Ah, I think these might have started as vector images. I'll try to look for the files, if you're lucky you might be saved some work. My health is poor though, and the files aren't on the computer I use so I don't know when I'll get to it.
@William The laptop I'm using is very outdated, and I think most people consider my resolution to be so old that being unsupported is normal. The main problem I have is that things aren't fitting vertically, at least not unless I'm full screen. The main problem with this is that I can't scroll upwards enough to get to the load image icon unless I'm at fullscreen or hit F11. BTW, after I opened the image, it kicked me out of fullscreen mode. I like the process used to pick which colors to remap to, it does a really good job. For many palettes I wouldn't need to do any editing at all, even when swapping to something with far fewer colors. I ran into the question mark error again, but I don't know what causes it yet. Maybe the file name was too long.
@withthelove Thanks! I don't mind a more involved process for something I won't use often, so I think it's a good solution.
@Baŝto Ah, I totally forgot about the 3 color sprite limit. I keep thinking that 4 is fine, since you can use 4 in the background. I'm old enough to remember making pixel art back when everything was indexed, you'd think I wouldn't forget something like that. I think you should try seeing how it looks when you remove the shadows, because then you can use the darkest shade for more than just outlines. It should free up a few more options on the sprites.
@Baŝto I know what you're talking about! It was a really common thing to be able to do in art programs back when everything was low colors. I remember using palette swapping to create animations as a kid. Mostly waterfalls. You can assign two spots with the same color in GIMP once the image is indexed, and I've been meaning to play with it a bit, but haven't gotten around to it yet. That really would be a great way to do a sprite recolor.
@William I'll check it out when I'm back on my computer. Currently on my phone, which isn't exactly useful for testing.
@Laborious Rex The knob is fun, but fine control is difficult with the mouse. Useage tips would be great, especially for key commands.
@Everyone Although batch processing won't be used often, for the people who would use it, it'd be a big deal. I think it's okay to keep it until last, but I don't think it should be thrown out entirely. It'd only be about once or twice, but I think I would use it.
I love that you guys are helping each other do better, it's awesome. These different programs are getting me excited to work on my art again, so I can take advantage of these and play with them properly.
@Withthelove An updated version? How wonderful! I was convinced that the last version was going to be the end of it since it's been a while. I'm really looking forward to the ability to map differently for different sections, that would make things a lot easier on me when trying to convert a tile set. I was expecting having to cut it up myself then stitch it back together when I was done, but it's a lot of work that I was avoiding.
@William Ah, I had been following this and skimming the replies, but somehow I missed that you had a new program that did similar things. Sorry about that! About your message, yes of course I remember you, no worries my friend. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the linked program to work, my sad little lappy's screen is too small for the UI to fit on screen and when I tried to add the image I got a ? instead. It seems like a more hands off approach to palette swapping, which is cool but not as useful to me so I didn't try terribly hard to figure out what was causing the error. Maybe I added the wrong file type?
@LABORIOUS REX Wow! I really like the way you've handled the auto remap, especially with how easy it is to change it up if the results aren't ideal. The magic knob is presented in a really amusing way too. Because it can be fine tuned after, the auto remap is more useful than I'd originally thought, and saves me time on the setup. I think a way to zoom in and select colors from the image itself would be helpful. Sometimes it's hard to tell exactly which color is being the problem child from just the palette. The current palette loader looks nice, and I like the preview images, but finding exactly which one I'm looking for takes longer than I feel it should. Some sort of order would help, but I think it'll need some sort of overhaul if you intend to add more defaults.
Sorry about the lack of replies. Just barely figured out how to fix my email filter so I shouldn't miss the comments in the future. I love seeing what everyone does with this set! New art! New games! New ways to combine with other art! It's fun and inspiring, thanks for sharing. :D ScienceJ, you probably don't need your question answered anymore, sorry. But just in case, I'd say stick to one mapping style unless it makes sense for your game to switch. There aren't a lot of games out there who have successfully managed this kind of style change though, so if you aren't confident that your idea is one of them, don't try it. Besides, you should be focusing on making it consistent and fun to play before worrying too much about making it pretty.
I love the dirt shadows, that looks really dynamic on its own, without the water, which is fun for mapping options. I think lowering the contrast between shades like you did in the fourth attachment is a good choice. The other ones look like clear shallow moving water, which is also very good, but I like how the low contrast one doesn't feel the same visually as the dirt. I think it fits the style a little better and doesn't try to fight with the ground texture for attention. For colors I really like the dirt test 3. The one above it is too green, it doesn't contrast enough from the color of the grass, but adding just a little bit of green instead is nice, I think it adds a nice calm feeling to the palette. It's a little less cartoony looking than the original palette for the water but I don't think that's a bad thing in this case. In the originals I was attempting something that was quite colorful but somehow a little muted too. The colors are just a little pulled back from pure, so they keep the energy from having a lot of fairly saturated hues but are just a little less loud than fully saturated, right where it hits relaxing. It's contradictory so I never managed to explain it properly, but I think the slightly greener blue hits the mark.
Oh, water is really tricky, you're quite brave to jump right into the deep end with it (pun intended). I look forward to seeing your progress with this. I can tell you've put a lot of thought and effort in so far, that's really cool! I really like the feeling in the animation of version 6, but it looks a bit computer generated then reduced. Whatever you end up with, I think you should have some sort of sparkle or shine at the point where the water meets the shore, it'll help sell it as water. Something else that helps it look wet would be to put some shine against the shadows, the high contract will help it look reflective.
I'm sorry that the original LPC water is something that needs improvement. Looking back at it, I should have done things a little differently, and been more purposeful in choosing what kind of water to represent with it. The default water was meant to represent flowing water, something fast and deep, which is why the edges are so . . . spikey and the center is much more calm. The only reason it wasn't animated was because I didn't have enough time. I should really go back to it at some point and give it the intended animation, I think that would help it look a little more wet.
LPC is pretty stylized, so I'm not sure how well going more realistic will work out here. Maybe it would help more in this case to look at existing pixel art with a similar style for a reference. It's been a bit, but I think Minish Cap was one of the inspirations, plus it has really amazing pixel art, so that might be a good place to start. Another thing that could work well in this style is to focus more on reflections. You can define the edges with tiles then have a parallax layer behind to show the sky. I also really liked how the SNES version of Tales of Phantasia did the water. They used shadows from a reflected tree canopy to give it both a reflective and deep feeling, it was quite clever. Focusing on the effects would probably have the greatest effect. It's amazing what some splashes or bits of moving wildlife can do to sell the realism.
Here's a few I found.
https://kingpx.itch.io/pixel-backgrounds
https://www.deviantart.com/princess-phoenix/art/Woodland-Wall-Background-814980517
https://www.deviantart.com/princess-phoenix/art/A-Beach-Background-812487302
https://www.deviantart.com/princess-phoenix/art/Pier-or-Edge-of-Water-Background-814191828'
https://kingpx.itch.io/rpg-knights
https://opengameart.org/content/four-characters-my-lpc-entries
https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-helmets
https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-roman-armor
https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-medieval-fantasy-character-sprites
Ah, I think these might have started as vector images. I'll try to look for the files, if you're lucky you might be saved some work. My health is poor though, and the files aren't on the computer I use so I don't know when I'll get to it.
@William The laptop I'm using is very outdated, and I think most people consider my resolution to be so old that being unsupported is normal. The main problem I have is that things aren't fitting vertically, at least not unless I'm full screen. The main problem with this is that I can't scroll upwards enough to get to the load image icon unless I'm at fullscreen or hit F11. BTW, after I opened the image, it kicked me out of fullscreen mode. I like the process used to pick which colors to remap to, it does a really good job. For many palettes I wouldn't need to do any editing at all, even when swapping to something with far fewer colors. I ran into the question mark error again, but I don't know what causes it yet. Maybe the file name was too long.
@withthelove Thanks! I don't mind a more involved process for something I won't use often, so I think it's a good solution.
@Baŝto Ah, I totally forgot about the 3 color sprite limit. I keep thinking that 4 is fine, since you can use 4 in the background. I'm old enough to remember making pixel art back when everything was indexed, you'd think I wouldn't forget something like that. I think you should try seeing how it looks when you remove the shadows, because then you can use the darkest shade for more than just outlines. It should free up a few more options on the sprites.
Oh wow, they do! Probably because the original color count was so low. Maybe they'll show up in a GB Studio game.
@Baŝto I know what you're talking about! It was a really common thing to be able to do in art programs back when everything was low colors. I remember using palette swapping to create animations as a kid. Mostly waterfalls. You can assign two spots with the same color in GIMP once the image is indexed, and I've been meaning to play with it a bit, but haven't gotten around to it yet. That really would be a great way to do a sprite recolor.
@William I'll check it out when I'm back on my computer. Currently on my phone, which isn't exactly useful for testing.
@Laborious Rex The knob is fun, but fine control is difficult with the mouse. Useage tips would be great, especially for key commands.
@Everyone Although batch processing won't be used often, for the people who would use it, it'd be a big deal. I think it's okay to keep it until last, but I don't think it should be thrown out entirely. It'd only be about once or twice, but I think I would use it.
I love that you guys are helping each other do better, it's awesome. These different programs are getting me excited to work on my art again, so I can take advantage of these and play with them properly.
@Withthelove An updated version? How wonderful! I was convinced that the last version was going to be the end of it since it's been a while. I'm really looking forward to the ability to map differently for different sections, that would make things a lot easier on me when trying to convert a tile set. I was expecting having to cut it up myself then stitch it back together when I was done, but it's a lot of work that I was avoiding.
@William Ah, I had been following this and skimming the replies, but somehow I missed that you had a new program that did similar things. Sorry about that! About your message, yes of course I remember you, no worries my friend. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the linked program to work, my sad little lappy's screen is too small for the UI to fit on screen and when I tried to add the image I got a ? instead. It seems like a more hands off approach to palette swapping, which is cool but not as useful to me so I didn't try terribly hard to figure out what was causing the error. Maybe I added the wrong file type?
@LABORIOUS REX Wow! I really like the way you've handled the auto remap, especially with how easy it is to change it up if the results aren't ideal. The magic knob is presented in a really amusing way too. Because it can be fine tuned after, the auto remap is more useful than I'd originally thought, and saves me time on the setup. I think a way to zoom in and select colors from the image itself would be helpful. Sometimes it's hard to tell exactly which color is being the problem child from just the palette. The current palette loader looks nice, and I like the preview images, but finding exactly which one I'm looking for takes longer than I feel it should. Some sort of order would help, but I think it'll need some sort of overhaul if you intend to add more defaults.
Sorry about the lack of replies. Just barely figured out how to fix my email filter so I shouldn't miss the comments in the future. I love seeing what everyone does with this set! New art! New games! New ways to combine with other art! It's fun and inspiring, thanks for sharing. :D ScienceJ, you probably don't need your question answered anymore, sorry. But just in case, I'd say stick to one mapping style unless it makes sense for your game to switch. There aren't a lot of games out there who have successfully managed this kind of style change though, so if you aren't confident that your idea is one of them, don't try it. Besides, you should be focusing on making it consistent and fun to play before worrying too much about making it pretty.
I love the dirt shadows, that looks really dynamic on its own, without the water, which is fun for mapping options. I think lowering the contrast between shades like you did in the fourth attachment is a good choice. The other ones look like clear shallow moving water, which is also very good, but I like how the low contrast one doesn't feel the same visually as the dirt. I think it fits the style a little better and doesn't try to fight with the ground texture for attention. For colors I really like the dirt test 3. The one above it is too green, it doesn't contrast enough from the color of the grass, but adding just a little bit of green instead is nice, I think it adds a nice calm feeling to the palette. It's a little less cartoony looking than the original palette for the water but I don't think that's a bad thing in this case. In the originals I was attempting something that was quite colorful but somehow a little muted too. The colors are just a little pulled back from pure, so they keep the energy from having a lot of fairly saturated hues but are just a little less loud than fully saturated, right where it hits relaxing. It's contradictory so I never managed to explain it properly, but I think the slightly greener blue hits the mark.
Oh, water is really tricky, you're quite brave to jump right into the deep end with it (pun intended). I look forward to seeing your progress with this. I can tell you've put a lot of thought and effort in so far, that's really cool! I really like the feeling in the animation of version 6, but it looks a bit computer generated then reduced. Whatever you end up with, I think you should have some sort of sparkle or shine at the point where the water meets the shore, it'll help sell it as water. Something else that helps it look wet would be to put some shine against the shadows, the high contract will help it look reflective.
I'm sorry that the original LPC water is something that needs improvement. Looking back at it, I should have done things a little differently, and been more purposeful in choosing what kind of water to represent with it. The default water was meant to represent flowing water, something fast and deep, which is why the edges are so . . . spikey and the center is much more calm. The only reason it wasn't animated was because I didn't have enough time. I should really go back to it at some point and give it the intended animation, I think that would help it look a little more wet.
LPC is pretty stylized, so I'm not sure how well going more realistic will work out here. Maybe it would help more in this case to look at existing pixel art with a similar style for a reference. It's been a bit, but I think Minish Cap was one of the inspirations, plus it has really amazing pixel art, so that might be a good place to start. Another thing that could work well in this style is to focus more on reflections. You can define the edges with tiles then have a parallax layer behind to show the sky. I also really liked how the SNES version of Tales of Phantasia did the water. They used shadows from a reflected tree canopy to give it both a reflective and deep feeling, it was quite clever. Focusing on the effects would probably have the greatest effect. It's amazing what some splashes or bits of moving wildlife can do to sell the realism.
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