Transport Tycoon Forums

Well after some months of playing transport tycoon and posting here once and a while I decided to give a try at drawing some trains. following Purno's tutorial on making an emu I set about making the Alfa Pendular for my first practise after two days of thinkering I think I'm finished.
I'd love some feedback.

A nice effort. I daresay one of the more experienced artists will have something to say (cue Ameecher talking about sprite lengths - it's because his own length isn't all that impressive), but I have to say you've got the basic shape nailed. My only suggestion would be to get some randomised shades in with the colours. Pixel randomisation usually adds to the effect.

Good work though

Thats a lovely set of sprites youve got there, absolutely lovely for a first attempt at pixel-pushing. I think the only suggestion would be, as Dave said, a little bit of pixel-randomisation on the main bodies to make it look a bit less 'clean'.

Otherwise, great job!

James

Wow. That's... impressive.

Good work.

And again, just in case you missed it the first two times, get some random pixels in there...

Cheers Dave

Sprite lengths look fine, however in the / and \ views the sprite doesn't look tall enough which is something I have noticed with all of Purno's tutorial results. Otherwise, it is very nice!
Edit: another thing you may want to work on is showing where the joints between the coaches are in the / and \ views. At the moment it looks like a solid train.

Thanks for all the comments guys
well I'll get to work on the pixel randomisation thing, which if I understand correctly is adding more of the same colors but in different shaded into it right?

Ameecher, on the not tall enough part right how many pixels are we talking here?

This is the drawing standard that Michael Blunck uses.

It may be that your sprites are correct but place each sprite up against the standard and see how well it fits. Obviously choose the correct length.
In the future, I recommend starting with the standard as your base and draw your sprite over it.

Here's a "Me too!". They look good, need a bit more variation, and then some points about size: [1] is seven pixels from wheel to top white line, [2] and [3] are only six.

[2] and [3] is the same thing in different directions and should be the same size. [3] is one pixel short in both height and width. The red roof should have the same area in both directions.

The jaggedness (zig-zag) of the diagonals can be softened by mixing different colors along the diagonal, at least inside the picture. It's not so easy to soften the outline, as we don't know what color will be behind... (All IMO, of course)

i am not tooo experienced myself, but here is my cents;

the shading on the roof in the \-direction is oposite atleast for the engine. Same is the window-shading in the | and /-direction

Ameecher wrote:This is the drawing standard that Michael Blunck uses.

Funny, I have an extended version of that. In blue I added the shortening levels I use, because I think that the ones in black are not quite correct.
I got that thing somewhere from the forums; author wasn't stated, but I guess this one's Michael's too.


Anyway, good job on that train! Very nice for a first drawing.

FooBar wrote:Funny, I have an extended version of that.

I do too, somewhere. As for where... well... I dunno

Ameecher wrote:

FooBar wrote:Funny, I have an extended version of that.

I do too, somewhere. As for where... well... I dunno

Makes sense about the filename too. It would mean that the one you provided, Ameecher, was one for a specific vehicle, as taken from the full set of possible sizes (as provided by FooBar, the same version I have/use).

M4rek wrote:Makes sense about the filename too. It would mean that the one you provided, Ameecher, was one for a specific vehicle, as taken from the full set of possible sizes (as provided by FooBar, the same version I have/use).

Trust me, file names are far from sensible on my computer. The likely cause is that I started drawing a sprite, saved it then realised that I didn't want it drawn on the original sprite standard so removed the sprites to another file and didn't rename the standard. It's all irrelevant anyway.

wow thanks for all the response and help guys.
well back to the drawing board.

Silverx50 wrote:wow thanks for all the response and help guys.
well back to the drawing board.

I know it's overwhelming sometimes, but don't feel put off by the level of critique. Your work is really good for a newbie, so developing it that bit further will turn you into a great artist

Yeah, to reiterate what Dave said, your work is awesome, it just needs little tweaks. I mean, it is certainly useable as it is now but we'd all like to see it get as close to perfection as possible!
One of the biggest things I found when I started sprite drawing is the need to just keep working on them again and again to get it right. The more sprites you do though, the easier you'll pick up the little details. And of course you have the great community here to help you out with tips too!

[TTD sizes]

Yes, that´s originally by me, posted here quite a couple of times in different versions, e.g., here. In addition, some people changed it in a number of ways.

regards
Michael

Well back again, redrew the engine and made it a bit bigger, but now I'm no longer sure if its the right size.
because when I connect the wagons they don't seem to align right.

Silverx50 wrote:when I connect the wagons they don't seem to align right.

The wagons are still only six pixels high from wheel to white line, so yes, they can't be aligned exactly to the engine. If you redraw them in the same style as the engine, they will match again.