Creating Decoration

Guide info#

Medium: 11-13 minutes

TLDR - What this guide covers#

• Recursive Decoration is a concept where objects are used more intricately the more complexity we add, structured much like an anthill may be constructed.
• Organizing decoration is important as it prevents scenarios where objects may become difficult to select, or to help with the workflow as a whole.
• Workflows includes 2 types: Horizontal and Vertical. These can be used to the advantage of the creator, but should be experimented with to find which best suits you.

1: Recursive Decoration

After all the previous steps, the last is to figure out how to make the deco itself, but this isn’t like the topics beforehand.

As always, you should start with ideas and reference images. However, if you start your deco with the smallest details you’ll end up with an ugly mess, no matter how well planned. Just like how a game of Jenga or a tower may be constructed, you need to have a basic foundation before you can focus on the details.

Recursive Decoration organizes your workflow around this idea. You start with making basic shapes, increasing the complexity over time while refining it. Once you’re done with one shape, you can repeat the process inside it by making basic details and then refining them. This makes it recursive as the same process can work with any level of decoration.

1. Define your deco idea for an object or group of objects. This may be a whole part, a specific block design, or a specific section of a block design. Supplement your idea with reference images, as always.

2. Choose objects that efficiently create the basic shape for your idea, then refine the shape as necessary. Set a color for your shape now, and use any additional objects to include textures as necessary.

3. Add additional complexity to your deco by repeating steps 1 and 2 with more specific details or segments, repeating as necessary.

4. Obtain feedback on your work and use it to re-define your deco ideas, adjust your shapes and colors, or further refine your idea.

Explaining with words only will likely not paint the full picture, hence I will provide a few examples. This section of the guide will focus on taking references and using them to make specific creations.

For the first example, let’s suppose I appreciate this block from Azimuth by Knots, and want to make a block inspired by it. That is Step 1 of the process, and I already have a reference image.

The block is mostly made of rectangles, so I’ll use some rectangle objects and make them various shades of blue.

Next, I’ll add some more complexity by including some brighter sections. As per the reference, this will be made of rectangles.

The end product looks like this. I had the idea to include some glow on the corner block, which I implemented fairly quickly via the same process.

Adding Complexity#

This process may seem abstract at first, but it’s basically the Creative Process described in #main-skills. You start with your main decoration idea and get inspiration for it, make a basic product, get feedback, and repeat. The only step which isn’t already in that process is increasing complexity, which is helpful to improve the product.

There are three ways of making your work more complex: addition, subtraction, and division. You can take some existing decoration and append shapes to it (Addition), carve out shapes from within (Subtraction), or split the deco into smaller regions (Division). And of course, you can make it less complex by removing your additional shapes, replacing any shapes carved out from inside the deco, and merging regions that were previously split.

Whether you want to add more shapes or split up existing ones depends solely on how you want your decoration to look, and it’s something that really comes with experience. Of course, you can analyze each method based on the detail types described in the prior guide, but that mostly depends on your execution. I strongly recommend you practice all of these methods, as they can make your deco look far more professional.

For the second example, let’s say I want to add paint splatters to my deco, like in the image below. This is a form of Addition, so I’ll be adding some more objects; however I may want to do something else based on the scenario.

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With this idea in mind, I can quickly undergo the Creative Process to implement this on my block. Here are some objects I used, and the final product.

2: Organizing Deco

Your decoration may be so complex that keeping everything on one editor layer will lead to you clicking through multiple objects in suit of the one you want to edit. This is an unseemly process which also wastes time, so it’s crucial that you can organize yourself using layers.

Editor Layers#

As you may recall, Editor layers organize how you select objects. You have lots of freedom with how you organize objects using these, but here are my recommendations.

Use one editor layer for each type of major shape or detail. For example, you may put your main structure shape on Layer 1, then add some segments inside it on Layer 2, and then some further details on Layers 3-5. Complex deco may require more layers, so feel free to use as many as necessary.

As you get more comfortable with layers, you may want to document which editor layers you use, and use editor Layer 2 to group layers together. This can help with organization since you can see entire segments of decoration (such as the blocks) without everything else getting in the way too.

Here is an example video from And Ever by Galofuf, showing how he organized his objects into layers.

Z Layers#

For Z layers, you should use one group of Z layers for a major part of your deco. For example, you may put blocks on layer T1, a custom background on layer B1, and so on. More complex deco will use more Z layers for everything; for example, a background may be from B5-B3, blocks from B2-T1, and so on.

As before, be aware of tileset values for certain objects, like animated objects and particles. These can complicate layering if you aren’t aware of how they work. The same goes for objects on blending channels, which must be placed 1 Z layer higher than non-blending objects to show above them.

Z Order is also important to note. While your Z ordering will depend on what you’re comfortable with, I strongly recommend leaving gaps of 3-5 orders between objects. For example, if the base of a block is on T1 with order 5, your first details should be on T1 with order 10, then the next on T1 with order 15, and so on. This makes it much easier to adjust your deco later as necessary.

Editor and Z layers are best seen in the actual editor, so I strongly recommend opening up actual levels to see how other creators use these. In addition, here is another example from Galofuf’s work where the objects are on T1.

Base & Detail Colors#

The final resource you must know how to organize is color channels. You should know how to use these from the Using Channels guide, but I’ll also mention some common uses here.

Most people have some color channels they set aside for specific colors. For example, many people use either Color 1 or 2 for pure black. That aside, colors don’t have too much need for organization. I personally use color channels by scrolling through the list until I find a color that looks good enough for my needs; if I don’t find one, I’ll either use the HSV button or add a new color channel.

At the same time, your color can often influence how you use other editor features. For example, I normally use one E layer for each color of a design, and I’ll use the “Link Objects” feature to link objects together if they have similar colors. There’s also the Base & Detail setting inside the Edit Object UI, where you can set if an object is counted as using a “Base” or “Detail” color channel. This is barely functional in 2.2, but in theory it should help you further organize objects based on their color channels.

3: Elements of Deco

The final thing to note for this guide is what types of decoration exist. As you should know from all the guides to this point, you should create with a purpose; decoration is often divided into multiple categories based on its purpose.

Here’s an image which has all the common elements of decoration in it.

• Block Designs decorate structures and hazards related to a level’s gameplay. This is often the most time-consuming part of decoration, but you can make your own assets to copy-paste throughout your blocks and save time. They’re described in more detail here.

• Backgrounds decorate the space behind block designs, like the default backgrounds do. On the other hand, foregrounds decorate the space in front of blocks. These also are described in detail here.

• Air Deco fills up spaces between blocks while existing on the same layer as them. However, you shouldn’t rely on this as much as it can get messy when overused. You can find info on this here.

• Animations change parts of decoration so they move, change shape, or change color. An example would be making a block move or using frame animation. The basics of this are described here.

• Finally, Visual Effects use triggers, smart layering, and optical illusions to enhance your decoration and animations. For example, Masking is a common effect where one object is seamlessly hidden within another. The basics of this are described here.

Workflows#

As seen from the segment above, there are numerous types of decoration. This also means that you must choose which types of decoration to include, and which order to create them.

There is an unlimited way to choose decoration types. People working with older updates like 1.9 tend not to include custom backgrounds or animations, since those versions of the game were more limiting. Conversely, most modern creators tend to include most (if not all) of these elements in their work.

Here are some examples of levels which use different elements:

• Revolution by FunnyGame has block designs, visual effects, and air deco.
• Fusion II by Manix648 primarily has block designs and air deco in the pre-drop, with many animations and visual effects at the drop.

Ultimately this comes down to your personal preference. Create stuff often and see what works for you, really. When building types of decoration, I recommend starting with the parts that are easiest or have the most impact - so if backgrounds are easier for you, start with those instead of the blocks.

On the other hand, there are only two practical ways to make your workflow when actually building. You can build horizontally where __ each block, background, and part element is completed one at a time, and you only move on after fully completing the prior thing__. For example, you may complete all the block designs before starting anything in the background.

This method makes it easier to tell what’s finished which is good for feedback, but it’s harder to make everything fit together because you’re focusing on each part before thinking about the whole product. Here’s an example from Uriun’s part in Reckless when it was still a work in progress.

Conversely, you can build vertically __ where everything is built simultaneously__. For example, you would make drafts for the blocks, background, and air deco before fleshing everything out at the same time. This method works well for complex work, as you can focus on the whole product before refining everything later. However, it can be worse for feedback as people often fail to identify when a part is finished with this method.

Here’s an example from the second part in my level Anarchy Road, when the second part was a WIP.

Cohesion#

Regardless of if you build horizontally or vertically, all of your deco types “communicate” to each other, meaning they exist in context. No singular decoration type can make a part good or bad on its own because of this. Your block designs may look good without a custom background, but with one added they may clash, leading to something messy.

The level of cohesion in your work is how much each deco element works with everything else. When you have a cohesive level, nothing contrasts too much with everything else. It may be difficult to tell when something is cohesive, as it’s effectively an invisible thing - however, it is noticeable when something stands out in a bad way. You may not notice cohesion issues in NEWER horizons by Aimbotter2123, but you may feel like the backgrounds in Adrone’s part in Scattered Faith are drowned out by the flashy block designs.

**Video: **https://youtu.be/3ofZI82lKQ8?si=a5bXL1ilq24c9C_N

Credits#

Created by @NotAModerator and @koma5