Ok, the basic and most fundamental part to cliffing is to know what kinds of cliffs there are. We'll use MnB for examples.
There are 3 types, they are:
1.)Grass Cliffs: The standard cliff with a grass ground to form the ledges, the most common kind of cliffs.
Example:
2.)Dirt Cliffs: Less common than grass cliffs but use a dirt base type ground to form ledges.
Example:
3.)Cliff Cliffs: Yeah laugh at me for my terminology. I only ever seen cliff cliffs used in pokemon, it's like a rare lost form of cliffs. It's when the ground that forms the ledges are not dirt or grass but rather more cliff, like a rock floor.
Example:
Notice how the roof of the cliff isn't ground? It's made of more rock, genius! :rite:
Ok. Moving on to cliff formulas. There are about 3. They are:
1.)Round: When the ledges of the cliff form a circle.
Example:
2.)Diagonal Cliffs: The ledges are still straight but the corners flow in a diagonal formation.
Example:
3.)Square Cliffs: All sides and corners use straight line. I haven't seen this used outside rtp, though the MnB cliffs used as examples for grass and dirt cliffs follow a more rounded square ledge,so it would still be categorized here.
Example:
Each formula comes equipped with cliff ends, which are the parts that connect corner tiles to corner tiles and/or straight ledge pieces.
Ok, so those are your basic formulas. You can do some cool stuff with them like mix-matching diagonal and circle or whatnot. In fact SD3 chips use both like that. However these formulas are limited, so you need to take it to a whole 'nother level. How?
Well, with rough edges extensions of course. There are 3 ways to do this. They are:
1.)(I don't have a term for this one.): Basically it's like you continue the rock pieces that make up the cliff and close them off so that the cliff isn't just a straight line done because of the tile.
Example:
Not the best example, but you should get the idea.
2.)Hourglass indentations: Cliffs are curved inwards.
Example:
I love SD3 cliffs, they've been a main source of inspiration for me.
3.)Also nameless: Basically it's a far extension that looks like a triangle, plus 2 downward diagonal wall corner pieces. What on earth do I mean? Uhm, example:
----I.)Formula:
------II.)Example of formula applied to cliff:
Notice how the pieces can warp the cliff into an hourglass-esque effect or protrude like to our right. It's more flexible than the hourglass form and open up new opportunities for cliff shape making.
If you put these techniques together, oh boy, you can get some crazy shaped cliffs that don't look as tiled as they are. So when making or editing chips for cliffs, take these various formulas into consideration and apply them accordingly.
Well who cars aout this junk, ur a freak. What about spriting, this is a spriting topic.
--Yeah well before you start making your own cliffs, you have to understand your options to design them well.
As for techniques that can be used by applying these formulas, I leave that to you. In part 2 I'll go over how to sprite cliffs and study them so you can try some CeRayzeH stuff.
Put this as a tutorial btw. Called "KoG's Guide to Cliffing part I."
