Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Arendule on March 27, 2012, 08:20:20 pm
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(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa463/arendule/PlayerStand1.png)(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa463/arendule/PlayerForward2.png)(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa463/arendule/PlayerForward1.png)(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa463/arendule/PlayerStand2.png)
These are my standing and walking frames. There are only two because of the amount of animations there is going to be. I think we could bump it to three if that would help improve visuals. I'm completely new to Pixel Art and these along with 20 others were made in under 12 hours. They are almost place holders for more detail to come.
What I'm looking for:
1. How my AA is currently and how I can improve.
2. Adding colors or removing colors.
3. Sel-out on lighted areas; would that make it look more slime-y?
4. My shading is terrible, how can I improve?
I've hit the limit of my practicing I think. I've been looking for references and tutorials on Shading and such but I can't understand x.x.
I think someone showing me on something I've made would help.
Thanks in advance,
Devin
*EDIT*
Thanks so much for the feedback! I didn't think I would get so much so fast :). I see how the slime will be a difficult starting point due to the lighting. I'll definitely have a look at those nice slimes you made for a reference when I feel like I can do something like that. I have actually skimmed through that tutorial. I should re-read it and see what I can get from it, thanks :). Some lighting I think I did right might be this Platform I made:
(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa463/arendule/Platform.png)
I think practice is still something I should be working on xD. Does anyone have a good reference image for lighting? Or even an object or something that would give a good feel for me to pixel? Maybe I should just get to it :P.
Thanks guys!
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Hello Devin,
Before you think of AA you should general think of your form. At the moment you have pretty much jaggies in your slime and the front looks to squarish. It looks also pretty flat
I don't really know for which perspektive you are going for but I guess it's some 3/4 perspective style. Try to give your charakter volume by better lighting.
Then you should think about your colors - try a Hue-Shift and play more with your contrasts.
Colors are just a tool, use as many as you are comofortable with, but try to use as less as you need. A organized palette is easier to use and to improve than a huge color orchestra.
Forget about Sel-Out, it looks terrible, a clear or lighted outline looks definitely better.
Improve your shading by object studies - shading tutorials won't help you. You have to observe and understand light from nature if you want to understand lighting. Once you understand it you can use it. Look at objects from different angles and try different lighting conditions, there aren't words that will help you, you just have to look - it's that simple. If it Comes to a slime look for something similar - a waterdrop for example - although if you have shading problems with massive objects too, it's a really bad idea to start with complex medias like transparent ones.
I made you a little example:
My lightsource is coming from the right front side.
The object is transparent, this means the ground will shine through the object (dark round circle at the bottom), there is also a highlight (point nearest to the lightsource), there the object is brighter, like massive medias the object itself has also a shadow (dark area right). And there is also reflected light (ligher area between dark boarder and right dark shadow area) here the object gets lighter.
(http://share.cherrytree.at/showfile-5798/slime.png)
~5minutes if you know what you have to do
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I'm completely new to Pixel Art
1. How my AA is currently and how I can improve.
2. Adding colors or removing colors.
3. Sel-out on lighted areas; would that make it look more slime-y?
4. My shading is terrible, how can I improve?
If you're new, don't worry about 1 and 3 at all. Just like everything else you need to start with the basics and build from there, trying to AA now won't help. There's not much to say other than learn basic shading and techniques (this (http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299) tutorial is wonderful) and practice a lot. I guarantee it'll be at least a few months before you meet your expectations consistently.
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You need to look at lot of pixel art and practice a lot of shading.
What helped me the most when I started out was looking at others sprites and trying to copy the same shading.
Look at Cyangmou's slime and just try to draw one like it.
Notice all the details and why one area is lit and the other darkened.
Pixel art is a great way to learn how to shade because it's broken down to the essentials without smooth gradients and blurriness.
Here's the first slime I ever made(almost a year ago) and the latest version which was today :D
Notice how the perspective has changed a lot.
And the first two don't really look like slimes because they don't look semi-transparent.
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5979/slimeprogress.png)
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If it's a platform game (strict side view) then he can't do the ground contact effect which Lufia for the GBC used so effectively, btw. I quite like some of the the pixel art in that game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIKUGv8lK8Q
Transparency might be an issue in the game engine. How about a more opaque texture? With textures you can avoid some of the banding may occur on smooth surfaces. It also make him less generic.
(http://androidarts.com/other/blue_slime.gif)
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I think your character needs a design. Right now I don't see any design in him, it's completely forgettable.
I suspect that you make it this simple because you are afraid to make a complex walk cycle and all other animations, but I'm sure you can come up with better heros that are very easy to animate too.
Triangle with a baseball hat
Magnet with shoes
Beach ball with glasses
Anything!
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high-contrast shading is important for metallic or translucent object.
(http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2441/bubble33.png)
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Thanks for all the feedback guys. This is helping a lot on understanding this slime lighting and shading. I'm still practicing on these sprites. We're making a side scrolling game and my friend is making it easy to swap images so I can update them regularly. I'm planning to build on these as I go :).
I'm loving these examples! Thanks!