Isometric Art for Game Characters
Isometric Art for Game Characters
Wednesday, May 11, 2016 - 00:10
Hi everyone, I am developing a game and also designing characters. I am having trouble designing 2.5D or isometric however, and i needed some help. I tried using isometric patterns from different games but I cant seem to measure the proper height. I am also planning to animate them smoothly like the animation of the characters in game of dice. They kinda moving with different parts of limbs and i find it cool. Any idea how to implement it?
Many, particularly the older isometric games use pre-rendered art (or drawn), so that there are sprite sheets with the animation phases. Basically you draw or render each character in all the required poses and directions, and then just draw the correct frame on screen at a given time.
This is easy to code but ends up with fairly lareg sprite sheets.
The correct height depends on the viewing angle. Usually I don't dive into the math for that though, but chose a height that looks good, e.g. shows nice proportions.
if you have example screen like the one shown, you also have examples of good character proportions and can use them as templates for your own art.
If you are into 3D modelling, many tools like Blender or PovRay offer an orthographic camera, which you can use to render isometric views. This is the approach that I used most in the recent years.
Strongly agree with you man. Thank you very much for your opinion and also awesome tool suggestions! I'll try them now and see what I can do with it.