Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Lilyo on April 05, 2013, 04:22:41 am
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First try at pixel art in a long time haha. Never really tried making trees before. I'm trying to figure out a good style.
(http://i.imgur.com/5aWokmC.png)
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Search for tree on the forums, you'll probably get about a thousand threads on the subject. :)
I'm no expert, but I'd say yours has the silhouette down. Two things that jump out at me though:
- the whole tree is in different states of refinement
- leaves appear to get lighter as you go down
The bottom-most leaf cluster appears the most done, you should apply finish to the other clusters. However, first I would remove all the 1 pixel details, they're adding more noise than detail here. There's also a good bit of depth established, but you should take out the darker colors from the insides of the clusters, so it's more clear.
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I'd suggest staring from the bark, then branches and then adding shapes to the branches. Remember that this is a 3D object so some of the branches go towards you and some behind the bark. Leaf clusters are basically spheres placed one next to and on top another, irregularly. You can treat them as such when it comes to lighting. Really, just spend a couple of minutes on studying how trees are built and how they can be downgraded to basic shapes, this will help you a lot. Then you can think of a suitable style :) Good luck!
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Remember to shade the tree as a whole rather then just the individual spheres of leaves.
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Following st0ven's thread (http://www.wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=10520.0) on making trees I came up with this:
(http://i.imgur.com/iRJR2xX.png) (http://i.imgur.com/5aWokmC.png)
Not at all detailed, and way too bright compared to your tree, but it was just an edit to illustrate highlighting the tree as a whole object first, then adding the little bunches of leaves later to give the tree its shape.
But other than that I love the colours (though perhaps too many?) and the detail you put on the leaves is amazing. Keep it up!
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(http://i.imgur.com/iRJR2xX.png) (http://i.imgur.com/5aWokmC.png)
If I understand correctly, are you basically layering horizontal sections of it instead of thinking of it as a sphere? Looks like your view is more of a top down view than mine. I think we both shaded it the same way though, I just sketched the whole thing out and did the shadows and then highlights but I was probably imagining it differently. I'll try that style too.
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If I understand correctly, are you basically layering horizontal sections of it instead of thinking of it as a sphere? Looks like your view is more of a top down view than mine. I think we both shaded it the same way though, I just sketched the whole thing out and did the shadows and then highlights but I was probably imagining it differently. I'll try that style too.
Ermm, I'm fairly poor at explaining myself, so I made pictures rather!
This is more or less how I would have shaded the tree ignoring bunches:
(http://i.imgur.com/bE2lCXE.gif)
And then using the following technique I'd add bunches:
(http://i.imgur.com/emwq8xX.png)
Starting with a simple round tree with simple shading.
(http://i.imgur.com/TR9MKHm.png)
Drawing an imaginary ellipse where a bunch should be.
(http://i.imgur.com/ViS0ODO.png)
Then, using the colours afforded to me by the larger shading (and adding a little more to both the high and low lights) I'd make bunches.
Mine was a bit more top down yeah, and I should also mention that the bottom half of your tree is shaded perfectly, you just needed more "volume" in the top half. Which just means less dark colouring because the higher part of the tree you'd expect to be a lighter colour on the whole (though actually if you look at tonnes of pictures of trees you wouldn't see that). That way the tree looks more solid (which again, they aren't IRL, but we're tricking eyes here, not going for realism).
I think.