This video is somewhat different from my other videos, I wanted to try and show my thought process for creating a scene, which initially meant that the video became around 50 minutes long, which I then had to cut down significantly :) I probably won't make more videos like this, it was really tricky to maintain pacing and I realized my computer pretty much can't handle these long timelines. This also means that there are some audio bugs throughout the video, but I kind of couldn't fix them (the audio got messed up during export more than once). I'll be back to my regular 10 minute videos with my next one, thanks for watching :)
Ye, I'd say that has been one of the most effective improvements I've made over time, There's potential to save an immense amount of time, because you are less likely to draw stuff that you don't actually need :) (which to be fair, even happened in this scene)
Thank you :) I've kind of felt the need to make this type of video. This is the type of material I always end up cutting in my videos, it's stuff that is technically important, but tends to be difficult to bring up in a video without detracting from the 'idea for that video'. I'm happy you found it valuable :D
This was my favorite video of yours because it puts most of the things you've talked about in other videos together to make something tangible, a scene. I actually kinda wanna play this level now because it's coherent, but also varied enough to discover things. It also shows how being thoughtful from the getgo can save you literal dozens of hours.
Very good deep dive. Two tipps. 1) I use the spline based feature, which allows you to create organic shapes. That can be used conservatively, too, so it fits with your style. I use it also for trees and other elongated objects. It was made for Rayman style levels, but can be used creatively in all sorts of ways. 2) I notice you miss out on Procreate‘s “Reference” feature. Draw the outline. Set the layer to “reference” and on a new layer underneath, use the FILL tool (drag/drop swatch inside the reference shape, but on a new layer). Et voila, this obeys the line art, but the fill is now on a new layer. Next, on the fill layer, protect the alpha, and now paint in shading etc.
3) You can also make use of mirroring sprites, either in-engine (negative x-scale) or when creating assets. In the latter, you probably want to modify the sprite a little to hide the fact that they are mirror versions.
Thank you, I appreciate the feedback :) I still want to figure out how to do it from time to time, but my computer really can't handle the timeline particularly well and that in part makes the video extremely difficult and slow to make. This video took around a month to make whereas my average videos tend to take a week.
This is brilliant. I feel like this actually gives me a visual on what we talked about many months ago! Love the process man, this has to be the best channels on the subject.
@@Nonsensical2D honestly i prefer long form content, it’s great to see you go through your entire process, although i wish you mentioned what resolution you are actually making the game in or did a short video on resolution. keep up the content i’m always looking forward to a new video
Generally I target 1080p, this scene was 4k resolution though. I think most indie games target for both 4k and 1080p, but there are development downsides with making 4k work with a somewhat crappy computer and I generally don't want to be bogged down by stuff that is superfluous. I've been working on the script for a video on resolution for quite a while, but other scripts end up being more 'ready' so the video keeps getting pushed back, but I'll try and finish it :)
I have an idea of how to make that tree more special: Mycelia can transmit information between trees, perhaps they can do more, and transport your character to hidden bonus rooms.
Thanks :) I ended up buying itorah based on your suggestion btw, I haven't played too much of it yet, but it really feels like an interesting game to discuss in terms of art so thanks again :)
@@Nonsensical2D Oh, thanks the trust here. The game is graphically (overall, vfx) a excellent craft but gameplay and gamedesign are "only" solid. I guess this game would be interesting in how they do things.
I tried to find your business email but you don't seem to show it on you yt-about page. So I ask you here: Would you like to do a short 20-30min interview video about your channel and you, your game etc. ? By the way good social blade metrics, if you keep it up with this quality, you will surpass my sub count in around a year.
I seriously love the name of your channel😊, but I honestly think that your content is anything but nonsensical. I makes total sense! 😁 thanks for sharing!
Haha, ye. the name kind of makes no sense because it was originally referring to animal illustrations that I was doing, I just wanted to maintain the name for game art content so it became Nonsensical2D :) Thanks :)
Sorry for late answer, I was trying to finish up a video where I was discussing this stuff and I felt that if I wrote a short paragraph as I had in the past then that would leave a lot unanswered, but I hopefully have answered most of these questions in my most recent video, but the brush size I generally have at around 2% in procreate, this will in terms of pixel size differ a bit, but honestly I tend to eyeball my lineart because you tend to get some potential wonky aspects of while having lineart in general :)
Great video! I have a few questions: 1. What is the canvas size you are using in Procreate for each asset? 2. What is the process you are doing for sharing the assets from procreate to your mac and import them in Godot? So that if you decide to polish an asset you just need to do it in procreate and it will automatically update in godot without having to re-import it? 3. If you draw your assets using a big canvas size and the you scale them down in godot, aren’t you risking to have different sizes related to the width of the black lines you are using as border of each asset? Thanks a lot!
The canvas size I use kind of depends on the asset, my second to most recent video ('what size should your assets be?) kind of goes into more depth on how i approach it, but in essence I just look at how big I need the asset to be in game (in relation to the screen 1080x1920), and then make a guess for what the dimensions will need to be. If it makes sense, I also adjust to the closest power of two, so 128x256 for instance, but not always. I generally don't do game dev using my mac (that I just recently got), I use a server on my windows machine, but it's essentially like airdrop, then I have my project on that server, so if i export into procreate it will automatically replace the original file with the new png of the same name, but I need to go through the hassle of exporting it. Procreate and godot does as far as I am aware not have the same seamless integration that photoshop and unity has. As for the scaling of the black lines, I talk a bit about this at around 4:00 min in this video, but I also talk about it in my video on asset sizes, and yes you are correct, I not only run that risk, it happens, all the time for all my assets. But unless it is too big of a size difference in the thickness, it tends to go unnoticed, so I don't worry about it. If it is too obvious, then I go back and alter it. It's a bit cumbersome and I generally avoid scaling down too much as it is, but it is a downside I have come to accept :)
I really appreciate your analysis videos of art styles, when you breakdown what works and not. I want to experiment with hand drawn styles without outlines and was wondering if you have any examples of games that do that well, especially sidescrollers? Gris I like a lot but I feel I'd want to have some game with less of a symbolic art style.
There are a couple, it is tricky to recommend some, because a lot of the good ones have styles that would be extremely difficult to implement alone (they are made by teams of artists). Some of the more achievable ones that I like are Islets, Sheepo, The end is nigh and pinstripe (haven't played pinstripe but the artstyle does quite a few things decently, made by thomas brush). There are also some 'styles' that I think might be possible to do alone or at least learn from, such as night in the woods and guacamelee. Then we have some that I think would be very difficult to even attempt to do on your own, such as rayman, steamworld dig and lumione, but they have neat styles nonetheless. I might actually do a video on taking complexity of work into account when picking a style, because it matters a lot.
@@Nonsensical2D Thank you for your reply. Islets, especially the more desaturated places looks really good. I really like the scenery art of Rayman Legends, I noticed (after watching your videos) that they seem to go for very low color contrast in their levels. Which really helps the readability of the game. Pinstripe looks good, but from the pictures and quick video I watched it feels like it might sacrifice some readability in favor of the art style. Lumione feels like Ori does for me, the game looks beautiful, but there is something (I don't know exactly what) that does so the art style does not make me too interested. Maybe they're too refined in a way? I'll look a bit more into the examples you gave and see what inspiration I can draw from them.
I have a video on procreate where I mention it in slightly more detail, but for the most part I rely on the syrup brush and inka (part of the original set)
Yous aid if we know what size the grid cells in the game are gonna be we can know how big to draw an asset..I just ask how? Do you mean a grid cell in your game is maby 16x16 so if its 16x16 then in procreate should i drae the sprite 16x16 or twiche as big and then shrink it down?
Yes, i mean the grid cell. if the grid cell is 16x16, then it will be enough to use 16x16 in procreate as well. But you can go twice as big if you want to be on the safe side (but this is technically not necessary).
This is amazing! I did want to offer the following, perhaps implement more angled assets. Instead of using horizontal platforms exclusively, why not include platforms that rest on top of others at an angle, or sit vertically? (if your character controller allows for it)
Thanks :) The reason why I don't is largely because of time. Making the character walk on slopes increases some amount of coding/debugging, but the largest time sink is making the animation sync and look good. This is not a huge issue if you are doing rigging, cause you can make it more dynamic, but if you are doing frame by frame animation, then you need to draw the animation for each type of slope you want the character to be able to walk on. And I personally don't think that slopes add that much in terms of gameplay, I largely grew up on playing with horizontal platforms, so it personally feels like a poor time investment.
Sadly I don't really have a noteworthy method, I place the files in folders that make sense for a scene or area, and I don't have any tilemap to speak of, i just place the assets into the scene and try and organize it the best I can. With that said I try to split my gameplay scene from my art, but that is just what i've found to be most convenient using godot.
Sorry for late answer, I was finishing up a video where I discussed most of this in more detail. With that said I think for most people the game you are making it for will generally either be 4k or 1080p. Most people play at 1080p and so you probably need in part to accomodate that. whether you shoot for 4k or not will be up to you, the safest bet is to probably make your assets fit 4k even if you don't make your game in 4k. I mostly stick to 1080p when working on my game because I usually start my scenes fairly unoptimized and in 4k my computer will have trouble running. I generally don't think people would buy or not buy your game based on it not being 4k anyway. In terms of the canvas size for each asset, You can look at my most recent video for a more detailed answer, but in short the best method is probably to estimate the size of the asset based on how much of the screen you want your asset to occupy in relation to the resolution of your game.
I think I cover this in my video on procreate, but I mostly use the syrup brush for lineart, and sometimes inka. For the other stuff I mostly also use the standard kit, like the noise brush. I don’t change any settings to them, just the original kit
video idea(if not done already): mobs and character effects. I've been animating my mob and main characters movement in krita and then using a plugin to export it as a sprite sheet and doing it got me thinking about how i will make the effects that will show more impact of the actions that I'm animating, so if its not done it would be cool if you could make a video on this. I don't know if I'm explaining this properly but for example stuff like sword slashes or when a character falls down and lands the leaves below it rustle, or even the actually attack on the player how would it be created and how would you make the player be hurt by it. all of this is a little confusing for me. I don't know if I create and animate the effects in krita or in unity. I hope I'm making sense this comment feels all over the place sorry 😅
Ye, I have been planning to make something to that effect, but I have a few videos that I need to finish before, but it is definitely an important thing and something I will try and cover in the future :) Thanks for the suggestion ^^
I used to use a usb drive, but I got a tip from another dev that setting up a server on your pc was the way to go, and ever since that has been my approach. I just upload it directly to the computer over wifi. It frankly isn't that tricky and there are plenty of tutorials on how to do it.
Hey sorry for posting it like this, yt is kind of deleting all my posts :D. How about we do this via discord, which would be the easiest I assume. I tried posting the link (4th try already), so please hope in any of my videos (not the last this one) and use from the description box the discord link there.
This video is somewhat different from my other videos, I wanted to try and show my thought process for creating a scene, which initially meant that the video became around 50 minutes long, which I then had to cut down significantly :) I probably won't make more videos like this, it was really tricky to maintain pacing and I realized my computer pretty much can't handle these long timelines. This also means that there are some audio bugs throughout the video, but I kind of couldn't fix them (the audio got messed up during export more than once). I'll be back to my regular 10 minute videos with my next one, thanks for watching :)
you know how much i love your channel, i always waiting for your video to upload, and i was so surprised and happy when you made a 27 min video
i really like the idea of placing small amount of assets in multiple places in the scene and only later polishing the quality of them
Ye, I'd say that has been one of the most effective improvements I've made over time, There's potential to save an immense amount of time, because you are less likely to draw stuff that you don't actually need :) (which to be fair, even happened in this scene)
Not to undermine your previous videos, but this one is way more useful and practical.
Really nice job showing your process, thank you!
Thank you :) I've kind of felt the need to make this type of video. This is the type of material I always end up cutting in my videos, it's stuff that is technically important, but tends to be difficult to bring up in a video without detracting from the 'idea for that video'. I'm happy you found it valuable :D
This was my favorite video of yours because it puts most of the things you've talked about in other videos together to make something tangible, a scene. I actually kinda wanna play this level now because it's coherent, but also varied enough to discover things. It also shows how being thoughtful from the getgo can save you literal dozens of hours.
Thank you. It was a great video again. Especially 26:47 adding cracks later was what was I looking for.
This one feels easier to breathe than before!
Very good deep dive. Two tipps.
1) I use the spline based feature, which allows you to create organic shapes. That can be used conservatively, too, so it fits with your style. I use it also for trees and other elongated objects. It was made for Rayman style levels, but can be used creatively in all sorts of ways.
2) I notice you miss out on Procreate‘s “Reference” feature. Draw the outline. Set the layer to “reference” and on a new layer underneath, use the FILL tool (drag/drop swatch inside the reference shape, but on a new layer). Et voila, this obeys the line art, but the fill is now on a new layer. Next, on the fill layer, protect the alpha, and now paint in shading etc.
3) You can also make use of mirroring sprites, either in-engine (negative x-scale) or when creating assets. In the latter, you probably want to modify the sprite a little to hide the fact that they are mirror versions.
Thanks, I’ll check it out in the future :)
Amazing video!! I learnt so much
Easily the most practical video of your; I loved how hands on it was! It's a shame we won't get more long videos, I loved this one.
Thank you, I appreciate the feedback :) I still want to figure out how to do it from time to time, but my computer really can't handle the timeline particularly well and that in part makes the video extremely difficult and slow to make. This video took around a month to make whereas my average videos tend to take a week.
This is brilliant. I feel like this actually gives me a visual on what we talked about many months ago! Love the process man, this has to be the best channels on the subject.
Thanks :)
hey first time catching a video early, thanks for making these videos they’re unbelievably helpful.
Thanks I appreciate it :) This one is a bit different, but I'll be back with shorter and less 'dense' videos :)
@@Nonsensical2D honestly i prefer long form content, it’s great to see you go through your entire process, although i wish you mentioned what resolution you are actually making the game in or did a short video on resolution. keep up the content i’m always looking forward to a new video
Generally I target 1080p, this scene was 4k resolution though. I think most indie games target for both 4k and 1080p, but there are development downsides with making 4k work with a somewhat crappy computer and I generally don't want to be bogged down by stuff that is superfluous. I've been working on the script for a video on resolution for quite a while, but other scripts end up being more 'ready' so the video keeps getting pushed back, but I'll try and finish it :)
My favorite thing in this video is seeing you laugh and smile for The first Time 😃
Also excellent worlflow tutorial! I learned something new ✌️
nice i really enjoyed this journey
I have an idea of how to make that tree more special: Mycelia can transmit information between trees, perhaps they can do more, and transport your character to hidden bonus rooms.
As usual a very interesting insight into your workflow. Thanks for making these videos.
Thanks :) I ended up buying itorah based on your suggestion btw, I haven't played too much of it yet, but it really feels like an interesting game to discuss in terms of art so thanks again :)
@@Nonsensical2D Oh, thanks the trust here. The game is graphically (overall, vfx) a excellent craft but gameplay and gamedesign are "only" solid. I guess this game would be interesting in how they do things.
I tried to find your business email but you don't seem to show it on you yt-about page. So I ask you here: Would you like to do a short 20-30min interview video about your channel and you, your game etc. ? By the way good social blade metrics, if you keep it up with this quality, you will surpass my sub count in around a year.
@@1upIndie Do you have reddit? maybe we can talk there, I was thinking of contacting you separately actually :)
Thực sự hữu ích đối với những người mới tiếp cận đến đồ họa game. Cảm ơn! Tôi rất kém về đồ họa.
I seriously love the name of your channel😊, but I honestly think that your content is anything but nonsensical. I makes total sense! 😁 thanks for sharing!
Haha, ye. the name kind of makes no sense because it was originally referring to animal illustrations that I was doing, I just wanted to maintain the name for game art content so it became Nonsensical2D :) Thanks :)
Keep it 👍
Great video! Could you please show the size of brush the size of canvas actually the size to work with everything will be awesome ❤
Sorry for late answer, I was trying to finish up a video where I was discussing this stuff and I felt that if I wrote a short paragraph as I had in the past then that would leave a lot unanswered, but I hopefully have answered most of these questions in my most recent video, but the brush size I generally have at around 2% in procreate, this will in terms of pixel size differ a bit, but honestly I tend to eyeball my lineart because you tend to get some potential wonky aspects of while having lineart in general :)
I really appreciate the quality of video
Your iPad is it the M1 ?
thanks :) It is the 2020 version, so it has a12 chip rather than the m1.
Great video! I have a few questions:
1. What is the canvas size you are using in Procreate for each asset?
2. What is the process you are doing for sharing the assets from procreate to your mac and import them in Godot? So that if you decide to polish an asset you just need to do it in procreate and it will automatically update in godot without having to re-import it?
3. If you draw your assets using a big canvas size and the you scale them down in godot, aren’t you risking to have different sizes related to the width of the black lines you are using as border of each asset?
Thanks a lot!
The canvas size I use kind of depends on the asset, my second to most recent video ('what size should your assets be?) kind of goes into more depth on how i approach it, but in essence I just look at how big I need the asset to be in game (in relation to the screen 1080x1920), and then make a guess for what the dimensions will need to be. If it makes sense, I also adjust to the closest power of two, so 128x256 for instance, but not always.
I generally don't do game dev using my mac (that I just recently got), I use a server on my windows machine, but it's essentially like airdrop, then I have my project on that server, so if i export into procreate it will automatically replace the original file with the new png of the same name, but I need to go through the hassle of exporting it. Procreate and godot does as far as I am aware not have the same seamless integration that photoshop and unity has.
As for the scaling of the black lines, I talk a bit about this at around 4:00 min in this video, but I also talk about it in my video on asset sizes, and yes you are correct, I not only run that risk, it happens, all the time for all my assets. But unless it is too big of a size difference in the thickness, it tends to go unnoticed, so I don't worry about it. If it is too obvious, then I go back and alter it. It's a bit cumbersome and I generally avoid scaling down too much as it is, but it is a downside I have come to accept :)
I love your channel and how you approach game art! Any chance we can hire you to come up with art for our game?
I really appreciate your analysis videos of art styles, when you breakdown what works and not. I want to experiment with hand drawn styles without outlines and was wondering if you have any examples of games that do that well, especially sidescrollers? Gris I like a lot but I feel I'd want to have some game with less of a symbolic art style.
There are a couple, it is tricky to recommend some, because a lot of the good ones have styles that would be extremely difficult to implement alone (they are made by teams of artists). Some of the more achievable ones that I like are Islets, Sheepo, The end is nigh and pinstripe (haven't played pinstripe but the artstyle does quite a few things decently, made by thomas brush). There are also some 'styles' that I think might be possible to do alone or at least learn from, such as night in the woods and guacamelee. Then we have some that I think would be very difficult to even attempt to do on your own, such as rayman, steamworld dig and lumione, but they have neat styles nonetheless. I might actually do a video on taking complexity of work into account when picking a style, because it matters a lot.
@@Nonsensical2D Thank you for your reply. Islets, especially the more desaturated places looks really good.
I really like the scenery art of Rayman Legends, I noticed (after watching your videos) that they seem to go for very low color contrast in their levels. Which really helps the readability of the game.
Pinstripe looks good, but from the pictures and quick video I watched it feels like it might sacrifice some readability in favor of the art style.
Lumione feels like Ori does for me, the game looks beautiful, but there is something (I don't know exactly what) that does so the art style does not make me too interested. Maybe they're too refined in a way?
I'll look a bit more into the examples you gave and see what inspiration I can draw from them.
I really like your art style and I'd love to draw along in Procreate. I'm new to drawing though, which brushes do you use?
I have a video on procreate where I mention it in slightly more detail, but for the most part I rely on the syrup brush and inka (part of the original set)
@@Nonsensical2D Thank you very much for your help :)
Yous aid if we know what size the grid cells in the game are gonna be we can know how big to draw an asset..I just ask how?
Do you mean a grid cell in your game is maby 16x16 so if its 16x16 then in procreate should i drae the sprite 16x16 or twiche as big and then shrink it down?
Yes, i mean the grid cell. if the grid cell is 16x16, then it will be enough to use 16x16 in procreate as well. But you can go twice as big if you want to be on the safe side (but this is technically not necessary).
This is amazing! I did want to offer the following, perhaps implement more angled assets. Instead of using horizontal platforms exclusively, why not include platforms that rest on top of others at an angle, or sit vertically? (if your character controller allows for it)
Thanks :) The reason why I don't is largely because of time. Making the character walk on slopes increases some amount of coding/debugging, but the largest time sink is making the animation sync and look good. This is not a huge issue if you are doing rigging, cause you can make it more dynamic, but if you are doing frame by frame animation, then you need to draw the animation for each type of slope you want the character to be able to walk on. And I personally don't think that slopes add that much in terms of gameplay, I largely grew up on playing with horizontal platforms, so it personally feels like a poor time investment.
Can you please make a video on the software or method you use to move all those assets into the tile map and how that all works with the code.
Sadly I don't really have a noteworthy method, I place the files in folders that make sense for a scene or area, and I don't have any tilemap to speak of, i just place the assets into the scene and try and organize it the best I can. With that said I try to split my gameplay scene from my art, but that is just what i've found to be most convenient using godot.
When making game art, how big should the canvas be?
Sorry for late answer, I was finishing up a video where I discussed most of this in more detail. With that said I think for most people the game you are making it for will generally either be 4k or 1080p. Most people play at 1080p and so you probably need in part to accomodate that. whether you shoot for 4k or not will be up to you, the safest bet is to probably make your assets fit 4k even if you don't make your game in 4k. I mostly stick to 1080p when working on my game because I usually start my scenes fairly unoptimized and in 4k my computer will have trouble running. I generally don't think people would buy or not buy your game based on it not being 4k anyway. In terms of the canvas size for each asset, You can look at my most recent video for a more detailed answer, but in short the best method is probably to estimate the size of the asset based on how much of the screen you want your asset to occupy in relation to the resolution of your game.
What is the style pen did you use, and parameter in procreate ? I cant do the same of you with mine
I think I cover this in my video on procreate, but I mostly use the syrup brush for lineart, and sometimes inka. For the other stuff I mostly also use the standard kit, like the noise brush. I don’t change any settings to them, just the original kit
video idea(if not done already): mobs and character effects.
I've been animating my mob and main characters movement in krita and then using a plugin to export it as a sprite sheet and doing it got me thinking about how i will make the effects that will show more impact of the actions that I'm animating, so if its not done it would be cool if you could make a video on this. I don't know if I'm explaining this properly but for example stuff like sword slashes or when a character falls down and lands the leaves below it rustle, or even the actually attack on the player how would it be created and how would you make the player be hurt by it. all of this is a little confusing for me. I don't know if I create and animate the effects in krita or in unity. I hope I'm making sense this comment feels all over the place sorry 😅
Ye, I have been planning to make something to that effect, but I have a few videos that I need to finish before, but it is definitely an important thing and something I will try and cover in the future :) Thanks for the suggestion ^^
@@Nonsensical2D np! I love this channel and I appreciate what your doing and all the content you make!
How do you transfer your sprites from the ipad to your computer?
I used to use a usb drive, but I got a tip from another dev that setting up a server on your pc was the way to go, and ever since that has been my approach. I just upload it directly to the computer over wifi. It frankly isn't that tricky and there are plenty of tutorials on how to do it.
Hey sorry for posting it like this, yt is kind of deleting all my posts :D. How about we do this via discord, which would be the easiest I assume. I tried posting the link (4th try already), so please hope in any of my videos (not the last this one) and use from the description box the discord link there.
Hi, how are you?
Nice vídeo, i love it but i can use illustrator create some game art