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In need of a car

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 12:17 am
by Master K
I'm doing an apocalypse game, and shamefully, I am unable to make a car...could someone possibly make me a car walkabout sprite?

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:09 am
by Gizmog
No, but I'll try to walk you through it. Show us what you have so far, so we can help you find out why it looks "wrong". The standard RPG perspective can make cars kind of tricky.

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:02 am
by Pepsi Ranger
I can give you two suggestions that might save you a few headaches later:

1. If you're gonna use roads, make sure you use at least two rows of tiles to draw them. You don't want to leave the impression that the car is the same width as the entire highway. The car should take up only a single lane.

2. Cars are easy to animate if you remember to draw "bouncing sunlight" on the windows and the wheel rims. Basically you'll want the car to look exactly the same on both frames of animation, save for the shifting of light pixels on the wheels and glass. For added effect you might also want to add exhaust coming from the tailpipe. Or, if you're drawing a convertible, you can blow the driver's hair around.

Hope that helps.

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:52 pm
by Master K
I'm more or less concerned on the front and back sprites of the car. The side, I anticipate to be easier, but with the perspective screw, I don't know how to draw the front and back sprites without it looking horribly squat up.

Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:34 pm
by Gizmog
Go ahead and try. Truth be told, it should look a little squatty from that perspective.

Try to think of the car as scenery and not a person. Generally speaking, when we draw characters we draw them as if they were standing on a platform looking right into or away from the camera. And when we draw tiles like roads, paths or floors, we draw them like you're looking straight down at them. But when we draw things like trees and houses, we cheat the perspective a little, to let you see things like entrances, exits, so you don't have to sit there and look at nothing but roof.

Some dudes do go ahead and draw the car from a top down perspective, and then you just have to hit the + key a few times to rotate it around. That can look really nice, but personally I dig it when it looks like the car is driving into the ground a little bit. It doesn't break the illusion or stand out or anything, and it feels more like you're driving a car than just looking at the top of it.

TL;dr: Go ahead and try. Show us what you got. Just like a writer needs an editor, an artist needs a fresh set of eyes.