Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Robbie Harrison on October 12, 2017, 01:24:29 am

Title: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Robbie Harrison on October 12, 2017, 01:24:29 am
Hello everyone !

I'm quite new in pixel art, but it is always a pleasure to see imprvement.

I've been doing hi-rez character so far, to get a grip on basic techniques. But since I wanted to enlarge my domain of expertise, I tried doing 16*16 and 32*32 characters.

The problem being that I cannot get a decent result, everything i've done so far is terrible, I realized that when I finished my last attempt to do a character in "loose" clothing. I can't get some good effect on the shading; Thus I'm seeking help of some more experienced pixel artists.

Here is the best I managed to get :

(https://imgur.com/psm1g07.png)

Thanks a bunch !

 
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: hexcode on October 12, 2017, 01:41:43 am
Hello,

With the robe - I would firstly think about the how the robe is being worn. That will give you ideas about how the fabric folds. Think about if the robe is tight fitting or loose fitting.  Then go and look at images of fabric to get an idea as to how the shading allows this to be visible: http://img.michaels.com/L6/3/IOGLO/854922820/202683636/28466_1006.jpg?fit=inside|220:220


Most of the work you need to do is in the garment design and the size of the body underneath.
https://sep.yimg.com/ay/stylinonline/star-wars-jedi-terrycloth-robe-13.jpg

If your struggling - use either only lines without shading - or - do it in black and white only until you have good form definition. Once your happy with that - add color and try to keep the definition while adding colors.


Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: eishiya on October 12, 2017, 01:47:29 am
hexcode's advice is all good.

At this size, dither often does more harm than good. Don't dither, and you should have more "room" for folds and other details. Save the dithering for last, add it if you feel you really need it.
Consider also if you need the middle colour at this size.

(https://i.imgur.com/LcPNaac.png)
I this edit, I did not address the problems that hexcode mentioned with how the robe is worn and where the folds should actually be. I focused solely on making sure the (wrong xP) folds are very clear. To that end, I got rid of the dithering, the middle colour, and modified the character's silhouette to be a little more bumpy (the bumps are folds on the sides).
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Curly on October 12, 2017, 02:39:30 am
It happens a lot when people start making pixel art, that they don't know how to fill the space so they dither everything (it happened to me too).
If that's the case I would recommend leaving dithering for when you have more experience and you know what you're doing.
Also I guess it's a pain in the ass if you dither everywhere in your characters and then you want to animate them :)

Look for references and art/pixel tutorials, download and study some sprites you like and try a lot of stuff.
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Robbie Harrison on October 12, 2017, 10:59:08 pm


At this size, dither often does more harm than good.

It happens a lot when people start making pixel art, that they don't know how to fill the space so they dither everything

Yup, i'm just too used to higher resolutions where dithering is easier to render.

Anyway, thanks for droping by ! I re-tried, trying to follow what you told me and arrived at this result :

(https://imgur.com/0GBG5GR.png)

I'm still not really happy about it but, well, I think it's still better than the first one o/

Thanks, you lot !
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Vinik on October 13, 2017, 12:44:31 pm
What you should notice now is that with the new shading of the folds the light on the body part do not match the hood part. For instance, compare it with eishiya's edit, and you will see you had the light direction matching correctly the first time (which is the reason no one pointed it out before), so if you changed it, do it on the hood also, which would be almost completely darkened in this new angle. Also try to keep the undithered pattern consistent and remove the same amount of dither from the hood. There is nothing stopping you from doing a little dither, more subtle, maybe near the lower parts of the outlines as a boundary to a third darker shade of folds, perhaps, but if you decide to do it, try to make it consistent across the whole piece :)
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Robbie Harrison on October 14, 2017, 02:05:49 am
like dis ?

(https://imgur.com/6Bw7ch9.png)
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Curly on October 14, 2017, 03:25:32 am
The light is coming from the right side in the whole sprite except for the hood.
By the way, read this if you haven't: http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

Message edit: I wanted to show you the lightning thing but I had some more fun with it, maybe it can help you.
You can see that cleaner lines and big color clusters usually work best. I hue shifted a little (you can read about that in the tutorial I just posted) and added some more contrast between the reds.
(https://i.imgur.com/VWcbBmW.png)
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Vinik on October 15, 2017, 02:41:35 am
Sorry for the delayed answer, but curly's edit covers all I was trying to say. Because of the light source is in front of the character, the hood wouldn't actually get any highlighted areas if the shape remained the same, so to emphasize brighter parts on the hood it would be necessary to enlarge the rim around the darkened face to be wide enough to show brighter clusters on the frontal area, which is exactly what curly did.

Your previous attempt also have some noticeable banding on the left side of the hood, try to avoid sandwiching many layers layers of different shades with only a single pixel between each of the shades, that is what is called banding, and is generally considered a malpractice.

Now, you really should try to make it on your own following the guide lines from the edits, good luck.
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Robbie Harrison on October 18, 2017, 02:33:03 am
Well, i couldn't get any satisfying result, unfortunatly. So I just re-made it in a higher resolution, trying to follow your advice :

(https://imgur.com/uunea4x.png)

the result is still meh but, well, it's still better than what I had in the beginning o/

I guess the rest will come with experience. :)
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Hunited on October 18, 2017, 01:26:54 pm
On the red version the darker shade is nearly indistinguishable and on the black version the contrast is too high for cloth, try a more subtle change there.
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: eishiya on October 18, 2017, 04:50:19 pm
I think the contrast is fine on the black one (at least zoomed out), though I agree it's too low on the red one.

More importantly though, you're repeating the same problem as before - you don't seem to be thinking about the body underneath the fabric, or the structure of the garment. Folds are the result of forces on the cloth - gravity, wind, etc pulling it in some direction(s), and the body holding it in place.
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Robbie Harrison on October 18, 2017, 11:14:10 pm
you don't seem to be thinking about the body underneath the fabric, or the structure of the garment. Folds are the result of forces on the cloth - gravity, wind, etc pulling it in some direction(s), and the body holding it in place.

I agree, but as much as I try I cannot "see" the body behind the clothing. As i said I will keep working on it, but I just wanted to give a last update before leaving you guys alone :)
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: eishiya on October 18, 2017, 11:43:22 pm
Try blocking in the body without clothing first, then drawing the clothing over it. The shoulders, the chest, the buttocks, and the elbows are common areas where the cloth is pulled by the body because they protrude from it, you're likely to see some indication of them even in loose clothing.
Title: Re: Help - Loose clothing in low-res.
Post by: Vinik on October 22, 2017, 03:48:06 am
quick edit with contrast/palette adjustments

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