Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: BadMoodTaylor on September 17, 2016, 04:55:52 am
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Just started making some art for a little zombie shooting game. Not sure how I feel about what I made so far:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/campfire2.png)
What do you think about the colors? Should fire be brighter or redder? Planning on practicing drawing/animating flames later...
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Such a long torso for such tiny legs! Legs and torsos should be about equal in length comparitively.
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Such a long torso for such tiny legs! Legs and torsos should be about equal in length comparitively.
Hmm, I can see that now. Easy fix, but from my count it is only 1 or 2 pixels longer (14 legs, 15 up back, 16 if to elevated shoulder). But shouldn't the legs be shorter because of the partial squat stance? (14 is straight vertical, not at angle)
Just curious, will probably make that edit...unless I want his name to be Eddie Longtorso or Shortlegs McGee
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No, not at all! Legs stay the same length when they change position, they just... change position! And from how he's pose here it looks like his bend leg is twice as long as his extended leg, that doesn't look right!
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No, not at all! Legs stay the same length when they change position, they just... change position! And from how he's pose here it looks like his bend leg is twice as long as his extended leg, that doesn't look right!
Yes, of course legs not getting shorter. I misspoke—getting sleepy. Waist gets lower to ground is what I meant—was measuring distance between waist and ground.
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Aye, I usually count the waist as part of the torso and measure by the legs instead specifically to avoid this kind of thing!
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Edited just the legs here:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/campfire3.png)
The way I changed the lighting makes it difficult to recognize which leg is front and which is back, but I feel like that may not be needed here.
Added belt, may find a different color for it though.
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First attempt at animating campfire:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/fireAnimated1.gif)
Flames are definitely something I want to practice more and get good at ;D
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(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/zombies11.gif)
A captured gif showing a few animations: headshot, non-lethal shot to shoulder, and slow death. I have many more animations to go and could definitely improve...
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So being not that experienced, I am indecisive and unsure—trying to decide color choice, angle (POV), and light source.
I threw two mock-ups together to try and figure some things out:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/angle1.png)
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/angle2.png)
By angle I mean: from the way I made the tent and campfire it seems like the POV is higher and it seems like the sky shouldn't be in view (like the first one)
Light source: Haven't done much night art. Should light source be coming from above (moon/stars/atmosphere) as well as from the campfire? It seems like the campfire would only light closer objects, but then how do you make the farther away not look flat?
Color choice: I made a color palette so am trying to stick to that. But can't decide if it is going to work. Do I need to work on my palette or just figure out how to make it work?
Thoughts?
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I'm sure someone here can help me with some tree and shrub feedback!
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/foilage1.png)
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hi there, very nice job.
i'm a noob (and not actually an artist), but may be you'll find some of this useful:
it seems that you are using 3 different kinds of perspective for the tent, for the fireplace and for human/zombies.
there's no ground shadows, including shadows from the fireplace lighting. check this for example:
http://www.heart-machine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/HLD_Screenshot_01_camp_1080.png
maybe you can use less straight vertical lines at some parts of human's sprite (doesn't looks very good, imho)
i'm not sure trees/bushes like this(detailed and contrast) are conforms to the ground/grass like this(which is just filled with color. is it just mockup?). trees are textured, but still flat to me.
lightning on zombies bodies doesn't make sense to me.
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hi there, very nice job.
i'm a noob (and not actually an artist), but may be you'll find some of this useful:
it seems that you are using 3 different kinds of perspective for the tent, for the fireplace and for human/zombies.
there's no ground shadows, including shadows from the fireplace lighting. check this for example:
http://www.heart-machine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/HLD_Screenshot_01_camp_1080.png
maybe you can use less straight vertical lines at some parts of human's sprite (doesn't looks very good, imho)
i'm not sure trees/bushes like this(detailed and contrast) are conforms to the ground/grass like this(which is just filled with color. is it just mockup?). trees are textured, but still flat to me.
lightning on zombies bodies doesn't make sense to me.
hi ovle, thanks for your comment!
Everything still is a work in progress, posting to try and get feedback as I go. The grass is just a placeholder as I'm not even sure whether the campsite will be on dirt or grass.
I guess those 3 could be described as three different perspectives: tent-oblique; person-flat style; campfire-realistic. Or maybe you mean it looks like the POV is from three different heights.
Thanks for the link to the image. I do have small light on grass coming from campfire but I see what you mean by the rings. Like I said, the grass was just a placeholder but this made me realize maybe I do need some more distance on the light from the campfire.
Some of your other comments point out general problems but not solutions or even the specific cause of the problem:
"lightning on zombies bodies doesn't make sense to me"
"trees are textured, but still flat to me"
Maybe you could say which body part looks off or the light source you perceive vs light source you think it should be.
I'm a beginner in a lot of areas so I know a lot of stuff is off or inaccurate. So just generally stating the tree looks flat, for example, doesn't give me any direction on what to try. But I still am happy that you commented. Thanks!
Here is where I'm at currently, still a lot of this is WIP but feedback welcome:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/capture092416.png)
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Trying to figure out some darker color schemes to give it more of a night feel, mockup1:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/mockup1.png)
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I think that looks quite good but the background from black to desaturated purple could do with some bushes,grass,logs or any kind of decoration to make it look less obvious.
Same for the trees placed on the black. If you want the tone to be more claustrophobic/tense with the zombies closing in you can try selling the background more as a forest and add maybe add a bit of fog so you dont have to copy paste a bunch of trees.
The other approach is to make it more dead and steriotypically zombie-ish and keep just a few trees but that would make it harder to soften the black to purple transition.
As for the light coming from the campfire maybe make it so if the zombies are facing it then the highlights are more exxagerated and a seperate sprite for if not facing where there are highlights on the otherside?. Problem is I have no experience with shaders or anything so I cant offer much help past suggestions but right now the zombies and the player stand out on the dark though so try to fix that somehow.
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I think that looks quite good but the background from black to desaturated purple could do with some bushes,grass,logs or any kind of decoration to make it look less obvious.
Same for the trees placed on the black. If you want the tone to be more claustrophobic/tense with the zombies closing in you can try selling the background more as a forest and add maybe add a bit of fog so you dont have to copy paste a bunch of trees.
The other approach is to make it more dead and steriotypically zombie-ish and keep just a few trees but that would make it harder to soften the black to purple transition.
As for the light coming from the campfire maybe make it so if the zombies are facing it then the highlights are more exxagerated and a seperate sprite for if not facing where there are highlights on the otherside?. Problem is I have no experience with shaders or anything so I cant offer much help past suggestions but right now the zombies and the player stand out on the dark though so try to fix that somehow.
Thanks for the comment. That was just a mock-up to test the colors, here is what I have so far and I think a lot of your tips are taken care of here:
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/capture092516.png)
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Definitely looks better.The largest problem to me now is the weird pixel scaling happening in a grid which I think is the game engine's fault but I'd try to fix that.
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Definitely looks better.The largest problem to me now is the weird pixel scaling happening in a grid which I think is the game engine's fault but I'd try to fix that.
Thanks! Are you talking about the foreground trees? Because I just stretched the Sprite for now—will have to edit if I want to keep them there.
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No that's fine.Im talking about a different thing where there's a grid on which all the pixels are squished thin/short but you'll see it better zoomed in and if its things are moving.
eg.On the back of the players head there's a column of pixels thinner than normal.
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No that's fine.Im talking about a different thing where there's a grid on which all the pixels are squished thin/short but you'll see it better zoomed in and if its things are moving.
eg.On the back of the players head there's a column of pixels thinner than normal.
Ah! I see that now!
I'll have to re-check some settings and such, thanks!
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Here are the three assets that makeup the background. Separated for any feedback
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/foilage2.png)
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/backgroundTile.png)
(http://loubagel.com/archives/z/tree.png)