(Tileset) Atlantis

And the best way to improve your artwork is to learn how to draw.  I'm afraid you have to face that reality.

edit: assuming you mean your artwork in general, and not just this tileset; if the latter, then I guess asking for suggestions does work, although you might as well just get someone else to finish the tileset.

Thanks for that.

Why don't YOU do it?

I'm sure I could come up with a better reason if I thought for a while, but the truth is that I'm really not altogether that interested in finishing your tileset.

It's well-known that spirals are hard to draw, particularly in pixel art. The spirals you did for this already have an excellent shape -- I never said or implied the tileset didn't need further polishing before it would be ready for use.

My general advice to you is to ignore people who can't differentiate constructive criticism from insults.

Some specific advice: The dolphins are a bit too hard to see at that size, though you could leave the smaller versions in for background use (that would be pretty cool, actually). I'd suggest using 2-6 tiles each for the foreground dolphin statues, the way the statues in Technology of the Ancients were done, and also trees in most tilesets that have them are done. Working larger will also let you use some of the stylistic touches like the Minoan dolphins I linked to before.

Speaking of trees, including some coral and/or some kelp-like seaweed might also work with this tileset...

And keep working on this! I for one am looking forward to using it when it's complete.

Thank you very much, it's always good to see people who appreciate my work, no matter how bad it is at the time.
I was actually planning on making larger dolphins, just using the smaller ones as little helpers for positioning etc. Thanks again!!

My general advice to you is to ignore people who can't differentiate constructive criticism from insults.

Is the quoted sentence constructive criticism or an insult?  I can't tell.

Well, well, Captain Idaho strikes again! If you're not going to CONSTRUCTIVELY criticize my work, I highly suggest that you quit posting in this topic.

And I highly suggest both of you STOP ARGUING.

  Aww.... But it's one of my major skills! Seriously I didn't mean anything by my uhhhh... Meanness, I was just trying to stick up for the rights of artists, and artistic freedom in general.  Sorry if it seemed "confrontational" to anyone who may be ahem, listening.  Also I would like to apologize for the excessive smileys in this post, it's just good to have one pumpkin shut the other one up you know? Lol. No hard feelings minmay?

No hard feelings, though I'm not sure why I should be offended in the first place.

I do hope you realize, however, that the best way to draw better tilesets is to learn how to draw better tilesets.  Unless you need help with something extremely specific (such as drawing trees, anyone remember that?  ) you're better off working on improving in general than you are asking for suggestions or criticism of any sort.  That's not to say that the latter doesn't help - it just doesn't help as much as many might think.

I could provide plenty of micro-improvements ("constructive criticism"), but really, it would be pointless.  In fact, I'm going to do it just to demonstrate how pointless it is/please someone for entirely the wrong reason/accidentally offend someone for about the sixth time/all three.

-Pretty much every color used has way too much contrast with nearby colors.  The white spirals look unappealingly bright against the blue ground, as do the bright cyan outlines next to the borders.  This also applies very heavily to the pillars.

-I'm not sure how the little "windows" would be used in the first place, but I recommend making their width:height ratio less extreme.  Adding a bit of alpha channel might help as well.

-The statue has highlights, but nothing else does; inconsistent lighting is bad.  And you flipped the tile without even bothering to change them, so it looks very strange if you use both tiles at the same time.

-I can't tell what the dark thing at the bottom is.  Is it supposed to be a bridge?  It appears to be a background object, and one that will always have to be 3 tiles long to not look strange, and, well, I still don't know what it is.  The dark outline on it confuses me further. 

-I can't imagine anyone actually being able to use the fancy texture tiles, as they are completely inconsistent with the style of the rest of the tileset.



No hard feelings...right?   

  Windows? Those are for having water come out, to start a "waterfall" type thingy, and the way I used it it works nicely. Yes, no hard feelings. Uhm, here's the most recent version of this stupid piece of crap...

Oh and those weird dark things are kind of a bridge, I don't know if it can be used for what I meant it for, (lol) but it seems like a stupid addition to something that probably shouldn't exist in the first place. If anyone actually uses this as a part of their level I'd be beyond surprised.

Those are for having water come out, to start a "waterfall" type thingy

Oh.  In that case, the shape is fine.

I hope you're not getting discouraged not letting your discouragement keep you from working on more tilesets, by the way.  Everyone's first tilesets were plenty crappy; see the thread I'm about to open because I have very special news.

Lol, thanks for the "encouragement" minmay it helps a LOT! Ooooh VERY special news?

Edit: So does anyone else have some ideas for an atlantis tileset?

Edit #2: Here's the most recent version, I toned down the spiral color, it seems to look a bit better and less eye burningly bright. I added chains and aqueducts (spelling?) that I think turned out nice. I need to improve the chains though... Meh. Any ideas floating around anyone?

Here is by far my best version of it... Fixed the "pink" issues added glowy things, a crystal skull, and put some shading on the pillars. Hip hip hooray!! :DD

The pillars look much better now.  (Though I still think the cyan on them needs to be less bright.)

I'm not a fan of what you did with the spirals, though.  The colors still have way too much contrast with the ground itself.  I think it would be better to just do something like this:


While I see what you're trying to do with the statues, it's not working.  They look like they're in the distance, so having such heavily contrasting colors looks bad.