Artist Help: Question about Asset Bundle art syle

So the art that comes with C2's asset bundle. I'm wondering about the space ship designs.. who created them?

I've used these sprites as place holder art for my game and I want someone to create similar art. But I can't seem to find an artist that can draw like these.

The art style is small..somewhat pixelated, but definitely not pixel-art. What art style is it? namely the "Scythe" and the "Crescent".

I've noticed other attempts at ships on OpenGameArt.org and they just don't have it right, whether they are amateur artists I don't know. One thing about the asset-bundle sprites is that because the art is small, the only details added are ones you can clearly see at the intended resolution. It doesn't look good to have details that end up looking too small..it looks wrong... I can't quite explain it.. can any artist on here help me understand? I've been looking for an artist to create sprites fir me, and it has NOT been easy finding someone who understand what I want... maybe I am asking the wrong people.. but I'd like to know myself...

thanks!

(i think) its prerendered 3d , using mostly simple primitives and basic materials but nicely combined, you can get fairly close to this with some testing, yes its true resizing objects with lots of details sometimes blend with the important lines and shapes and it makes the object less readable, but mixing different art can also make it look wrong, or mixing different sharpness, having good graphics is all about working on the graphics so they fit together and indeed having an artist for just that is great ofcourse...

i think my illumina ships are somewhat the same size but are more detailed, like i said it depends on all your graphics to look good

thanks vtrix good points.. what is a "simple primitive" does that mean, basic shapes? So you think they were created as 3D models and someone just took a screenshot of them "top-down"? Using something like Blender perhaps?

I looked at your illumina ships.. that's a great look and that 3D "shading" is definitely what I am after. They did look a little "busy" to me, but regardless I need custom sprites for my story. I have had concept art done on my game. I've since run out of money and either need to do it myself or hire a student..either way, it's going to be a rough road! haha... (if I could digitally draw what I can do with a pencil, I'd be okay.. I've been practicing painting using GIMP for a while now.. getting better slowly-painfully). thanks.....

jobel , yes they are 3d models, the camera is pointed at the model and image or sequence are rendered out, not really a screenshot,

basic shapes, i mean spheres, squashed spheres, cilinders, some programs have special primitives with deformers and all that

While i said you can get this result, i mean if you have 3d experience you can get close to something like this, in order to get these full worklow, with colors,light, bumpmap, animation, it takes time..., and if you have to learn all the concepts first... i would only spend time on it if you really want to learn it. if not you better off finding other solutions,.. program used not sure, any 3d program would do if your good with it.

yeah well i paint/draw with my old trusty wacom intuos, have it for years now.., you have a digital pen?

you have a digital pen?

I do, but again, not great with it...

I have Blender, and I've done some very simple animations with it. Seems like it might be REALLY hard to make cool looking space ships with it. I actually just did a test render... and F3 to save as .png So I sort of see what I have to do.

Getting the right textures seems like it will be hard to do. And I'd have to play with the lighting a bit since my game is top-down. I think the light might come from the player's view? although I have seen some top-down views where the sides are lit which sort of works on the "2D plane"..an art "shortcut" since I'm not using dynamic lighting.

Hmm, I'm not seeing the ship names you mentioned. I must not have downloaded them.

Can you post a screenshot so I can see the ships you are referring to?

My game is all pre-rendered 3d. It's isometric, though, which is a little harder. I mostly use Modo for 3d. Maybe I can give some tips when I get a better look at the ships you mentioned.

DrewMelton this is the reference art I am using..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9jydmwkdvt0y9 ... 0.png?dl=0

jobel , yes you might get it with just different colored materials instead of texturing, metal material, shiny black material, dont know how easy its setup in blender, and as long as there is no clear directional shadow it can look alright, good luck with it!

Well, since I have a headache and don't feel like working, I thought I would play with your ship and see if I could recreate it.

Now, this is very rough. I didn't feel like getting every detail exact.

Based on my experience, it is tricky to recreate this exact style in 3d. You would almost be better off using Photoshop or some other program and just making it piece by piece using gradients and shapes. I mean, there are a lot of very strong gradients your example. I would have to really play with my material settings to recreate that exactly.

Also, there is a lot of detail such as the rings in the metal parts or the details on the red part of the ship that would be easier created in 2d. I'm not going to go through the trouble of setting up custom textures/bump maps or whatnot, so I just created some geometry to give it some detail.

You need to make a lot of bevels to make something like this. I also used a lot of loop selections. I duplicated shapes from one side to the other to save time. Like I said, it's not perfect. I didn't take the time to make sure everything was even lined up.

Depending on your skill level with 3d (modeling, materials/texturing, rendering, etc.) it may be easier to make in 2d instead. You'd probably have to make it actual size unless you go vector. With 3d, you can render at various sizes, but some detail is lost if you go really low rez. That's why a lot of pixel art is made at the actual size so they know how much detail can be seen. Of course, you don't have to go low rez. There's nothing wrong with higher rez art.

I use Modo because it's great for pre-rendered 3d. They do have a cheaper indie version on Steam. I use the full version, but the indie may work for most people. I never cared for Blender.

I can give you the obj or fbx if you want to play with it in Blender. I'm not sure how well it will export to that program though.

DrewMelton wow.. that is amazing! I just spent literally the whole day in Blender.. and what I have to show is absolutely awful... namely the lighting is a mess and the texture doesn't work at all.. I might be better off just using colors rather than texture images (my player's ship is a space capsule).

yesterday I spent the whole day trying to paint a ship in GIMP, and I got a lot further there.. however, that's pretty painful as well, since I'm literally painting the shading in...not entirely sure how it will look in-game, so it's slow going, but definitely more doable than with Blender.

Blender seems really cool.. I don't know though.. seems like you need to put a lot of (learning) hours in to make something decent looking.. and whereas I'm trying to basically make a tiny sprite.. seems overkill for me to learn to create in 3D. I actually made a rough of the ship okay.. it's just the rendering that's the bad part.. it's pretty difficult to make look good... the lighting is like hell... at one point I had 5 suns, and a plane emitting light and the ship was still dark in random spots. I'm trying to simulate a space background, so have to manually set up the lighting is a little beyond my skill.

Now, this is very rough. I didn't feel like getting every detail exact.

if I could do this, I'd be in business!! looks awesome to me..

I can give you the obj or fbx if you want to play with it in Blender. I'm not sure how well it will export to that program though.

I would say yes, but that's the Construct 2's asset bundle ship, and I have other art I need to make into sprites.. I'll try to post what I have here..

Glad you like it. It wasn't as hard as the stuff I had to make for my game. My game requires fully animated human characters rendered in 8 directions.

This is a screen from my game. It's just a small test area.

Anyway, you mentioned trying to find an artist. I may be able create some assets for you depending on what you need.

wow.. so good! how are you doing that torch lighting??? DrewMelton

DrewMelton here's my stuff..

a pencil sketch I did... 30 mins..

after a couple GIMP shading tuts..1 hour... (just a test of the top of the ship to see if I could do the shading..which I really can't!)

after a full day of Blender tuts..and 3 hours later.. (a test just to see what it would take to output an image..slow learning curve!)

oh here's the concept art I had done.. and what this design is based off..

some of these details will need to be left out or exaggerated in the actual sprite, since the sprite is only going to be about 81x47px

in my OP, these are the questions I have about details when scaling down..