It’s Not Easy Being Green

Due to I’ve been asked this many times as well as some of our readers have commented in regards to this, I decided to take this opportunity to break down why most of my 2Ds are so green.

When I first started out making 2Ds, I was still very new to the game and had no clue what I was doing. I had very little “extra” in game cash. Well…let’s be honest, as far behind as I was “extra game cash” didn’t exist. I was already several levels of game play behind others and getting discouraged.  I decided I needed a lil break from the game play but not the game itself. It was at this time my creative bug took hold. I wanted to create. I wanted to design. I wanted a piece of me, my imagination in my town.

So many designs, so little time. My crazy geek instincts were going mad. I had a mental list of at least 20 or 30 things I wanted to make, but where to start. I began looking at what options of colors and decorations I had. Not that many. The decorations that were in the game seemed so pricey at the time. So out of reach. I knew I needed at least 100 of each and the total cost was just too much. Compare 100 small shrubs to 100 snapdragons. That is $2500 vs $27, 000. For some just starting out or just wanting to test out the 2D process, that is a LOT of in game cash for something that doesn’t help you complete tasks.

This made me almost give up right then n there. (Aren’t yah glad I didn’t? I know I am.) I was getting so frustrated that all the colors I needed just weren’t there either (where are my browns n yellows EA??) The sizes of many decorations are out of proportion too. They look fine one way, but a disaster the other way. So many road blocks. What’s a Bunny to do? Then it hit me, why does it have to be exact? This isn’t like the game play. There is no script to follow. No tasks that have to be done in a certain order. Sky is the limit.

It was at this point I decided I am an artist first and foremost, NOT a perfectionist…at least not when it comes to color selection. Instead I chose to use what is available to me at that time. Items I could purchase and still have enough game cash left over to play the game too.

Could you imagine someone telling Picasso his work was sub par because all the colors were wrong. The shapes not proportionate. His most obscure paintings are still selling for millions and considered some of the best art to date. Even if most think the images all wrong. Art is just that, art. It is the interpretation of the artist that makes each one unique, original, and beautiful.

In my work for the site here, I try to look at each image as though it was myself months back, game poor, and no direction (though I can still run game poor pretty quick, just a lot easier to recover now). I try to use the most basic, simple, and inexpensive items available. This way anyone can at least try one out without feeling they spent a fortune of their hard earned in game cash. Sure, there are many other decorations that can be used as a base INSTEAD of the small green shrubs, but that’s up to the artist to choose the color palette they want to use. I provide a base model and leave it up to you as readers to customize, add, change, make the design your own.

So until another small, manageable, and inexpensive alternate option comes along…I will continue to use the small green shrubs as my choice of a teaching method.

In the meantime I would LOVE to see other takes on my designs. Changes to them. Additions to the characters. Please feel free to showcase your art here in the comments.

Til the next “green design”.

****Bunny****

UPDATE

With only a few days left in our 2D contest, I figured I’ll post these again for beginning or any 2D artist. This will give you an idea how things line up in the “game grid”. Feel free to use them to sketch out your designs prior to laying them out in your town. .

Only a few days left…so enter soon.

TSTO Addicts Tapped Out Spooky 2D Contest!