How to make art for a game when you have only 2-3 days?
Hey, everyone! I would like to share with you some tips and tricks I used to do art for our game.
I thought that it could be helpful for everyone who doesn't know where to start but wants to improve the art side of a game. I know that my style isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I can say that these simple rules have never failed me (so mb you can find them useful).
At the end of a day we have very limited time and the one big lesson I learned through gamejams: cut the scope
The secret isn't skill but decisions that were made early.
First and most important: find your mood and references of art the moves you, games you like to look at and try to captivate not a particular style, but mostly mood and atmosphere. It's not cheating, it's your style compass. I collected ~30 different images from Pinterest what helped me a lot to lock our style and also helped our composer to start working on music.
Second is: find a nice palette that would give you an extra kick on a style. You can go on Lospec (what I personally do a lot when I don't have much time) or take 4-5 colors from game you like, photograph you find beautiful or even pinterest. A restricted palete makes everything looks intentional (even if it isn't xd).
Third Pillar: Strong shape and silhouette. As a 3D animator I can say that nothing helps your work more than a very nice, pushed and clean shape. Silhouette is a structure that will work as a nice glue for your art.
Simplification - and we are on the 4th stage of making good art. When we don't have time let's use flat art, bold outlines, minimalism and treat them not as a shortcuts but like a deliberate style.
The last but not the least rule I put on the wall in front of me: CONSISTENCY. One asset that is different from the whole style hurts the perception of a game more than just a simple clean style. Keep everything the same from the moment you made first asset - the brush, palette, the outline's thickness, level of details, scale of items on the screen etc. If it's hard for you to keep consistency - work in the same file or use your character(main point of interest) as an anchor of a style.
