Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Shacks on January 10, 2017, 03:54:00 pm

Title: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 10, 2017, 03:54:00 pm
This is my second piece of pixel art that I made in Photoshop. It's for an emoji on Twitch. I'm looking for any feedback to make it better. Thank you.
(http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o38/Shacks210/pixelpug.png)
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: RunninBlood on January 10, 2017, 04:26:36 pm
Firstly, looks pretty good!
Here are the things I would change:

Slighty decrease the brightness of the lighting on the head
apply shading on the nose/ears/tongue and the greay part around his eyes

Hope this makes it look better, and goodluck!
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: wzl on January 10, 2017, 06:55:16 pm
Hey,

Scaling this up manually (and nonuniformly) really took its toll on the the pixel accuracy. No more even squares. (not needed on this forum either, we have on-click zoom features)
After scaling it down to what seems to be its accurate scale it is still bigger than 28x28, which is the allowed twitch emote resolution.
Also test your emote on both the dark and bright twitch chat color themes to make sure it looks good on both.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 10, 2017, 10:21:27 pm
Firstly, looks pretty good!
Here are the things I would change:

Slighty decrease the brightness of the lighting on the head
apply shading on the nose/ears/tongue and the greay part around his eyes

Hope this makes it look better, and goodluck!

Thanks, I will try that, but when you say to add shading to the tongue, what exactly do you mean? Like make the darker pink more dark?
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 10, 2017, 10:22:29 pm
Hey,

Scaling this up manually (and nonuniformly) really took its toll on the the pixel accuracy. No more even squares. (not needed on this forum either, we have on-click zoom features)
After scaling it down to what seems to be its accurate scale it is still bigger than 28x28, which is the allowed twitch emote resolution.
Also test your emote on both the dark and bright twitch chat color themes to make sure it looks good on both.

I made it 500x500 to post on here. I'm using Better Twitch TV and the scale size for emojis is 112x112.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: surt on January 10, 2017, 10:35:51 pm
I made it 500x500 to post on here. I'm using Better Twitch TV and the scale size for emojis is 112x112.
Quote from: READ THIS BEFORE POSTING HERE!
One more thing to keep in mind: Pixelation comes with a zoom feature on all images inserted using the img tag. Click to zoom, shift/ctrl click to reduce zoom level by one, alt click to reset zoom. Please make use of it, and save your images at 100% zoom if it's not absolutely intended to be viewed at a higher zoom level.
Nobody's going to make any edits for you if you insist on making it harder than necessary to do so.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 11, 2017, 02:41:47 am
I made it 500x500 to post on here. I'm using Better Twitch TV and the scale size for emojis is 112x112.
Quote from: READ THIS BEFORE POSTING HERE!
One more thing to keep in mind: Pixelation comes with a zoom feature on all images inserted using the img tag. Click to zoom, shift/ctrl click to reduce zoom level by one, alt click to reset zoom. Please make use of it, and save your images at 100% zoom if it's not absolutely intended to be viewed at a higher zoom level.
Nobody's going to make any edits for you if you insist on making it harder than necessary to do so.

Ok, well I wasn't asking anyone to do any editing for me. I'm only looking for feedback to make it better myself. Now if the size I made it somehow stops people from being able to reply, then I guess I'll just have to repost it.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: yaomon17 on January 11, 2017, 04:31:39 am
It takes only a few minutes to scale it down and edit it back into the main post  :y:! Regardless of the size thing, here are some thoughts (mostly cluster stuff):
(http://i.imgur.com/GcybZKM.png)
PS: There were a lot (read: a lot) of very very very similar colors. I did my best in removing the ones I could find.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 11, 2017, 05:07:48 am
It takes only a few minutes to scale it down and edit it back into the main post  :y:! Regardless of the size thing, here are some thoughts (mostly cluster stuff):
(http://i.imgur.com/GcybZKM.png)
PS: There were a lot (read: a lot) of very very very similar colors. I did my best in removing the ones I could find.

Wow, that's really nice, thank you. How did you do that? lol
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: yaomon17 on January 11, 2017, 06:57:20 am
I outsourced the reply since I don't really know how to answer that question.
(https://puu.sh/tionK/1b91e7150e.png)
he just has such a way with words
pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139320#139320

I would have just said I drew some stuff that I thought looked good (which, while it is true, is not very helpful)
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 11, 2017, 07:53:55 am
I outsourced the reply since I don't really know how to answer that question.
(https://puu.sh/tionK/1b91e7150e.png)
he just has such a way with words
pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139320#139320

I would have just said I drew some stuff that I thought looked good (which, while it is true, is not very helpful)

lol thanks, yeah even looking at it I can't just tell how he did such a good job with it. I mean he did way more than I thought I could. Then again this is only my second thing. I'll have to check out that link.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: yaomon17 on January 11, 2017, 08:08:07 am
(https://puu.sh/tiqXw/fc37fc08c1.png)
Apologies for any confusions  :D.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 11, 2017, 01:23:10 pm
Ok, this is my second draft. I didn't want to copy exactly what the other person did, but I was having a hard time with colors so I ended up using a lot of the same colors.
(http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o38/Shacks210/pixelpug_1.png)

Ok, so I didn't like how the head ended up, so I changed that too. Here it is again...
(http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o38/Shacks210/pixelpug_2.png)
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: yaomon17 on January 11, 2017, 05:03:04 pm
Ahh, now I fear that the process is lost from the result. While it might not be realistic expectations to have a perfect replica of the edit from scratch, going down this route might not result in the most amount of this great learning opportunity. So, I will resign my laziness and properly explain my thought process myself  :blind:

ONE  :o !
Consider the purpose!
Who is the intended audience, and who will be viewing the piece? I scraped together some context and figured this would be quite small, so this helped to determine the direction to take this edit, namely into the style of some cel-shaded, two colored, juicy clustery goodness. Keeping it nice and simple with style and color drastically improves readability at this size.

TWO  ;) !
Look at the original!
This is more of an edit specific thing, but I ain't leaving anything out this time! I am not lazy anymore ahhhhh  :ouch: ! Determine what is keep and remove, and whether or not it is easier to draw over the entire thing, especially at small sizes. The basic features and silhouette of this was good, so I stuck with it and just ran over the lighting.

THREE  :huh: !
The editing.
This is the part where intuition runs over a bit and it gets hard to explain, and it is where I got caught up in explaining enough to enlist the help of the explanation master. First thing to note: pillow shading! There is quite a bit of it, and it shows some lack of fundamental understanding of art basics. It might be a bit ironic since my edit was not exactly the most accurate, but that was a purposeful choice for readability (or a lame excuse, assume at your own discretion  :crazy: ). Breaking the dog head into a semi-dog like head shape is a good first step, and then visualize the head in your head to figure out where the shadow goes. I would give a better demonstration but I am not at my desktop right now :| .

THREEpointFIVE
I needed a break.
Ok now we get into the technique and stuff. This is the most subjective part so I will just use a stream of consciousness for this part and vomit words onto the screen, otherwise I will feel too much like a narcissistic, self-centered anus to continue. First is colors, which were pretty much OK for this. Second is contrast, which was where some of the problems came from with the harshness of the wrinkles on the head. I personally prefer a less intense definition of lines so I eased up on that. I did break up the symmetry as kasumi mentioned, though that was more of a product of sketching out the edit that I didn't really think too much about. I made two main clusters, the lighter color at the top and the lower shadow at the bottom. This is enough to define some volume without being too noisy and overwhelming. The same two color volume definition scheme is used for the nose part and the ears. I also redrew the wrinkles. Here is where the stream of consciousness part gets weird since I am going back to the wrinkles for a bit but w/e. I would like to say use a reference for this but I didn't so I can't really do that, but you should use a reference. Generally for my inside likes for something like a small dent in a region, I go with a lighter colored, thin, tapering line for the dent, in this case, the wrinkles. Anyway, back to the volumes and stuff. After defining how you want to render the shapes, imagine the head as a combination of many shapes and render the shapes individually, and then add cast shadow if needed. Make sure you have a proper knowledge of shading basic shapes in art (cylinders, spheres, etc). Them moving on to stuff like the eyes, which I took a few more liberties on to soften up. Everyone has their own way of doing eyes so it is whatever mostly. I think that is a decent enough explanation. I am really more of a visual guy so without my mouse and ability to draw out what I mean, this is the best you are going to get from me.

So I would recommend just ignoring the edit and try to create something using a process similar to that mentioned above. Or you can not, it is a free world. Good luck!
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: wzl on January 11, 2017, 06:41:10 pm
I made it 500x500 to post on here. I'm using Better Twitch TV and the scale size for emojis is 112x112.

Twitch chat renders emotesat 28x28 (regardless of using FFZ or BTTV emotes). higher scale resolutions (x2, x4, namely 56x56 and 112x112) are from what i can tell for high resolution displays (retina). But there is no real official documentation on the issue.
in any event, if you make an emote in a bigger scale than 28x28 it will likely be downscaled, which will result in subpar quality and blur, in which case you're better off with a digital drawing in x4 scale or higher, as scaling those works better than pixelart.
Title: Re: [Feedback][WIP-ish] A pixel pug
Post by: Shacks on January 12, 2017, 05:34:08 am
Ahh, now I fear that the process is lost from the result. While it might not be realistic expectations to have a perfect replica of the edit from scratch, going down this route might not result in the most amount of this great learning opportunity. So, I will resign my laziness and properly explain my thought process myself  :blind:

ONE  :o !
Consider the purpose!
Who is the intended audience, and who will be viewing the piece? I scraped together some context and figured this would be quite small, so this helped to determine the direction to take this edit, namely into the style of some cel-shaded, two colored, juicy clustery goodness. Keeping it nice and simple with style and color drastically improves readability at this size.

TWO  ;) !
Look at the original!
This is more of an edit specific thing, but I ain't leaving anything out this time! I am not lazy anymore ahhhhh  :ouch: ! Determine what is keep and remove, and whether or not it is easier to draw over the entire thing, especially at small sizes. The basic features and silhouette of this was good, so I stuck with it and just ran over the lighting.

THREE  :huh: !
The editing.
This is the part where intuition runs over a bit and it gets hard to explain, and it is where I got caught up in explaining enough to enlist the help of the explanation master. First thing to note: pillow shading! There is quite a bit of it, and it shows some lack of fundamental understanding of art basics. It might be a bit ironic since my edit was not exactly the most accurate, but that was a purposeful choice for readability (or a lame excuse, assume at your own discretion  :crazy: ). Breaking the dog head into a semi-dog like head shape is a good first step, and then visualize the head in your head to figure out where the shadow goes. I would give a better demonstration but I am not at my desktop right now :| .

THREEpointFIVE
I needed a break.
Ok now we get into the technique and stuff. This is the most subjective part so I will just use a stream of consciousness for this part and vomit words onto the screen, otherwise I will feel too much like a narcissistic, self-centered anus to continue. First is colors, which were pretty much OK for this. Second is contrast, which was where some of the problems came from with the harshness of the wrinkles on the head. I personally prefer a less intense definition of lines so I eased up on that. I did break up the symmetry as kasumi mentioned, though that was more of a product of sketching out the edit that I didn't really think too much about. I made two main clusters, the lighter color at the top and the lower shadow at the bottom. This is enough to define some volume without being too noisy and overwhelming. The same two color volume definition scheme is used for the nose part and the ears. I also redrew the wrinkles. Here is where the stream of consciousness part gets weird since I am going back to the wrinkles for a bit but w/e. I would like to say use a reference for this but I didn't so I can't really do that, but you should use a reference. Generally for my inside likes for something like a small dent in a region, I go with a lighter colored, thin, tapering line for the dent, in this case, the wrinkles. Anyway, back to the volumes and stuff. After defining how you want to render the shapes, imagine the head as a combination of many shapes and render the shapes individually, and then add cast shadow if needed. Make sure you have a proper knowledge of shading basic shapes in art (cylinders, spheres, etc). Them moving on to stuff like the eyes, which I took a few more liberties on to soften up. Everyone has their own way of doing eyes so it is whatever mostly. I think that is a decent enough explanation. I am really more of a visual guy so without my mouse and ability to draw out what I mean, this is the best you are going to get from me.

So I would recommend just ignoring the edit and try to create something using a process similar to that mentioned above. Or you can not, it is a free world. Good luck!

Wow, this is a lot to take in. I bit overwhelmed by it honestly. lol