Fire Hydrant, Critiques Desperately Needed

[dwfitzgerald]

Hello, all! First post here!

So my coder friend and I have been discussing developing a game with him handling the programming and me handling the art. I'm by no means an artist, though I doodle/sketch pretty regularly. We've settled on a brawler style game that channels Mighty Final Fight, River City Ransom, etc... the chibi greats!

I'm a complete stranger to pixel art, but I've read several tutorials here and elsewhere and finally have something that I'd like critiqued. The shading is my biggest worry (as I'm not very skilled in that area in any medium), though if there's anything wrong on a more fundamental level, I'd love to hear the input of some more experienced with the format.

Without further ado... a fire hydrant:

[Charlieton]

For starters, you should upload an image where the pixels are 1:1. This image is enlarged, and it seems to have produced additional colour artifacts as well (colour count is 16, though your palette shows 3 and the background has 1). Then we can get to critiquing!

[dwfitzgerald]

Hmm.. is it possible that imgur caused the artifacting? Because I definitely see it on the image I uploaded, but I double checked the one saved locally and it doesn't seem to be an issue.

Suggestions on image hosting would be appreciated, if that's the case!

Here's a 1:1 scale, just in case. Though I think we have determined it'll be blown up 300% in-engine.



EDIT: Hmm.. yeah, I think it might be imgur...

EDIT2: After consulting the Image Host thread on this forum, it seems like imgur should be fine. Maybe I'm misunderstanding? Or is the forum's built-in zoom tool guilty of making things blurry?

[Parkerbaby]

If it's blurry when you zoom in, it's probably your browser.



I made an edit. I just tried to this about the planes of the hydrant and shade that way. My edit is a bit too low contrast, I think. An issue with your shading is it makes the hydrant look sloppy and organic rather than tight and geometric as a man-made device.
Also, in your image there are two stray black pixels on the left side of the fire hydrant.

[Charlieton]

The zoom-in doesn't alter the original image file (at least I don't think that's likely). However, a blurrying filter is applied when using it in Chrome.

It's working alright now, anyway. As for the hydrant, I think it's suffering from extensive banding. The resulting shape is confusing and amorphous. Clarity is super important in pixel art, especially for such small sprites.

Take a good look at this thread. Parkerbaby's edit cleans it up a lot.

[dwfitzgerald]

An issue with your shading is it makes the hydrant look sloppy and organic rather than tight and geometric as a man-made device.

Your edit is fantastic! Very inspiring.

I completely agree with you here. I think I went overboard trying to make it not look sterile to the overall detriment of the sprite.

It's working alright now, anyway. As for the hydrant, I think it's suffering from extensive banding. The resulting shape is confusing and amorphous. Clarity is super important in pixel art, especially for such small sprites.

That thread is very helpful! Banding is a concept I've struggled to wrap my mind around, but I think I have a better idea of what to avoid now.

I'm going to try to approach an edit in a few different ways, but for now I'm off to work! Thanks so much for the feedback, it was very beneficial!