Source files: http://lasdomogrod.pl/tmw/block-walls-source/
As always be prepared for some hidden stuff on invisible layers.

A bit later today I will publish [Block Walls Add-ons] 0.0.1.
C&C as always appreciated.

Let's start with the blank canva. White background is usually nice, but we will draw on new transparent layer

Use paint tool and gray color to sketch the main shape of object

2. Outline

Draw outline using pencil on new transparent layer

And here is a bigger version (click to enlarge)

3. Basic colors

Compose the basic palette. I used 4 shades of gray. Next fill appropriate fields using magic wand tool and dragging color into it. (click to enlarge)

That how it looks like with filled polygons. (click to enlarge)

And smaller version with visible grid.

After some small clean ups.

4. Shades, shadows and texture

Use white brush on opacity 5-10% to add some pillow shading.

Now use pencil tool with opacity 7-15% to add some shadows and texture.

To achieve better pixelart look I decreased color space to 8 colors (Image->Mode->Indexed). Try to experiment with different values.

[ to be continued...]

5. Outline shading

6. Additional colors

7. Multiple variants – snow, grassland, desert

8. Why this rock sucks instead rocks

Some of you might wonder how I did it. The truth is that was quite simple. Here is a small tutorial, step by step:

NOTICE:

N1: Because vertical and horizontal perspective in TMW are quite the same, our wings will have ratio 100% of width and 70% of height. That ratio makes elliptic shape, and it’s impossible to rotate object after drawing it in this perspective.

N2: To shorten amount of time for this particular task we will use GIMP to rotate the wings – however when we rotate objects there is serious quality loss. To prevent that we will make base wing 2 times larger (512×512 instead 256×256), then rotate it making each frame of animation. At the end we scale it down to proper size and aspect ratio: 256×180 px.

N3: Because of wings symmetry we will make only one fourth part of frames.

STEPS:

S1: Inkscape design. Just a outline. Mine looks like this:

S2: Painting. I redraw wings in GIMP using tablet. Make sure that wings are symmetric.

S3: Now rotate this wings and save it in another file.
3FPS: 90/3 = 30 deg
4FPS: 90/4 = 22,5 deg
5FPS: 90/5 = 18 deg
6FPS: 90/6 = 15 deg
etc..
I made animations with 4fps and 8fps. And I must say that 8fps looks hell better then 4 ;)

S4: Scale down every image to correct size and perspective. In this case its 256 x 256*0,7  ~= 256 x 180 px

S5: Viola! Our frames are ready.

In April I described how to design outlines for pixelart purposes. Today I decide to show how to break “square” outlook of tiles. So we will challenge an almost inmposible shape – spiral tower. Moreover that spiral construction will be tilable and allows us to build the tower with unlimited height.

Tools:
- Inkscape (www.inkscape.org)
- GIMP (www.gimp.org)

1. Lets try to draw “gear” in Inkscape. We will use for that [polygon] tool.

2. Duplicate our gear-shaped object, and rotate it.

3. Convert it to perspective view by changing height to 70%

4. Now add colour (I think white is best choice) to each “gear” and move it like this:

5. Now all we need is just correction of distribution. We do that because we want our tower to be vertically tilable. Remember that 32×32 grid is very helpful. Notice that I mirrored whole shape, because right side of it was darker – and now it will be easier to manage correct light and shadow effects.

6. It’s done. Shape on the right is our base tile. And who said that was an “impossible shape”?

If you got any questions, just ask in comments.

There is no such thing like “artistic value” in this case. I just need to host it for a while, sorry!

Rust and metal textures comes from: Stock Exchange (www.sxc.hu)