Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: StarRaven on March 20, 2012, 02:49:54 am
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Mockup:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17067479/untitled_concept/mockup.png)
Tiles:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17067479/untitled_concept/16tilesmock.png)
There's about a million things I don't like about this but I'll just wait for some crits because I'm totally exhausted with it at the moment. I tried some different things with the sprite.
Here's the original concept sprite thing for the main character:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17067479/untitled_concept/sprite_original.png)
We decided to go much smaller, and the hair was changed somewhat. And here (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17067479/untitled_concept/forestconcept.jpg) is the concept art for the forest. I'd like to try to stick to that sort of color/atmosphere.
I know the colors are a little all over the place; I'll fix them up soon.
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Your style is so good, but I don't like the green colors you used...
My edit:
(http://s13.postimage.org/i23hlefwn/treeapalete.png)
Ah sorry another thing you should change are the tree round shadows, their perspective is wrong.
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Looks great, just posting to disagree with Hideon's palette edit.
The trunks on the leafless trees are nicer than the trunks on the leafy trees.
Sprite looks a bit front on, could see it from above a little more, but to be honest it looks okay as is even though it's perhaps not the most accurate representation of the perspective.
I'm mostly wondering how best to reconcile the concept art with tiles/this kind of perspective, looks like a really interesting challenge. Some work on the palette which you've already suggested (although not really in the direction Hideon took it). I wonder what else could be done?
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I think part of what makes the concept art really strong is the lighting effects from the sky.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WyrAndFissI/T2j_L3HWNNI/AAAAAAAAA80/C8BlSpuQflY/s1600/forestConceptLight.png)
It gives the forest a really nice mood.
I interpreted it to be "old, dead, and a little spooky, but also beautiful".
The very high and low end keys seem to be absent from your mockup.
Although we are unable to see the sky from such a top down angle, you could still imply its color and light using overlays:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DSinFQ5XeME/T2j8Ruauk8I/AAAAAAAAA8s/y6zmrV_ZhnE/s1600/lightEffects.png)
So this isn't actually a pixel edit.
I used photoshop and vectors.
Please don't beat me with sticks. :blind:
You could execute such lighting effects with some rather simple Shaders.
Talk to your programmer and see if your game engine is setup to handle effects.
If you are interested in the math involved I can explain.
What I've added is probably a bit too fuzzy and may not convey the correct mood you are trying to create.
But it illustrates taking a step closer to the original painting in terms of color and key range:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fZzyKguiXmE/T2kGxEV1BJI/AAAAAAAAA9U/Lu7l1XshYo0/s1600/mockupGreyscale.png)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k3c4BfsI1_c/T2kGwjSJWuI/AAAAAAAAA9E/YvdsWsCkY50/s1600/conceptGreyscale.png)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L6OOd9SGz4c/T2kGwzOClwI/AAAAAAAAA9M/XvkcfjFeVYM/s1600/editGreyscale.png)
Although now that I look at it both my edit and your mockup are missing the really dark darks.
I added the spirits because of these:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9AOvLoX12xQ/T2kBEMbsXzI/AAAAAAAAA88/9cVIFIHzI68/s1600/smallLights.png)
Most likely it is intended to be light filtering through the trees.
They are interesting just because of their shape and contrast.
In my mind they seemed animated so I converted them into spirits.
But feel free to ignore them if its not what you're going for at all.
The art itself is very appealing.
The colors are well picked.
I don't completely understand the character, meaning "what can she do?", but that will become clear when she is animated.
Great work.
Keep going.
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I started messing with a palette edit:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1534394/forest.png)
Reflects your concept art a little more, but lacks the brightness (since it's all where the 'camera' is, and too harsh lighting on the tress wasn't looking great), so I thought we could maybe add some light shafts (I've mocked them up a bit crappy, so also here's some nicer pixelled ones from Zelda).
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1534394/forest_lightshafts.png)
(http://www.zeldawiki.org/images/f/fe/FS_Sanctuary_Full.png)
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That's a wonderful edit. The palette on OP's trees is a strange, very desaturated greenish-bluish-grayish-relative brownish mixture, and pushing up the saturation and contrast and bringing out some more shiny teals makes it very satisfying to look at.
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Not very professional here (talking bout myself), but I think even though the edits are beautifully rendered, I think the new palette/colors take away from the tone the original post seemed to imply which was more eerie-like.
Much like in the grayscale forest picture PixelPileDriver provided. Simply inferring from the grayish bleak colors that were used in the first post.
I think the problem with the OP's trees were that the colors/shading was too close together (in value), making the trees seem to have a lack of definition.
Rikfuzz's edit fixed this problem it seems, though I think there's too much brightness in the colors that he used (for the trees). (that lighting is pretty kicka** btw though).
I'm not very good at this kind of stuff, so it may not be very reliable source of advice to work from (trying though).
awesome work from everyone though. great artists
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Just popping in to say that although I like most of the edits done here, I still prefer the OP's original picture. I actually love the color of the leaves she picked, and the character they exude. Reminds me a lot of the Mother series.
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Quick color edit! All of this is giving us ideas! I'll have more stuff soon, but for now, I'm so sleepy. Had to start fixing those colors, though. What, was I blind? ???
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17067479/untitled_concept/mockup2.png)
Removed the wonky shadows, will replace with fixed ones soon.
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Had to start fixing those colors, though. What, was I blind?
Gee, thanks. ::)
Liking the new colors, though I still prefer the old ones. The tree leaves look like they're luminescent now, imo...
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The tree leaves look like they're luminescent now, imo...
agree, a darker shading or colors are most likely needed
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Quick color edit! All of this is giving us ideas! I'll have more stuff soon, but for now, I'm so sleepy. Had to start fixing those colors, though. What, was I blind? ???
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17067479/untitled_concept/mockup2.png)
Removed the wonky shadows, will replace with fixed ones soon.
I'm glad you made that edit because the original made me think my monitors contrast was seriously messed up. I'm on a bit of a color calibration kick and I was seriously fuming that it still looked weird.
The edit looks much better and still keeps the same atmosphere. Although I think the character should reflect the same atmosphere it is in. Also I realize it needs to stand out from the background but right now it's standing out too much. It seems to be lit by some different form of lighting.