u/BaelfireTH

I had to do all of that again from the beginning T_T

I want to share my experience making Pixel Art for use in Pokopia.

As many people already know (though some may not), you can create images by placing colored blocks, then take a picture of them using the security camera or Ditto camera. Those pictures can then be used for many different purposes in the game.

I first saw examples shared by midona_poke and HorribleGaming (thanks a lot for sharing the information and ideas 😄), so I decided to try it myself. I was actually pretty happy with the results at first. https://www.reddit.com/r/Pokopia/comments/1t2hut1/my_first_lawson_shop_prototype_in_pokopia_would/

However... I later realized I made a HUGE mistake from the very beginning — I built the whole thing facing the wrong direction 😭

If you look at the finished image taken with the in-game camera, the colors look kind of dull, even though the photo was taken during daytime. (Whenever I play at night, I usually change the in-game time to daytime before taking screenshots.) Example below.

Picture is in the shadow

But when I checked the back side of the block art itself, the colors looked MUCH more vibrant. You can see the same Pixel Art on it back is more vibrant.

Picture is more vibrant

After testing, I realized the game’s lighting is designed so the sunlight always comes from a diagonal angle. Because of this, if your Pixel Art is facing west or north, the artwork will almost always stay in shadow.

On the other hand, if you take the photo facing east or south, the artwork receives direct sunlight and the colors become much brighter and more vibrant.

BUT... there’s another problem 😅

When shooting from the east or south side, shadows from moving clouds can appear on the artwork while taking the picture. On an image around 70 pixels wide, those cloud shadows can cover many different noticeable areas. So now I also have to wait for clouds to move away before taking screenshots.

You can see in the following video clip how the light and shadows change depending on which direction the blocks are facing.

Light and Shodow on the blocks depending on the facing direction

Noticeable Shadow from the clouds

Also, when it rains, the sky becomes darker and rain effects can appear in the screenshot too.

So here’s my conclusion:

• Shooting from the west or north: The image colors will look darker because of shadows, BUT cloud shadows usually won’t affect the picture.
• Shooting from the east or south: The colors will look much brighter and more vibrant, BUT moving cloud shadows may appear on the image while taking the screenshot.
• Taking pictures at night: Less light overall, so the image will naturally look darker than daytime screenshots.

Hope this helps anyone who wants to make Pixel Art and take photos of it for use in the game 😄

I also hope future add-ons or DLCs for this game will include more features to make creating and using Pixel Art in-game easier 😄

DQB2 added a banner design feature after finishing the main story, and I really liked that idea. Although honestly, I feel the workable size there was a bit too small, and the aspect ratio didn’t really match Pokopia’s 16:9 style images. Still, having some kind of built-in Pixel Art feature would be really nice.

Finally, the following short video clip was captured while I was replacing the "Lawson" logo with the "Pika Cafe" logo, for anyone who wants to see how the whole process works ^_^

Checking the result while working on the blocks