Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: smithy101 on February 05, 2015, 04:02:07 pm

Title: Astroids (wip)
Post by: smithy101 on February 05, 2015, 04:02:07 pm
Hello,
here are some astroids where i have been working on. I have redesinged them a few time and this was the best one. So advice to improve would be nice.
(http://i.imgur.com/WCoQrnt.png?1)
Title: Re: Astroids
Post by: Nirel on February 05, 2015, 07:22:11 pm
You need more contrast in the palette, and I'd try to make less banding/pillow shading
Title: Re: Astroids
Post by: winkatawink on February 05, 2015, 09:27:49 pm
I've had some experience with pixelling asteroids, though these might not be the best examples.

(http://i.imgur.com/Qep2pb1.png)(http://i.imgur.com/7G3KQAk.png)(http://i.imgur.com/ubbJJRk.png)(http://i.imgur.com/DV9rxwl.png)

As Nirel said, you should add more contrast to these to give them more depth. Also, think about where the light is hitting the asteroids, and how it will affect the colours and tones. The asteroids look a little flat at the moment, you try adding depth with shading and lines like i have done above, revealing some of the portruding and receeding parts of the object. It helps to think of them as 3D things rather than flat 2D objects
Title: Re: Astroids
Post by: DragonDePlatino on February 06, 2015, 04:56:44 am
Well, for starters, you need to be using some references. You're not even close. THIS is what an astroid looks like:

(http://www.daviddarling.info/images/astroid.gif)

Hee hee, math humor! Anyways, here's what you're looking for:

(http://www.philipmetzger.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/8529252316_7b5c151453_b.jpg)
When you're drawing an asteroid you're going to want to take the same approach as when drawing a sphere. Draw a rough-looking sphere, then break up the outline a bit and add some pockets. It's that simple, really, and there are lots of pixel art tutorials out there on how to draw spheres.
Title: Re: Astroids
Post by: smithy101 on February 06, 2015, 06:13:16 am
Thanks for all of the advice you have given my i will redo the astroid when i have some spare time.
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Decroded on February 06, 2015, 08:23:01 am
Asteroids are great for learning pixel art :)

Some advice of how to break the process down into steps below.
I recommend you save a copy (or layer) at each of these steps, and post them all for advice so we can see your process.
Especially if you feel like your unsure how to move forward, just post your progress.

Step1) Pick a primary light source e.g. a sun off to the side as is shown in the references.
You will probably also want a secondary light source on the opposite side but a bit more behind the object and something further away preferably a different colour. A secondary light source both helps it to stand out against dark backgrounds and gives you more to work with when creating textures.

Step 2) Paint some solid blobs

Step 3) Roughly paint the light and dark areas of the primary light source without any smoothing and don't get caught up in detail. You forms should look interesting before you move on.

Step 4) IMPLY some craters and texture by varying the line between the light and dark area. At exactly this point the texture should be MOST obvious. Do not get stuck applying this texture all over the rock. At this point we generally still haven't added any new colours.

Step 5) Now's a good time to think about that secondary light source and add some of that colour around the dark edge to further define your forms.

Step 6) Now we start adding 1 or 2 extra colours to the gradients.
A common mistake here is to evenly distribute the shades across the shape because you think this is how to make something seem round when in fact as per those references there is often only a thin gradient between the light and dark. Varying the thickness of the gradient along the line makes for much more realistic and interesting forms.

Step 7) Now we're pretty much at the stage of clean-up, smoothing, anti-aliasing and general pixel-level detail. Be careful not to get sucked into single-pixel noisy textures and detail.


GLHF  :lol:
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: smithy101 on February 11, 2015, 01:40:21 pm
Sorry that it took so long to make a update but it was really hard to find some spare time to work on this. Well this is what i made with you guy's advice.
(http://i.imgur.com/GwmSz5U.png?1)
i used winkatawink work as refrence because decroded steps were to complecated because i had never worked with 2 light sources and i want the only light source to hit the front.
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Iceaxe on February 11, 2015, 02:26:04 pm
The shape of the asteroid is looking great, you just need have more of a think about the shading.

At the moment you have pillow shaded your rocks.
I will allow this picture to guide your soul in the right direction:
(http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/rocky.gif)
Here's a link to the tutorial: http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/shading.html
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: mzn528 on February 12, 2015, 05:51:10 pm
Quote from: Iceaxe on February 11, 2015, 02:26:04 pm
The shape of the asteroid is looking great, you just need have more of a think about the shading.

At the moment you have pillow shaded your rocks.
I will allow this picture to guide your soul in the right direction:
(http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/rocky.gif)
Here's a link to the tutorial: http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/shading.html

Ok this is actually really helpful, thank you Iceaxe. *steals it shamelessly and flies away
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Decroded on February 14, 2015, 06:39:06 am
ur process is no good mate.
no offense to wintakawink but u shouldnt use that as reference as it suffers badly from pillow shading.
if I was at a computer id make u an edit but I cant so I encourage u again to at least attempt the steps I suggest.
ignore the bit about the secondary light source if it helps.

for reference u can look at real pictures of boulders and rocks such as this ...
http://amandaceaser.com/files/2010/01/giant-boulder.jpg
... Look for images with strong light and dark that brings out the texture, then crank the contrast right up in ur version as space does not have ambient or reflected light as u would find in atmosphere.
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: yaomon17 on February 14, 2015, 07:08:59 am
(http://i.imgur.com/6AtI7py.png)
Well, since Decroded is no computer, you are stuck with me running on little sleep  :crazy:
Admittedly I did rush through this a bit and skipped a few steps in Decroded's how-to guide to asteroids (mainly step 7). Hopefully this still gets the idea across.
EDIT: Now that I look at it, the craters look like herpes or smallpox. Widen out the cast shadow and go easier on the highlight and the dark shade inside the crater than I did to avoid that.
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Decroded on February 14, 2015, 07:58:09 am
Looks like the asteroid travelled through a belt of old tyres surrounding a rubbish tip planet :lol:
but yeah that does the trick what I waa trying to explain  :y:
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Ryumaru on February 15, 2015, 04:29:36 am
Made this edit without realizing there was a page 2. Good edit by yaomon, a solid process.

(http://i.imgur.com/DRA0pAX.gif)

reference: http://fimar.deviantart.com/art/Asteroid-Stock-3-370762842

Notice how the difference between light and shade is very stark; even more so in the reference than in my edit. This is caused by a single, strong directional light source ( like a star) and usually things in space are too far away to receive any bounce light, so the shadows are intensely dark ( many representations of space in art and games utilize this to have things like asteroids and planets "pop" out from the blackness of space, only rendering the light portions, and allowing the shadow to melt into the surrounding space)

hope this helps  :)
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Decroded on February 15, 2015, 07:53:27 am
Quote from: Ryumaru on February 15, 2015, 04:29:36 am
Made this edit without realizing there was a page 2. Good edit by yaomon, a solid process.

(http://i.imgur.com/DRA0pAX.gif)

reference: http://fimar.deviantart.com/art/Asteroid-Stock-3-370762842

Notice how the difference between light and shade is very stark; even more so in the reference than in my edit. This is caused by a single, strong directional light source ( like a star) and usually things in space are too far away to receive any bounce light, so the shadows are intensely dark ( many representations of space in art and games utilize this to have things like asteroids and planets "pop" out from the blackness of space, only rendering the light portions, and allowing the shadow to melt into the surrounding space)

hope this helps  :)
dude sick forms  :o
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Decroded on February 17, 2015, 10:23:10 am
so i had a stab at it...
(http://i.imgur.com/ZLAxhZ7.png)

process...
(http://i.imgur.com/gKgjbS3.gif)

secondary light source a bit unnecessary but meh  :blind:
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Ryumaru on February 17, 2015, 07:45:43 pm
Quote from: Decroded on February 17, 2015, 10:23:10 am
so i had a stab at it...
(http://i.imgur.com/ZLAxhZ7.png)

process...
(http://i.imgur.com/gKgjbS3.gif)

secondary light source a bit unnecessary but meh  :blind:

dude sick forms  :o

I hope we didn't scare op away with all of these
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: Seiseki on February 17, 2015, 09:44:37 pm
That is really sick!
This thread actually made me go and do some asteroids too. It's been really helpful! I hope the OP gives it a shot as well.
Title: Re: Astroids (wip)
Post by: dpixel on February 17, 2015, 09:53:26 pm
Been practicing asteroids too.  Very inspiring thread.  As mentioned earlier, great way to learn pixel art.