Flipping Assets | Making Game Art When You Don't Know How

Can you ethically flip assets? I am going to show you how. You can find public domain assets, and stylize them to your own style.
Nature Kit: kenney.nl/assets/nature-kit
Colormind: colormind.io/
Asset Repositories:
opengameart.org/
www.turbosquid.com/
www.blendswap.com/
www.cgtrader.com/
www.mixamo.com/
assetstore.unity.com/
www.unrealengine.com/marketpl...
kenney.nl/
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:28 - Finding Assets
00:44 - Asset Licensing and Public Domain
01:24 - Importing
01:41 - Building the Scene
02:37 - Extra Stylizing Tips
03:18 - Outro/Series Notes
Music:
High Alert - Tom Spander
Follow Links:
Castle Wars Mailing List: www.nerdherd.network/castle-w...
Instagram: / weekie_nhn
TikTok: / weekienhn
Twitch: / weekienhn
Patreon: patreon.com/Weekie
Discord Server: / discord
Twitter: / weekie_nhn

[@SaberknightX]

The algo brought me here because I am trying to learn how to draw in general. I also have a history with programming which I think helped. Good luck man! It's cool to see others take their own journey in new things.

[@weekie]

Glad to have you here! Hope you enjoy your stay

[@kiwifrogg]

Using brought or free assets is not asset flipping, that is just using assets and we have to stop the stigma that using brought assets is wrong. Why reinvent the wheel as a indi if you can buy trees etc then do so, you can also kit bash using brought assets. Flipping assets is creating a crappy game with a set of assets then changing out the assets only and then release the same game again over and over.

[@StarDragonNova]

Even if just covering the basics, this was still very insightful. Especially covering potential concerns with the websites, hadn't thought about that.

[@weekie]

Yeah I wish it was easier to check if someone actually owned the license to the assets they uploaded. Unfortunately I think the burden of checking is on the original artist to scour and find people reloading their assets.

[@adamp3988]

Woo! Congratulations on getting the first video of the series up! And on graduating! Kenney's assets are also great to study! I'd recommend slapping one from his vehicles set next to the default cube in Blender, and trying to "replicate" it with your own style! 2:45 --- if you want to make your textures look even *more* PS1-esque, you can also posterize them after scaling them to ~6-8 steps. While it's not "accurate" to the PS1 palette, it will definitely help convey that old school limited-color depth! 3:10 --- Another one of those tiny yet potentially highly beneficial "hurdles" I mentioned on the last video: when you're trying to make a darker shade of a color, *also* move a little toward a "cooler" color. Do the opposite if you're trying to make the color lighter; that is, move toward a "warmer" color! So, for instance, your green grass might actually become more of a cyan or blue at night! And if you do highlights, they might actually trend more toward yellow! Reds become purple-ish in darkness, or orange in direct light, etc. Also, mid-tones tend to be your most "saturated" with darker and lighter shades becoming *less* saturated. There's obviously more to color theory, but I guarantee that following that as a "rule of thumb" can help tremendously!

[@weekie]

Thank you so much! I will definitely be trying the Vehicle replication idea soon. Either just to become a bit more proficient in modelling, or for that low-poly episode. I’ve never heard of posterizing an image! I will be trying it out I wonder if our brains can subconsciously tell if an image has more color depth and if that blocks some of that nostalgia feeling On the lighter->warmer, darker->cooler note: I love this. I never thought about any of that but it all makes so much sense. I am going to spend some time and alter the colors in the scene a bit when I get chance and I’ll report back. Thanks for sticking around and giving advice. It's all wonderful. I look forward to it in the future

[@MatrixQ]

I can only encourage anyone to try low poly modelling in Blender. It seriously isn't difficult, and it's so much cooler to have your own assets. There's no "I'm not artistic" here, either. Look at the logs in that Kenney pack. They're elongated hexagons. Anyone can do that. And if you're unsure how to do something, look into these packs and analyse how they're done.

[@weekie]

I mentioned that I'm working on a Low Poly episode of this series, and I think you'll be pretty happy with how it pans out :)

[@TheGonzaDev]

I literally saw this video while playing with the material of a stolen asset LOL

[@topminator2991]

3:12 phew! for a second i thought i had to start learning colors! have a like for that!

[@weekie]

Lmaoooo nah we take the easy way here

[@leogcavalli]

Good shit keep it up I want MOAR

[@weekie]

Working on it!! Hopefully this week

[@0memega]

Great video, you listed some art and resource sites I didn't even know of.

[@weekie]

Thank you! Glad to point you to some new places

[@0memega]

@@weekie Also, another resource for good colors would be Lospec. I sometimes use it for pixel art because of the sheer breadth of palettes they offer.

[@REAVER_Game]

nice

[@Stemaa1]

I think the title might be a little misleading. Had to think about it for like a solid minute straight to figure out it's not about changing a few things and selling the assets as your own, but to use them in a project yourself xP Forgot that people call games that are just asset packs mashed together are called "asset flips" x)

[@weekie]

Yeah the title is mostly to grab people's attention. Unfortunately "How to legally license art assets" isn't as "clickable" as "Asset flips".

[@pinnacle4616]

sweet!

[@Blankosphere]

w banger :3

[@jonathan10007]

Honestly, I think it’s worth it to learn how to make your own assets. It’s not a difficult feat if you decide to use something like blender; You just have to get over the learning curve

[@weekie]

100%!!!! I decided to make this video first because I feel like it's the easy way out. I thought it would help some people who are looking at the mountain and trying to find a reason not to climb it. At least give some comfort knowing that others also feel discouraged at first. The whole series will cover my learning how to make assets.

[@cameronmoore136]

Your profile picture is pretty cool.

[@weekie]

Thank you!!

[@samamies88]

Great video overall. Am not sure if term "asset flip" is correct in this context. I get that you picked it for its ease of use and attractiveness tho. When it comes to the term "asset flip" people often mean a game that barely has gameplay (often unitys fps / 3rd person shooter demo) where bare minimums have been replaced with cheap or free (or stolen) assets. The name refers to the "dev" just replacing the grayboxes (from the demo) into something that may look nicer... thus... "flipping" the "asset". Not every game that is made completely from existing assets is an "asset flip". For example i believe Phasmophobia is either 90%+ or even 100% just assets bought from stores. But the gameplay is the core feature - the art just supports it (and unlike many asset flip games, in phasmo every single piece feels like it belongs to the game - the cheap asset flip games often have multiple "how does this thing belong here" moments). I think i learned something about how to use assets so thank you!

[@weekie]

Lol I mostly used the term to get attention on the video. I absolutely agree, an “asset flip” is usually a derogatory term, and so, so many games use assets that we’re created explicitly for that project. If I had more time I’d add a section in the video on some examples of assets used in games that can be found in the asset store, but in games that aren’t “asset flips”. It’s not even limited to models. I know sound effects, icons, and tiled/terrain textures are very commonly just imported and somewhat stylized from other projects. As long as if fits the game you' never know≥ Thanks for taking the time to comment this (The Phasmophobia stuff is very interesting), and I’m glad you enjoyed the video!

[@misha00838]

make a video pls explaining how to make games with 4.0 licenced models

[@weekie]

Like how to properly attribute credit? I can probably do that

[@misha00838]

@@weekie Yes please. Especially making credits in video game

[@weekie]

I’ll see what I can do!!

[@misha00838]

@@weekie thank you)

[@SimonSlav-GameMakingJourney]

How dare you support artists by licensing their work, SHAME ON YOU!

[@VADYCAN]

Gamers dont care whether the assets for your game were all bought or made, they just care about the game beign good so dont put that burden on yourself when you already have to do so many other things to get that game made

[@nangld]

Why not use an AI model, which can produce art in a consistent style?

[@weekie]

Honestly, I find generating art takes a lot of the fun out of it, there's much less of a sense of progression and growth as a creator/developer. I also just don't really like the AI art I've seen thus far.