Category Archives: Art

I should punch myself in the face

Posted in Arena, Art, Game Art, plans, technical by

256 color limitation

Once of the tricky aspect of working with Arena textures is that they are only 256 colors AND that color information is indexed from a palette file. That means the image doesn’t have the color info in the file, it has a reference point to a master color file (this saved valuable space in the old timey 3 1/2 floppy days). Colors in an image have to be one of those exact colors in the palette file. To work around this, I have been only using colors contained in whatever image I was working on. It worked but it can be limiting in being creative.  Most of the project was done this way.

Palette image

DOH!

Now but a scant mere 9 years later, it dawned on me to import the color palette in as a raw image similar to how I first did early on in my hobby working on another project. Once imported, I was able to create a Photoshop swatch of all the working colors and boom. I’m blond, what can I say.

Palette swatch

More progress on actual files next update although you can see a preview in the image above 🙂

– Martin

Time to clean up the mess

Posted in Arena, Art, Game Art, plans by

Begin again

So, I’ve finally got my stuff together, life has settled down, and the mojo to get back to my projects. I have a lot to post on other art projects I’ve done in the past (cough) couple years or so but first, I figured I’d give an update on where I am with the Arena Depixelization Project. Yes, it’s still on.

screenshot005

Testing

I have loaded up the textures into OpenTesArena. It allows very easy testing of levels without having to play the game. You can just select what level at the menu screen and load it. Right out the gate, I’m very happy with the starter dungeon. No need to mess with that in my opinion.

screenshot003

More testing

However, the wall textures in the very next main quest dungeon are too jarring. So I have already toned them down for next iteration (not pictured below).

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Then I skipped to the 3rd main quest dungeon and found these round blob walls that just don’t cut it. So next I will clean those up. My plan is to systematically go through them all, until there are sufficiently aesthetic pleasing (or tolerable) then I will release ADP 1.0.

screenshot001

Limitations of Arena

There will be limitation right now as the texture combination for some of the levels is very off. Maybe one day, OpenTesArena will allow us to edit the level files and add new textures. Then we’d be able to makes matching or complimentary “tile sets” for each level, adding cohesion and variety overall. But, until then, this is what we got.

– Martin

Wait, the city is built from a crashed plane?!

Posted in Arena, Art, Fallout 3, Game Art, Game Mod by

The A to the D to the P

First up, I have been moving along quite nicely with the art for the Arena Depixelization Project (a name only a nerd could love). Not only have I got quite a bit of new stuff done, I have been revamping the ones I don’t like as I go. I’m focusing on one location at a time in game and redoing all the wall/floor textures that I find unfinished or that need a redo.

Brownout 3

I won’t post much on this for awhile but the previously unnamed but heavily hinted project, is Fallout 3. Yes, another Bethesda game….what can I say. Oh yeah, I don’t have to say anything it’s my project so pbbbbtttt. Really, I tried playing Fallout 3 and like what I did play but the artwork in the game is so (intentionally) degraded, it hides the games true potential. All they did was make super crappy textures and add a bunch of “noise” (dithering and random speckling) and a WHOLE LOT OF BROWN.

Fallout 3.2017-10-24.20.50.45.085

Original heaping pile of…..muddy desaturated textures

Cellout implies the wrong message

I know what your saying “I sure wish he would give it a cartoony makeover”….ME TOO! See great minds think alike. In reality, I’m using it to perfect my own take on the Borderland (game for the computer) cell shading style. While inspired from that game, my style deviates in many small ways from it (besides my not truly knowing how they did it).

Fallout 3.2017-10-16.23.10.15.440

When I was feeling out how I wanted the style to look

So much brown

It really struck home when no one realized that Megaton (the first city you reach in game) was built with pieces of a plane. There are pieces all over but the textures were so bad, you never realized that you were walking on pieces of a wing or that the shed above was part of a fuselage. Oddly enough, despite inspiring to make this a full project, I really not happy with how the jet pieces turned out and plan to eventually redo them.  I used them to learn how textures in FO3 worked and struggled figuring out the strange multiple way alpha maps were used along with normal maps. For the longest, I couldn’t get them to be selectively reflective of light. They were all shiny or no shiny at all regardless of light. I worked it out (more when I actually talk about the project).

Before
After
Before
After

 

It just needs a good scrubbing

Ultimately, I want to remove the noise, define the textures better, add visual interest as well as color: all while trying to maintain the feel of a world in decay. I still haven’t honed the process down completely, but I am learning quite a bit and pushing my developing Photoshop skills to the limit (TAKE IT…TO THE LIMIT…ONE MORE TIME). I want to perfect them before I return to my favorite game of all time, Morrowind. Oh yes, I’m not done with you yet, sweet Morrowind (too creepy?). Here are some more before and afters (note: some are still early prototypes or have already been reworked to be smoother and cleaner):

I’m gonna focus on ADP for now and honestly, this Fallout 3 project is going to take years since I’m just working on it sporadically until I have enough free time to hit it hard.

– Martin

Previously, on ArtInPinkerton Blog (dun dun!)

Posted in Arena, Art, Darkstone, Fate, Game Art, Game Mod, Minecraft, Morrowind, plans, torchlight by

Pixels so sharp they will cut you

For anyone who reads this blog (all 3 of you), its no secret that I tend to favor a more cartoonish and abstract style when editing game artwork. With the Arena Depixelization Project (ADP), this was mostly a necessity since I was looking at simplifying images due to the extremely low resolution and terrible graininess (grain E ness?).

Original screenshots
darkened and reduced the color variation on the floor
I’m pretty happy with this one. Clean and aesthetically appealing

Textures so muddy, they have to take their shoes before coming inside

However, with Morrowind, it was more of a desire to undrab (not even a real word I’m pretty sure) it some. The individuals textures were unimpressive but all together they worked (for back in 120 A.D. when it was created). With my early experiments, I used the cartoon method to add interest to the individual textures but it was crude.

 

 

“You know my name is Simon and the things I draw come true”

From here, I had a detour with a little experiment. For all the games I work on, I have a soft spot. Darkstone was one such game. It’s low resolution blurry textures begged for me to edit them. It was a challenge just figuring out how to access them and understand the file structure: there are odd duplicates, art sheets (many separate art assets on one texture), and strange encryption. I wanted to create a chalk-like art style. It was a side diversion and never meant to be a full project though. I really liked the results though.

Exit to Forest
Near the target range in town

STOP CHANGING THE DAMN FORMAT ALREADY!

I had very little experience back then and it was before Borderlands captured what I desired so well (ICE CREAM…wait no…CELL SHADING!). So I switched to working on Minecraft for my sons. I finished not only the main game but several of the most popular modification at the time. However, Mohjang (the makers of Minecraft) changed the texture format and naming several times over the duration I was working on it; breaking my texture pack (Grrrrr!) more than once. I never released it as by the time they finalized it, they had added so much more that I hadn’t done.  However, it gave me time to work on learning the graphics software (GIMP at the time…not the one from Pulp Fiction).

 

But the name almost begged it!

I’m not sure how I started working on it, but the next project I worked was Torchlight. I think I had just wanted to see if I could do it. During this phase, I dedicated quite some time experimenting with different styles and the software. Eventually, it turned into a full blown project which I called “Toonlight”…I am so clever…so damn clever. Looking back, I think I lamented how little the backgrounds “popped” and though I could smooth and outline them to make them defined. My biggest failing on it (beside the wee-bit of amateurish work…cough cough) was that I was so focused on the individual textures, that I didn’t account for the whole picture and scene. So much detailed “polluted” the screen. This is relevant for when I get to my newest endeavor. Toonlight was never finished (I had illusions it might be). I didn’t like the results on a game level and didn’t want to start over. The creatures looked nice though.

More town filtering
Lava level…I still like it

 

Nailed it….

Then came Borderlands. It perfectly encapsulated what I was going for. I loved the art style and now I had a inspiration to study and evolve my style. It was here I learned about rim lighting (making dark lines pop with a lighter line near it) and ways to make larger blank areas look less dull (hint: random lines and squiggles).  I didn’t try it for some time as I was working on finalizing ADP (which is….sigh…not done yet). When I finally took a break, I experimented with Morrowind again…this time on the faces; trying to capture that Borderlands style. Ultimately, I realized that my style was Borderlands-inspired but had my flavor added.

Brown…so much grainy awful pixel-y brown

I finally had enough experience to move forward. I had a few other side projects not “cartoon” style related (such as the FATE mod..so I can have all that crunchy 4K resolution…mmmmm tasty). Moving on, I had just the project in mind to hone those skills even further and put them to the test. Eventually, I’ll return to Morrowind and complete a full artwork overhaul once I’m done.

By then, I should have most of my style and workflow on lock (see I’m cool…I said “on lock”…like a boss). More coming next post……. (oohhhhhh a teaser…what can it be…).

Martin

 

Prodigal Blogger falls down well, not seen for months…again

Posted in Arena, Art, Game Art, Game Mod, Morrowind, plans by

WTF

I meant this blog as a history of my art endeavors not a graveyard. But I had this idea that I would wait till I finished the TES:Arena project before releasing my next post. So….about that. I didn’t finish ADP yet. I did work on it…ummm…some but I got distracted. Between the dreaded real life or RL (yes I do have one of those) and other projects (including some for friends), I just never finished. I have worked on several disparate things since then. I am susceptible to what I call “Shiny Key Syndrome”. Despite not being a rabid blogger, not posting actually demotivated me. Weird. Well, here’s a pic to fill the space (it’s my first project related pic on this site):

Starting dungeon

Starting dungeon

 

ADP 123

But first…yes Virginia, I will finish that Arena mod if it kills me….I mean maims me….or how about slightly vexes me…yeah lets go with that. No time lines…I think I proved that I’m terrible at that. I have finished doors but still need to do the framing to match the walls they are associated with. I hate to say this, but the extended time away has let me look at it with a fresh eye (no,no,no….figuratively). I think I want to make some changes…BUT first I’ll finish what I have. It’s only fair for those who have stalked this project like an Ex on facebook.

MAP or Monster

Caveat: I know WAY too much about how Bethesda codes it’s mod files. I’d actually argue that I have a Master’s degree level of understanding for Morrowind and Oblivion (from Nerd University, Dork Campus). I find it more fun to make the “perfectly modded” game than I do actually playing it. Now that I’ve scared all the ladies away…why do I mention this…well because this is my mega WIP…..

AIP Oblivion Overlay Map NG+ experiment-Recovered

This insane Frankenstein monster of  map, it a comprehensive guide to where mods overlap each other. Using modding tools, I’m mapping out every cell from each mod I use plus a few uber popular ones I don’t. It’s insane, OCD, and insane. I love it…my analytic brain can’t get enough of making order where there is only chaos. What’s that look for?!

MorrowLands 2.0

Remember when I did lined faces for Morrowind. Yeah…that’s back….but better. I already have learned more subtle techniques. Not really a project as much as a continued experiment to perfect the style I’m trying for (hint: it rhymes with Borderlands) mixed with my own vision. I’m still not completely feeling I have it how I want…I’ll come back around to it eventually, I’m sure.

Before (w/ Westly’s Heads)
After

What’s behind door #3?

The last project is the one I’m eager to actually finish (besides ADP) mostly because I think the game will most benefit from it. I’ll leave it a mystery for a little longer but here is a hint:

ScreenShot8

Let’s have some fun again – Martin

The madness of Fate

Posted in Art, Fate, Game Art, technical by

What are they doing? Seriously, some one tell me.

I mentioned that Fate converts the textures added at install from PNG to DDS. This conversion happens upon initial run of the game but also again if any of the converted textures go missing (which I use when I tweak textures and such). In addition to the main texture (or diffuse map), some textures had an alpha map (for transparency such as making the black on the sails below invisible). Then there are the “completemaps” that funk up the textures in game and honestly, aren’t very well done in Fate. Such as the one I posted last time. It was supposed to be a burned down building, but it looked completely black despite the original texture having detail and actual color. After I rebuilt the texture, it still looked dark in game. There was a peculiarity with the coloring and shading/highlighting with several of the textures. It was clear my changes were in place but something was distorting the image.

(CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM LARGER)

Original texture (resized for easy of viewing)
Partially complete rebuild

You can see in the image that my version of the boat is much cleaner (and detailed). However, when I loaded the game, my textures showed but were muddied with blemishes shown in the first texture. I thought maybe it was an engine thing (e.g. when building levels you can “paint” shadows and marks on the 3D landscape like Morrowind).

Original boat texture
New texture (but muddied by something)

I didn’t know what I don’t know

Then I discovered, there was a third texture related to the boat image. However it’s structure is very weird. This texture does two things that I can discern: 1. highlights or darkens areas on the model and 2. adds color tinting. So my amateur status here doesn’t know what this layer is called or how the heck it is made or relates to the model. It’s not just another variant of the boat texture but rather more like a piecemeal palette of portions of the 3D model.

boatcompletemap

I assume the 3D software creates the mapping on this texture…If anyone knows, please enlighten me

Trying to make it work

The lighter the color is, the brighter on the boat and the darker creates shadows. The hue tints the image that color. But the mapping is crazy…I had to experiment just to get the white on the boat to be even. I plan to minimize my efforts on those files unless one (such as the boat) really needs it. The smelter (as it’s labeled in the filename) stays mostly red due to how it’s “completemap” is mostly shades of red.

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Smelter walls should be light brown.

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After some trials, I at least got the ship to a reasonable spot. I’m not sure if I’ll come back to Fate or not but it was a fun bit of messing around.

– Martin

 

 

 

Fate: The Tortured Texture

Posted in Art, Fate, Game Art, Game Mod, technical by

Technomancer

Occasionally, I like to test out games on my 4k monitor to see how they look at such a high resolution (3184×2160). For some games, that impact is less than you would expect while others look surprising good. For example, Bethesda Gamebyro engine-based games (Elder Scrolls and Fallout) look a little better but I’m not very wow’d by it. I think it boils down to the engine and lower resolution textures. Less aliasing (jagged edges around the 3D model) and more detail but not the punch you would expect.

On the other hand, Two Worlds looks fantastic. The textures are high resolution enough to make them really pop. Unfortunately, the interface doesn’t scale so it’s very “difficult” to play at such a high resolution. Visually, it’s very pleasing though.

 

2005 called

So one day, I got a bug to try the old game Fate. It was the predecessor to Torchlight. A top-down action-RPG click fest. My boys played all but last one in the series so as usual, there is a touch of nostalgia for me.  The only thing I had to figure out tech-wise was how to get the resolution desired in game. Some games work out of the box and some require manually editing “ini” text files. In this case, I had to edit the “ini” file AND disable scaling on high DPI settings. I did that by right clicking the program executable file and putting a check under that line in the compatibility tab. Viola…4K work for a decade+ old game.

 

Both ends of the spectrum

You can see in the screenshot (even if you don’t have a 4K monitor) that the character models are actually quite detailed. In 4K, they really stand out and don’t really need any work. Well, I could do a little but I digress…in general, they are perfectly nice. However, as you can see in the “snow/ice” texture, the non-character models are blurry low-resolution messes.  Basically, they are tiled 128×128 textures. They are so dramatically worse than the character/object textures in 4K. The building are also very low resolution…which is even more boggling since they don’t blend into the background like the landscaping. That is when I got inspired…to fix the disparity.

Getting better….

The above (partially complete) picture is post landscape editing. For the record, I’m still not crazy happy about it but small steps.The landscapes textures have revealed the oddites of the engine. A few places where they don’t actually blend and such but not too much. The real work and most dramatic change was the building and landscape objects…but that is for next time.

  • Martin

 

Experiments in Art Style

Posted in Art, Darkstone, Game Art, Morrowind, plans, technical, Uncategorized by

Art Concepts

Since I have limited time to focus on leisurely activities, a lot of what I do with game art falls more into the “Proof of Concept” category. I have an idea about what would be a interesting visual change for me and I merely want to see it in game. For example, for the Darkstone project, I was going for the look of dry erase crayons on a dark dry erase board.

Exit to Forest

Exit to Forest

For Morrowind, I simulated a cell shader (cartoon) effect with build in black outlines. Note: when I first made those textures, Borderlands hadn’t been released. However, I had already realized that it looked better to have the solid colors have some kind of texture behind them for visual interest.

MGE Screenshot 2

Fast forward to Today

I was messing around with my new art tablet last month and decided to see if I could replicate the style of Borderlands in Morrowind, at least as a proof of concept. I did some research for tips on the best way to replicate the effect and found a youtube video that explained a method that a got very close to the games style.

I chose to experiment on the vanilla Morrowind face textures. In general, they are awful and look very ugly in game. My logic being that adding the “borderlands” style texturing might add enough interest to make them worthy of keeping versus using model replacer mod (may mods replace the heads). The original textures used for faces were very low resolution, inaccurate (sloppily made) and just generals ugly as all get out.

Ugly Vanilla

Some one beat him with the Vanilla Game ugly stick

Morrowlands?

I started by doing the heads in the order of the characters you run into when you start a new game. I redid 5 faces. It was surprisingly easier than I thought.

Jiub Vanilla Base to Borderland

I’ll detail it out next time but for a teaser here’s what “vanilla” jiub looked like when I was done. I’ll explain the irregularities next time.

– Martin

 

Witness this fully operational Battle…errr…Art Station

Posted in Art, Morrowind, plans, technical by

Tech Nirvana

The same week I got my new art tablet, I had finally overclocked my computer and received my Oculus Rift in the mail. It’s not to hard to imagin that it was more of a Tech In Pinkerton than an Art In Pinkerton kind of week. For the last two weeks, I have squandered quite some time playing with my new VR gizmo which means I spent less time on other, more artsy endeavors 😉

Nerdmaggedon has arrived!

Nerdmaggedon has arrived!

Tech Nerd Note: Years ago when I built my computer, I bought a CPU chip (I7-2600K) that was designed to be overclocked but I never bothered since it was already (and still is) very capable. I finally gave it a go and ended up boosting the speed from 3.4 Ghz to 4.4Ghz (about 25% more power) with very little change in temperature. All I had to do was change two settings in the BIOS and voila…instant faster computer.

I also upgraded my computer desk and arranged my setup so it’s much more aesthetically appealing and has space for using the Oculus Rift.

Desk

Me likey

 

It’s not all for naught

I did find time to play with my new tablet though. I took its arrival as a cue to make the transition over to Photoshop from GIMP. I do have to say, it’s has taken a few weeks for me to adjust to how different it is. I feel like I have taken two steps back but I know I will catch up to speed pretty quickly. I just have to do a little more “google research” to figure out how to do things than I did with GIMP in a long time.

N’Wah

Now that I had my new art tablet, I really wanted to see what it could do and clicking individual pixels for the Arena Depixelization Project wasn’t going to scratch that itch (sorry it’ll be back on the agenda soon). I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but my favorite video game of all time is The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. Atmospherically, it’s an amazing setting. However, it’s from early 2000s and a little clunky. The 3d models of the characters are blocky like those poseable wooden art figures (composed of multiple seperate 3D meshes). The textures are low res, blurry, and sometimes quite questionable in their construction. As can be seen in my Morrowind screenshot directory, I have experimented with that game before.

What is old, is new again

I had a (kind of) new idea. I wanted to see if I could add a Borderlands style look to that game. It’s is only meant as  a proof of concept rather than a full mod though. As can be seen in the screenshots for my various projects, the cartoon concept a recurring theme for me (it just takes different forms). It’s an “easy” way to turn an art direction on its head and give it a little more interest. The difference this time from the last time I fiddled with Morrowind’s art assets is that, besides having Borderlands as an inspiration, I’m not brand new to computer graphics this time. I have completed a few textures already but will save that for another post.  – Martin

Tablet 2.0

Posted in Art, technical by

UpgradeHurion 650 Pro

Over a month ago, the pen for my trusty Wacom Bamboo tablet (see first post ever) broke. This was quite disheartening as I love having an art tablet and it’s was hard to be motivated without it.

After much research and reflection, I have finally picked up a new tablet: the Hurion 650 Pro. The great thing about it (besides the very positive ratings) is that it functions at the level of the middle tier Wacom products but only cost $79 US dollars on Amazon.  I can’t wait to take advantage of the added features it brings.

Breaking it in

After it got installed, I fiddle with my new toy using GIMP (side note: really tiring of using GIMP and it’s limitations). I was working on a homework project and had a picture of a pencil loaded. Just for fun, I attempted a very hasty and crude pencil outline of the pencil. It’s rough but I’m sentimental and it’s the first official drawing on the Hurion. I merely looked to trace the major lines and add some crosshatching…I wasn’t very attentive to keeping straight lines because this was more to test out the tablet than make art. However, I like it anyways.

– Martin

My first creation on the Hurion 650 Pro

My first creation on the Hurion 650 Pro