Mastodawn

Weird Jan 9, 2023

Can't believe I only posted this in a pinned post without saying more about it here yet.
It's one of the coolest things I did with pixelart so far.
Despite looking 3D, it's actually a flat image with a normal-map layer added, which tells the game engine how to lit/shadow the sprite.
The normal map had to be hand-made, yes I know there are tools for that but they won't capture the true shape of the object, not at this scale and not an object this complex.
#gamedev #pixelart #indiedev

bits ⬡Jan 9, 2023

@scriptwelder that's really cool !!

@scriptwelder oh man, handpainting normal maps is next level. Did you build yourself tooling for that?

@halcy tried tools but it only resulted in a weird car-blob relief, so: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@scriptwelder/109659336022936996

scriptwelder (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image @[email protected] I used the basic normal palette color wheel as a reference since it more or less shows the angle (imagine it's a dome viewed from top) and yeah I did it until it seemed right

Gamedev Mastodon

@scriptwelder ah, I meant like for the drawing, with preview or whatnot. Kind of curious what the process for manually painting a normal map from scratch looks like

@halcy once i place the sprite on the stage in Unity it will update the preview live each time I save the file so it's almost live preview 😁

@halcy also it's another reason for me to make a gamedev video or two

Nikita Lisitsa Jan 9, 2023

@scriptwelder Amazing!

@lisyarus thanks :D

Nikita Lisitsa Jan 9, 2023

@scriptwelder I wonder how light attenuation works - does it simply use screen-space distance in pixels? And also shadows!

@lisyarus 2D shadows are Unity's component, the whole lighting system is a part of their 2D rendering pipeline that I use. Had to stretch it a bit for my needs but it works

Nikita Lisitsa Jan 9, 2023

@scriptwelder Ah, I see, cool!

Syd Jan 9, 2023

@scriptwelder I like that with normal maps it always looks like you have a pink 3D model being shined on by 4 colored spotlights.

Very nicely done.

@Sythelux this is actually an amazing comparison, because this is exactly how it looks like. It's also much easier to imagine this if you think of it this way! WOW my mind is blown now :D

Syd Jan 9, 2023

@scriptwelder hehe. Maybe it helps explaining, when you make the video about it.

Jocelynephiliac

@scriptwelder @olivia that is REALLY cool!