Amstrad CPC Lion [WIP]

[skamocore]

Hello Pixelation, 

I worked out how to set an image to double wide pixels in Photoshop, so I decided I would test it out and try making something with Amstrad CPC constraints. I ended up making a lion.

This is what I have so far:

> > > > > > > > >

[Ai]

Is this your first CPC pic?You certainly hav a good grasp of the stylisms useful with doublewidth pixels.
The lion's mane could be a bit more organic -- from footage and photos I've seen they tend to look scruffed and slightly irregular
In general you've got a decent basis for a picture here -- mainly it needs more black to define shapes more srongly, and some more detailing.
I hope to see further progress on this soon

[skamocore]

Yeah it's my first time doing anything in wide pixels; thanks.

I tried fixing a few things up:



*I played around with the mane. I think it looks better now. I guess it was looking a bit like Santa Clause before.
*I added a bit more black.
*I hue shifted his chest area, I think it looks a bit more interesting this way.
*I tried making his body a bit more chunky and less tube like.
*I moved the clouds around.
*I tried moving his feet into a more natural position.
*I made his ears a bit more visible.

still there's something that's not looking quite right...

UPDATE:



UPDATE 2:



I think the texture on his body is much more liony now...

[Ai]

* That shading is definitely more lion-y
* You seem to be editing in Adobe 1998 colorspace. For most pixeled works, it's generally more sensible to edit in sRGB colorspace.
* I just noticed, your colors are not gamma corrected (which means on a typical monitor they will appear much more similar than they should on a real CPC). You can fix this by applying gamma 2.2, or its inverse, .45, depending on how your paint program works.

* The color usage is better than I thought (after I applied the above correction)
* What I actually meant was that the background could use a little black to define what it is. I tried it quickly, didn't work out (as you can see)
* The ear seems to a) be 'cuter' (obviously rounded shape) and b) be more obvious, in the reference pictures I've looked at.
* The lion's torso could have better volumetrics. My edit fiddles with this a little.
* I looked at the grass color and promptly changed it. Now I have not decided whether it actually needed changing or not..
* You're probably overusing dither a bit on the mane.. I think this is because you don't have dark red, #ba0000.
* Blue pixel on the flowers looked a bit odd to me, I tried a red to replace it.

Something's wrong with my edit, I'll show you it regardless:
Ah! -- it's the black.. your black seems to not actually be black! Check it! It's 040404! (in a colormanaged viewer, all will look okay since 040404 is sRGB black in Adobe 1998-- however on the web you cannot rely on functional colormanagement and should assume sRGB.. for the next few years, at least (firefox3 displays it correctly)

[skamocore]

thanks! I didn't even notice I was using 1998

I'm not 100% sure if I've fixed it properly...but I am using this palette:



Anyway, I've completely changed the scene. Your edit on my background implied water, which wasn't what I initially intended (it was supposed to be some kind of abstract mountain ). But after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I would go with your suggestion. So basically it's a beach scene now. I know I should've really planned this out at the start, but it began as something kind of spontaneous. Keep in mind the water is still sketchy at the moment.



What I've done:

*Changed his body to pure yellow, which I think makes him stand out a bit more. Especially now that it's beachy.
*AA'd the clouds, still not 100% sure if this is looking that much better at the moment.
*Added a shadow (I knew I was forgetting something )

*I tried clearing a bit of dithering on the mane, but it looked a bit flat, but I did remove some of the cyan up the top, I thought that was a bit too much.
*I've left the ears, I played around with them earlier on and personally I'd rather have them move visible.

[:beam:]

there is something like a palmtree or so missing

[skamocore]

ok, little update

I think the reflection in the water fills some of the sense of something "missing"

I'm still open to more C&C, I'm thinking maybe I need to do something more with the sky/clouds, since now thay're looking a bit plain in relation to the rest of the picture...

[skamocore]

Ok, a bit of an update. The main thing I've changed is the clouds. It makes the top part of the image look a little less 'plain', but it's not really looking right at the moment.

[Dex]

The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is why a lion is standing on a beach!

The pixeling technique is great, though!

[skamocore]

Thanks.

A bit of an update:



I think I'm close to being finished now...

[ptoing]

It's odd that the clouds are purple while the only light they would be lit by is the moon.
I personally would make them more sihouettes with backlights.

Also the lion and beach look like they are in sunlight at noon with lightsource straight from the top, which is odd given the background.
Perhaps it would be interesting to try and make everything look proper nighttime.

As far as pixeltech goes this is quite nice
Keep it up.

[skamocore]

Yeah, you're definitely right...the lighting was a bit conflicting...and to think I was just about to submit it to PJ.

I had a go at making it more of a beach-at-night setting. I'm not so sure about the sihlouette idea, I think it would make the sky a bit empty in comparison to the rest of the piece, which is what I was trying to avoid. Also the lion is still yellow, I toned him down a bit, but I think he looks a bit odd if he isn't some shade of yellow. I did this pretty quickly, but I'll play around with the colours a bit more tomorrow.



update:



...but he looks so...cold

[ptoing]

About the sky, not everything needs to be the same level of detail in a picture. This often is not a very good idea (tho it can work). Thing is that too many details will distract from what you want to show. Hm. The bottom one does not quite work (too noisy, fuzzy I think) and the shadow would have to be fainter and not directly underneath him, but getting cast infront of him.

If I can find some time I might make an edit.

Keep experimenting with those colours, If it is possible with the palette you should try to give the closer things a bit more colour identity. As in not totally cyan sand and such.

[skamocore]

Yep, I definitely agree with your first point, but with the early versions of this I really wasn't happy with the sections of the picture that had very little detail. I think the uber-dither makes the image look a little bit more cohesive. Although having said that, maybe I should try making the sky completely cloudless/starless, that could possibly work. And yes I really should fix that shadow . I'll also try adding some yellow/orange/something pixels into the sand.

I'll make an update sometime later.

I would be really grateful if you made an edit. Especailly considering your wonderful C64/wide pixel stuff

[skamocore]

Ok I tried changing the shadow and I tried adding some orange into the sand.
I think the shadow looks better/makes more sense, but I'm not too sure about the sand.