How to make 2D Game Art (my simple process)

this video is sponsored by thomas brush and his course full-time game dev a big discount using the link in the description more on that right at the end welcome back to blackthorne prod in this video i'm going to share my simple process to create game art for my worlds i enjoy playing around with different styles with for example very cartoony game characters and thick outlines sometimes i go for something painterly and textured very colorful or dark and atmospheric you can play all my games using the link in the description today i'll be showing you how i made art for dashing fire necro bomb and more recently orlo boro the game i'm currently working on with my brother these games feature a simple silhouette art style this saves indie devs like myself some time but can also make for stylish results for example let's create this scene that you see right here from a to z i'll be using adobe photoshop but most of what i share here can be applied using a free software like knows that silhouette art doesn't always need to be used to make moody spooky worlds you can use it for minimalist abstract creations or even colorful joyful scenes i begin with a 16x9 blank canvas i'll be making a background basically a sky that looks more interesting than just solid color so back in photoshop i'll fill my background with a spooky purple color since i plan on making a haunting unsettling scene then i'll take a soft round brush it looks like this and almost all 2d apps have it i'll make some parts of my background lighter and some darker having these slight shifts in color just looks really appealing then i like adding some texture to this sky i can easily do so with certain brushes the internet is filled to the brim with high quality brush packs one i'm using a ton lately is this one link in the description once you've downloaded brushes you can head into photoshop and then right click and choose import brushes so i'll pick this one and then dab around my canvas changing the color slightly and adding texture then i'll import that into unity and drag and drop it into my scene since i'll want to add depth to my 2d world with parallax i'll set the camera to perspective modes and move the background far away from it this way later on when i have several layers of artwork and my camera moves around the pieces closer to the camera will move faster than those further away creating that illusion of depth then i can make a terrain perhaps a hill a cemetery a lush wheat fields or smoking battlegrounds the silhouette style lets the player fill in the gaps i choose a simple hard round brush and paint a stroke then i fill it in and i can add little tufts of grass for example by scaling down the brush size finally i grab my soft round brush and add a contour to give the heel a slightly softer feel you could go in and change this to a white color to do so in photoshop simply make a new layer hold the alt key and click between the two layers now the layer that is on top will only show brush strokes that are within whatever you made in the bottom layer so as you can see i can paint white in here but it will not show if i try painting outside the hill form this is extremely useful and time saving the reason i like painting silhouette artwork in white is so that i can easily change color in unity take this basic example here we have a white smiley head and an orange one i can change the white head into any color using this gradient within the sprite render components however if i try turning the orange head green well i'll get this way results so i'll drag and drop the hill in here and change the color to black i might duplicate it check the xbox so it's flipped give it a lower order in layer so it renders behind the initial hill and change the color a little i'll also move it further away from the camera so we have a base and an atmosphere in place simply having a purple sky and black hills feels spooky say i used the exact same hills but they were a deep red against a golden sky now the scene feels warm hopeful the end of a tough and challenging day back to this scene let's add some background details for example i'll grab my hard round brush and create a little castle i like going back in with my eraser and making little bumps you can also erase bits of your drawing with a textured brush just to give it a bit more grit and detail i'll make a couple towers castles crooked trees all in white so i can change the color in unity to make turrets or crumbling architecture can be very easy start with a square add a few long lines protruding from it then add little pointy roofs at the end of those erase small bumps so it feels uneven and old and perhaps thin lines between turrets and walls very little structure and detail for spooky trees create a base usually thicker than the branches which are simply a bunch of wispy lines moving in random directions make the ends pointy to make it feel spooky and dangerous you can also search online for interesting images and then paint over those this can be helpful when getting started get inspired by books images other games when making silhouette style artwork try and break down something into a simple form take a cathedral it's spectacular intricate and detailed but you can make one has a silhouette and it's incredibly simple here's a spooky little house for example it's a square with a triangle on top a couple bumps and circles for the windows the lonesome ghostly farmer standing watch in the inky black fields is a circle atop a rounded rectangle with a couple lines for wispy hair i'll then place my objects in the backgrounds further away from the camera i'm adding depth to my scene with very simple objects it's just different layers of depth we now need a foreground so i'll make clouds to make a cloud you can grab a round brush and jot down one dot after the other this is a very cute light-hearted clouds for our scene i could make something a little more crooked by making a simple shape then going back in with my eraser and adding bumps and sharpness i can also grab a soft brown brush and erase the bottom or top of the clouds to give it a slightly gradient look i'll then add them to the scene in front of everything else and add a script so they move from left to right finally i'll add some post-processing and a simple shader using the all-in-one shader pack to make these hills move slightly now i have this little scene up and running these are most of the techniques i used to create the world of dashing fire it's boss characters mini planets and cutscenes it's what i'm doing now for olobolo a deathmatch multiplayer mix of football and magic if you want to learn more about how that is being made consider checking out these two videos i have so much to learn when it comes to making great arts it's a lifelong journey and i want to be able to create intricate drawings and detailed environments and monuments but i hope this video also shows you that very simple game arts can still make for stylish interesting worlds let's now finish the video by creating a few characters and monsters in a silhouette olobolo style we begin with a simple shape like a circle triangle or square i'm going for round shapes they can be long squashed slightly deformed but they all share one thing in common and that's extreme simplicity then i add a body and some detail around the shape notes that the starting shape could be the body instead of the head just do whatever feels right to you with the basic silhouette in place i choose a light source for each character create a new layer and turn that into a layer mask so i can paint in soft colored lighting on my character giving its volume i add a bit of texture to this highlight using a different brush then i make a new layer and add details in my case cute facial features mostly consisting in curved lines and dots for eyes i can make another layer mask on top of that to give these details a little gradient going from yellow to orange for example finally i add a soft black contour to each character to make it pop out from the backgrounds and so that's how i make my art for my games or at least for many of my recent ones it's many simple elements in a single scene which creates a nicer hole you can wishlist our current project olobolo on steam so you're notified when it gets released in two months or so and you can delve into a fun bouncy world and compete with your friends this video was sponsored by my buddy thomas brush and his online course full-time game dev he's been making indie games for pretty much every platform for the last decades including his latest game never sung on nintendo switch and steam thomas had two grinds to bring in enough income to secure six figures a year to support his family and studio he let me try out his latest project a comprehensive online platform called full-time game dev and there's just so much to learn here not only will you actually make 2d and 3d games from scratch from art to programming and design you'll also learn how to successfully launch and make money from your creation and potentially do it full time you learn about publishers crowdfunding building a personal brand marketing bundles and a strategic method to securing the slots on the steam front page thomas is giving my first hundred viewers a big discount for his course 25 off these coupons usually get grabbed within the first couple of days so if you're interested just click the link below to get a big discount and begin your indie game dev journey

Channel: Blackthornprod

Views: 143,688

Keywords: blackthornprod, unity, tutorial, art, animation, game dev, How to make 2D Game Art (my simple process), simple game art, 2d game art, character design, backgrounds, environments, silhouette art, drawing game art in photoshop, character art, 2d sidescrolling art, parallax, illustration, how to make, sketching, how to draw, concept art, indie game dev, noa calice, blackthornprod art style

Id: QE1D5tF7u3A

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021