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Messages - Marscaleb
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21
Pixel Art / Re: Elf girl - help, critique
« on: June 07, 2018, 07:53:25 am »
Quote from: EduardoPras on June 07, 2018, 12:31:27 am
-You are not hueshifting between colors. It is not a rule but, generally, it makes things more interesting.
Well I am, but, nowhere near as strongly as you are.

Quote from: EduardoPras on June 07, 2018, 12:31:27 am
-In anime people usually have long legs and small waists (Unless they are really short when in SD).
Most of the anime style characters I was using as a reference are indeed SD.  If they are properly proportioned they tend to be larger sprites.  So I was going for a SD look.
That being said, I am not very naturally gifted at getting those SD proportions to look right; it takes me several tries to get one that is favorable, and it's even harder to get it right in pixel art.  I couldn't get myself to *really* push the SD proportions; are you saying I should push back the other way?

Quote from: EduardoPras on June 07, 2018, 12:31:27 am
-Try to simplify your pixel clusters. It makes much easier to control the light.
I really don't follow what you mean by this.

But I do like your changes overall.  You managed to trim down the color count some and give it a more cartoonish vibe.  That change in art style gives me something to think about.

22
Pixel Art / Re: Elf girl - help, critique
« on: June 01, 2018, 06:56:16 am »
Thank you for the advice thusfar!

I've tried to re-draw the sprite from the ground up, using some of my original drawings as a reference.
In some ways I feel it came out better, in some ways worse.



Again, I appreciate any feedback.

23
Pixel Art / Elf girl - help, critique
« on: May 29, 2018, 07:47:49 pm »
So I've been struggling to create a good sprite for a main character.  This just hasn't been working out and I'm sharing it here to look for advice.  Be brutal, tear it apart, draw over my work, whatever, I just want to get something that looks right.

I started trying to work around/near an 8-bit aesthetic, but it just wasn't working out.  I've upgraded a generation and it's looking better, but I still don't feel this is satisfactory.



Obviously I'm going for an anime aesthetic.  I'm not "dead set" on her hairstyle, outfit, or pose; I'm completely willing to change any of them.  I did a bunch of sketches with various outfits and hairstyles, the ones demonstrated here were just the ones I felt managed to work out best as pixel art.  I'm open to revising those designs id another design fits the pixel art better.

I've given her four colors for each "section" which wound up being 16 colors, plus the black and white for the eyes.  I'm assuming that her staff would be a separate sprite so it could be swapped out for upgrades.

A few particular things I'm not satisfied with:
The hair doesn't look like a proper style at all; it looks like a random mess of pixels.
The arms look terrible.  I can't get the lengths to look right for either of them.  I can't get the left arm to look like its holding the staff in a natural pose.
The body proportions just don't look right to me.  Even using a dress to hide where her legs start, I still can't get this to look proper.
The staff just looks oddly taped on.

24
General Discussion / Re: How would I gauge paid work values?
« on: May 21, 2018, 06:45:42 pm »
Thank you for the responses.

25
General Discussion / How would I gauge paid work values?
« on: May 18, 2018, 09:47:35 pm »
So long story short, I'm thinking about hiring someone to do some pixel art for a project.  If I do, it will be a few months away, but for right now I'm trying to gauge how much it could cost me so I can determine if this would be practical or not;  I'm trying to determine if this project is something I should be spending time on, or if I should move to something else.

I know there is no single absolute way to judge these things; artists charge different rates, work faster or slower than others, and each project is different.  But I'm hoping to grasp something that can put me in the ballpark.
I don't want to post a job offer only to wind up saying that I don't like any of the offers.  I also don't want to get some good offers but tell them that I'll contact them in a couple months, maybe if things work out.  Besides, the rules for the paid section on this forum clearly state that I as the employer need to state information about the rates I am offering, so clearly it would be against the rules for me to post a description of the work and then ask for bids.

On the forum for posting paid work it offered a rate of $15 to $50 an hour depending on the experience/skill of the artist.  But this doesn't really say much by itself.  How much is one hour of work?  How long would it take to create a given piece?

Now by contrast, when I see people offer commissions on Deviant Art, they offer samples and say "a drawing like this starts at X amount, and if you want to add X content it will cost extra."  And sometimes the artist is very specific about the extras and sometimes they are not, but it still gives me a base point I can extrapolate from.
A system like that would be helpful.

But as it is, I just have no idea what kind of work I could expect for my money.  I could put aside a couple hundred dollars, and then say I'd pay $35 an hour, but how much art does six hours get me?  I simply don't know what I can expect.

26
Commercial Critique / Re: Commercial Critique Challenge - Tilevania: pixel's quest
« on: May 21, 2016, 04:39:13 am »
Hello, I was poking around on the internet and came across this thread.
I just wanted to take a moment to express how pleased and even amazed I am to see a lot of these images.

I am currently building a Castlevania-inspired game within the exact NES limitations, and if I had the money for it, I would be offering to hire a lot of you folks.  This art is great!

I just want to say, some of my favorites:

By Phoenix849:

This gives me a lot of inspiration for some of the designs I'm making in my game.  I love how rustic and rich the castle looks!  Although I do think it ought to have a few more tiles at the top so that it looks like it goes past the top of the screen.


This is really great!  I love how dark it appears, but you still have given plenty of definition to the tiles the player can collide with.  The hanging greenery adds a nice touch.  I love how the second platform has a slightly different pattern than the first, giving that much more personality.

By wolfenoctis:

It overall looks a *little* more cartoony than the Castlevania series ought to, but the colors are fantastic!  I love how that whole wall looks so grey but gets those blue highlights!

By TOMOYA:

This sepia look is visually stunning!  The only real problem with it is, how do you follow that up?  I just don't see how you could keep the rest of the game follow that theme without going overboard on the sepia tones, which would ultimately dry out and look bland.  But as a stand-alone piece of art, it is simply incredible.

By 7Soul:

This one honestly stunned me.  That sunset just popped right out and looked amazing!  And the colors for the rest of the scene contrast so well with it, too.  The green block look a bit off, though.  I think it is great how they are clearly different from the rest of the scene so that the player doesn't have to guess about what is ground and what is not, but you might consider experimenting with a different shade or two.  Possibly a deeper green, possibly a less-yellow highlight.  Also the bulbous shape doesn't really suit the setting, (It should be hewn stone, not natural rock,) and adding in a variant of the tile every few blocks would really sell it.  But the whole rest of that scene is fantastic!


I love everything about this one!  I love that grey part of the background, I love the look of the blocks, I love how some of the blocks have a colored top on them, I love the broken stones and the broken pillar, and I really love how those stairs stand out more than they did in the original!

Great job, people!  I'm impressed!

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