!
Feb 13 2009, 11:24 am
Those trees look like bushes with peg legs.

I say this simply because I used to do the same thing. Zenigwolf once explained to me that, Leaves grow from the branches which come from the tree. You just have the stump and leaves growing out of no where besides the base of the tree. Not a single branch.
Feb 14 2009, 3:18 am
CodingSkillz2 wrote:
Those trees look like bushes with peg legs.

I say this simply because I used to do the same thing. Zenigwolf once explained to me that, Leaves grow from the branches which come from the tree. You just have the stump and leaves growing out of no where besides the base of the tree. Not a single branch.

Because of the perspective, you can't see the branches. Thats just how it is, I made branches for it first but it just didn't look right and looked much better this way.