Making an UGLY scene look Good!

[@Nonsensical2D]

So this is a bit of an odd video for the channel. I largely made it as a test, In part because I sometimes get comments that I don't explain enough about the scenes I am drawing. so it would be interesting to get some feedback. It’s basically just me talking as I made the scene for the last video, so I didn’t really have an idea of whether or not the scene would work out as I was making it. I know there are some audio issues, but they were difficult to fix in post, hopefully it is audible nonetheless. I don’t know to what extent I can make these on the channel in the future or whether or not they really fit (since it’s quite different from my usual style). Anyway, any feedback you have is greatly appreciated! Thanks :)

[@vcdgamer]

I honestly don't mind it. And might just be me but you could do both. A shorter video touching down on major topics with examples like you've always done, with full-length videos that offers step by step processes for everyone to follow if they want.🙂👌🏾

[@d00mnoodle24]

I'd love to see a video like this on just staging your scene. And also if you could maybe cover foreground staging? My favorite metroidvania's, especially Ori, do this so well. Foreground makes the game feel 3D even though it's 2D and makes everything feel more immersive

[@Nonsensical2D]

Yes, I'm working on a video that will definitely touch on this topic quite considerably, it won't be the next one, but hopefully the one after that. @@d00mnoodle24

[@d00mnoodle24]

@@Nonsensical2D sweet! I hope you keep giving examples of games during your videos because of a few reasons. 1) it makes for an enjoyable watching experience as it shakes things up. 2) it clarifies the points you make by giving other examples. 3) i sometimes find new games because of it, although most of the time i've already played the title :P. I'm playing faerie afterlight right now, which has a gorgeous art style and is very clearly communicating what it wants to visually

[@TwoweeksatHome]

Thanks for the video @Nonsensical2D ! As a Game developer Who is struggling trying to improve the visuals of a game that i'm working on, i only can say thanks! Keep the hard work! 💪

[@unvalentine]

I adore your videos, you've helped me the most of any creator I've found so far when it comes to designing visuals, keep it up you're amazing.

[@GregX999]

This was actually a great video. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to watch an hour and a half long video, and it felt a little disorganized at first. But after watching it, I found I really appreciated the peek into your thought processes as you're working. I think it's actually much more helpful than just getting a compressed 10 minute "lesson", as it makes it clear that doing an iterative process like this takes time and sometimes having to redo or majorly rework stuff - even sometimes needing to rethink a major aspect of the art (such as slightly-tilted-down vs. orthogonal to the camera). I really like the end product. I think the only thing I would do different is make the background wall texture and decor a bit darker, as well as things sitting on the platforms that aren't interactable (are "behind" the player) such as boxes, pots, pipe, trident, etc. That would further increase the readability of the platforms (and other things with colliders). I hope you decide to make more videos like this, but... maybe 30-60 mins long instead. 😁

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks for the input, Ye, I'll definitely have to look into what the best way of making it would be, assuming I continue making it. The original video was around 5-6 hours, so I already cut it considerably, which inevitably makes it feel a bit disorganised. I agree that the boxes and everything should be behind the player, I think if they aren't it's most likely that I misplaced it :)

[@plainshades]

Definitely going to give this a watch later. I've been trying to emulate an art style similar to that of wolfwalkers for my game and for some reason it doesn't turn out how I want it.

[@Gatitasecsii]

I Really appreciate your channel, it is full of great advice, even though you're also learning, the way you're able to compartmentalize what you know and explain it as simply as possible is very helpful. So thank you for your amazing videos.

[@NeatGames]

Love your videos! They always help me with my game :D This long format is really neat, watching it while I'm grading papers hehe.

[@nerdtime7657]

This video has too few views for how helpful it is. Thank very much for this one.

[@Hazzel31337]

great video, great seeing the workflow to make a scene work, not just for 2D, i think a lot of the tips work in general, thanks so much for the video

[@hairo4242]

Thank you for you content I appreciate the insight you are giving us everytime! As a beginner game developer I'm very helped by your perspective of insight on art, thank you very much!

[@Shadowthevampire]

Have I ever asked you what color profile you're using in procreate? rgb or Cmyk? And wich undercategory?

[@Nonsensical2D]

I use RGB, I think for prints it can often make sense to use CMYK, but it results in a bit of a different workflow (which has its benefits) but I haven't taken the time to learn that process (I know one of my favourite artists "Adilson Farias" almost exclusively paints in CMYK, so there are distinct benefits with it, no doubt)

[@Shadowthevampire]

@@Nonsensical2D Okey but what under category in the menu of RGB? There's different types of RGB. Also thanks for answering. And thanks for the extra info about CMYK and prints.

[@Nonsensical2D]

@@Shadowthevampire I checked now specifically and it's actually set to Display P3 (which is the default for iPad I think). It would probably be better to set it to something that will match my display better, but I think personally I don't want to get too worked up about it, I have three monitors to compare it with and in general if it looks good on the iPad (which is the best screen I own) it will generally look quite good on my other monitors. In general I think it tends to work out quite well regardless. It's not colour critical work in general, so being 98% correct will generally work out quite fine.

[@CertCassette]

Which method do you use to move your assets from your ipad to your pc

[@Nonsensical2D]

I have a shared folder on my computer, a ’windows server’. And i basically drop my files to that folder from the ipad over wifi, and then move the files into my project, it generally takes a bit less than a minute, so not the best but not too bad.

[@d00mnoodle24]

It's a shame that you spent so much time detailing on some of the assets only to then later cut that away to have the side profile. Is ligning up the assets first a good way to improve efficiency?

[@Nonsensical2D]

It's worth noting that nothing in this scene actually took particularly long to make. I did sit for about 6 hours, but a great deal of that time was spent explaining what I was doing, so I think a scene like this would only take around 2.5 hours to go from first step to last, and a lot of the different choices like side profile vs angled view was in large part made just to show the difference it makes in my last video (which this scene was made for). So I don't think that improving efficiency in that way is particularly beneficial, you might save time on it (but it wouldn't be much) but more importantly, even for things where you definitely could improve efficiency, I generally still prefer making mistakes and testing things. In part because I think it keeps my creativity and motivation going, but also just to ensure that I know that my final choice is 'the best one'.

[@d00mnoodle24]

​@@Nonsensical2DDo you sometimes intentionally make these mistakes then to test a hypothesis so to speak? Or do you generally go with what you know will work best based on prior experience? I'm talking about specifically when you are designing for your game without making a video about it.

[@Nonsensical2D]

If the 'mistake' would only cost me 20 minutes, then I tend to make it. But obviously sometimes I might know that testing it would be an incredible time sink, then I go with what I know. But the benefit is that I can generally always use what I learn to talk about in a video anyway, so the 20 minutes wouldn't be wasted, even if the choice initially wasn't made for the purpose of a video.@@d00mnoodle24