Looking for some general advice developing art pipeline for 2d props
Hi guys, I am exploring some ways that I might create 2d props (mostly natural environmental stuff like trees, bushes, rocks) for an isometric, top down game.
I am looking at creating some 2d environment kits that may include dozens of foliage/rock/other natural things, each with a couple seasonal variations. The style is a painterly style, similar to Bob Ross style where it's kinda a fast and loose oil painting but with some realistic detail - I think the stylization just comes from the medium, not so much an intent to stylize if you know what I mean.
I have light experience digital painting so maybe it takes a few weeks before I get into the groove. I expect at least a month or more of full time "grinding" to generate the art content.
That is the obstacle.
Now, I have a few tools at my disposal: Affinity photo, photoshop, and paintstorm studio. All of them I can get around in but I'm not an experienced digital painter.
To the best of my knowledge, Affinity Photo and photoshop are equivalent for my purposes, so in a choice between AP and PS, I choose AP just so that I don't have to fire up a subscription.
Problem is that to discover any serious caveats, I'd probably need to pour a lot more hours into each. Given the scope of work I'm looking at, could anybody point to any serious caveats that might make you prefer one software over the other?
But AP and PS are the "robust" softwares. My preference is to go with something simpler: Paintstorm Studio. I've only dabbled with it for a few days but what I like is that I just get straight to work. I don't need to google how to do anything in the software, the brushes are effective and intuitive... it seems like all of my needs might be taken care of and I won't have the dangerous problem of "too many options."
Well, I know that nobody can "answer" such a vague question, but I thought I might poll and see if anybody has some experiences doing something similar. Any thoughts, advice, opinions are always helpful.
Thanks.
Replies
Why dont you try 3d to 2d work flow .You could set up a camera as you like it use preexisting speedtree model render it with alpha if the tree has a good silhouette its going to work just fine after that you could apply any number to filters to turn in to more painterly look if that's what you are after , no painting required ! maybe just a small touch ups
Why not feed some images to an AI random generator[or whatever its called] see whats going to came on the other side
Other option is just look for packs of 2d vegetation or rip something from old games that are open source
Or for a little money you could hire someone who can actually paint you some trees there are ppl that work for pennies
Modular sprites could be an option too
Hi! Curious to learn of other peoples ideas and approaches as well 🤓
I use Photoshop to create 2D assets for gamemaker (import as image strips most of the time). What proved important to me, is the function to export slices into separate files (since I like to work on multiple strips in one file) and linking of files. I'm sure this functionality is common in image editing programs. Typically I would start with rough blockout graphics, often cut out straight from some mockups, which are then implemented in gm, followed by iteration/reimport until finished.
Do you have an idea what engine you are going to use? I imagine with lots of foliage some smart way to animate it would be cool.
all good ideas.
a 3d to 2d workflow is easiest and is my fallback plan because its something I can do pretty easily and it can look fine, especially for a realistic style.
But I dont think the game would stand out as well as if I do a painterly style. All things considered I am not certain hiring somebody would be as effective as doing it myself. I think with just a week or two of practice I can produce the results I want myself. But it's going to take some figuring out what sort of variations I need for seasonal changes, animations, and other technical requirements.
It requires some start-up training to do myself but once I get over that initial hump, then iteration is going to be much faster and easier if I don't have to filter it through another person.
Once I get things figured out technically it may be useful to get some help to spread the workload a bit but I think that would be more of a decision to make after I've got more details squared away.
@Fabi_G , I am using unreal engine 4.27. Reason being is just because that is what I am most familiar with and the blueprint visual scripting keeps me productive without having to go as deep into technicals. This will be a 3d game with isometric camera, but most environment props are 2d.
Characters are 3d which means i can stick with familiar animation workflow I already know for that. For animating foliage wind sway I am kinda assuming that there is common solutions all over youtube for that, but I havent' looked into it too much.
If you like to do it yourself then I suggest to make yourself a little setup similar to what illustrator/concept artist do simple blocking and grid system in 3d to give you correct prospective so you render that and use as a guide to paint over
Not very good example but I cant found a better one things could be very basic boxes and cylinders
I did some experimentation with affinity photo, but it has a bug since at least 2015 that makes work on my microsoft surface pro tablet basically unworkable. That might not be a problem on my desktop but I enjoy using my tablet for this work.
Painstorm studio is pretty nice but the UI scaling is a problem on my laptop. As such it has less than ideal ergonomics. I spend too much time trying to find the perfect layout, but can never find something that works. In the meantime, art is not produced.
I discovered Artrage 6. I've spent a day and half making various paintings in it and can't find any problems. I'll work towards developing an art prototype with it then. I appreciate the intuitive design - so far I just "paint" and get the results I imagine without time wasted making brushes or fussing with UI or having to remember a 10 step process to edit some brushes.
If I discover some show stopper problem I'll try to remember to report it here but it looks like artrage6 should be the appropriate software to make oil paint style artwork for this game.
Artrage is fun.
Also you used to be able to export normal maps etc for the brush strokes out which was great for lighting effects in post