$12256 / $11500
Hello!
I'll soon be looking for someone to create bubbly, cartoon-esque assets for a game of mine (mostly just simple rotating food and that such) and was wondering how I can ensure that all assets fit the same style.
Inevitably, there will be updates to the game, and potentially future commissions will be larger jobs than just one person would like to take on. I have a menu screen that fits the theme I'm going for, but how can I ensure that this next batch and all future batches of art fit together? Do I share a screenshot with the artist beforehand? Do I stick with a specific color palette?
Thank you in advance!
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Well, Most Artists will have there own style, but some are skilled enough to continue a particluar aesthetic (not me). It may help to keep a consistant style by having some criteria set, such as 'specific color palette', base sizes of sprites or whatever else you may think will define the art style your looking for.
The LPC assets have a criteria which helps everyone keep within a certain limitation when creating for the LPC, which helps keep the style consistant.
http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/index.html
You could have the same sort of thing for your project. :)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
In addition to the LPC style guide the Open Pixel Project has one here if you need more ideas: http://www.openpixelproject.com/style-guide/
The general idea is you want to think about all the things that matter to your artistic vision and write them down. There are a lot things to keep in mind.
* Priorities (What is the most important thing for your artists to remember?)
* Technology (sprites, vector, 3d?)
* Platform (PC, mobile, console)
* Engine (It won't help the assets fit together, but it will make them easier to use if the artist knows how you are going to use them.)
* Techniques (Grey Scale Index, Dithering, pallet swaps, transparency)
* RAM hacks (How big a sprite sheet is each character allowed? Is reusing spites in different animations cool? subdividing sprites for different effects? multi-piece animations? etc.)
* Perspective (What angle are we seeing things from?)
* Scale (How big is a meter or does it mater?)
* Themes (hope, fear, decay, morals, fantasy, etc.)
* Factions (Are there teams and if so what divides them?)
* tiles/sprites/hit sparks (Do the same rules apply to all asset types or do different types of assets have different rules and if so what do they share?)
* Color palette
* Shading (Yes/no, when and how?)
* Level of detail
* Animation standards (What animations do all your characters need, are there frame counts on that?)
* Etc.
Personally if you have the money for it I would recommend finding an experienced artist you like to make it for you. This is the realm of concept artists and lead artists. That said remember a style guide is a "guide book" not a "law book" and there is no way to account for everything.
P.S. Longer is not better. Good luck :)
I don't like to call my work 'art' but i certainly prefer it to be a 'work' rather than a product haha, i couldnt draw for my life anything but stick figures so i got used to blender which kinda helps with the consistency i get as i do anything from 3D to 2D inthere (i got a few items here) and somehow it seems to stay along the same lines ... (not a very pro approach but pro is for people who went to school and competing winners ... not loners hahah)
--
Let me enlighten you :: rules exist to discipline oneself, do not force them on someone else (Kongo - Ars nova cadenza)
-(free speech was meant to be free for all - it is either absolutely free or absolutely not (me)
ahh completely unrelated to anything but you're still using the icon I drew, cute x3
Thank you all for the feedback!
@chasersgaming I'm thinking I could benefit from learning more about sticking to a color palette. My current project already has a sort of theme unfolding, so it SHOULD be a lot easier to get an artist on the same page, but the LPC style guide loos to have some very useful information for general styling, I'm going to look through that a bit more for sure.
@Saliv I'm most definitely going to save that in a note. I feel as though this would give me a lot more leverage when trying to commission assets, instead of blindly trying to convey what I have in mind.
@alleycat You have some great art, it does appear that you're developing a style of your own!
@Spring Ah, what can I say? You made a kickass character, the team absolutely loves how it turned out
Thanks aww! I guess it's better than the stuff I do today xP