Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Melodee on January 22, 2018, 05:25:39 pm
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i spend so much time shading this body and it just feels like a waste giving up because i like the creature design so much :/
if anyone would be able to help me, that would be so great </3 the things on his body (the lines) are supposed to be fur.
(https://i.imgur.com/5AZBtem.png)
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(https://i.imgur.com/Cef6HIt.png)
It might be easier to form the body without a symmetrical piece. Defining texture/fur with lines is generally not a great idea. Here is some part of an edit. Hope it helps a tad better than me trying to explain
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(https://i.imgur.com/bJGzIYu.png)
Real quick edit focusing just on the fur part (not pretty but it will do for what I'm trying to explain). For representing fur, usually drawing the "lines" is not the best way to go, focus more on how light casts shadows on your fur texture. I suggest you read this featured topic (https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19686.0) that will explain this better than I can.
Also, if I were you I'd avoid working on a perfectly symmetrical object, perfect symmetry looks unnatural and doesn't fit to live creatures, makes them look like dolls.
Edit: hadn't seen yaomon's edit, which is far better than mine ; I hope my small contribution can still be a bit useful :(
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Definitely going to second yaomon, break your reliance on symmetry tools. They make some things easier in the short term, but are very much a crutch that will gimp the learning process bad.
Even people's faces are rarely symmetrical, as seen here:
(http://fabriccreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/grace-face-1.jpg)
if you look close you can see differences in the wrinkle patterns, his hairline, his dimples... Even his ears are at different heights!
While you normally don't have to worry about that with more abstract artistic mediums like pixelart, it's still a good habit to remember these things and avoid relying on perfect symmetry.
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(https://i.imgur.com/bJGzIYu.png)
Real quick edit focusing just on the fur part (not pretty but it will do for what I'm trying to explain). For representing fur, usually drawing the "lines" is not the best way to go, focus more on how light casts shadows on your fur texture. I suggest you read this featured topic (https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19686.0) that will explain this better than I can.
Also, if I were you I'd avoid working on a perfectly symmetrical object, perfect symmetry looks unnatural and doesn't fit to live creatures, makes them look like dolls.
Edit: hadn't seen yaomon's edit, which is far better than mine ; I hope my small contribution can still be a bit useful :(
I wouldn't say my edit is better. Your approach of big tuffs and clusters is probably far more practical and easier to achieve better looking fur. My edit does add a lot of noise and extraneous work since I was thinking in the vein of how to depict shorter fur :\
Good insights all around.
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thank you all!! i finished the image and added the remaining fur. please tell me how i did. also i really loved your edits, both of them!!
(https://i.imgur.com/ovpwY3j.png)
about the symmetrical thing, i have been recommended this many times but i just think things can look good even though being symmetrical. i feel kind of bad for not listening and continue with the way i have always done so i am going to try it differently in my next pixel art.
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Excellent to hear. And it CAN look good, it's just a habit you'll do well to break!
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I wouldn't say my edit is better. Your approach of big tuffs and clusters is probably far more practical and easier to achieve better looking fur. My edit does add a lot of noise and extraneous work since I was thinking in the vein of how to depict shorter fur :\
Good insights all around.
It's nice of you to say that, I felt really bad posting after you and your super-realistic edit :lol:
thank you all!! i finished the image and added the remaining fur. please tell me how i did. also i really loved your edits, both of them!!
(https://i.imgur.com/ovpwY3j.png)
There's a thing that bothers me in your last version: aside from the two external tuffs of fur, your edit is exactly the same as mine :( it's not that I don't want my edit to be used or anything, but as it is said, "Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day ; set a man on fire teach a man how to build a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life". If you want to be able to draw fur by yourself and improve, do your own edit, basing yourself on someone else's ! :) (Not to mention my edit was done in 5 minutes to demonstrate a point, so it's far from being finished !)
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Aaa yes I see!! I was considering to do this, but just thought I wouldn’t manage to make it look as good. I felt kinda bad for not doing it myself but also liked your edit too much to just drop it :( I agree with the other guy tho, his edit might be really realistic and 3D looking, but it doesn’t really fit the image XDD yours really matches with the style I am going for. Anyway, I am going to try. Also, did I do well with the other remaining fur?
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How about you try, and if you struggle with your fur, you ask for help again on this thread ? That way step by step you'll learn to texture fur :)
I don't really get what the other remaining fur should be, are they like two "flaps" of skin ?
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yes i meana the flaps. also here is what i tried so far:
(https://i.imgur.com/Nv4YFuw.png)
i have worked on this for a while but i don't feel like it's as good as your edit yet sadly. i would like to know your opinions though.
right now i am trying the fur like this image:
https://orig00.deviantart.net/7795/f/2015/051/0/2/fluffy_alpaca_pixel__by_tinybunnie-d8iv0fv.png
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Hm, it's definitely a start, but I reccomend you look at some artistic and photo examples of fur to better understand how they "clump" together
Here, I've pulled a couple of examples and guides off google for you:
(https://d2d00szk9na1qq.cloudfront.net/Product/2043aefd-b232-46a4-ae79-8f1907388015/Images/Large_0411158.jpg)
(https://img00.deviantart.net/4c96/i/2015/197/1/5/pixel_art_fur_study_by_xtp597-d91kthe.png)
(https://orig00.deviantart.net/ffbb/f/2010/004/c/d/pixel_fur_tutorial_by_faustbane.jpg)
as sen above, a good practice method for new materials is to draw simple 3d shapes of that material. So, cones and cubes and spheres of fur or brick or ice or what have you.
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hmm well the difficult part for me to see what to do is because it isn't connected to anything, like it's simply a ball of fur with no body XDD i know it sounds stupid but it's hard for me to see. i can try making something like this as a practice tho but i tried drawing a cone once for exersice and then moving on to another thing that had a cone shape, but it only made me more confused. sorry for being so difficult.
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It's gonna be confusing at first. Hesitance is the enemy and motivation is fleeting, it's gonna require more than a bit of discipline sometimes to make it through these strange practice stages.
Keep on it though, you'll get better the more you try!
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What's your light source? Try to always keep a specific light source in mind when you colour, as that makes it much easier to figure out where to put the shadows/highlights and what their shapes should be. Every shadow is an area where the surface faces away from the light.
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right now i am trying the fur like this image:
https://orig00.deviantart.net/7795/f/2015/051/0/2/fluffy_alpaca_pixel__by_tinybunnie-d8iv0fv.png
If I look at that reference image, the fur is not the usual, straight-ish fur that we were discussing earlier, this is big, curly, fluffy fur. On your latest version it seems that you tried doing that, but also while adding straight "tuffs" of fur. That creates a weird look imho.
If you want big'n'curly, then go for it, but I think in that case you should lose the straight tuffs, and make the sides a bit curly too.
I made two small edits where I tried doing some curly fur, I'm not at all satisfied with the result because it looks like chewing-gum, but here they are anyway, in case someone wants to reedit them to show what not to do or something.
(https://i.imgur.com/APJF3UV.png)(https://i.imgur.com/vvi6Jor.png) (This one I did just a small patch of small curls as a demo, I didn't do the whole thing)
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Aaa yes I see!! I was considering to do this, but just thought I wouldn’t manage to make it look as good. I felt kinda bad for not doing it myself but also liked your edit too much to just drop it :( I agree with the other guy tho, his edit might be really realistic and 3D looking, but it doesn’t really fit the image XDD yours really matches with the style I am going for. Anyway, I am going to try. Also, did I do well with the other remaining fur?
Whether or not you think that someone else's work is better than yours has no bearing; to take someone's edit and claim it as your own work is plagiarism, just like they teach you in English class when you're writing an essay. Obviously no harm was meant here, but keep in mind how you'd feel if someone took your own work to claim it as theirs. It's just not a nice thing to do.
Anyway!
Try applying the ideas for the balls of fur in the references linked above to the individual tufts on your creature. Consider the tufts independently rather than thinking about overall texture. Think about how light will fall on each tuft, and shade according to that. The only way to get better at visualizing is to just keep trying and seeing what works well!
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i wasn't really claiming it as my own, i just said i added the remaining fur (flaps) .__. i maybe should have clarified this more.
anyway I did this so far
(https://i.imgur.com/4QnmQ8Q.png)