Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: PsylentKnight on March 03, 2015, 06:12:57 pm

Title: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: PsylentKnight on March 03, 2015, 06:12:57 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/Bcte4R7.png)
(from left) Frank Zappa, John Lennon, Jeff Lynne, and Freddie Mercury

I did this a few weeks ago, intending to put it on a t-shirt because I wanted a band tee and I couldn't find any I liked.

There's not a whole lot to it since I was obviously going for something strong and simple, but I just wanted to submit it for review here to see if there's any glaring mistakes or areas for improvement before I order the tee. :)
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Friend on March 03, 2015, 09:16:41 pm
the line art could be cleaned up a lot.  Lots of jaggies.  But I'm not sure how much it'd matter once it's on a shirt? 
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Ryumaru on March 03, 2015, 09:55:00 pm
I almost wonder if this is in the uncanny valley between pixels and vectors. While the resolution is relatively small, I don't know if it would scream " pixel" if on a shirt, but rather just look a bit jagged. Are you wanting the pixel nature of the piece to shine through on the design? If so you might actually need to go to a smaller resolution, if not, vectors might be better.

As for the design as a whole, I think it looks cool and would make for a nice print  :y:
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: PsylentKnight on March 03, 2015, 10:25:53 pm
The purpose of the piece wasn't to be pixel art, its just that pixel art is the digital art medium I'm most familiar with. Is there an easy way to smooth the edges after increasing the resolution or something? Talking cheap/dirty tricks here.
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: 32 on March 03, 2015, 10:34:12 pm
You could try doing a vector trace in Inkscape but you'd need to do a bit of clean-up most likely. Probably for a piece this simple it'd be easier to trace it by hand using a pen/ bezier curve tool. Don't have much to comment on other than the hand could probably use a little work.
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Reo on March 04, 2015, 11:58:24 am
John Lennon currently reads a bit like Harry Potter due to hair resembling a lightning bolt scar.
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: PsylentKnight on March 15, 2015, 07:58:37 am
Sorry for the late edit, I've been really busy.

Thanks for the replies.

I fixed Lennon's Harry Potterness, and kinda changed the hands a little bit.

(http://i.imgur.com/EoUUvVa.png)

All the little details like the hair highlights and the buttons were just for fun. I'll probably take them out.
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Decroded on March 15, 2015, 08:12:20 am
Quote from: 32 on March 03, 2015, 10:34:12 pm
You could try doing a vector trace in Inkscape but you'd need to do a bit of clean-up most likely. Probably for a piece this simple it'd be easier to trace it by hand using a pen/ bezier curve tool. Don't have much to comment on other than the hand could probably use a little work.
^ ive seen wolfenoctis do this with the pen tool in photoshop and it came out rly cool, and it was alot more detailed than this so it should be really simple to turn this into vector.
would definitely be worth it too because as mentioned this just doesn't have a pixel art feel to it imo so it would just look like a mistake if this was printed pixelated to my eyes.
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: DawnBringer on March 15, 2015, 05:56:21 pm
Scale2x is simple and neat in situations like his. Applied twice here. Artefacts and bubbly lines is easy to clean up. Should be better data if you're gonna trace. If going with clean pixels and need higher res...just run scale2x again.
(http://hem.bredband.net/ricfha/misc/psy4x.png)
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Probo on March 15, 2015, 06:08:22 pm
Quote from: PsylentKnight on March 15, 2015, 07:58:37 am

I fixed Lennon's Harry Potterness


it still super looks like harry potter to me dude, its the clothes too -

(http://i.imgur.com/tBnDdHG.jpg)
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Friend on March 15, 2015, 06:57:29 pm
I tried an alternative method- downsized > cleaned up the pixels > upscaled.

This way, you might be able to achieve the "pixel look"

(http://i.imgur.com/EoUUvVa.png) > (http://i.imgur.com/VqixBco.png)
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: PsylentKnight on March 16, 2015, 02:46:38 am
@Friend: hm... that does look better than my original, but as I noted before, I wasn't necessarily going for a pixel look. I think I'm going with Dawnbringer's solution. Thanks for the edit.

@Probo: I agree, but I really don't know what can be done. Their most iconic features are the same - round glasses and shaggy hair.

I suppose one will just have to know based on the context of the other people. Although Mercury is probably the only one immediately recognizable to the average person (if that), so maybe I should have their last names under the picture.

@Dawnbringer: Thanks for pointing me towards that tool. I think I'll go with doing that with cleanup. I also forgot to paste the new hand on Lennon and Mercury so I need to do that haha.

On an unrelated note, thanks so much for making the DB32 palette. I recently change my game's palette to that... its a vast improvement over my own. :P


Thanks for the words guys... I guess I won't be posting on this anymore since once I upscale it, it'll fall out of the domain of pixel art.
Title: Re: [CC] [OC] Zappa, Mercury, Lynne, and Lennon
Post by: Âme on April 07, 2015, 12:30:50 am
Quote from: Probo on March 15, 2015, 06:08:22 pm
Quote from: PsylentKnight on March 15, 2015, 07:58:37 am

I fixed Lennon's Harry Potterness


it still super looks like harry potter to me dude, its the clothes too -


I think this also might be due to the Gryfindor gold of Lennon's background. :P If you have not already printed this, it would be a quick fix