How to make 2D game art! Simple assets, even if you are bad at drawing

[@nyotendo]

your artstyle reminds me of a storybook, it's really inspiring and feels achievable as a non-artist. thanks for the videos!

[@d.w.6584]

Wow, this was extremely helpful and inspiring. I've recently started game dev and I feel this simple process is going to help me a lot in the near future. Short, to the point, and simple. Just what I needed. Thank you.

[@anaajimura3878]

Which's the game name?

[@iiropeltonen]

This was randomly recommended this video. Was surprised to see just 470 Subscribers. Well made content, precise, well edited and curated. Hope to see a lot more. Subscribed.

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks :)

[@teddyperera8531]

I'm a complete beginner for game art. I've never done any art in my life. Thank you for making these videos beginner friendly

[@serahsquarepants]

I didn't expect much because all the tutorials I've found were hard for begginers but this one make me feel like I could actually do it myself. Awesome video!

[@inesreisx]

hi, i'm starting in gamedev and taking baby steps, i didnt know you could do it in Procreate in such a simple way, your video was very useful, thank you! i'll watch the others and keep following your channel, happy to have found you!

[@yt_paperHANk]

I’m a freelance game artist, I can confirm this is the only video you need as gamemaker bros if you don’t want to pay artists to paint everything

[@ojconcentrate3595]

Between this one and a few of your other videos, you have removed so much stress caused due to my inability to make assets. So glad I found you! If you get a chance to do simple top down style assets as well that would be awesome.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I really want to do top down as well, and I will in the future! But I will need to spend more time with it to set it up properly. Videos still take a bit too long to make for me to be able to shift content and still have time to make videos, but I will try and set it up as soon as I have time :)

[@ojconcentrate3595]

@@Nonsensical2D That would be awesome! No rush. I look forward to it though.

[@Holsp]

Yeah, I am also trying to find how to make topdown assets. And I mean true top down. It's tricky since everything is basically without shadow on top and shadows can be only on sides of objects. The key seems to be the right texture materials for everything. So wood looks like wood etc. Without it, it all looks like plastic

[@rikerrhodes]

I love how this looks its so cute and pretty

[@ric8248]

Your channel is amazing, it deserves way more subs.

[@fufudevs]

Mans a genius explaining really well and that with is art looking sooo cute really learned a lot keep doing man it’s really great I followed u

[@nemo9396]

Thanks man, this was useful, even for pixel art. I'm making a game and spend so much time on making environment assets, sometimes I'm just so lost I need to take a few hours or days break from the particular asset and come back because it can get confusing. I'd love to see how you do 2D assets for buildings (exterior and interior).

[@Nonsensical2D]

Ye I want to do one on exterior buildings in the future!

[@The_Licanu]

7 Minutes, straight to the point, easy rules to follow and its looking very nice. Now thats a good video!

[@DarylMetzler]

Wow. Awesome video. Im an amateur Krita user and game dev, but this video aces techniques for "mid-poly" and "high-poly hand drawn art. Very well done. A+

[@youreale]

tried those techniques and end up like my scene was nuked... need more practice, I guess.

[@theblackquill5921]

or make your game about the place being nuked..... survive, adapt, overcome

[@bryan0x05]

one thing I've heard instead of trying to draw something perfect in a go, just draw it a bunch to learn how to draw it.

[@SivKyne]

Even as an experienced artist, this video helped a lot!!

[@ManojKumar-qg9bw]

Very cool, I have always wondered how hand drawn assets were being made you cleared it up for me thank you

[@tandomrandom]

the hardest thing in the world is forcing yourself to do the job in simple way. thanks for this amazing video

[@crusenho]

Your presentation is excellent in explaining things, worth subscribed your channel :) Keep up the good work.

[@crusenho]

I wonder what canvas size usually you work in Procreate to create these assets?

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks :)

[@Nonsensical2D]

Hmm, I'd say overall it is good to work larger than necessary. You kind of know that your game will be at most 4k ( 3840 × 2160). If you expect your sprite to only cover at most 10% of your screen, then it doesn't have to be that large. I think most of the assets here in this clip are around 500x500, except for the trees which are larger. But then if I would care about performance I would potentially import them so that they maintain the ratio of 1080p resolution, or 4k if that would be what I was going for. But when creating them, I think a good rule of thumb would be to make them twice as large as what I need them to be when in game. One weird thing to add is that working too large can often be tricky brain-wise. Especially if you are new to drawing art. If you for instance draw a rock 4000x4000 pixels, but you only import it in game as 200x200 pixels, then it is clearly overkill. Is this a problem? It can be, what could happen is that you spend extra time fixing errors and details that would never ever be visible in game. So you would be wasting your time. And you kind of want to make sure to do as little work as possible for the best result possible. With all that said, I don't think there is a perfect rule to follow, as long as you don't make things smaller than they need to be, because you can downscale art, but upscaling it would degrade the quality. Making it too large could be an inconvenience, making it too small could be catastrophic.

[@alexgeorgescu2122]

Just woah...this video gave me hope, thank you for posting this, with a little bit more research i might be able to build the assets for my game even if i know nothing about drawing.

[@azekrai]

this was mind blowingly helpful, such a good video

[@user-nd7rg5er5g]

Thank you for making this! Your game looks nice!

[@JStaticJ]

hey,thanks for this,ive been trying to find my art style for my game and this helped me alot

[@MrTuNNe]

7 minutes of learning something useful. Gj!

[@drawfull]

Never thought about vertical parallax in a '2D' side-scroller. Mind blow.

[@BaroDeMole]

I'm from Vietnam and i love your art style 🥰 Good job 👌🏽

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks :)

[@VincentAudy]

Impressive thanks for sharing!

[@DexasterOfficial]

Great Man ! Thanks alot, I'm plaing to make a paper 2d game and this video really helps me alot❤

[@stinkyratman]

Thank you, this is really useful and makes the task look less daunting

[@larsondavis8155]

The linus reference was so damn good XD I subscribed

[@tx-b]

Worth it...You sir just earned a subscriber... Please dont stop..❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@altleveling]

This video was very well done and very inspiring. Thank you.

[@D_Forsaken_Void]

thanks for the inspiration, I'll try this in my game.

[@familycritchfield7376]

im gonna try and make a game or something when i get a digetal table bc Im not really used to makeing digetal art, and im more used to drawing with a pencil and i just cant draw on a computer art- so im saving up for a digetal tablet ^^ and these tips are really help for when i do get one (if i do get one)

[@Nonsensical2D]

Something I used to do years ago when I first started out with a digital tablet was to draw a sketch using pencil and then take a photo or scan it and then draw on top of my sketch, then it will mostly about tracing what you have already done, instead of having to 'relearn drawing'. It could be a good way to start out if you find the digital aspect really annoying. With time you will get used to digital and then you will gradually start sketching digitally as well, but i found that sketching traditionally and inking'coloring digitally made the transition easier.

[@TRaccoonG]

WOW, one of the best videos that really explain you how to create beautiful graphics to your game, I subscribe you right now and I pretty sure that its gonna help me a lot in my game!!!😁

[@mingming1138]

ty for this tutorial mate, now i can create my first game😃

[@ClayMurray8]

You can also make your line work layer a reference layer in procreate and fill it on your color layer the same way as the flood fill method

[@Nonsensical2D]

ohh, that's cool, I didnt know that :)

[@gris6795]

360 subscribers? how do you not have 1 million?

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks :)

[@altonito777]

I am looking forward to start making games and this video made me realize how important the visuals are for a game and gave me confidence I could do it eventually ! I subscribed and will be looking forward to your next videos 😊

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks! And I agree, visuals feel especially important for giving a good first impression. There are plenty of good older games that I would probably overlook today, on the basis that they don't look like they are as good as they are. Good luck on your journey!

[@alexthompson8977]

@@Nonsensical2D do you know a way for non pixel art tilesets to look good? because my 2d art looks grainy and compressed even when I set the pixels per unity correctly as well as set compression to none

[@Nonsensical2D]

@@alexthompson8977 When you say you set the PPU correctly, you mean that the asset ought to have high enough resolution to fit 1080p or something similar? Because my first assumption will just be that you have made a 32x32 pixel asset but then in your scene made it occupy 128 pixels. I don't know if you are working in unity, but they have a blog post that is quite a good introduction on the topic called "How to Choose the Resolution Of Your 2D assets - Unity Blog" on their unity blog (you can search the title on google, should be first result) , I recommend that you check it out (it is intended for non-pixel art)

[@alexthompson8977]

@@Nonsensical2D for example I have character sprites that are 2000 x 2000 (regular drawings) but they look kinda pixelated. is the resolution too big or am I doing something wrong?

[@Nonsensical2D]

@@alexthompson8977 Do they look pixelated after you have put them into your scene? but they don't look pixelated outside of your game/scene? I don't think I've encountered that issue. Do they still look pixelated if you scale them down?

[@ilionix]

Very helpfull and inspiring for the beginners, thank you! Please do more game art Procreate tutorial

[@10sART23]

Wow amazing explanation amazing buddy

[@Mr-Enac]

Great video! Would love to see that "staging" video in the future! Thanks!

[@Nonsensical2D]

I'm definitely intending to do one, but it will take a bit because I haven't quite figured out how I should approach it in its entirety. It would always be easy to sell the idea of staging the way I do in many of these videos, because the scenes I make are largely walking simulators, so they look better because they aren't functional in game. If I want to make a video which includes authentic advice on staging, then I really need to construct a lot of scenes that both reflect decent gameplay, while also looking good. I don't think this is necessarily difficult, but naturally it takes time.

[@Mr-Enac]

@@Nonsensical2D Oh! I see! If I understand correctly you mean making the "interactable" middle ground. I would love to see that as well but I would also like to see your steps on creating foreground and background for scenes, I think that would be a great video on it's own. Currently working my way through your videos so maybe you've already done this and I haven't watched it yet. Thanks for the quick response!

[@Nonsensical2D]

@@Mr-Enac Hmm, I didnt precisely mean the interactable middle ground in and out of itself. Rather, if you want a good foreground and background, you need to take into account that there will be platforms and interactable objects. I think it is significantly easier to make backgrounds and foregrounds when the "middle ground" is really flat and simple. But it becomes significantly more complex to make a good background and foreground when you also need to have a lot of platforms or spikes and similar. So in order to actually be helpful when giving advice on staging, I really want to first have a fair example of how a level might look (with spikes, enemies and platforms) and then from that example stage a background and foreground given what there is to work with. And then go into what I believe is a good way to approach the problem. Because ultimately whenever an actual artist has to design a scene, they don't work from the idealised good looking scene, they have to work with what the game designer gives them. But as you can see in regards to how I am describing how difficult I view the problem, it will take a while to make a good video on the topic :)

[@johnemersonbacarra2583]

Wow thanks for this because im really bad at anything with assets hahahahaha now this is my first step to practice

[@Arab_GameDev]

Very nice video

[@AirspaceSlayers]

Cool tutorial. But i have a problem, i'm drawing in Krita and i don't know how to blend it. I made 4 different layer but i still wil not work! Help pls!

[@EggnToast_]

Put the everything on one layer except the lineart, that usually works for me...

[@nicoltoons]

Fantastic video!

[@NVRainbowmaker]

Very helpful thanks

[@sofiejensen3804]

Amazing helpfull!!! Thank you

[@TESkyrimizer]

before i watched this video im pretty sure this would have taken me 2 weeks because it will literally take me 2 days to draw a fckin rock for some goddamn reason after watching this video i hope i can take far less time goddamn but this is helpful and wonderfully concise i suck at drawing trees

[@-Barny]

Thank you Sir ❤

[@markorayt]

This is such a cool art style tutorial one of my fav. thanks! What pencil and setting did u use in procreate for this art?

[@Nonsensical2D]

For this one I used Inka. but I also use syrup a lot.

[@markorayt]

@@Nonsensical2D thank you so much! This makes drawing as a beginner so much easier and it looks clean at the same time. Also what's the setting for Inka you used for draw the bushes?

[@Nonsensical2D]

also just standard settings, I sometimes set the brush size at around 2%, but quite often i just eyeball it :) (I tend to go for what looks right at the moment ^^)

[@beri4138]

Thanks. Now I can create areas for my games. I still cant animate a main character though 😢

[@hiradnisari]

So good!

[@feydk]

It's a good technique, but as I see it, it works best for side scrollers or platformers with a sort of "rough" look.

[@shadoneko5662]

I have just notice your content that help me a lot in creating my own assets for beginner, have you tried blender 2D for creating game asset, would like to know your opinion regarding Blender 2D, anyway anyhow, love your content👍very straight forward, expecting more content from your channel.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I haven't really used blender 2D, I have used some amount of 3D blender though. I'll try and look into it, thanks!

[@Bamboodium]

This is what i need for my game project, im too broke to pay artist

[@naimaelmo7894]

How do you have this little subscribers?? Awesome content :)

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thank you! I appreciate it :)

[@BlueAnoli]

How did you manage to make the trees and other assets in the background become more and more invisible?

[@maestro5947]

Great video

[@jasmeinaliyeva8992]

Thank you solo much

[@isaacnavarro4614]

Que increíble canal!

[@TheGoZL]

nice tutorial

[@ed5142]

Inspiring!

[@Dooby_Gooby]

Great video, but I’m a little confused as to why you don’t hue shift your darker and lighter tones. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and can contribute to that storybook feel, but I would be interested in hearing why you didn’t choose to use it

[@Nonsensical2D]

I think I actually do that in this scenario. but I hue shift using HSL afterwards, I think I did it this way just to better illustrate how the saturation ought to look. Normally I would both hue shift and saturation shift. I can't recall exactly why I did it this way in the video, but doing both shifts at the same time would slightly mess up the flow of the explanation.

[@Ente_Tangente]

Are you drawing with a mouse or a drawing tablet? The lines looks very nice.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I am drawing with an iPad Pro 11 inch (2020). I sometimes draw with a drawing tablet as well, but I never really use a mouse.

[@Ente_Tangente]

@@Nonsensical2D Thank you!

[@fletchergunderson5283]

This was so helpful, I have been struggling with the art for my game for a while now and this video singlehandedly made it feel possible. I know this is an old video but I've been trying to replicate this technique in photoshop and struggling. I know that photoshop isn't your forte but do you have any suggestions?

[@fletchergunderson5283]

I admire the versatility and changeability you are able to achieve, the way you can use one object in many ways with different colors and continually edit, which I have had trouble with. For instance, I can't figure out how it is possible to blend the base/highlight/shadow while still keeping them changeable on separate layers in photoshop, and you also appear to be able to change the saturation/hue/darkness of your layers in Godot which I am currently unable to achieve in unity

[@Nonsensical2D]

@@fletchergunderson5283 I can't quite recall exactly how the blend brush is implemented in photoshop and if it literally cannot fade if it doesn't have anything to mix, but if you create a fade using a soft brush (either eraser or normal) and painting it in it should definitely stay on separate layers. You can achieve similar results but it might be slightly more cumbersome. As for the unity question, it was a really long time I sat with it. In godot I can just adjust the brightness of a sprite in the inspector, I set up a layer structure so that I can adjust the entire layer at once. There are other ways that arent' that complicated like using shaders, but unity might also have a simple adjustment. I know that there are plenty of people who have had to to do it, so I would probably advice you to go onto r/unity2D on reddit and ask there, then you will get an answer tailored to the best implementation in unity :)

[@gxguy2906]

Hi thank you so much for the awesome video. Quick question, is this on a drawing tablet or using a mouse?

[@Nonsensical2D]

This is using an ipad pro with an apple pencil. Drawing tablets would give equally good results (you can get equal drawing quality by using a 60$ drawing tablet, but you would lack a display). I would say that doing this type of drawing would be extremely difficult with a mouse, you can do vector art or pixel art with a mouse, but even then I would recommend a cheap drawing tablet.

[@gxguy2906]

@@Nonsensical2D Thank you so much for getting back to me. Yes, it's really hard for me to draw with a mouse. I might consider the no-screen drawing tablet and take it from here.

[@upsilan_mitstrima]

the "even if you sre bad a t drawing got me", now not only can i not draw at all, i especially cannot draw with a mouse. so hopefully i can use this to draw sprutes from now on

[@Nonsensical2D]

hope it helps! I would recommend to get a tablet eventually though :)

[@rappersanger8747]

Quick question: How did you apply the watercolor texture.. Please and thank you... Great work btw!!!

[@Nonsensical2D]

So it depends a bit on the software you use. But overall, it is a watercolour paper texture, overlayed on top of the image, using different filter modes like color dodge, lighten, multiply until it comes through just enough to look ’watercolour-like’, there are plenty of artists that sell them online on sites like etsy, but you can also make them yourself by scanning some watercolour paper and playing around with overlaying it on top of your asset. Off the top of my head, ’calvin at drifterstudio’ sells watercolour brushes and watercolour paper for procreate, and adilson farias sells for both procreate and photoshop, but as I said, you can always make textures yourself, they are essentially just playing around with blending modes and adjusting it for you for a small fee of like 5-10dollars.

[@fuadgames8918]

can i know what brush do you use for creating lineart in this video? its so cool, if you dont mind i want to use that brush too

[@Nonsensical2D]

It’s a procreate specific brush called ’Inka’ i sometimes use another brush called ’syrup’ but that one is significantly more clean

[@Holsp]

This is so great! Did you apply the watercolor texture straight in Procreate or did you do it as a post processing in the game engine?

[@Nonsensical2D]

It is added straight in procreate. You probably could do it using post-processing, but there would be slightly more work in terms of adjusting scales in regards to distance and also affect performance more. So it is added as a layer on top in the procreate file, and then the image is just exported as a png.

[@Holsp]

@@Nonsensical2D Thanks! I tried downloading an image and using blend modes/layer opacity but none seem to look like yours. Is there anything else you are dong? Or do you still have a link to the file you are using?

[@Nonsensical2D]

There are ones you can buy on etsy that look quite decent and have commercial license attached if you don't want to spend time on it (they only cost around 5$-10$ and is how I learnt how to make them). But it is going to be a mix of a few things to take note of. The first is that the texture that you have will affect the look of it, and you might even want to look at quite a few and perhaps even 'create' your own texture by stitching together several different textures, this not too necessary though. The more vital thing is that your blending mode should probably be something such as colour burn, which will affect the saturation and contrast of your image, which means you have to lower the contrast of the underlying layer to get it to look 'right'. There will be some playing around, adjusting them back and forth. So the first initial step to getting it to work can be somewhat tricky, but once you have set a texture once, you can just repeat the process for all assets, which would be an extra minute of work on each asset or so.

[@Holsp]

@@Nonsensical2D Tnaks so much! I am currently testing Linear burn, color burn seems to hide the texture, but after what you told me I bet it will pop up when I do those steps. I also managed to get a nice texture on Unsplash which should be free for commercial if I am not mistaken, so I should be set. Thank you very much. YOur videos are unique but very specialized and helpful! You are actually making me do something, overcome fear of drawing and I am having fun on my fourth asset of the day!

[@SbbHansdah-zk8gz]

where is preview video 0: huh ?

[@drdotts8878]

Your content is incredibly helpful. However I was trying to figure out, should I draw all of these on image on Procreate? Or should I make a separate one for each thing I’m drawing? Very new here, thanks!

[@Nonsensical2D]

in terms of optimization you might want to eventually have it in sprite sheets (one big image), but if you are just starting out i would draw everything as individual assets, because creating sprite sheets might become more complex and difficult than you want to make it at the moment and the performance gains might not even be necessary. I mostly still make individual images for each asset (you can always create one big image later on anyway). It really depends on what you are more comfortable with, my go to idea is to begin by what goes the fastest and easiest for you, and then with time you will realise if you need to adjust something. Both methods work when just starting out.

[@franjo96]

Amazing video! I'm trying it out but facing some difficulties when trying to blend. I have everything like you do on different layers but I'm unable to smudge them? How do you smudge them when they are on different layers?

[@AirspaceSlayers]

same with me

[@PixelsAndMore]

Another banger, Idk what your work life looks like, but I have a couple of game concepts I'm Going into production on. I've got a pretty substantial budget already. Just looking for talent to make the vision come to life. Hit me up

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks for the offer but I am sadly not available for any work.

[@johnleo7]

Очень полезные уроки. Спасибо! =)

[@million94]

Which brush are you using for the outlines?

[@daveroffo]

How to auto-adjust (hand-free) lines with Krita? I would like to have auto-adjusted shapes as your at min: 1:14. Thank you.

[@Nonsensical2D]

As far as I know with krita there are only three types of this adjustment that you can do, one is to add a stabilizer to the brush tool (which smooths the line), the other is weighted smoothing which basically makes all lines stable in accordance with an angle that you set. The third is just a means to make sure you always draw straight lines, which is done by holding down alt or ctrl when drawing (can't remember which). The auto-adjust to circles, half circles and straight lines that I show at 1:14 does as far as I know only exist in procreate (which is what I'm using here), the other adjustments will probably help to make nice lines in krita, but they can be somewhat tricky to work with and you might have to toggle them on and off on a regular basis.

[@Boo-se7wi]

i had a touch screen laptop that i could've used to make these but my sister broke it. im stuck with a mouse for now.

[@afiyindev]

Hi! Can you make a video on how to draw 2d art for spriteshapes in unity?

[@Nonsensical2D]

I can't do any video that specifically covers unity since I haven't used unity in a long time (I generally use godot)

[@afiyindev]

@@Nonsensical2D okay bro

[@NinjaGuidesHQ]

4:02 when you brush do you brush within the dark layer or lighter layer to get that look?

[@Nonsensical2D]

if you refer to the smoothing then I do it to both the lighter and darker layer.

[@NinjaGuidesHQ]

@@Nonsensical2D yes.thx

[@joshmelafferty]

Your videos always say, "Draw a rock." and never, "Make a 329x173px canvas." And that's the part I need. 🤣😅😭

[@Nonsensical2D]

I do have a video on how to understand scaling and resolutions in 2D HD graphics. But yes, I don't really make step-by-step tutorial content, I don't think I really have a proclivity for that kind of content, and at this point I don't think it fits the audience I've cultivated.

[@Big_Dai]

@1:52 Recreate Hollow Knight art!? Hahahaha

[@NinjaGuidesHQ]

what pencil and size was used to draw the outline for these assets in procreate ?

[@Nonsensical2D]

It's inka for most of the assets, but the character is drawn using syrup. I tend to mostly use inka or syrup for my lineart.

[@NinjaGuidesHQ]

@@Nonsensical2Dthanks! can i have the exact settings of the pen from the brush studio? The lines you draw look somewhat sharper then mines thats why i ask. cheers

[@SadTown99]

Is there a reason why when drawing assets or especially characters, I see some people use a white/colored background instead of transparent?… That seems odd to me 🤔 (I’m using Photoshop + Unity)

[@Nonsensical2D]

I personally mostly use a greyish background. Overall you get some things out of it. if you have missed filling out a layer completely that tends to be noticeable on lighter backgrounds. But The biggest reason is just that you brain is affected by the colours it is surrounded by. So your estimation of "what colour to use" shifts if you are working with a black background vs a white background.

[@faiz7180]

If I want to make a 2D house interior, will the lighting technique that you show works well? Like the light color at top then getting darker as it goes down.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I think In general it will work quite well even if it might not be perfect. There are some instances where it might look off, if you use a light source in the scene for instance. But I would say that for the most part, the technique that I showed will generally be correct and can be used in many different types of scenes with different lighting conditions, even when there 'technically' are errors, it tends to not be noticeable.

[@gchapenguin2178]

How does your line automatically correct itself when drawing a rock?

[@Nonsensical2D]

It's a feature in procreate, I'm not quite sure what other programs that have it. With that said, most drawing programs do have some type of smoothing function that reduces jitter when you draw (which can also be helpful)

[@Mr_wallington_1]

what drawing tool did u use

[@0ozymandias641]

At 1:10, and other points, how are you flattening/smoothing your line work like that?

[@Nonsensical2D]

So that specific feature is an auto adjustment tool that only exists in procreate, but there are line stabilizers and other smoothing features in most drawing software like krita, affinity, photoshop.

[@lysy-zn2gg]

2:39 How do use blend in Krita, which layer do you have selected when blending? All of them? I used all different blending brushesh and outcome isn't good as like you. It just very dark at bottom, very very bright at the top and everything is pretty 'pixelated' instead of smooth transitions...

[@lysy-zn2gg]

I just cannot figure it out, jesus I cant even draw a simple rock

[@Nonsensical2D]

Sorry for slow answer, I think the most important aspect of getting a nice blend brush for me tends to be using a really smooth brush. As for pixellation that can be a few reasons, one is that you have too small assets, making smooth transitions will generally not look good if your resolution is closer to pixel art. If you want a smooth gradient I would also recommend making the brush size bigger than the entire asset almost, with a smaller brush size you will generally have difficulties making nice transitions. When it comes to being too dark vs too light, I think that just has to do with the base colours that you pick, try to start with colours that are significantly closer in value. Then you can always increase contrast afterwards using adjustments.

[@GOLOGUU]

what kind of brush you were using if i may ask

[@Nonsensical2D]

Pretty much always inka or syrup.

[@sxrevived1087]

can it be done with vector art using adobe illustrator

[@Nonsensical2D]

Ye, that shouldn't be a problem, it will look a bit different of course. Do note that if you make a vector image it will generally have to be exported as a png when used in the engine. (so it will have a set resolution past that point) I don't think there are many engines that can handle vector graphics as is.

[@sxrevived1087]

@@Nonsensical2D its a problem thanks for the tips but this comment was like 5 months ago i already changed my idea and i decided to go with an art style less complex

[@Fooxelwagle]

What brush did you use to make the outline of the rock

[@Nonsensical2D]

It's called 'inka' in procreate, but I usually use the 'syrup' brush

[@Fooxelwagle]

@@Nonsensical2D thanks

[@c7c_gaming688]

love you

[@TotalerAnimeFan]

How many pixel is your background? i have a problem with the dimensions. is the game engine you use godot? can the assets in godot to scale?

[@daveroffo]

what is the soft brush you used for the blending on procreate? I can't get nearly the same result of yours :'(

[@Nonsensical2D]

It is found under the airbrushing tab and called "Soft blend", it is in the standard kit. Making the transition smooth quickly the way I do it requires that you make the brush really large compared to the asset itself, if the size of the brush is small compared to the asset then it will be really difficult to get a nice and smooth blend. Hope it helps :)

[@daveroffo]

@@Nonsensical2D thank you! you saved my day!! it works like a charm now!

[@angelosgd4502]

Does anyone know what program you use to draw? I try to replicate it in photoshop but it doesn't look the same :(

[@Nonsensical2D]

I'm drawing on the ipad using procreate, but the principles work well in photoshop or other software as well, I used to use photoshop and krita for my game art and it kind of looked the same.

[@daveroffo]

Is the 11" iPad good for this kind of drawings? Thanks.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I'm actually releasing a video on the topic tomorrow, because I sometimes get questions about it. In short, for the type of 2D assets I do and for drawing in general, procreate is really enjoyable and quick to draw with (I use the 2020 11 inch ipad pro). The downsides are: -Transferring files can suck sometimes, especially if you have a PC. -Adjustments (like changing contrast and such) works, but is slightly worse than some programs (about on par with krita). -Animation works but is very barebones and cumbersome to use. -If you want to do pixel art or 3D, there are better programs (asesprite/blender). -Creating tiles works quite well, but once again it is barebones and programs like asesprite have way more tools to help you do it quickly. But the drawing experience itself, the pen, the display, the brushes, gestures, workflow, all those aspects are in my opinion better than drawing in photoshop/krita/affinity using a pen display/tablet. So I live with the downsides. The only situation where I absolutely never touch procreate is for thumbnails, in all other circumstances I personally think it is worth it. But I think if you are starting out, getting a small drawing tablet for 60$ is a safer investment, then if you realize you like drawing a lot, ipad could be worth it (the pc tablet will still be useful for stuff on pc).

[@daveroffo]

@@Nonsensical2D thanks for the detailed response, really appreciated!! (subscribed btw :)). I just bought an iPad Pro 11" 2022 because I want to use procreate (and I needed it for other purposes as well). I was just wondering if the 11" is enough to create this kind of assets for 2d games (I would like then to import these assets in unity where I have already experience as a game dev). Thanks to your videos I'm finally learning how to design assets by my self! And your style is really good!

[@kanj1]

What is the engine used please!

[@Nonsensical2D]

Godot

[@LPack05]

Can u link the 4 assets u created in this video? I would love to be able to use them please.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I might set up something for sharing this stuff in the future, but I really need to read up a bit on how to best do it, but I am hesitant to do it as of now, just because I'm not fully aware of potential ramifications. With that said, the assets are really simple so it probably wouldn't take you very long to try and draw it and following it as a tutorial.