Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: smithy101 on January 02, 2015, 09:52:33 am
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Hello,
I am pretty new to pixel art and made some spaceships. I would like to get some comments and critiques on it. I also added my previous spaceship, so that you can see if I made any progression.
(http://i.imgur.com/Q5BOEzT.png?1)
I know they have the same style, that is because I want to use them in games I will make.
When you give critiques please consider that this are only my second and third pixel art.
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Silhouette is a massive improvement. It looks less boxy now, which is great. It does look a bit... phallic, which I don't mind, but I wanted to make sure you noticed it :)
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This may not be the case but if you're using indie games from recent years to draw inspiration then you might want to reconsider and find some better sources. I say this because there are plenty of "retro" games out there pixel art by untrained artists or in some cases where style is sacrificed for practical gameplay reasons.
Either way I'd say get hold of mame32 and run some of the classics like the Dodonpachi series and many others.
There is much to learn from this golden age of shmups (just before 3D became the standard) with amazing artwork by really talented artists, especially the Japanese dudes have some crazy style choices.
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This may not be the case but if you're using indie games from recent years to draw inspiration then you might want to reconsider and find some better sources.
It is true I played some FTL (indie game from 2012) and looked at the designs to get inspiration, but I did not complete coppyd it because this is the ship in FTL
(http://i.imgur.com/IiP7XJw.png?1)
I say this because there are plenty of "retro" games out there pixel art by untrained artists or in some cases where style is sacrificed for practical gameplay reasons.
I am a untraned artist (for now, i will get better) and i made the spaceship not to complex so that it is easer to make the game because i am only a Intermediate programmer and not a expert.
Either way I'd say get hold of mame32 and run some of the classics like the Dodonpachi series and many others.
There is much to learn from this golden age of shmups (just before 3D became the standard) with amazing artwork by really talented artists, especially the Japanese dudes have some crazy style choices.
I am only 16 so i didn't knew mame32 or dodonpachi so after googling it, I understandd why.
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Yeah buddy so many great games with much better style than FTL.
I haven't played FTL but judging by the graphics it's more about the in depth gameplay than the visuals.
What kind of gameplay did u have in mind? I think it's relevant to what kind of designs and visual effects u could go for.
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FTL graphics are very lackluster, and as far as pixel art go, mediocre at best. It's a really fun game though.
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FTL graphics are very lackluster, and as far as pixel art go, mediocre at best. It's a really fun game though.
There was someone who redrew the original ship as a graphics mod but I can't for my life find the original mod. I was going to post it here as a reference since it was an extremely well redrawn piece with a lot of details added.
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Phlakes? (http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=15828)
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It was from here! I kept thinking it was from PJ and was searching everywhere to no avail D:.
Anyway, I think Phlakes does a good job showing how to improve on FTL's original style if you are referencing that.
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Phlakes? (http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=15828)
aaaayy it's my thing, thanks for the words yaomon.
Speaking of DDP, take a look at the old CC of it (http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=4211.0), I haven't read through it in a while but IIRC there's some good stuff.
I've made a lot of spaceships in my time, and it wasn't until I started working on this thing (http://www.indiedb.com/games/super-galaxy-squadron) that I actually liked what I was drawing (and I still don't even like what you can see there, only really the newest enemies-
(http://i.imgur.com/sHeNIuA.png))
Those are all pretty okay, but they only got that way after doing several dozens that looked really ugly. What I've settled on at this point, for designing ships, is this (and note that this is entirely personal/subjective and what works for me might not work for you)-
(http://i.imgur.com/HOOBAyD.png)
- Scribble a bit with a general idea in mind (this one was "long thing with two things sticking out at the back", in keeping with this thread's phallic imagery)
- Flip it
- Refine it by eliminating large gaps and weird curves/angles (this also depends on the particular style you're going for, the ships for this game have lots of sharp angles and small details)
- Take a couple colors and start building shapes (the question probably on your mind now is "how do I know what shapes to build?", and the last section of this post will cover that)
- Keep doing that (one big thing to keep in mind here is that light colors come forward and dark colors go back, so you want to use that fact to create depth)
- Keep doing that more until it's done (I've run out of things to say)
This one didn't turn out so great (probably because I made it in like five minutes just now) but it gets the point across. A lot of people prefer line art, but for me, I've found that this way feels more like I'm discovering shapes inside the silhouette and/or building it up and out like clay, as opposed to having to draw every shape directly from my head, which usually ends up stiff and awkward (okay this phallic thing was a bad idea)
Anyway, aside from all that I have two big suggestions, which also apply to pretty much everything anyone could ever make (honestly you could just ignore the rest of this post and just worry about this part)-
- Look at tons of references and see how those ships are designed, from their basic silhouette to each individual panel and detail, and ask yourself why it was made that way, even if the answer is "I don't know"
- practice practice practice practice practice practice
Three of the most important things in making spaceships (which I've learned after many years of making spaceships) are general design knowledge (i.e. what shapes look good together), 3D spacial reasoning, and experience. Those are all things that you'll naturally acquire over time through the aforementioned references and practice practice practice practice practice practice. I didn't mean for this post to be this long so I'll stop now.
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Thanks Phlakes, for the amazing comment. I am really impressed by what you have made. I am going to use you tips a lot, i try to practice a little bit every day. I like how you you described your proces of making a spaceship but I personally like to make a basic version on paper first and then recreate it as pixel art, that way i put a lot of effert in the silout and the place of the panels. But because of that i have a hard time adding details, or what you did in step 6. But like you said I have to go analyses a ton of references and pay some more attention to the derails or what it makes look so good.
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Personally I like to work more how phlakes does by blocking in a silhouette first, as do many other artists (among other methods).
Consider that while blocking in a rough shape, you can be fast, loose and creative with your designs.
I'm bad at creative but I believe working like this frees you more from preconceptions and restraint.
And anyway, if the silhouette isn't good there's usually no point developing it further.
Basically I'd recommend trying the method many times before discarding the advice.