Hello All,

Some wood is required in the game I'm making.

There is a tree that can be made into two pushable
wood blocks. The blocks need to be pushable so
the sides of the block needs to reach the outer
edges of the tile.
The tree isn't supposed to be filling up the top of
the tile as you need to see what is behind the
tree. (Water hole and/or regular hole)

Those limitations makes it a bit difficult to
make believable sized objects.
The game is a puzzle/adventure game and
the player needs objects to make their way through
a maze.

I believe you need this little background
to understand why the objects are of this
size and what my difficulty is whith making
(all these) objects.

Enough talk, here is what I've done so far:



And the tree they come from:


Any comment (size/color/structure) will be highly appreciated.

Kind regards from

M.E.


Edit: Maybe a tree top down view that looks larger ?




Edited by M.E. - 10 April 2007 at 10:53am

Hello Metaru,

Sure, photo references are always very good. But you have
to find one first that meets the criteria that I have been
writing about.

Do you have a suggestion about the different sized objects?
So that I can do a search with those suggestions and try to
find reasonable photo references to start with?


The edit was made in the post, the 'old' tree is still there!
I was hoping that the new tree would satisfy the believability
of the object. In case it would, I surely will make it look more
like a tree. But it never tries to attempt different approaches
and ask if I'm on the right track.

Thanks in advance for a more hintfull road to follow.

Best regards from

M.E.

Hello Jalonso,

Again, thank you very much for your comments.
You will be credited in MY game !!!

I left the most difficult objects for last so that I could get
a little hands-on experience with pixels.
Since I still cannot find a good reference I'm thinking
of using clay to make my own tree and photograph it
from the angle that I would need.
Do you think that this is a wise approach? Or should I
only look at nature?

Kind regards from

M.E.

maybe this could be a reference?   

The first example is aesthetically (sp) the best. I find the scale disturbing but understand wher you come from. Have you played with a tree as seen from above same perspective as the bushes?


E:reworded incoherent thought.


Edited by jalonso - 13 April 2007 at 6:14pm

Hello Jalonso/Metaru,

Again and again I keep thanking you! What a nice community!

I thought the fourth one matched the angle that I was using
on the stones and bushes. But the tree looked very small
with that view.

@Metaru:
The trees can be chopped up into two trunk objects.
Two trunks are piled upon eachother and when
the player pushes it it will devide into two pushable
trunks. The tree is about the same height as the
large stone because the same character can push
it. The trunk is a fat one since it needs to be side-
pushable. The height of the trunk is about the same
height as the character that pushes the trunk.

I've looked at the trees from zelda and they are
more of an angle as the second tree that I
clayed which is  too  'high' if you know what I mean.
I have a more side-view.

I'm at the code at the moment to find out if I
can use a larger form in the game without
destroying the activation methods.

Best regards from

M.E.

if you can go bigger why not go plaxonometric with the tree using the same forced perspective as the bushes. It will cover the unpassable area and appear 'grounded'

See the little tree by the bridge...again with the Doppleganger references, lol
A square tree that fills out space by inkspot.
Here's another tree...you can search the PJ gallery to see more, enter 'tree' duh

E:typos


Edited by jalonso - 15 April 2007 at 7:13am

OMG, there's a google word that leads only to me 

I did not invent it (duh) but here's a brief. Plaxo is a form of isometric drawing (both come from architectural drawings originally). Isometric is based on 26.565 degree grid, plaxo is 45 degree based. Your hedges appear to be plaxo.

Not exactly, this link has some explanations. Plaxonometric is used in games and I know I did not mispell it or make it up. I know I've discussed it with flaber who's an uber technocrat, surely he would have called me an idiot if I made it up...even if I am an idiot...anyhoo back to the topic ;)

Hello Snader & Jalonso,

Thank you for your discussions. I really enjoy reading them!

Using these words I've come up with a google search that

has  a bit of information on it:

"Axonometric or planometric as it is sometimes known is a method of drawing a plan view with a third dimension. It is used by interior designers, architects and landscape gardeners.

Axonometric works by drawing a plan view at a 45 degree angle with the depth added vertically. All lengths are drawn as their true lengths unlike when you use oblique. This gives the impression that you are viewing the objects from above. One advantage of axonometric is that circles drawn on the top faces of objects can be drawn as a normal circle.

" source: http:////ider.herts.ac.uk/school/courseware/graphics/Axonometric.html

When making the rock and the hedge I wasn't even aware that there
were different kind of projection methods.
I wanted to have overlapping objects in my game so when the player
moved in front of another object it will be obscured by the player.
It felt way more dynamic then using objects that don't overlap.

Not sure if I'm supposed to follow the axonometric or planometric view
while making my objects?!
I agree that it would help if I stick with one kind of projection for
all objects / characters etc..

As far as I understood I'm not using either isometric or axonometric/planometric views. I will look into this further
so maybe I will find another view that matches what
I'm looking for.


Kind regards from

M.E.

I agree on the base/stump similarity, good decision. The canopy however...eek...to ball-ish.

Hello All,

The thing I was looking before were the dimensions. As
you both seem to agree on this I wend on with the detailed.

Here is the canopy / tree top animation of my steps:



This is the mockup with the last version of this:



I didn't like that it looked as if the top of the
tree was arching towards you so I moved
things a bit.

This is the last version:




What do you all think of this?


Best regards from

M.E.

Hi Jalonso,

Please, please be as bossy as you can! I sincerely
admire and appreciate the very good comments
and critiques on my work.

Hope I used your advices a bit in the latest version:




Should I darken the canopy even more?

I will attempt it later on, and if anybody has any more comments
I like to hear them!

Best regards from

M.E.

This time a more darker version:



Do I need to darken it more drastic?


Best regards from

M.E.

Like this?



Of course you may edit but you have a lot of work todo for
your cd-cover.
When I searched the joint I found a tree made by you that
looked awesome! Unfortunately the WIP pictures are not
in the thread anymore. Probably due to storage limitations on your
hosting site?!
My tree is different anyhow but it would be cool to see the
different stages of your treehouse!

Kind regards from

M.E.

i felt ashamed for not being able to add any useful comment. jalonso knows-it-all! xD

Metaru, c+c here and in any other thread freely and without shame. With this project I've been wordy often because M.E. is interested in our opinions, uses our comments to improve his game, updates often, explains himself when asking, declines certain things without an attitude, etc. It's certainly not because I'm a know it all...this will be proven with the sprites, lol.