Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: EduardoPras on September 09, 2017, 04:09:44 pm

Title: Futaba - Persona 5
Post by: EduardoPras on September 09, 2017, 04:09:44 pm
Hey guys, i've been messing around trying to do some things i don't usually do.

I've made a fanart of Futaba, a Persona 5 Character.

Things I am trying here:
-Trying to reach black on most tones and make it have a comic book like style.
-I've tried to use a bit of AA(I am not used to it so any tips would be nice)
-Tried to suggest where materials change when going to black(like in the T-shirt/Skirt transition and jacket/hair)
-The usual trying to figure colors out(Do you guys have any book/links recomendations on the subject?)
-Tried to use AA to avoid banding

I've put a ruler behind to measure pixel height for scale.

(https://media.giphy.com/media/xT9IgIChIdSyoyuOqY/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: Futaba - Persona 5
Post by: CFKaligula on September 09, 2017, 08:15:31 pm
edit: (http://i.imgur.com/0XnPkiB.png)
I really liked editing your sprite, the shading is very interesting indeed, but I think for it to work in pixel art you need to not make it completely black and apply some more anti-aliasing.

You can see I removed all those 1 line thick highlights you used, those look pretty bad and are also banding. Using AA to avoid banding is really good, but I don't really see you use it much. To avoid banding you can also use good clusters, which is something you will probably have to learn over time. Good clusters are very big and have nice blocky shapes, you can see some of those in my edit.

So you can also see that I removed most of your highlights, that is because most materials don't really have highlights, of course clothes do indeed look less dark where more light hits, but you can't really make this look good in low res pixel art, I recommend only doing highlights on shiny material so metals and plastic (which can also be a jacket of course) Hair normally also has highlights, but you applied them a bit weird, which brings me to my 3rd point.

Depth, this is really a matter of being good at drawing, to show depth you have to show good shading. Here's an example, cause its quite hard to explain in words:
(http://i.imgur.com/PSNZRda.png)
As you can see the first slime-blob-thingamajiggo looks a lot more like its a real 3D object, while the other one looks either like its hit by a really weird light source from the back, or just a flat piece of pixels. To really learn how to draw and shade in 3D i'd say learn to draw (with pen and paper)  basic 3D shapes like cylinders, cubes and pyramids. To be good at pixel art is to be good at drawing, since pixels are really only the medium.

Figuring out colours is something ive been struggling a lot with, I used to ask a lot of other experienced pixel artists what they did, all of them said that they just kept trying out different colours until they were satisfied. This is also what I did, over time you also kind of learn what happens to your colours exactly when you use the sliders and getting good colours will become natural.

I hope this post helps out a bit, Its pretty late when im writing this so feel free to ask questions if i didn't  explains something well or you just want to ask me anything at all.

Title: Re: Futaba - Persona 5
Post by: 32 on September 09, 2017, 10:05:30 pm
Banding occurs when the edges of pixels line up. Usually people will say that banding means two rows of pixels of the same colour beside one another but this is not the only instance where the problem occurs. Using two different colours in one cluster still creates banding. The goal for banding avoidance is to try to "cut off" the edges created by your clusters using other clusters. Essentially you want to be offsetting the edges of clusters where possible.

(https://i.imgur.com/gmZq1lP.png)

The first is what we would consider banding in it's worst form. The second is a simple way of avoiding banding. The third is the mega banding avoidance mode where you recognise banding created by single pixel lines but is probably considered by many to be overkill and probably won't always be possible depending on your pixel real estate.

(https://i.imgur.com/NlMIJWM.png)
I've marked some of the banding in red. Try to keep your highlights off the edges and move them further into the forms. Otherwise this is shaping up really well, keep it up :y:
Title: Re: Futaba - Persona 5
Post by: EduardoPras on September 10, 2017, 04:44:04 pm
Damn guys, thank you very much! Your critiques were amazing to read.

I've read them carefully and those were the most helpful critiques that I've ever received online.

I have tried to apply everything in my correction, but it seems like it is a lot to digest and I’ll need some time to think it all over.

I’ve borrowed a lot from your paint over Kaligula, I’ll list some elements:
-I’ve changed the darkest color from black to something lighter and I also tried to avoid pure whites.
-Those hands you made are great, a bit more contrast on the skin shadow tone allowed me to get more volume with less colors.
-Added a contour around her and tried some sel-out on the hair.
-I am trying to be more aware of the clusters so i can use them more efficiently.
-Done away with those 1px highlights, don’t know what i was thinking. Hahah!
-It was very interesting analysing your color choices, made me notice i’ve lost a lot due to excessive desaturation(For instance I had really lost the “Red Head” characteristic of the character due to it.)

And thanks to 32’s diagram i noticed a lot of banding that i did not recognize before.
Those examples on how to “Unband” were realy awesome, gave some good ideas, but it’s a concept i’ll have to get more used to.

Also, thanks for the tip on the highlights too I’ll try to avoid using highlights from the sides, I’ve been doing it without thinking for some time now. 

Heres the corrected version:
(https://media.giphy.com/media/l1J9JpugDZlaIF5gk/giphy.gif)