| Here are
some handy-dandy quick tips that I follow when making my game
art, feel free to print these and cut them out. Then hide
them in different places around your house. This way even
a seemingly innocent act like changing your socks turns into
a wonderful learning experience!
No lens flare.
"But lense flare makes
everything all shiny and new!"
No it doesn't. It makes
it look flat and stupid. Think back on your adventure game
career and think of all the adventure games you played...
Did Zak McKrakken have lense flare? No, no it did not.
"But that was then! This
is the new millenium baby, lens flare is in!"
Ok, if you want to use
lense flare, be my guest. Just don't let any character or
object lay/walk on top of it. That's not how lens flare works.
Lens flare is the sun or other light source bouncing off the
many lenses in a camera and they always appear on top of everything
else.
Do not use the lights
filter. They don't help in the slightest...
"Yes they do..."
No they don't.
"Yes they do, you
just hate me..."
I don't hate you, I love
you... That's why I tell you these things...
The light filters of Photoshop
aren't a cheap and easy way to get out of shading your drawing.
They can't differentiate between something in the foreground
or backround. They don't know how to cast shadow let alone
do much of anything but make your drawing look flat. Flat,
flat, flat.
Filters are not your
friend.
"Hey, my name is 'Coloured
Pencil' I can make you famous beyond you're wildest dreams!
All you have to do is use me all the time and no one will
ever know!"
Filters may promise a lot,
they may even buy you things and let you borrow their records,
but Filters are not your friends. Do not get stuck using filters
in your backrounds and especially not your characters unless
you really know what you are doing. Try and emulate what you
want through drawing not through using a filter. I can guarantee
that it will look much better.
Avoid gradients like
the plague.
"Hey, Billy, wanna come
over after school? My parents are gone, I was thinking we
could lock the doors and totally do some gradient fills!"
"Uh, gee... I don't know...
Isn't that kind of dangerous?"
YES! Billy, run from this
kid. Gradients are another sure fire way to flatten your drawing.
Unless you really know what you are doing, I'd stay away from
this tool. Again, why not try to emulate a gradient with different
layers of adjustment layers or something.
"But gradients are missunderstood!
They have a lot to offer us! Don't fear them!"
Ok ok, if you must use
a gradient, only use it for small areas. I'm talking small.
Do not gradient fill a wall for a backround, that is just
too big of an area and it will look really silly.
Trace your backround/sprite
rips.
"Welcome to our home!"
"Oh, thank you. It's lovely.
I love the vintage 16 colours... Oh dear... Um... Where did
you get that... um, lovely door?"
"Oh that old thing? We
stole that from The Dig... It's an adventure game by LucasArts.
Tea?"
I mentioned this in one
of my tutorials. When you are making a backround, and you
just can't quite get an object to look good and you know that
The Dig has a wonderful door that you just want to take...
Go ahead. Take it. Why not? Just do me one favour. Trace it.
Put it in your paint program and draw over it. Not only does
this help hide the fact that it's a sprite rip, but it also
helps you to learn to draw. Tell me one artist that never
drew from a photo source. Just consider your rip to be a photo
you took and now you're just recreating it. Meanwhile, through
the act of recreating it you will subconsciously learn how
to draw better [or at least in the style of the rip].
The ends justify the
means.
"Oh wow, Charles. These
drawings are amazing!"
"Thank you Sharon."
"They look completely original
and look like they took hours to make. I'm very impressed.
You can have sex with me now."
BUT CAN CHARLES HAVE THE
SEX WITH SHARON? EVEN WITH HIS DARK SECRET?!
What dark secret you ask?
Well, it doesn't matter. When making a drawing, it doesn't
matter what you do to get it completed. The ends justify the
means, as they say. If you need to copy fifty-percent of it
from a magazine and trace a bunch of sprites from Maniac Mansion,
it doesn't matter. As long as you get the drawing done, anything
can take place inbetween beginning and end.
I think my last bit of
advice is for walk cycles and animations in general. Look
up Edward Muybridge. Many years ago, before motion pictures,
one man made a bet with another man that a horse, while running,
lifts all four feet in the air. In order to capture this,
a man named Edward set up a series of cameras down a track
and as the horse passed by them they took a picture. This
made for a series of wonderful running stills of a horse.
He then went on to use this technique to capture people walking,
running, jumping, climbing trees, throwing things, picking
up things. And they are all laid out in a way that is perfect
for animation. So go look him up, he's wonderfully informative.
eric
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