Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: digitaldust on November 15, 2007, 12:56:49 pm
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B.O.B has his own pixel dump thread, soooo, why not?
To start off, here's my second ever pixel piece, done for a contest in DeviantArt (http://news.deviantart.com/article/35841/). It's supposed to be complete, but an update here and there whenever chance bites shouldn't hurt.
(http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3341/tapcangx1.png)
Photoshop 6, approximately 5 days (3 days for the lineart, 2 days for the pixel job).
I dunno about you guys, but i think i'm still having problems with colors in general.
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I think the style and colours in this are incredible! Not sure why you think you have a colour problem XD. The hand holding the can is kind of hard to read and im not sure whats on his shoes (are those holes carved into them?) This is spectacular, i really look forward to seeing some of your other stuff. :o
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well, it's certainly striking I'll give you that.
An interesting style, nice line weights. But you really could do with some Anti Aliasing - you're pallettes fine... if you're going for a vivid application.
All well and good, but I have to ask...
... what the hell is it?
I realise it's some anthromorphication of something... but I can't quite pin it down... Is it soem kind of sea creature? I keep seeing star fish and octopus and killer whales and dophins?...? But I honestly can't figure out what it's supposed to be... and on that basis I think you may be being a bit too obscure and thats the ultimate failing of this piece?
That said... I still like it.
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Looks more like a sort of robot to me. However, the way he's gripping/holding his cane seems.. Rather awkward. And those 'folds' on the shirt look a bit distracting.
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I think the problem with this piece is that you've got a very deliberate, almost automatic shading style going on that doesn't really reflect the forms it should be representing. In particular you've drawn a line with your darker colour along EVERY outline for no apparent reason. The pleat down the center of his pants, for example, why is there shading to one side of that line? That line could be either JUST black (you can have black outlines without a line of shading along them!) or just the dark green colour. In places like the cloth folds you've made marks that sort of works in the line art, faking places where the fabric bunches, but when you shade along one side of that line it doesn't quite make sense. Ditch the internal black lines where you can and suggest areas of shadow with the darker colour. The little indent on the cuff of the right leg of the pants is a good example of this. The lines around his left pectoral are an example of what's not working.
I think the best part of this though is the really strong, vertical composition. It works well with the elongated form of the character.
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Oh, you guys... I thought you'd be able to figure out that i based the creature type on the aluminium beverage can! :'(
(http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7381/pocarisweatys8.jpg)
I didn't say a word because i was under the impression that the can opener feet and the Pocari Sweat "skin" would be a dead enough giveaway for you guys to figure out. Oh well.
Jakten: Sorry about the readability issues. I tried pretty hard to make it discernable as he's holding the cane between his thumb and his index finger. I did that because i wanted to try a hand pose that's a lot more different than just the clenched-fist grip which i've seen in quite a number of drawn pictures. As for the coloring problem, the big issue that my habit of randomly picking colors is often hit and miss, because sometimes i'd get compliments, and other times i'd get people pointing out that the colors are too dark, too bright, not saturated enough, etc. Not that i blame them, of course. :(
I think the problem with this piece is that you've got a very deliberate, almost automatic shading style going on that doesn't really reflect the forms it should be representing. In particular you've drawn a line with your darker colour along EVERY outline for no apparent reason. The pleat down the center of his pants, for example, why is there shading to one side of that line? That line could be either JUST black (you can have black outlines without a line of shading along them!) or just the dark green colour.
I completely forgot that unwritten rule. I thought that by shading the outlines, there would be more depth(?) to things like creases and folds in fabric. I'll keep this note in mind, so big thanks for pointing it out.
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I completely forgot that unwritten rule.
Are you being ironic? There's no rules for art, written or unwritten. He's trying to help you, and his critique is good.
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I completely forgot that unwritten rule.
Are you being ironic? There's no rules for art, written or unwritten. He's trying to help you, and his critique is good.
I meant to say that i've completely forgotten about it, because I realized myself that Lackey's crits were useful. Pardon my broken english. :-X
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(http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7328/selfportrn6.png)
Experimenting on a style inspired by this certain icon: (http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/115/burstchickensr0.gif)
I also felt that my current avatar isn't doing me favors, so out with the old, in with the new...
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I can't fathom how that little avatar led to what you have, but cool anyway :P. Might be privvy to have some eye movement and maybe a more defined nose?
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I completely forgot that unwritten rule.
Are you being ironic? There's no rules for art, written or unwritten. He's trying to help you, and his critique is good.
I meant to say that i've completely forgotten about it, because I realized myself that Lackey's crits were useful. Pardon my broken english. :-X
Nah, you're missing an extremely important point that helm's raising. If i had read this in november i'd have commented on how valid it is:
there are no rules to art, only reasons. Whatever you do, even something like outlining, should have some sort of reason*. You could put those lines there if you could tell us "why." As it is though, we're not sure.
*even if that reason is to be absurd or self-satirical.
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(http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3023/ophionavatardp8.png)
I wasn't sure how to make the snake on his forehead more readable, so i left it as it is.
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And so the Shin Cheetahmen avatars are now complete! Although... I grossly miscalculated the difficulty of doing Castor. His hair was a bitch to do. :ouch:
(http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/6237/polluxavatarez6.png) (http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/4105/castoravatarhh0.png)
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I'm having mixed feelings.
Pure black? It's attracting ALL the attention. But it's very cool like that. There's a nice effect, because my eyes are drawn to it like a black hole, I have to consciously pull away to look at the rest. But if this wasn't intentional... XD XD
If you want it to read like a normal piece, try lightening the black?
aside from the contrast, it's pretty clear what they are. Maybe heavier line weight on castor's fur right below his mouth, the one pixel lines are too sharp for the somewhat cushy cushy soft ^0^ style.
?
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aside from the contrast, it's pretty clear what they are. Maybe heavier line weight on castor's fur right below his mouth, the one pixel lines are too sharp for the somewhat cushy cushy soft ^0^ style.
Like this?
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3710/castoravatar2hb6.png)
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I understand these are piercings on the tongue. But what's that in the middle of it? Also, why black teeth?
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I understand these are piercings on the tongue. But what's that in the middle of it? Also, why black teeth?
It's some sort of laurel wreath badge with a tongue piercing pin on it. As for the dentures, i was getting bored of the same ivory white/yellow/smoker's brown color, so i thought i might try out different colors. There's already different-colored tongues, so why not teeth? :)
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There's already different-colored tongues, so why not teeth? :)
they don't really read well. Maybe some nice, shiny highlights?
The dark outline around the tongue piercings is really weird, since no other part of the image has outlines at all, much less edges that are that dark...can you get rid of the outlines completely and still have them be readable?
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(http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/1171/castoravatarpa4.png)
The teeth was a bit of a block for me, but i think i got it right.
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WIP redraw of my first ever official pixel art attempt. I went for a much more "subtle" approach and... gave him, uh, sandals.
(http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/658/nusalemclrhz8.png)
Here's the (shocking) original.
(http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3821/asswingsqn9.gif)
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Besides that shoulder connection that is a bit worrisome, so far so good. Not much critique to be given on the pixel level. Why not go ahead and render it and we can talk about that.
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(http://i34.tinypic.com/28s95x5.gif)
I have no idea what you have going on with his right shoulder.
I just erased the huge addition you had going on.
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I think the head seems a bit small also, I thought it might be a perspective thing at first but the rest of the upper body doesn't support this. adjust that, then get onto rendering and fixing up the jaggies. This piece could look really good after that.
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(http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/3196/ashnewbh0.png)
(http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6358/thundernewtz1.png)
These were part of a plan to redraw character portraits for Streets of Rage Remake due to some complaints that the portraits in V4 didn't suit the feel of the game. While I don't mind the one guy who said that it's too bright for SOR, I do mind the remark of the style not fitting in with the SOR feel...
Because it's another one of those moments where my style has no place to belong but here, on my lap. And that makes me feel kinda lonely.
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(http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5706/alicecocooncopykp3.png)
Yet another WIP I spent WAAAAAAAAAAY way way too much time on. I eventually decided to abandon this version for now in order to completely start from scratch...
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Go back to that one. That's the best piece so far in here.
Your line art's are nice, you just need to be worrying about pixel technique right now.
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The last one confuses me especially. Why does she have bunny ears, whiskers, and a tuft of chest hair? Her expression is far too demure if she's conscious of the hideous transformation that's taking place.
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The last one confuses me especially. Why does she have bunny ears, whiskers, and a tuft of chest hair? Her expression is far too demure if she's conscious of the hideous transformation that's taking place.
- She's a furry, like most of what I've made in this thread.
- First time I've heard "hideous" on this kind of picture (most of the time it's something like "wtf"). This was meant to be done for a friend of mine, who's a huge fan of Devil May Cry, and the transformation is based on Lucia from DMC2, whose Devil Trigger form is that of what looked like an angel with most of her body "wearing" her own wings, and her head also veiled by her wings. I thought to myself, "hey, that actually looks more cute than cool", and so I used that idea as a base to this picture... if you look closely, she's caressing her own wings that are coming out in the style of a mixture of a butterfly coming out of its coccoon and a flower blossoming. And assuming transformations in the DMC universe were harmless, I made her transform by having her whole body crack open like an egg.
Hope that clears things up.
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I meant "hideous" in the context of "I'm turning into a giant rodent", not "hideous" as in the viewer of the art wants to coat-hanger his own eyeballs. :)
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Rabbits are not rodents. That aside, it is indeed the nicest one so far, but you really should try to apply full pixel treatment on one of your pieces.
Other than that, what you described above, the whole transformation thing into an angel type does not read at all.