Task
The beach design is meant to be small as it is a short scene where the character gets washed up by the beach. I will be designing it with my own version of a smooth render style RPG.
When getting a template, I recreated one from the software, RPG Maker MV and implemented a replica from the drawing that I have made. The grid will help me to decide where to position each of the objects, so when I am coding it in, I don’t need to go back and redraw it again as that process will take longer.
Before I could go into detail with any of the drawings, I need to outline where I want and give it a thick line so that it is visible to the eye. I have done that because it is clear to the player to figure out which area of the beach is there. I measure the stairs to be positioned 3 pixels away from each other.
After the outline, I start to apply bold colours like blue, green, brown and sandy colour. In order to keep the consistency of the colours uses Eye-dropper tool to sample each of my chosen colours. I limited my colour choice as I wanted to achieve a simple but effective outcome.
Next, I started to use a grid on the wall to make it more realistic. I wanted to make the wall rocky. I started to give the grass area darker patches, here the tall grass will be applied. I will need to be using different shades of green to apply that effect and I will be experimenting with a grass bush set to use different types of grasses.
As for sand, I used different colours such as brown and orange as I know that sand is not only yellow This method will make the sand charming to the viewer’s eye.
Since I did not what the sand’s bits to visible, I blend it with the smudge tool to give it that feeling that it has been submerged with the sand. I like how the sand is looking like by once I import this into my game, my opinion will change from there.
Afterwards, since I am finding it difficult to do waves from an above perspective, I set out to do waves that would be in front of the screen to show that the waves are popping out of the screen. At first, I wasn’t fully open to this idea until I tried it. By adding a brighter colour of blue and adding a hint of white really make the waves attractive and it blends very well with the other colours.
Once I was happy with the first set of waves, I then went on to design the grass patches and the decorations objects which are the tree and the rock. I used the outline of the tree from the template so that I have that appearance of what a palm tree should look like. However, the colours that I used to colour the tree was mine alone and I added different shades to make it more appealing. Next, I knew how I want the rock to be which is this cube-like figure but making sure that I have this isometric style when I add the colours. Once I was finished, I was really happy with the outcome and proceed to use it in the game.
Since the top part of the beach felt empty, I decided to add some flowers to give more life to the environment. I used yellow for the flowers to make it visible on the grass patch. Another thing that I do want to point out is that I smart shapen the area to give more of its brightness and turns out to work really well.
To finish this environment off, I decided to go back on the waves and add in more because normally, you would see a variety of its size. With the big ones, I added a white tip to give off the resembles of the wave reaching the sand and creating this foam that you see in most beaches.
Overall, the beach level is small and could have been expanded a bit, however, I think it works well like this and the colours are very vibrant and I am very happy of how the waves come out as it looks really appealing and I believe that’s what might attract the audience. If I were to change anything next time, it would have to be the grass patches as you can see the darker patches shape and when I am doing a beach level again, I would manage it in another way.
Javier Alvarez-Roszyk 