The VG Resource

Hey.

I kinda need some help in getting the palette and the lighting effects right on this mockup title screen I'm doing. It's for an immaginary side scrolling shooter with spaceships here are the layers I made:

1:


2:


3:


4:


Supposedly, the first one will scroll from top to down, the second one will do the same half as fast, and the last two stand still (I also have no idea on how to animate it like that, help welcome).

I wanted to get a cool chromatic effect such as this one:



But can't seem to get it right. Help, please?

well, you seem to have a good reference for what effect you want.

It's a matter of texture. look at how the font looks in the Megaman title screen, the brightest part of the effect is in the middle but it goes to the darkest shade right under that bright part, but not above it.

I can't really describe it any better but I hope this gives you some idea.

The chrome look isn't that hard to pull off if you study your reference. Pick any letter, and you'll see that there are 2 gradients working at the same time, the top half is a color to white gradient, while the bottom half is a black to color gradient. Knowing, you can easily make a chromed font. Here's a quick demonstration:

Obviously, the scale I made the gradient isn't that great (I just used the rectangle tools to make them ), so you'll have to study your reference more to figure how to make it better. You can also see that just adding the gradient isn't enough, you need to have the bevel too (the effect on the edges of the letter). For that, I recommend trying different approaches for the bevel on a plain letter, and then once you get something you like, combine it with the gradient for a final result.

EDIT: Here's another example, it's something I made for a side project.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Here's a composition of how the four currently layers look like together.


Still no clue on how to animate it.

And I don't really know how to create a good palette on my own, so I just kinda used yours (hopefully only for now, hope you don't mind), and this is how it's coming along:


Am I on the right track?

Additionally, any thoughts on how I could improve that emblem thing with the wing that goes behind the text?

Yeah, it's looking good! I think the place where the two gradients meet might be too low, try playing around with its location. I'm afraid I can't give any suggestions for the emblem at the moment, though

np man, I'm really thankful for your massive help with the chromatic effect so far.

Anyway, here's how far I've come regarding the font:


I'm still looking for help on how to animate it and revamp the winged emblem, though.

Also, here's another pixel work I made a long time ago that kinda goes with the spacey theme:


Any help on how to further improve it in any way is very much welcome!

Maybe make the colors match with the emblem? And also make the emblem shine chrome like how the letters do?

the planet could benefit from a more 'earthy' texture. Give it some slight irregularities on the shading to represent bumps, mountains and craters and avoid shading too smooth; rock objects are usually grittier than plastic spheres.

Alright, I tried switching my palette and adding further detail to the craters. Also took a shot in adding texture by using dithering, not sure if I did it right though.

I'm clearly not done with the improvement yet, but this is how it's turning out:


C+C, please.

You're jumping shades to dynamically. Try making the transition more seamless

i disagree, the contrast is pretty stylish imo. the main problem is that the shading is very nearly like a gradient, making it look really flat. i would find a decent ref of a sphere and try to follow it a bit closer

Thanks for all the comments, dudes!

I've tryed to change the shading in order to make it more spherical using the TSR's dictionary for main reference (don't quite know if I managed to grasp the 'earthy' texture, though), and made the outlining thinner, while adding some selout.



Also, I'd like to pimp the first layers of the title screen to make it better fit the mood of outer space. Basically turning these two:
+

Into this:


Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Right, my tests are drawing nearer, and my time is getting shorter.

This is what I managed to do so far:


I think I have begun getting to the desired earthy texture.

Still not sure about how good is my palette yet.

Anyhow, I still wanna make the title screen's skies more metroidish, such as the screenshot I posted, but I wouldn't know where to begin.

Some help, please?

Thanks in advance.

the metroid screenshot isn't made with pixelart techniques (it looks like it was prerendered using another program or something). So, making this by hand is going to be quite difficult.

I am not sure if those 'scales' work, I think it needs to be somewhere in-between this and your first attempt, but I can't really suggest.

the scaly texture doesn't really work in my opinion

i've been looking at some pictures of the moon and its textures and what you're doing doesn't really resemble them
have a look at some pictures of the moon!

the area around and including the top crater looks really nice in the latest version though, good job!