Intro
Most people fly right by these parts, but we’re gonna take a cozy detour for a stay on the farm. As a country boy myself, the simple scenery of rural life captures an aesthetic precious to me. Far from the amenities of the city, life maintains a connection with nature that people long for in the modern world. It’s no wonder causal daily life themed video games with farming mechanics have become more numerous in recent years. Not surprisingly, pixel art captures the farm world with exceptional charm. In this super casual lesson I present a handful of subjects associated with farming. It’s all in a hard day’s work. Let’s get to it!
Barn
What’s a farm without a barn? You gotta have a place to store farm implement, but more importantly, a shelter for your animal peeps.
3/4 top down projection is a fave of mine. By maintaining clean lines while depicting a sense of depth, it’s especially conducive to architectural forms. Much in line with architectural themed tutorials of the past, you should be right at home with my approach to the barn. I always start by making the roof and the front face of the building with solid flat colors. This quickly captures the entire form and defines the lighting. From there, it’s just a matter of details. My example is modeled after a real barn in my area, which I used reference photos of to inform the details. No matter how simple or abstract the assignment, references are always helpful. After all, visual art begins with observation.
While structurally sound, my barn is considerably weathered, therefore exhibiting a strong textural element. Texture can add a lot to a piece, but it must be applied with care, as subtle edits can make huge changes when working with limited pixels. Texture elements should clearly inform about the materials without adding unnecessary noise. Keep it simple and repeat consistent clusters for the texture to read well. Refer to Pixelblog 2 for more tips on texture.
Tractor
The little engine that could. Every farm needs a tractor for pulling stuff.
Also in 3/4 top down projection, this tractor stylistically and proportionally meshes with the barn. However, it’s too large to store in said barn, it will require a large hangar to keep protected from the elements. Another win for references, I modeled this one after the Ford TW-35. By taking a constructive approach and breaking down the components step by step, you can realize an intricate machine with accuracy. If you can establish these 3 views, you are well on your way to creating a fully animated 8 directional sprite. Just need to solve those dang angles, yet.
Produce
At the end of the day, it’s all about enjoying the fruits of your labor. Sample some fresh produce while you’re on the farm.
Here are your common garden variety of veggies, and fruits if you’re going by the botanical classification. All sprites are within a 32x32px frame, and range from 5 to 9 colors. For most of the sprites I use a tilted style, while the cabbage sits more straight on. The cabbage simply reads better this way, and I think the combination works well here, thanks to the variety of organic shapes across all sprites. However, I would not recommend mixing styles among sprites with consistent geometry.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s not the most exciting subject, but there’s something very fundamental and pure about farm life that I find beautiful. Given the popularity of farming in games, I’m hopeful many of you do too. Although, I’m not particularly interested in games focused on farming, I think the backdrop of the farm can serve for a whole new kind of adventure. Games aside, the countryside provides great inspiration for fine art. I left a lot of ideas on the table for this series, and I would be happy to expand upon the theme in future blogs.
Resources
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This month I’m sharing Farm Assets Pack 2, which includes all the assets presented in this lesson, including individual animation frames.
My top patrons can also download the Tutorial 91 Source File. Gain insight from this original psd files, which show how I organize and animate the tutorial.
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-By Raymond Schlitter