Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Bearbear65 on August 27, 2017, 12:12:12 pm
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I need some help with making lava with minimal color I tend to use a lot of colors
And also if you want to make a shadow for gray should you use blue someone said that you should use blue for white shadows
Normal :
(https://image.ibb.co/hubXXQ/Lava.png)
Enlargement :
(https://image.ibb.co/cnDFK5/Lava_enl.png)
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You don't need to post an enlargement, the forum has some code that makes images zoomable. Click to zoom, ctrl+click to zoom out.
Have you looked at photos of lava for reference? You'll probably find it doesn't look like that. In addition, it's so hot, that your bear would either be on fire or at least have singed most of the fur on its face off standing that close to what appears to be red-hot liquid lava.
Lava, when it's those colours, is a liquid, but you seem to have a pillar/block of it? I am not sure what you're trying to do with the lava, so I'm not which which tips to give.
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You don't need to post an enlargement, the forum has some code that makes images zoomable. Click to zoom, ctrl+click to zoom out.
Have you looked at photos of lava for reference? You'll probably find it doesn't look like that. In addition, it's so hot, that your bear would either be on fire or at least have singed most of the fur on its face off standing that close to what appears to be red-hot liquid lava.
Lava, when it's those colours, is a liquid, but you seem to have a pillar/block of it? I am not sure what you're trying to do with the lava, so I'm not which which tips to give.
I looked at lava before and I thought I got it right maybe not...
And about the block shape and bear that doesn't really matter for now I'm just trying to get the texture right
And it's pouring down from someone and also doesn't matter for me right now
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Maybe it's because I looked at a real picture of lava instead of pixel art lava ...
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It's generally a better idea to look at the real thing to get a feel for how it looks. If you only look at how other people did it, you'll just end up copying their interpretations of lava, and potentially copying their mistakes.
Since you have pouring lava, you should probably be looking at lava falls. Something to keep in mind is that since lava usually is usually not as liquid as water and doesn't have a uniform consistency (it's more like salsa than water, even when very "fluid"), you'll pretty much never get a lava flow that's so perfect like what you've drawn. It'll have some chunks in the flow, some parts will move slower than others, etc.
This (https://photos.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Volcano-Images/i-p5XdGFZ/0/fbc90606/X2/dripping%20and%20flowing-X2.jpg) is probably the closest ref I've found to what you seem to be going for. Notice how because all the lava is so hot (if it wasn't, it wouldn't flow so evenly or quickly), it's almost uniformly yellow-orange, there's not much noise in it. Also, even at these high temperatures, it's still got some chunkiness, the flows aren't perfectly straight, they have wider and narrower spots where the lava flows over itself. This (https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3172/2312542469_c2c234c7ab.jpg) is slightly cooler lava, notice how much rougher the flow is - this is because it's much thicker and more turbulent, as different parts flow at different rates and continuously slow down as they cool.
Pay attention to how in both ref photos, the hot (ligher) and cool (darker) bits give a very clear indication of the structure of the lava flow. You can see where it piles up, where it's thicker, where it's thinner, where there are flows of slightly cooler lava next to slightly hotter lava. This is what's missing from your rendition of it. You've tried to add too much "detail". In addition, because it's so thick, lava tends to form much larger chunks and flows than what you've drawn. Your lava flow is narrower than the bear but contains something like 4-5 neighbouring "channels", when it'd probably be 1-2.
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It's generally a better idea to look at the real thing to get a feel for how it looks. If you only look at how other people did it, you'll just end up copying their interpretations of lava, and potentially copying their mistakes.
Since you have pouring lava, you should probably be looking at lava falls. Something to keep in mind is that since lava usually is usually not as liquid as water and doesn't have a uniform consistency (it's more like salsa than water, even when very "fluid"), you'll pretty much never get a lava flow that's so perfect like what you've drawn. It'll have some chunks in the flow, some parts will move slower than others, etc.
This (https://photos.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Volcano-Images/i-p5XdGFZ/0/fbc90606/X2/dripping%20and%20flowing-X2.jpg) is probably the closest ref I've found to what you seem to be going for. Notice how because all the lava is so hot (if it wasn't, it wouldn't flow so evenly or quickly), it's almost uniformly yellow-orange, there's not much noise in it. Also, even at these high temperatures, it's still got some chunkiness, the flows aren't perfectly straight, they have wider and narrower spots where the lava flows over itself. This (https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3172/2312542469_c2c234c7ab.jpg) is slightly cooler lava, notice how much rougher the flow is - this is because it's much thicker and more turbulent, as different parts flow at different rates and continuously slow down as they cool.
Pay attention to how in both ref photos, the hot (ligher) and cool (darker) bits give a very clear indication of the structure of the lava flow. You can see where it piles up, where it's thicker, where it's thinner, where there are flows of slightly cooler lava next to slightly hotter lava. This is what's missing from your rendition of it. You've tried to add too much "detail". In addition, because it's so thick, lava tends to form much larger chunks and flows than what you've drawn. Your lava flow is narrower than the bear but contains something like 4-5 neighbouring "channels", when it'd probably be 1-2.
Thanks for the advice !
I have a question what is neighbouring channels ?
And also I tried my best I only used 4 color and but I can't seem to get the glowing effect right
I also made the dark hardened part of lava
(https://image.ibb.co/fb5XXQ/Lava.png)
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I looked up some lava and I recognized that recently cooled down lava looks more purple then the dark red I used before
Still it's hard to tell the difference but maybe this looks better
(https://image.ibb.co/nr1d6k/Lava.png)
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Lava that's cooled down enough to be that dark probably wouldn't be flowing so well (unless it's just thin dark patches?) and wouldn't have yellow/orange lava right next to it, since cool bits are likely to be surrounded by slightly cooler (red) bits, and the warm bits (orange, yellow) are likely to be further away. What exactly are you trying to depict, what's your goal with this piece? I'd like to help out with an edit, but I can't tell what you're aiming for so I'm afraid I'll draw the wrong thing and waste both your time and mine.
The main "trick" to glow is that glowing objects affect the colours of the objects around them, like the bear and metal. It's less about the object itself, more about its surroundings.
You can also suggest glow by avoiding dark/light noise (alternating quickly between dark and light pixels), instead try grouping light and dark and fading between them, form larger-scale, many-pixel features in your lava Your lava being noisy has been the consistent problem xP The reason I linked those two photos earlier is in part because they very clearly show that lava is made up of various flows and has features in it, it's not just a bunch of chunks of different colours. You're on the right track with your dark spots, but the red-orange bits still look random and noisy.
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The point of this is because I thought this is improve my fire , lava , glowing objects
And I made the drak parts at the end of the flowing lava since most of the lava at the end cools down
But also the lava is constantly pouring so I made some over laps on the black part of the lava and also
Made the lava cooler near the dark parts I'm quite confident with the bottom part of the lava
But the top part was more difficult I thought the narrow part will cool down much easier so it will have black parts
And also made it so that lava was overlapping the dark part to me this looks strange but.... maybe it's just me
Also I removed the shadows from the cart to make it look more bright I guess maybe this was a bad idea...
(https://image.ibb.co/jP5knQ/Lava.png)
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I changed it a little bit
(https://thumb.ibb.co/cu6Bu5/Lava.png)
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I don't have nearly the artistic skills to actually offer advice to you on this, but I do think your bear is adorable and your lava is looking better and more lava-ish with each revision. Keep trying! You're doing great!
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I don't have nearly the artistic skills to actually offer advice to you on this, but I do think your bear is adorable and your lava is looking better and more lava-ish with each revision. Keep trying! You're doing great!
Thanks you :)
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The bear looked a bit hot anyways so... I thought of trying out other stuff too
I tried to put a thermal suit but the problem was that thermal suits looks a little wrinkled up
And I tried to make the on the bear but how much times I try it just looks like gray camo
(https://thumb.ibb.co/fddcZ5/images_2.jpg)
Is there any advice to make all of these details in pixel art without overdoing it like my first lava I posted
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Lava's looking way better!
My suggestion with the thermal suit is to not underestimate the human brain's ability to fill in missing details. Suggesting just a few folds instead of keeping the whole thing perfect will read as "ooh, wrinkly".
Here are a couple of edits, one to make the bear look more like he's lit by the lava, and another adding a themal suit, to show how you can make it look pretty wrinkly without losing the sense of light/shadow/form:
(http://i.imgur.com/ivy8m6i.png)
I also tweaked the lava colours a little and made a few minor changes. The biggest change was to remove the yellow lava bits from the bottom spill, this makes the lava look more like it's cooling down, which I think is appropriate given how thick it is compared to how thin it is at the top. I cleaned up some bits that felt a little noisy - big, stringy clusters give more sense of flow.
While editing, I noticed the container only has three feet xP Didn't fix that.
I recommend not working on a white background. Use a background colour that represents the general feel of the scene, even if you're not going to be drawing the entire scene. It'll make it easier to pick colours and values. White drowns everything out and makes it hard to see if your values are any good, as everything looks very dark compared to white.
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Lava's looking way better!
My suggestion with the thermal suit is to not underestimate the human brain's ability to fill in missing details. Suggesting just a few folds instead of keeping the whole thing perfect will read as "ooh, wrinkly".
Here are a couple of edits, one to make the bear look more like he's lit by the lava, and another adding a themal suit, to show how you can make it look pretty wrinkly without losing the sense of light/shadow/form:
(http://i.imgur.com/ivy8m6i.png)
I also tweaked the lava colours a little and made a few minor changes. The biggest change was to remove the yellow lava bits from the bottom spill, this makes the lava look more like it's cooling down, which I think is appropriate given how thick it is compared to how thin it is at the top. I cleaned up some bits that felt a little noisy - big, stringy clusters give more sense of flow.
While editing, I noticed the container only has three feet xP Didn't fix that.
I recommend not working on a white background. Use a background colour that represents the general feel of the scene, even if you're not going to be drawing the entire scene. It'll make it easier to pick colours and values. White drowns everything out and makes it hard to see if your values are any good, as everything looks very dark compared to white.
Thank you so much for the advice :)
For example I'll use red or orange for the back ground for the lava pic
And I didn't realize the leg too I need to look more into details too
And I agree with the things Layers of lava and also thanks for the thermal suit
It looks nice and simple I tried to make light (bright) lines then put dark lines underneath them
I'll compare the image and your art and see what you have done and where to put the dark parts and stuff
Anyways thanks for your support I'll try to improve my art
And might (definitely) come back for more tips :)
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The way I approached the folds was this:
1. Start off with the basic form of the suit (I just recoloured the bear and added the rim on the helmet, using the lightest and darkest colours)
2. Soften up the shadows a bit with the mid-blue, since the original two colours were too harsh
3. Break up the boundaries between the colours with small "foldy" shapes, keeping them from reaching into bands of other colours, since the folds aren't meant to be very deep.
4. Add small details, namely the lines on the front of the jacket.
Step 3, breaking up the boundaries to create an appearance of detail is basically my standard approach to adding detail without overpowering the important parts. It helps make sure the details don't break up the major colour areas that create the sense of form. It's enough to just show the folds as they affect the colour boundaries, and the human brain fills in the missing details. Large continuous features, like the upper edge of the bulging rim on the helmet, read just because the drawn features align, even though they don't touch.