Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: TheInquisitor on June 01, 2010, 11:51:13 pm
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Hey folks. ;D
This must be my second ever topic on here. I usually get so stuck into my pixelly works that I don't bother to post progress shots. It's been a long time since I last properly pixelled but I just got that itch! I couldn't get the idea of a nice deep dusky blue forest out of my head recently. I wanted to make some eerie looking forest with a gypsy camp in it, so this is what I've cooked up with so far:
(http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/GypsyUpload.png)
(http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/Gypsy2.png)
It's early days, I know. I'm happy that I've got the trees out of the way. They are the bane of my pixelling life. I'm hoping to make both gypsy wagons and canal boats. I want them to be colourful, but with that heavy dark blue global tinge. As always I take my main palette inspiration from my pixelling buddy Doppleganger. I do love his colour mixing. Hopefully he'll provide his usual insights here to help me along my way if there is any tweaking required. So far I'm pretty satisfied with the progress.
One question that arises is how do you guys think I should best tackle the grass tile? I did make a start on it in the first image, but I'm not so sure it'll work (the very faint grass above the long grass). I'm tempted to go with flat colour like in Zelda. I also think that the trees and gypsy look so much stronger over that temporary blue background in the first image. Does anybody else agree with that? If so, how do you think I should approach the grass colour.
Thanks guys :crazy:
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I know it's kind of pointless to post just to say you like something... but I really like this. I really like the colors overall and the tiltiness of the trees in specific. I almost feel like the darkness of the ground should be emphasized even a little bit more (that is, yes, I think they look better on the blue bg), maybe a few patches of dark moss or something like that in the open areas between trees could get a similar effect?
The only thing I don't really get is the wheel/barrel thing at the top. I can't really tell what it is, or what's up with the shading on the end of it.
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Thanks Redshrike ;D
I like the idea of some darker moss at the edges of the map "tree wall". That should help bring out the best of the trees. I'll certain look into that. :y:
The object at the top is an early WIP shot of a gypsy caravan. It may go under massive revision before the end. Just a good starting point. That wooded front to it will probably have a door plonked on and a few gaudy colourful patterns.
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For the grass, a heap of grass under the trees and some in the open would brobably be best.
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(http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/GypsyUpload9.png)
Hey ho folks. A litte more progress on my tileset. :yay: Significantly I've altered the background colours to better match the what I hope to have by the end of the tileset. I still reckon that with this background the trees still stand out enough that they work.
Obviously the most significant new things are the little robed cultist, the WIP colourful gypsy boat and the WIP stone head. The stone head will be part of other broken statue pieces that'll give a nice ambience to the set and map locations ideally. I dreamed up the cultists to go with them just for the fun of it. I've always had a love for creepy looking, sinisterly robed villains. They are the coolest. :P
The light reflection in the "water" is just a mockup. When I come to making proper animated water I'll be using colours similar to that. The stone head needs better colours, ones which match the others I've used already and will also require some more precise shading. However as it stands I think I've fleshed out a good shape that matches the tileset angle. It was obviously quite difficult as I wanted to get that slant on the object so that it looks like part of a broken statue. I'll add some crumbly bits too. :)
This set is supposed to be set in a twlight/dusk sort of time. Do you guys think I have managed to convey that well enough? Or does it look more likely nightime? I'm happy with the palette as it is, although I'm struggling greatly with this extravagant boat. I'm interested to see if others read it as twilight. Unfortunately there's no sky visible to make it obvious. ???
Comments and particularly critique welcome. I'd like to up my abilities in pixelling. :D
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I would say you've got shape down spot on. And your color choice is very beautiful. The thing that bothers me, is that there's no texture. For instance, just by looking, I have no idea what the black and gold cylinder thing is. The leaves of the tree look like they are made out of pillows and blankets--which is not how really are. The same holds true for the statue of the head. It's supposed to look like stone, but because of the way it's lit and colored looks to me like a plastic sculpture. Then again, the dark robe--the colors are awesome! But it seems to be made of the same substance as the stone head, the cylinder thing, and the trees.
Now, with everything having the same texture like this, you achieve an nice soft, fluffy atmosphere, and if that's what you're going for, more power to you. But I think it would help to add a little more detail to what you've got.
I think the answer is imperfections:
(http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3253/rockya.png)
(yeah, I know, 1x pixels on 2x pixels, eww, but it shows my point still)
;D
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All I can say: best trees I think I've ever seen. Ever. Better than actual trees.
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(http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/GypsyUpload12.png)
Aloha again, my friends. :D
Made a slight bit of progress for this midweek. I've been working some more on that big stone head and here's what I've got so far. I've gone over and started shading it properly now giving it a lot more shape. There's one very obvious problem with it and that's that it's shadows are much darker than all the other objects made for the set. I'll have to go back over it and brighten it all up so that it matches. However I think I've got the actually shape and shades of the head down correctly now. It may just need that last touch of highlight to give it more of a roundness. I fear it might seem a little flat at the moment, especially if I layer it over the trees. I've added some cracks and roughness to the object to symbolise it's stone texture, Rydin. Is this more to what you had in mind?
The trees I'm actually happy with. They could possibly do with an extra shade, but I'll see how they look when I give this stone head a final revision. For now they're looking okay to me. I'm not sure I can add in too much more detail without making them look overly complicated. As you've suggested, the style I'm going for is quite quirky and light hearted, not too deep dark and evill.
Thanks for the compliment, Crazy, but you must be crazy if you believe that. :)
C+C welcome
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That look a little more like stone now. :y:
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You got some really cool trees right there my friend ;D
The tileset it's getting pretty good, also, i love your RM tilesets :D
You inspired me to make my own tilesets ::)
Thank you!
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You've got some delicious pixels brewing here. I think you should have a session of just purely playing around with the palette. Go crazy with it. Slide those bars everywhere.
I think you should go much more towards dusk with the lighting, get the secluded, mystical atmosphere to it:
(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z212/gastrop0d/edits/GypsyUpload12_ed2.png)
Right-most head is a little more realistic, lighting-wise.
Low key lighting is your friend. Lamps, camp fires and brightly lit windows will contrast great with a deep blue forest.
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I've seen what you've done with adding more depth with that reddish tinge, Eyecraft. It works well. The one problem I have with it is that it loses much of that deep blueness, a colour I really want to push for on this set. When I next get chance I'll have a play with the palette and try and mix some of your colour changes in whilst trying to keep that blue element still very clear. Although I thought I'd done a solid job of colour mixing, your example does bring it out a lot more.
Yeah, I can't wait to get onto more of those windows, camps and lanterns. I'm also planning to make little animate dots of light for fireflies and things that'll really give the deep dark blue forest some exciting variety. :D
Thanks, Jakerpot. Glad you like those other tilesets too. ;) I'm pleased with how the trees have come out for the most part, but as usual for me, each successive tree of the same type gets worse and worse. Not sure why! :(
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Shalom, comrades! A little more progress! :D
(http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/GypsyUpload15.png)
I've been adding more rocks and broken statue pieces to the tileset. For the moment I've preferred to stick with my original colour palette, Eyecraft, as I feel the deep blues better convey the atmosphere I'm going for. Blue is creepier. Perhaps I'll come to regret this decision, I don't know. I'm trying to create quite a spiritual, stonehenge like area within the forest. Lots of big stone heads sticking out of the ground and other things to that effect. If you guys want to provide any tips or inspiration for shapes, do pipe up! :)
These rocks have got more significant shadow on them which match the work in progress boat. Unfortunately the old trees I did will now require a spruce up because their lack of deep shading clashes quite badly. I should plan these things out more thoroughly instead of just jumping straight into new pieces!
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(http://www.spriteart.com/edit/inquis_rocks1.png)
Your rocks are so dark i can hardly see them. :/
palette wise -> im not sure you are thinking about how light hits rock surfaces when coloring. all of your values are in the same area of hue, which would indicate that your light source is of the same nature as the twilight ambiance, Ive thrown in some values that are far less saturated and closer to the yellow hue range for the highlight regions, and let that progress towards your blue/greens as the values become darker. It allows you to keep your strong blue hue influences without sacrificing the natural hue of the object being lit.
Also, i would suggest to pay attention more to the light source angle and how it fills out the shape of the stones before worrying at all about the very indepth amount of anti-aliasing youve got going on (which makes it look impressively smooth). I fall prey to this often, but step back and figure out the shapes before going nuts with the detail. For the face/rock thing on the top in particular ive tried to push the highlights so that they hit more topdown from lets say a moon light source rather than what looks like a spotlight angle that looks like it might be flattening out your forms a little.
also remember rocks have sharp edges, and the harder you hit that highlight the sharper itll look. also remember if there is a sharp edge, that whole face of rock is probably nearly equally as light, or else it kills the illusion of its geometric faces. (aka rocks can be tricky :( )
One comment i had about your trees, why do they all slant in different directions?
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(http://www.rpg-palace.com/inquisitor/GypsyUpload16.png)
Thanks for the feedback, St0ven. The master and pupil together again! :crazy: Following your lighting example I have refined my own. It's now pretty similar to yours in light source direction. Thanks for the help there. I did lose the shape somewhat. The hand may need that little extra bit of refining as when I compare yours to mine the former does seem to be a bit more impact to it.
What I haven't done is changed the palette yet. Whilst yours is very nice and has a swell mixture of colours, it's not really that look I'm after. Perhaps when I said twilight it wasn't the right word. What I want is a very rich blue light source throughout the whole environment. On yours it seems like there are more greys and yellows whereas I want to stick as much as possible to blues and greens. It doesn't look too dark on my monitors, but I do have them quite bright with a lot of clear contrast between the shades. What does everyone else thing of this?
I'd highly appreciate it if you could whip me up another palette to shades you'd consider more suitable, but still retain that blue and green focus that I'm aiming for.
Thanks again St0ven! ;D
The new stone head is obviously still a work in progress. I'll get on that ASAP.