Wow! It’s been a long time since I wrote my last post for Stranded Soft. I’m so sorry, but who will imagine getting a new internet connection is that hard.
I promised more Hexels in my next post, and now I’m here with more Hexels. As they say in its homepage: “Hexels have learned some tricks”, so let’s see what these tricks are about.
Here we go again with Hexels
Shards are coming!
Using Trixels for isometric art like we did before allows you to create cubes and sharp forms, which is enough for some projects. Shards are like smaller Trixels, but in this case you can combine different shapes and sizes of shards, creating more complex isometric shapes like ramps or smaller details.
How to use shards by Hex Ray Studio
Now, starting from the environment I created in my last tutorial, we can add some details. While working with shards, I recommend using the grid to see which kind of shard you should use.
Check to activate grid
First of all, is not possible to use shards directly in a project created with Trixels, but Hexel’s crew implemented a quick method to upgrade the project (Thanks!). To upgrade the scenario we created some weeks ago, just go to “modes” tab and click “convert to shards”. If you can’t find this button, you are using an old version or a limited one without shards support.
Use this button to convert an old project to shards
For a new project, just select “shards” in the “modes” tab and you’re done.
Once shards are enabled, notice there are lots of options below width bar. Just select each one and see how the grid changes and choose which fits what you are doing:
Quick ramp using shards
Then you can switch to another kind of shards, but the image will look the same, and that’s a huge improvement for Hexels. Shards can be small enough to work as particles!
Grid for little shards
Ah! If only we could animate them, it would be awesome…
we can do it using only Hexels! 😛
But explaining how animation works in Hexels needs an entire post. See you soon with animated shards, I promise!
Thanks for reading!