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Create free accountAnalog Painting Game Art Style in 1 Day: Flowers!
Key insights
6 takeaways- 01The workflow for integrating analog art into Game Maker Studio 2 involves photographing physical acrylic paintings, followed by Photoshop-based color correction and sprite extraction.
- 02Complex physical textures, such as those created with additives like sugar, often fail to translate to digital formats and produce unintended visual artifacts.
- 03Achieving visual cohesion in an analog-style game necessitates rigorous iterative testing to balance organic textures with the technical constraints of the game engine.
- 04High-resolution photography is essential during the digitization process, as low-quality captures introduce excessive grain that degrades sprite clarity.
- 05Successful asset implementation requires frame-by-frame cutting and layering of physical media to create functional, animated game sprites.
- 06Maintaining player readability requires neutral, minimalist background brushwork to prevent visual clutter from obscuring gameplay elements.
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Transcript
it's outside a again today we're gonna create the do piano or painting outside and super excited I'm so curious how this looks and again hopefully my painting skills good enough let's try okay yeah I'm starting to paint just putting some colors on the canvas trying to fill the area really quick I'm not trying to create some sort of masterpiece just neutral and somewhat interesting background I can use for my game every time I'm at a state that I'm happy with I take photos that I can use later on so that's basically like saving my progress so at some point I mess up the painting and it looks shitty then at least I've got the pictures of the unshaded state so I don't need to be
scared to break anything just experimenting getting my hands dirty and trying not to get my pullover dirty swell adding more and more paint and I'm trying to create a grass texture with some small sharp objects making a couple of ripples into the painting I'm really curious to see how this will look and game at this point obviously by now I know spoiler it won't work but doesn't look that bad kind of interesting texture
so here I'm getting a bit crazy using some sugar to create some grass textures and corny texture or at least that was the idea spoiler it didn't work here I'm running to the bathtub getting rid of all the sugar and you can see the final texture doesn't look like grass at all it looks more like crystals and ugly slime thanks for explaining Jonas from the past let me take over again so here I'm creating a butterfly because first of all I wanted the player creatures to be butterflies that but then I remember how the Dragons art style went and realized oops maybe I shouldn't make animals explode anymore so I came up with a
couple of different and here's I could use just some flowers and leaves and maybe seeds that are blown around by the wind also painting some enemies and black resin bedevil very nice it's time to transfer all the files over to my PC and then we're gonna have a look at them importing in the chest to my PC yeah and realizing that the resolution is pretty bad so I can probably not use the background texture because the resolution is just to know there's too much grizzled the diesel rich is pretty sad Here I am chatting out the other sprites they are
a lot nicer because I might really close the photos of them tell ya some color correction just repeating the same process over and over again cutting out images cutting them out and animating this fighter thingy creature stuff by moving the arms burns down [Music] carrying out strikes cutting out strikes just cutting out breath just cut out now in theory you're all the graphics we need I finish them now let's go into
game maker [Music] background is so ugly on oh my god such a bad quality guess what now we're back to programming maybe I should stop singing and start talking again otherwise I could piss some people using grey for now can you hear the sound / yellow things are round this is it's going to fix the background I borrowed a camera from my friend thank you that's take some pictures of this and also I want to create another
background that fits this style a bit more not not as noisy as this one just a couple of clean brushstrokes you know I want my background to be a bit more background II okay even though this was really funny I think it need to stop it now here I'm just painting another green background but more neutral and I've just said just a couple of brush strokes taking some photos with a better camera these backgrounds are a little bad once again importing the photos opening one of them in Photoshop I guess where is it here okay just giving it a bit nicer color doing some color correction as always just
saving a couple different versions so I can try them in game maker I'm going back into game maker find the bright green background first but the problem with that is that you can't really see the Leafs all that well anymore so that's why I probably try this bluish one next also black and white one also looks kind of alright I don't know the groovy music is gone now I can't rap anything anymore but probably for the better just watch at these beautiful flowers slow is starting to look like something I animated the flower so they have our
grow animation now and I settled on the dark blue background so I even darker but that's definitely too dark you can't really see the enemies anymore so I'll try a couple more versions but I think that's the one I stick with [Music] obviously doing a lot of play testing as always [Music] here experimenting with the feedback what happens if you put the flowers too close to each other do they change their color or do they
get darker and I finally decided no they don't do anything because that looks and maybe I'll find a way to give some feedback for how fast plants are growing in the future but for now I think it looks best if they all look somewhat similar and don't change the color now we are going although I wasn't quite happy with the flower so I chose a different one a more roundish one so it fits the flying's eats a bit better I'm trying the dragon outside backgrounds because you never know maybe that works [Music] yeah as you can see there's not a lot
changing anymore I'm really just polishing a little bit adding some details for example smoothing the edges of those seats a bit and also adding a little jiggle animation to them adding some particles okay play through time so I have these cute little flowers and this weird spider creatures are trying to get them I will not allow that as always figuring out which background to use was the hardest part I'm still not quite happy with the background I don't know if it fits the style of the other sprites I'm pretty happy with with the other sprites maybe I need smaller brush strokes or something like that or maybe an even more neutral background maybe this has
too much noise some things off with a background let's just keep it keep it at that so if I continue with this art style I will definitely have another look at the background the other sprites work relatively well okay here's where the levels start to get at least a little bit challenging how this goes you [Music]
you [Applause] last level final challenge [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay I did it
as always leave your feedback in the comments this was a lot of amazing art style day there's only one more to go so tell me what you think very curious the charts that we're gonna choose gonna be a hard decision probably thank you very much for watching thanks for being here have an amazing day make them of your playground and see you next time
Summary
The integration of traditional analog painting into digital game development presents a unique aesthetic challenge, particularly when balancing physical texture with technical constraints. The primary objective involves utilizing acrylic paint on canvas to generate game assets, including backgrounds, sprites, and environmental elements, for a simplistic indie strategy game. By photographing physical paintings and processing them through Photoshop for color correction and sprite extraction, the workflow aims to bridge the gap between tactile art and the Game Maker Studio 2 engine.
Key findings emphasize the importance of resolution and visual noise management when transitioning from physical media to digital environments. Initial attempts to create complex textures using additives like sugar failed to translate effectively, resulting in unintended visual artifacts. Furthermore, the process highlights that high-resolution photography is critical, as low-quality captures introduce excessive grain that compromises the clarity of game sprites. Iterative testing reveals that background selection is the most significant hurdle in maintaining visual cohesion; overly noisy or vibrant backgrounds often obscure gameplay elements, necessitating a shift toward more neutral, minimalist brushwork to ensure player readability.
The development cycle demonstrates that while individual assets like flowers and creature sprites can be successfully digitized and animated through frame-by-frame cutting and layering, the background requires constant refinement to avoid visual clutter. The final implementation relies on a dark blue, simplified background that provides sufficient contrast for the animated elements. Ultimately, the project underscores that while analog techniques provide a distinct, organic style, they require rigorous digital post-processing and playtesting to ensure that the final product remains functional and visually balanced within a game engine.
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