Just wanted to point out that on yesterday's stream Casey started calculating the world units based on the width of the character (around the 41:30 mark on the youtube archive), but fortunatelly ended up using the height for the calculations.
The problem of using the width of the character to calculate the world units is that when drawing figures (from Leonardo DaVinci's figure studies to anime chibi characters and everything in between) the proportions of both the character and everything surrounding it are calculated based on head heights.
Thus when using placeholder art (whether a quickly drawn sketch or a yellow rectangle) I recommend using the height rather than the width for figuring out the size of the world units.
The problem of using the width of the character to calculate the world units is that when drawing figures (from Leonardo DaVinci's figure studies to anime chibi characters and everything in between) the proportions of both the character and everything surrounding it are calculated based on head heights.
Thus when using placeholder art (whether a quickly drawn sketch or a yellow rectangle) I recommend using the height rather than the width for figuring out the size of the world units.
I thought the height ended up being used anyway?
Our tiles were square (60 pixels by 60 pixels), and he figured out the height of a 10 year old in meters. That height (1.4m) became the standard for both the width and the height of tiles (60 pixels / 1.4 m).
Since we set the player height equal to the tile size (again, 1.4m), the height should be fine? The width is still calculated as 0.75 * (Size of tile), unless I'm mistaken.
Our tiles were square (60 pixels by 60 pixels), and he figured out the height of a 10 year old in meters. That height (1.4m) became the standard for both the width and the height of tiles (60 pixels / 1.4 m).
Since we set the player height equal to the tile size (again, 1.4m), the height should be fine? The width is still calculated as 0.75 * (Size of tile), unless I'm mistaken.
Edited by Andrew Chronister
on
Yes, you are correct. As I mentioned Casey _started_ by talking about the width of the rectangle as related to the width of a person, but then ended up using the height in the way you mentioned. Just wanted to point out that his inital approach would probably not have been as good as what he ended up doing.
It might be better to base lengths on heights, but since we view the character from an angle, the height of the yellow rectangle is less than his actual height, so it shouldn't be 1.4 meters.
I guess more thought will be put into dimensions and speeds before final art, so there's not much need to worry about it now.
I guess more thought will be put into dimensions and speeds before final art, so there's not much need to worry about it now.
Since both "references" we are handling right now are The Binding of Isaac and the original Zelda, I would recommend looking at both games again. Probably from what you remember, the images _should_ be drawn at an angle, however if you look at them again you will see that the characters are drawn almost as if seen straight on, and then placed on a "fake" perspective room, which once looked at in static images look "wrong" in a perspective (they however work perfectly well within their context).
In _this_ manner of drawing, the height of the rectangle would be the height of the character. Making a realistic height of a character while moving inside a proper 3d (or fake 2.5d) room would require a lot more math than Casey will probably use in this project (and would change the project into more of a 3D project).
My initial intention with this post was merely to say that when a character is a cartoony character(as the hero's rendering in this very page suggests will be), its height will be much more related to heights of both the background and other characters/items in the world. Its width, on the other hand, has more to do with the artistic style or the character's aspect than any real measurements would have.
In _this_ manner of drawing, the height of the rectangle would be the height of the character. Making a realistic height of a character while moving inside a proper 3d (or fake 2.5d) room would require a lot more math than Casey will probably use in this project (and would change the project into more of a 3D project).
My initial intention with this post was merely to say that when a character is a cartoony character(as the hero's rendering in this very page suggests will be), its height will be much more related to heights of both the background and other characters/items in the world. Its width, on the other hand, has more to do with the artistic style or the character's aspect than any real measurements would have.