How to Art : Rock Ground

Hey, everybody!

Here we are again for a new blog post.
First of all we thank you for being more and more numerous to join us on Discord (https://discord.gg/nEFjQK5) and to follow us on the devblog and on social networks!

Today I will talk about the process I use to create the ground texture.
The ground is not the easiest thing to do, because vast areas are visible on the screen and the texture is divided into isometric tiles. It become necessary to avoid that the repetition of tiles is seen too much while having as much diversity as possible.

Let’s look at the rocky ground, it is quite telling.

Here’s how I proceed:
I start with the isometric grid, which will serve as a basis for my work so that my digital painting is always in the right perspective.
Then I will paint the rock small sets by small sets that I will dissociate.
Once I feel I’ve done enough, I position them on the grid and fill in the holes and bad joints with new rocks to eventually get an uniform texture.

Here is a video describing the process:

Once my texture is ready, I will reduce it to the size of the game (because the original is in HD).
Then I will apply it on isometric tiles:

The problem is the transition between tiles.
Here the separation is clear and therefore the rocks will be cut and the transition will be seen.
To overcome this problem I make the rocks that are on the outer edges of the tiles protrude:

I can now test if the tiles work together to make sure there are no more transition problems.
I also take this opportunity to slightly modify the colors to have harmony in the game with the rest of the environments, I boost the contrasts and I make the shades warmer:

All that remains is to make smoother transitions between the different ground textures in order to make the transition from one texture to another more realistic and less rigid as is currently the case :

And well, that’s pretty much it!

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See you soon, take care,

Tchu !

Noodle