Newbie.. I made a troll

[Mokkan]

Hey all, I'm pretty much new to art in general. I'm actually a hobbyist game programmer, and I'd like to be able to make my own pixel art for my games, so I'm trying my hand at learning this stuff. My test project of sorts is a game where the main character is a troll.. so here's what I came up with:



It's probably cringingly bad to those of you who actually know what you're doing :). I'd like to make it look better, but I have no idea how I'd go about doing that. Perhaps I'm starting off too advanced here? I'm not really sure. Any help or insights would be much appreciated, and even critique, though I'm not sure what could be said about it except "it's bad"... ha. Anyway, thanks :).

[Rydin]

There's no shading or highlights.

[huZba]

Been lurking for a while, but couldn't really figure out what to draw and post, so i edited something instead.
Kinda feel more comfortable posting with another new user   
I'll also get the morning exercise.

So here's what i did: Added a topdown lightsource and a cold bounce light. Kinda got carried away after that, cause it's such a fun troll....

[Sherman Gill]

While the edit turok is good, it has inefficient use of colors. The same highlights could be made with one color and some dithering.

[Souly]

and some dithering.

Dithering would be pointless on such a small peice.

[UncleSporky]

and some dithering.

Dithering would be pointless on such a small peice.

I agree, when you've got a 2x2 highlight, the only way you could "dither" it into the rest of the color would be one pixel on each side of the highlight...and then you start running into other parts of the sprite, making it look messy.  For smoothness' sake, more colors are not always a bad thing.

However, I do think there could be some more level seperation on the greens.  The darkest green is too close to black, and otherwise I think you could get by with 4 greens instead of 5.

Wait, that's not what this thread is about anyway, is it? 

[Mokkan]

Wow huZba, that edit looks really good. So it looks like I need to do something about lighting and depth? I guess I'll see what I can do... thanks for the help so far :). I'll see if I can keep the colors down while I'm at it...

[Opacus]

Well, I think the main problem is, it isn't a troll, it's just a green Kirby...

[Mokkan]

Well, I think the main problem is, it isn't a troll, it's just a green Kirby...

That never actually occurred to me, but you're right :/.

I've been workin on him on and off today... I read some tutorials on AA and such. I can't make him look good at all, though :/. So I think I'll just try to think of something else... sorry for wasted time.

[Ryan Cordel]

Well, I think the main problem is, it isn't a troll, it's just a green Kirby...

It's more of a psyched up green Pacman, if you ask me.