Perspective in Top down game art 2d

[@Nonsensical2D]

So I was kind of hesitant to make this video. This is not really my topic of expertise, but I also feel like it isn't talked about as much I would like. and since I do on occasion play around with this stuff I figured I might as well talk a bit about it. I've tried condensing my understanding of the topic, hopefully it is all somewhat sensible and hopefully I haven't made any mistakes. I technically don't think the projections themselves are that practically useful to know unless you try and replicate stuff in 3d, but for me it helps conceptualising what I am doing. I have also gotten quite far on a similar video for platformers, this video was originally just supposed to cover projections in general, but it kind of ballooned (this is already a way too long video :) ). I did make a small infographics as well, just condensing some things, so that you don't have to go back to the video, I might update it in the future if necessary. Please, if I made any mistake, comment and I'll try and fix it. (I know I say perspective instead of projection on occasion, which is more of an equivocation rather than an error, so I let it be).

[@santozard]

Thanks, this is super helpful. Can you help to talk about 2.5D perspective, such as Don't Starve and Cult of the Lamb? Thanks

[@zZMazeZz]

As a non-artist who's making their own top-down game art, i didn't have the words to know how to look into these topics. Thankyou so much this it has helped tremendously.

[@mattrobb3566]

Fantastic 21 mins of super art education, thanks! I'll now have to spend 3 weeks thinking about this and revisiting parts of this video before I draw any more top down art. The great thing here is I learned more in this 21 mins than I did in a whole term (semester) of technical drawing lessons at school. Thanks again, you are a brilliant teacher.

[@BrandanLee]

Remember: Feels Right > Is Right. Which is both terrifying and wonderful simultaneously.

[@SilentCypher-fc4pf]

This is genuinely the best explanation on perspective in top down games i’ve seen. All the information needed without over complicating it. I’ve been looking for something like this so thank you. I had never considered the impact of sloping the walls towards a vanishing point, that really clicked for me it instantly added the illusion of height. Keep up the great content!

[@alexsage4]

I love your videos man. Even though the games I wanna be making are side scrollers, this was very interesting and insightful. In general, out of all the gamedev channels I've seen I enjoy your content the most, thank you!

[@JohnDoe-k4z4s]

Hi, thank you so much for making this video. It amazes me that it doesn’t bug me when a front view character is walking on a top view street in front of an 45-deg orthogonal projection building, when I actually play any of these games. But my brain refuses to reconcile these different perspectives when I try to draw my own asset 😂

[@alif-fgd]

Woah! The world needed this video, it is really hard to find info about it online. I just wish you had included the perpectives on beat'em up games. Never could understand those.

[@foldupgames]

Great topic! Another view that's strange is the classic Legend of Zelda where walls all stretch away from one another, so it's like you're looking into a box. I've also found, as you touch on, that it doesn't matter if your character is actually in side view in a top-down game. The player doesn't notice and it looks fine.

[@thequipseeker]

Thanks for this. While studying how to draw assets I was going crazy trying to understand the perspective. It's nice to know it's actually "cheated" and just to serve the "nice to see" objective!

[@adam-the-dev]

This video came out at the perfect time for me!! I’ve been practicing 2D non-pixel art for a top down RPG for the past few weeks. Woohoo!

[@tejasbele1456]

Awesome video!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us

[@lunarwilt329]

Super insightful, thanks!

[@li_themizfit_il]

Needed this, this was very helpful. Thank you!

[@esclate]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@neetfreek9921]

Been waiting for a top down video, thank you. Would appreciate any tips you got for isometric and “fake” isometric if you want to make a video on it

[@Nonsensical2D]

Yes, I will most likely do it soon enough. This video was supposed to cover perspective in side scrollers, top down, and isometric. But it started becoming really long and disjointed so I split it, which means it probably will end up being a separate video on perspective in sidescollers and another one for isometric games.

[@neetfreek9921]

@ Nice, can’t wait :)

[@Shadowthevampire]

Yeeey THANK YOU Ive wanted you to make this forever I asked for this a long time ago I dont know if you remember but thanks anyway!!

[@desireelustre]

Thank you for an informative video.

[@Doktati]

isometric next ❤❤❤❤

[@BrandanLee]

If an alien with perfect geometric vision and intuition looked at our games, they'd have a stroke and start bombarding our cities from orbit, lol.

[@BrandanLee]

Also at 20:41 -- RimWorld art is over here like, "fuck the rules get money."

[@Hazzel31337]

10 out of 10 video

[@0zero010]

I am starting my adventure with pixel art because I want to create assets for games like stardew valley and I have a question. How do I calculate the axonometric projection? For example, I have a house with a height of 12 pixels, and 3/4 of 12 is 9, so the roof will be 9 pixels long? Should every asset I create be calculated this way? Won't it cause problems that I won't be able to fit something because the 3/4 rule will limit me?

[@Nonsensical2D]

So first and foremost as I mentioned in the video, It tends to be best to approach it according to what looks best, and try to make that work. Quite often "best" means that you want to be somewhat consistent, but not always. As for height and length, the 3/4ths mainly relates to how much foreshortening you would "expect", if you actually had a front view, then yes, if the height is normally 12, now it would be 9. But since you are the one creating the house, you can make it 12 pixels and that would work great. The main situations you would technically have to be explicit with your foreshortening, is when you have an object that ought to be a perfect square or a perfect circle, because its dimensions would be 3/4ths as tall as it is wide. In other situations when the viewer can't possibly guess the underlying dimensions, sticking to 3/4ths is both cumbersome and quite often unnecessary.

[@Sharkssparrow]

❤❤❤

[@juniorbatistadev]

🦾