Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Azuyre on November 26, 2012, 07:14:30 am
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Trying to get a bit of practice in so I made some pixel art based on a sketch. The character's name is Red and the sketch was done by Endling from dA.
(http://i46.tinypic.com/huktfm.png)(http://i50.tinypic.com/148njc.png)
(http://i50.tinypic.com/20f5o8y.png)
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5min edit:
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/red2.png)
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/redgif.gif)
The piece is looking good -- still needs some work, though. Two problems I notice mainly are some weak color choices and quite a bit of banding. I did a quick stab at some possibly better colors -- mainly, I increased the brightness and shifted hues between colors on the ramp. I gave the sword-thing a bit of a hue shift as well, which might have been overdone, but goes to show that some shifting makes metal objects a bit more interesting and warm/cold (depending on what colors used -- this looks warm because I used more warm colors). As for the banding, I didn't get to fix much, but the selective outlining on the arms isn't working out so well, and internally there are a lot of "fat pixel" bandings -- not so many staircases along the borders, so nice job there. Two main areas of concern are the head and the hair, which have the most banding. I also think the face could stand out more (maybe more pronounced facial features, like bright eyes?)
EDIT:
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/red3.png)
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/redgif2.gif)
Made a few extra quick edits. Started mending some of the banding to show a few possible fixes for that. Did a quick redo of the hair -- the way you shaded it made it rather flat. Fixed some of the AA and selective outlining (I assume that's the thing you were going for, so I made it use that more consistently throughout.) Red's face looked weird, and I figured out why -- the eye furthest from us looks a bit out of perspective from the rest of the face; however, I could be wrong, so I just made that edit so you can decide.
I'd also suggest dropping your color count, you have a few colors that can be merged -- you're at 29 colors now, you can drop to 24 with no differences to really be seen. In fact, you could even drop down to 16, and it looks good:
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/red4.png)
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/0-redgif3.gif)
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Thanks for all the help so far. :D
I'm not sure how I didn't realize that half my colors were similar to another. :P Anyway, I've edited it a bit based on what you've said:
(http://i50.tinypic.com/20f5o8y.png)>(http://i47.tinypic.com/iyl7v4.png)
I went over the whole thing looking for banding and made some fixes based on some of the stuff you did in your edits. I think it's looking a lot better then the first version, thanks again for the help so far.
I wasn't quite sure about your edit of the eye, I was mainly going by the sketch and the angle doesn't seem too off on that. Though I think there probably is something I could change to make it look a bit better. I'll try a few things and see what I come up with.
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Looking better so far! :D I'd venture to say that the highlight on the hair may be a bit *too* contrasted to the midtone, but other than that, the new color choices brighten the whole thing up. I agree about the eye (now), probably not the best change I made there -- but no harm with trying out something to see if it works, I suppose :lol: Not every experiment is going to yield an improvement, as that edit to the eye showed.
EDIT: In addition, I'd maybe say to slightly darken the midtone of the skin more, but it's not a huge flaw or anything, and would be fine as-is in that sense. I think the next set of improvements would be to fix some of the banding issues that remain, after which the piece will start looking even more polished :) G'luck!
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don't do selective outlining. Use a Background to check your line art. I cleaned up everything. Also avoid using bright pixels alone. Here's an edit, you can make it transparent again if you'd like: (http://i.imgur.com/rsVJX.png)
also, work on making the sword whole more round