Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: StarRaven on March 09, 2015, 01:54:25 am
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I've reached that point where I've been staring at it for too long to be objective about it, haha! :lol: I'd be grateful for any critique.
Mockup:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/interiors1.png)
I'm specifically unsure about the tall furniture like the bookcase and wardrobe. They look really thick. Is it worth it to save a tile and keep them as they are or should I put them on a diet?
Palette:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/palette.png)
There's no other restrictions, I just pixelled a bit of a project with this 16-color palette a year or two ago (I stole a couple of these tiles from it, most notably the rug) and loved working with the limit. I'd love to improve it if I can but it's working pretty well for me so far.
Thanks for your time!
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This is lovely. I love the palette.
Personally I think the brick texture is a bit too strong but its hard to make it more faint without having to create a bunch more tiles
how big is each tile? Cause you could go half with the wardrobe thickness.
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Looks super cute, lovely colours.
I always do the shadows like this in the corner:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1534394/rpg_corner.gif)
Lighting seems slightly more consistent to me that way.
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Looks super cute, lovely colours.
I always do the shadows like this in the corner:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1534394/rpg_corner.gif)
Lighting seems slightly more consistent to me that way.
Yes, basically the same for me, is a false sensation of real shadows.
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Great work, it looks really cute! But i have a question.. I can't understand the logic behind the shadows. All the shadows's direction is to the right, that means that the light comes from the left. How that's works? I am not saying you do this the wrong way, maybe you do. I am just wondering.
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How would you make the bricks fainter by using more tiles? They're definitely pretty strong, so I'd love to hear another way of doing them. Maybe I'll just do the brick corners and imply the shapes. I'll see what that looks like, and try some more colors.
The tiles are 16x16! So using whole 16x16 tiles for the tops of the furniture means I can share them between all the pieces. Still, they do look too big, don't they? Yeah, they look too big. I'm gonna change it.
The shadow direction is supposed to be coming from more like the front left, I guess? I dunno, it was just easier that way, but I guess it's a bit lazy. It only needs the one transition tile on the floor, though! I do like the way Rikfuzz did it, though! I don't know why I didn't think of that. Maybe I'll try that instead. :D
Thanks for the critique so far!
Progress:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/DARKEST/interiors1.png)
I lightened the cool grey and darkened the warm one.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/palette.png)>>(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/palette2.png)
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A way to make the bricks a little more faint would be to make each block larger. that way there would be more bright color per area.
here's an attempt at an edit. It might mess up your tileset, so...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2859209/Pixel/StarRaven.gif)
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Hmm, i don't know, i think the little bricks feels actually pretty original and cute...
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Thanks for the edit! I think the big bricks look like they might belong in... like a castle or something, you know? Not quite what I'm going for with this, but I'll keep it in mind for other stuff. I think adjusting the colors worked okay. This is the current WIP:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/DARKEST/interiors1-b.png)
(Haha; I wanted to try a couple different colors of that rug. I forgot I left them all in there.) After comparing the size of the sprite, the 1/2-width furniture was way too skinny. I think I've reached about the right size. I think it's looking pretty solid now, so I'll work on a couple of sprites while I continue to refine the tiles. Here's the progress on that:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/oldtilesnewtiles.gif)
For the record, I did try some other colors on the walls to see how they'd look:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/DARKEST/interiors1-altwalls.png)
SPLAT.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/DARKEST/spritebase-dead.gif)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17067479/DARKEST/spritebase-deadframes.png)
The first frame can be used for a "low HP" sprite. Might be too close to side-view.
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I like this.. very nice work. I love the colors!
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Hey there,
I'm also a big fan of the palette and the scale. Very cute.
I was wondering if you could explain your shadows and light source a little more? I mean, with the big thick shadow on the left hand side of each wall, it gives the impression that there is actually no roof on this structure and that the light source is coming from outside, above the building. This is sort of interesting.
Also, I can think of two methods for making your brick tile less severe. You can perhaps make your mortar colour more similar to the actual brick colour. Or perhaps you could put gaps in the mortar to sort of break the grid and minimize the amount of that colour you need to use.
I feel like a douchebag for citing my own stuff, but I struggled with this issue for quite a while myself. Maybe it will help.
(http://i.imgur.com/YtrrYWB.png)
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Thank you for the compliments! <3 I've been struggling with some other art so I haven't had time to spare for this but I'm still working on it.
@Luke:
The light source in the house is kind of faked -- the shadows are there to give the impression of depth and shadow, but accurately portraying shadows would require a much larger amount of tiles than I can reasonably work on! As it is, these shadows only require the wall as a transition point. It's a technique that's used in a lot of old 2d games, like here (http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/26591/) in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete which was really formative to me as a lover of these kinds of graphics. (I guess it's my Seiken Densetsu, haha.) If you'd like though, you can imagine that these are giant dollhouses and we've taken off the roof to look inside. :lol: Some girls have dollhouses of wood or plastic, mine are made of pixels.
With a palette like the one I'm using, which is only 16 colors for the whole game, adjustment to colors has to be done very carefully. Pushing that purple-grey a little lighter will affect everything else in the game, as well. I've got to keep that balance between "what do I need for this one tile?" and "what will be useful throughout the game?" In order to keep the colors consistent, I either have to decide that I won't change the palette much at all, or I have to keep all my graphics in one document so I can quickly examine the affect of all changes on every tile! There's a lot of strategy involved in picking just the right colors. It's a lot of fun. I love it. It's amazing how you can make those colors stretch! ^-^ At the same time, sometimes you've got to end up making compromises and I think at this point, that particular tile is as good as it's gonna get. (I did try the lightest green and blues as mortar colors, as well as some others, but the result wasn't generally what I was looking for. I also tried taking out pixels, but at this size and level of contrast, talking out pixels looked a little silly and was really noticeable.)
Don't feel bad! I've been following your thread since you started it quite a while ago and I remember thinking how nice that tile was. It looks almost photo-realistic. I know you struggle with contrast issues too -- if you ever feel like it, working with a seriously limited palette definitely stretches your art muscles!
Sorry for the little ramble here! Guess I'm just in a good mood today. <3