A fantasy setting forest and a green-skin.

[ihatehumans]

Hi there!

I've recently started working on all my own art files for a game I'm making. I'm using Photoshop CS6 and generally doing everything pixel-by-pixel. In the following picture I used some shadow/glow/shader effects that may/may not be used in the final product just to set aside background, foreground and focus. The art itself will always be entirely pixel-based but to perhaps save time and add style I'm not against using various extra tools to enhance the raw pixel art.

Hopefully I'll be adding some animated gifs soon to work on my animation as currently it's jerky at best, painful at worst. For now I'm hoping on getting some feedback on creating a semi-unique style. Currently I'm aiming for a kind of Ultima Online and Diablo II meets Terraria and Ragnarok style of art, ideally being gritty, dirty and detailed like the former yet still colorful and playful like the latter.

This picture is from The Forest and is a WIP. The Forest is one of 10 different areas within the game, and as the title suggests, is a highly dense collection of plant life. Pictured is also a Green-Skin (aka orc) Hunter.




A first draft of my skeleton animations, move, attack and death. Obviously the shading and trimming needs to be done on the legs/arms of move/attack, and I'm considering adding some more movement to the rest of the body when it attacks. The attack animation is for a variety of one handed weapons that can be held. Again, any feedback welcome!

[Manupix]

For now I'm hoping on getting some feedback on creating a semi-unique style.

In all honesty, you are not at the point where you should worry about this yet.
You need to build up the basic skills, and I'd suggest to practice on simple pieces first.
If you start seriously working on game assets right at this point, you're headed to discouragement because:
1- things will look inconsistent;
2- early things will be noticeably worse than newer things, and you'll want to scrap them.

Practice composition, color, shading, anatomy (skellies are hard!).
Study pieces and forum threads here and at PJ; enter challenges, have fun learning.

This is meant as an encouragement btw! Everyone here started from the same point =)

[Luke]

If you start seriously working on game assets right at this point, you're headed to discouragement because:
1- things will look inconsistent;
2- early things will be noticeably worse than newer things, and you'll want to scrap them.

Very frustrating, yes.

http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=15969.0

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I must agree with Manupix, scraping is the worst. When you make 5-th character you see all flaws in first one and then you redo him, then you realize that background is not right for them, so you start over, and this can be vicious circle especially if you are perfectionist.

Create your elements one by one, and improve your skill step by step, everything will fall in place later.