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Pixel Art / Re: Isometric characters (wip)
« on: September 27, 2006, 12:27:45 am »I don't know if you're getting the point the others are trying to make about your style. It's a good and valid style, but the NES is not capable of the colors you're choosing. It can only do 4 colors per sprite, including transparency, so if you want your graphics to look like "good NES" quality, you'd have to reduce to those limitations.I want my work to have the feel of NES sprites, but not actually be NES sprites. To me, that comes from dark outlines and no shading/AA, not from the limited size and palette restrictions. I feel that I could draw a large 64x64 pixel sprite with two dozen colors and still feel at home placed side by side with Mega Man or something.
You mentioned Earthbound, which is actually a really good example of what I'm aiming for. I've got a strategy guide for it (and stuff like Pokemon, Mario and Luigi, and Zelda 4) that I have graphically memorized back to front. Earthbound's style is not particularly indicative of the average SNES style at the time (and indeed, when it was released, magazines were saying it looked like a NES game). When I think of SNES graphics, I usually think of overly shaded characters against really shaded backgrounds, creating a sort of blurry look to the game compared to the exceptionally clean look of NES games - but that style has existed since then. I wasn't using NES graphics in a literal sense, but in a figurative stylistic sense.
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If anything it looks more like amateur Gensis quality graphics.Well, it's no James Pond
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Now for my own input, I think you'd be better off with a much higher contrast in your colors. The darker red on the red jumpsuit is way too close to the lighter red to serve much purpose. In fact, I'm concerned it wouldn't even be visible at the pixel's native resolution. Same goes for the two shades of grey on the same guy's shoes. It's a detectable difference at 3x, but no competent artist would do that even on SNES where color wasting is more affordable.Oh, we're insinuating I'm imcompetent now? Man, when the kid gloves come off here...
The color difference is NOT visible at native resolutions, which is precisely the point. It's noticable, but not very. It still looks flat shaded, but is most definitely softer. Of course, pure red has this neon glow to it that makes any shading look like a completely different color, so I don't use that color usually except for glowing eyes and stuff that needs absolutely to stand out. Don't ask me why the base is wearing a red jumpsuit. It was a poor choice. The other two characters are also not polished yet and presented her as examples of how I'd use the base. They are all works in progress (which it says in the title, unless "wip" means something different than I thought it did), though my shading style is still rather unobtrusive. Jacket guy's back arm needs to be darkened a little, and the shading on the zombie's gray shirt is far too light, but other than that, most of the problems come from the base's outline, and especially feet.
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...You might study the graphics of Cave Story.I will, of course, check it out and I thank you for pointing me towards it.