I'm not sure I've put this in the right forum or not, but this didn't seem to be exactly on the lines of a mod, rather than a generic question.

I would just like to know, how is the Cortex Command art style performed? How would it best be described? Perhaps the person here behind the cortex command art could walk me through this?

This would be useful, since it would be good to make my maps/things in the style of Cortex Command in order to make authentic (new) things fit the art style, for which it is for.

If this person is on the forums, would he mind explaining to me his insight on how this is done?

Thanks in advanced.

That can be a tricky subject. Though I know what your generally referring to, only way I can actually explain that to you is through examples but your also ganna have to be a bit more specific.
Are you referring to the world terrain, mountains ect. or the characters.

I do believe the one whom you seek is promster, and he has an online tutorial.

Hey there Enforcer! I was worried about you for a bit there.
If you're about the the art style of CC, you might be interested in this thread started by the concept artist.

Particularly, perhaps everything which would be present 'in game' and particularly world graphics/objects (if you think of the crab caves, base interiors and backgrounds for example).



Thanks, he does? About Cortex Command?



Heya. Thanks.

Interesting, i'll check it out.

Edit: I checked it out, but it seems to be more related to concept art and ideas, I'm looking for more understanding of the art style as it appears in game, such as with backgrounds, map decorations and stuff like that (including the way textures are styled).

I think it's mainly about his style in general. realistic/cartoony.

Hey there Enforcer,

This is a familiar topic, the art form really simplifies the textures and materials one see for real - in 256 colors. Visibility that makes for easy reading is a strong guide line. The sprite dump thread actually has the palette in some of the posts ( Thank you posters, btw ).
As for a formal and "iconic" look - that is still being finalized as you may have saw in the concept art thread's proportion pic (Promster's third post in page one - the scale ref.)

With that said, here are some pointers for materials:

Lighting
- Use of ambient light is paramount, as least a grade of 3 colors from light to dark without complete purity. The light source is from the viewer's point of view. Change that level of lighting according to the material you are coloring

- Metallic, machine finish, and reflective surfaces tend to have highest ambient light. Rockets and dropships are fine examples, the outer side are darker while the areas closer to the center are brightest.
- Actors have the middle range of light. Background limbs and more layered areas are darker the parts to the foreground.
- Cutaways like the structure material are bland overall yet have a blended, pixelated look (i.e. concrete)
- Naturally, interiors use the darkest range of ambient/indirect light. The closer to the front, the more light on the surface.

Proportion
This is for actors. What area of the body defines the actor most is good area to work with.
Human types have a focus on their head (easy read for scale - @ B23 3 heads equal the body proportion). Armored/powered units keep a focus on a task or main trait ( Dreadnought's shell and MG port )

Detail
Since the current look of B23 CC provides good range for detail via structure interiors, just this guideline should do: make details as layered as the description give. "A flat panel" should look like a clean cut of metal in a simple shape followed by fastener pits and an outline. The most light change should be at the pits for depth and lighting.

Atmospheric Background
The current set is painted with minimal amount of color. Less is more for pixel games so color selection takes time. Let's say about 5 to 12 colors per set piece. More colors means less graduation from one selection to the next. Again, use CC's bitmap color and you can do anything after that.

Miscellaneous
The rest is experimenting and seeing where your customs and design philosophy align with the base content of CC. And that goes vice versa - what does CC afford in its result that is most interesting and functional for you?

Hopefully this textual form of the art direction will be of a service.

I did notice that CC had a very obtuse overall ambient light to it with very little presence of dark areas; however wouldn't it still be possible to have directional light without breaking the style? I was planning to add baked directional lighting in my level to add more depth/credibility to the map (such as in a cave with a window up the wall, with sunlight shining through it onto the geometry in the area).



Thanks, this could help.

You might want to have a close look at the lighting in zombie cave's sceneobjects, it's fairly brilliant. You don't want to lose clarity with too much low-value stuff though.

Well, the lighting would mainly be on the cave wall in the background, and I can probably make the dark areas the same brightness as the normal DarkRockRed.bmp, unless I make a new background altogether, which i would prefer.

Its very possible to add directional light. There are two key ways. To sprite a fair, mid-range amount of the palette to the top of a static surface. For units, using a glow effect will work.