Cities of the Mexíca

[aaglo]

the one preview posted by redalert looks good, but a bit blocky (like there's no anti-aliasing). You could try to do this for better looks:
- increase colour depth to 16/32 bit
- increase the size
- smoothen
- decrease to original size
- apply the city palette
that could make it look smoother. (or bad )

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Sword_of_Geddon - True enough. As far as I know, though, Aztec architecture doesn't allow for much of anything besides 'blocky' shapes. To make matters worse, they did lay out their cities in grid patterns. You are right though, and I am not entirely happy with how it looks either, though I'm not sure what I should do about it. Anything you can think of to better them would help. Perhaps a few trees could at least bring in an organic touch?

varwnos - Well, ok, you've got me. I cannot say I recognize that at all
Your work is too good for me to see any trace of my own.

Well, I'd maybe try to work with existing Civ buildings rather than Vawnos' entirely at least. Try to mix the two. Vawnos' work isn't necessarily bad, it just looks 8-bit for some reason, not like Civ3 cities. Thats the same problem I have with several other city creators.

 

[Aion]

Looks good, but some of the roofs and walls need more texturing.

 

[RedAlert]

Whew - it's a good thing that was only a 'practice' version

From the sounds of things, I think it would be easier for me to start afresh than to edit those buildings (because I had been extensively editing them to no avail even before I posted)

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, and please keep them coming. Hopefully this many people with opinions on the matter will keep me in check, and the finished product will be one that makes everyone happy.

 

[RedAlert]

Does this look any better?

 

[Ogedei_the_Mad]

That's very nice work. Looks much, much better than the first preview.

How do you like the art of pixel-by-pixel?

 

[Kyriakos]

I agree, it is great

 

[Traianus]

That's exactly the colour and texture they should be. The sides of the Great Pyramid were flatter and overall it should be more 'blocky' looking. Sorry to be a pain but these WILL be the best mesoamerican set ever done. I just want them to be perfect. Do you need any images of Tenochtitlan? I have a ton of them.

 

[RedAlert]

Thanks guys

How do you like the art of pixel-by-pixel?

You noticed! I've been trying to learn from your and varwnos's styles. I have a rather sharp eye, so I usually notice when one pixel is out of place or does not look quite right. This has always bothered me, but I find that the art of pixel-by-pixel solves this quite nicely.

Traianus - I can do that. Although I probably won't be able to make this look exactly like Tenochtitlan, I can make it look Tenochtitlan-ish, in a Tenochtitlan style, as accurately as I possible. If that's o.k. I may need a little room for creativity
I did save copies of the pictures you provided to varwnos a while back, but any more pictures are welcome as well. Oh, and I forgot to say so, but assuming this era goes well I can do the first era too.

 

[Traianus]

You're a star! All I can say is I would honestly not have anyone else in place other than you on this project. No disrespect to others such as Varwnos and Skam who know I rate them very highly but You're the man for this job.
My only stipulation for the metropolis is that it have something that looks like the great pyramid. That's it.
I'll upload more pics tmrw.

 

[Ekmek]

redalert, you can use some of my spanish colonial stuff for future eras if you wish.

 

[Kyriakos]

Possibly the byzantine series i am making (almost finished now) could be used as a spanish one too, if the style is close enough Along with the medieval series it can complete a two-era set.

I wish that we could somehow agree on some graphical conventions: like having a commonly used shadow, or a common shape for size #1 (not for all sizes since that would limit creativity too much). Partly ofcourse this is just me, but in Civ2 the golden age of city creation was triggered when some people agreed to make cities in the style that Nemo (civ2 modder) first started making them.

building's shadows are personally what irritates me the most!

 

[RedAlert]

Traianus - I'm glad to be of service

Ekmek & varwnos - Thank you both! I'll keep those in mind.


So, is this an improvement, or a step back? Or neither?

 

[The Last Conformist]

That's looking very good to me.

I think this will have to replace the standard ancient American city gfx in The Classic Maya.

 

[Kyriakos]

Wow redalert, that is really looking great!
For some reason i thought of the Larry Laffer series when i saw it though

wonderfull city, you are clearly taking civ3 city making to an entire new era

 

[Traianus]

That's wondrous! I'm amazed. We finally have a mesoamerican city set that represents what the cities actually looked like.

 

[aaglo]

very convincing

 

[Aion]

First of all, this looks excellent.

Yet I have a couple of remarks, that are however not supposed to be too critical.

1) The small buildings at the right corner seem to have darker shadows than the other buildings. You should adjust the contrasts.

2) Working pixel by pixel has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is of course that your creativity is basically unlimited. But on the other hand it makes the graphics look more pixelated, or 8-bit as SOG would say. I'm not quite sure if varwnos meant the same when he said that he was reminded of the Larry Laffer series. Your former cities, like Firaxis' cities used to look smoother. That doesn't mean that this city wasn't good, just like varwnos' cities are also great despite of looking '8-bit'.

 

[Traianus]

I would respectfully dissagree. I think you've captured the best of both worlds with this second preview. I await the remainder eagerly.
Can I ask, when you all refer to 'pixel by pixel' work do you mean that the entire image is assembled a pixel at a time? You can always tell when someone uses that method but it seems an enormous amount of work... or is there something I'm missing?

 

[RedAlert]

First of all, this looks excellent.

Yet I have a couple of remarks, that are however not supposed to be too critical.

Criticisms are always welcome. Especially from skilled city creators like yourself

1) The small buildings at the right corner seem to have darker shadows than the other buildings. You should adjust the contrasts.

You're right. I'll fix that.

2) Working pixel by pixel has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is of course that your creativity is basically unlimited. But on the other hand it makes the graphics look more pixelated, or 8-bit as SOG would say. I'm not quite sure if varwnos meant the same when he said that he was reminded of the Larry Laffer series. Your former cities, like Firaxis' cities used to look smoother. That doesn't mean that this city wasn't good, just like varwnos' cities are also great despite of looking '8-bit'.

Well said. It has been unfortunately difficult to find a happy medium thus far, though. Perhaps with a bit more practice I can remedy the 8-bit feeling. There's a couple things I'm going to try, and I'll post the results later.

I would respectfully dissagree. I think you've captured the best of both worlds with this second preview. I await the remainder eagerly.
Can I ask, when you all refer to 'pixel by pixel' work do you mean that the entire image is assembled a pixel at a time? You can always tell when someone uses that method but it seems an enormous amount of work... or is there something I'm missing?

Yes, one pixel at a time, and it does take quite a while. A few hours for each building, actually, just to make sure it looks right.


To everyone: Thank you all for your generous comments and suggestions.