Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: mozzy on December 29, 2011, 12:46:19 am
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Hi all, currently working on the this title screen for an old project. I know its messy, but before I refine it, I'd like some opinions on the layout and design. Its the 4 heroes of the game surrounded by monsters with the title of the game at the top.
(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/mozzymuradyasin/MomotaroTitleScreen.png)
Feel free to rip it apart.
Latest:
(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/mozzymuradyasin/MomotaroTitleScreen-3.png)
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I take it that it's based on this tale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momotaro) right?
Either way, I think you might want to place Momotaro himself in a more central position, since he is the protagonist after all. On the other hand, it is a story about brotherhood and equal partnership, so the current layout might be better to convey that idea.
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Yes it is based on that tale. In the game, the player can choose to play as any of the four characters and they are all equally important to gameplay.
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I think the characters should overlap more like they're together facing the enemy. Think a manga or comic book cover. Maybe like this?
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/SharmClucas/u3qdim2s.gif)
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I considered that, but because the characters are almost all black, I felt that it isn't completely readable.
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Lovely titles, lovely project. ;D
I think a link (http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/32270.html) to the aforementioned project would help critique.
Conceptually I like the surrounding monsters and I think emphasising the 2D qualities of the characters is a nice choice; all the silhouettes are distinct and interesting, overlap could perhaps detract from that.
I don't really have any suggestions for improvements at this stage but I'd like to see more colours in the final thing. Having the characters orbit the centre of the screen would look nice :)
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Yeah, the readability is an issue, there's got to be some way to have it dynamic and still readable with so few colors. Orbiting the characters is a good idea, motion adds some persistence of vision that would help.
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I'm not sure what you mean by orbiting x:
A little more cleaned up. I began to AA the bird, how does that look?
(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/mozzymuradyasin/MomotaroTitleScreen-1.png)
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The AA looks kinda messy, you need to darken the gray shades I think..
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I think the edit Sharm made is a lot better. It is just as readable. You can distinguish the characters.
Not a fan of the AA here. It is too much, not very clean. also you should only AA once you have very good clusters and stuff looks good without AA. I think that this would look better with just the 3 base colours, no AA at all. Just nice clean lines and clusters.
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By orbiting I meant animating the characters to move in a circular motion, retaining their orientation.
I have to echo ptoing's concerns about the AA, The in-game mocks have a lovely aliased charm to them. The rougher version of the titles was more attractive; I also liked the selective outlining in white and more angular qualities.
Are you limiting yourself to 3 base colours?
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You need at least 2 colors to properly anti-alias. Rule of thumb the first one is a 50% mix between the start and end color, the second one a 25% mix. (For every additional color just halve it.)
Here is a comparison between yours and how I would do it:
(http://files.mrbeast.org/ArtStuff/PixelDump/AA.png)
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More cleaned up, no AA. I tried a few different orientations but none lookd particularly good to me. but I'm still willing to change it. I agree, I think it does look better without AA, but some the lines look really bad regardless of how I try to do it D: I also realized that Momotaro's arms are are too long (his right arm) so ignore that for now.
(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/mozzymuradyasin/MomotaroTitleScreen-2.png)
Is 2 pixel thick lines too much? Think it would look better with just 1 thick?
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Bump. Sorry, I know bumps are annoying, but its been a few days..
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I think varying line thickness looks the most natural. Some of the lines on the boy (his arms and legs) look a little thin, and inconsistent with the rest of the image.
I agree it looks better without aa.
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I decided to try one pixel outlines, and I kind of like it. Defined the monsters more and fixed random issues here and there. Thoughts?
(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/mozzymuradyasin/MomotaroTitleScreen-3.png)
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Thin outlies could be okay, but you're probably going to want it a little thicker to get rid of all that banding. The smirking monster near the dog is my current favorite.
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Thin outlines are better. Not so sure about the logo, try to make the letters more consistent in shape.
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Can you point out spots where the banding is a problem and how I can fix it? I'd like to keep a consistent line thickness.