Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Neo Berserker on January 01, 2014, 08:23:48 am

Title: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 01, 2014, 08:23:48 am
Hello guys. Recently i started working on this, i don't have a lot of experience working with pixel art this size so i've been experimenting a little, right now i'm kinda blocked on how to continue, so incase any of you have any critiques or advise i'd really appreciate it.

(http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/7262/3h4k.png)
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: HezaKey on January 01, 2014, 07:04:15 pm
I wonder why your primary and secondary light source are the same color.  Might be more interesting if the top light was not orange like the fire.  Or you could do magical fire and make it whatever color you like.

You also seem just a tiny bit inconsistent with your lighting.  Secondary light it from top left, yet right arm is lit as if from opposite side.  Also no secondary lighting on the hands for some reason? 

Could probably get away with more warm highlights on the face and necklace, from the fire light.

That's all I got.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 01, 2014, 11:37:17 pm
Thanks for pointing out the lighting inconsistency milo, that made me think a little more so i decided to focus just on one light source, also i tried to fix some smaller details and some lines, here's an updated version:

(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/7097/3f.png)

I feel like there are a few other things wrong but i can't get my head around them, i'll try to tweak it some more and see how it goes.

Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Ymedron on January 02, 2014, 07:39:04 am
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt235/Ymedron/neoberserkershadingadvice_zpscda1132e.png)
I feel like you could make the light more directional than you have.
(this is not advice on the technique of the lighting itself, since I just brushed with the normal photoshop brush.)
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 02, 2014, 10:30:51 pm
That helped Ymedron thanks ;D. Here's another update on it, i'm trying to get a better lighting on it, hopefully it's an improvement in the right direction.

(http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/4354/euza.png)

Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Kosvid on January 04, 2014, 12:03:27 pm
Despite I`m completely inexperienced as an artist and I haven`t made any good art yet, I can`t help saying I don`t like the hands. Not exactly the hands but their position. They are not "living". The alchemist seems to be asked to stretch them forward. The thing you should do is to change their situation towards the fireball and to add some energy. Just to spread fingers, for example. Look at all these https://www.google.ru/search?newwindow=1&hl=ru&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=693&q=magic&oq=magic&gs_l=img.3..0l10.664.1242.0.1439.5.5.0.0.0.0.93.428.5.5.0....0...1ac.1.32.img..0.5.428.3p0mGM6w6mo#hl=ru&newwindow=1&q=magic+hands&tbm=isch pictures and compare the hands with those which you`ve drawn.

P.S. The sleeves usually hang on the arms, don`t they? I`d remove the black space between the arms and the sleeves` upper parts.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: r1k on January 04, 2014, 09:32:39 pm
I think it would look better if you added some folds to hit cloak, right now it looks like his cloak is made of hard plastic.  I think you could also remove some of the black lines seperating parts of the cloak too.  Quick paint over

(http://i.imgur.com/uR1C1Ji.png)
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: PsylentKnight on January 05, 2014, 01:08:35 am
I think that separating the upper and lower teeth would help. As is, it looks like his mouth is some sort of singular giant eyeball, with the space between his upper teeth being the pupil.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 05, 2014, 07:00:14 am
@Agent00X, thanks for those suggestions, the hands have been giving me a hard time, i tried to make them more fitting this time.

@R1k, thanks alot for taking the time to make that edit  ;D, using it as reference i went and implemented more changes.

@PsylentKnight, mhmm i'm not sure if the mouth's giving me that impression, i will tweak it and see if that makes any difference.

This is how it's looking so far.

(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/7921/9j5f.png)

Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Mathias on January 07, 2014, 02:40:56 pm
The face is still odd.
I suggest it more obviously appear as a skull. How about darker ocular cavities with your glowing highlight right in the center?

Ymedron made a good point about lighting. You can do much better. For instance, why is the top of his hood lit, at all? Go for stronger light/dark contrast. Up the creepiness. Maybe try a secondary light source, blue or green.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: PixelPiledriver on January 07, 2014, 08:14:01 pm
Had some thoughts based on mathias's thoughts:
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bj-M1PJW2IY/UsxfXWVFnPI/AAAAAAAAIqk/7hn8ucmhGCY/s1600/skeleWiz_Start.png) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N5qkSJSLhUc/UsxfXc6_eJI/AAAAAAAAIqo/E4UPczPMrFU/s1600/skeleWiz_4.png) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J58YRxRP0VU/UsxfXN_eQEI/AAAAAAAAIqg/7fiW-MJRcFg/s1600/skeleWiz_4.gif)

You might want to ref more than I did.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Stava on January 07, 2014, 11:42:39 pm
I continued on PixelPileDrivers edit,
this is what I got
(http://i.imgur.com/B6x6Fvp.png)

Think the colors were too pale.. and the eyes were a little messy
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Shrike on January 08, 2014, 04:21:53 am
Whoops, thought Stava was the original poster. My bad.

Looking nice, otherwise! I might tone down the second brightest orange a bit to make the yellow pop a bit more, and saturate the yellow more. For something like flame, it's looking very desaturated.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 08, 2014, 06:27:15 am
Nice edits PixelPileDrive and Stava, very useful  :y:, also i had this idea of adding some sort of aura so here's mine:

(http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8067/hwe4.png)

Not too refined, i didnt have alot of time today but tomorrow i'll make some more changes. Do you guys think the aura is helping this piece?

Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Facet on January 08, 2014, 03:35:43 pm
I think the aura is cool but is he sat at a table? If so I'd light that too 'cos it looks a bit like a floating torso. Good call on the new hands, much more engaged.

This is potentially pretty nice but the lighting is really confusing me atm; contrast-wise the lightsource is was darker than the lit surface and the ‘darks’ themselves no real value change, the lightest material colours are blues from a warm source which you'd expect to be neutralised somewhat, and as mentioned the overall direction is a bit unclear.

(http://i.imgur.com/eRKqfSO.gif)
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 10, 2014, 04:25:49 am
Thanks for your input Facet, yeah I'm basically going with my gut on this, the shading has been rather confusing but i hope it's improving as i go. I started with a vague idea but now i like the creepy look of it. Anyway here's another update on it.

(http://imageshack.com/a/img163/2703/d7gx.png)

Also changing the image to grayscale is actually really useful to check the values of the colors, that's something i'd never done before, will come handy in the future definitely.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Shrike on January 10, 2014, 05:27:37 am
Great improvement so far! As was stated earlier... where is his torso? You need to establish it's presence somehow, even if you just cut out the background where it ought to be, or as someone suggested, put him leaning on a table of some sort.
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 10, 2014, 06:13:54 am
Yeah that's what i'm probably going to do, i will try to make it look as if he's sitting and there's a table in front of him, and so i will light it up as Facet suggeted.

Edit: Alright so i added the table, i went for this odd texture on it, not sure if the colors work for it.

(http://imageshack.com/a/img18/7687/k5j9.png)
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Neo Berserker on January 14, 2014, 06:33:14 pm
Alright i refined it more and added some (not the best) AA to the aura, the table texture is still odd in a way but i think it fits. This is pretty close to final, ofcourse i don't mind keep working and improving it even more if possible.

Thanks for the help everyone  :)

(http://imageshack.com/a/img835/913/md3j.png)
Title: Re: Undead Alchemist
Post by: Shrike on January 15, 2014, 02:05:34 am
It's so symmetrical! Maybe look for some ways to break up the symmetry? It's a huge improvement from the beginning. Great work :)