Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: leel on December 27, 2006, 01:17:01 am

Title: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: leel on December 27, 2006, 01:17:01 am
I've been lurking around for quite some time, but never participated and one of your fellow admins nagged at me to be active, so here I go: 
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2.png) My friend Lisa asked me to make "something cute" for her livejournal icon.  I've only worked on this for a couple of hours so far, it's not some big project or anything, and while I'm trying not to keep adding colors, it's not my main concern.

The big issue I have is that I don't really like the dithering, but I also want the shading to me more realistic than that on her left cheek. So, cc would be appreciated, but just to throw it out there - it doesn't have to be exactly like the ref photo, I'd like to exaggerate some things, like making the eyes larger and darker...

And just for fun - this is the steps I saved for a 'progress' animation I'll make when I'm done:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/LisaFrames.png) 
That's about it, I think. Hope you all had a great holiday.


First>(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2.png) Most recent> (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-10.png)
Title: Re: an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: Stwelin on December 27, 2006, 01:36:10 am
Alright then, welcome to the mess, leel. :P

It's looking really good so far, it holds true to the ref. quite well, one thing i would suggest is to play with the hue slider a bit more to get a more dynamic feel.  Right now it just seems sort of flat, and lacking emotion.

I did a little color edit to show you what i mean. (hope you don't mind!)
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b177/stwelin/ljwipedit.gif)
(edit's on the left.)
Title: Re: an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: leel on December 27, 2006, 01:41:41 am
I usually mess with the colors much later, but that looks really cool! thanks, I'll play around with that ^__^
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: Dusty on December 27, 2006, 02:56:52 am
You need to kill the curl coming back up the face on the bottom. Because you're not showing the source of where it's coming from, it's hard to feel that it fits it, it looks more like a giant bug or something on her face.

I think this piece definitely needs some AA, though. The black is way too sharp and jaggy on the face.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: leel on December 27, 2006, 03:08:44 am
The black hasn't been worked on at all yet..

I tried changing the hues a bit,  but so far I didn't get anything I liked so I just worked on finishing the dithering on the face, and I'll try the colors again tomorrow.  Just wanted to post a little update.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-1.png)

As for the hair on the bottom - I agree, it's confusing as to what it is and why it's there, but I plan to add a hint of the shoulder there, and, obviously, AA the whole thing, so if at the end it still looks like a bug, I'll get rid of it.   Also, I don't really like the hair that's on the side.  It looks like it's pulled back by a clip, so tomorrow I'll try to straighten it out a little.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: MoD on December 27, 2006, 03:21:54 am
The left eye's pupil is better now, a lot smoother. The other eye's is bothering me a little though. In the previous version it was roughed out in a dark brown and thet added to the depth, I think. Try replacing the black there with your second-darkest shade.

There seems to be a slight form issue on the left cheek: in the ref it keeps the highlights or midtones closer towards the lip than in your pixel.

The nose seems to have some jpegging from the camera and that's showing in the horizontal line there. Unfortunately that's also present in your art.

Overall I like this and it's got some really nice elements such as the eyelashes and general form. But you might need to add a whole 'nother set of colors for the lips. Luckily those could also accent the skin under the eyes. One final thing is that it could use some more highlights, right now it has a bit patch of flat color on the nose that looks very unfinished.

Typefastfastfast!
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: Senad on December 27, 2006, 03:22:06 am
It doesnt exacly looks like her.. check out my picture below..

Red lines - Showing you how you made an eye with different shape, which blocks u from making it look like orginal
Green Lines - dither / AA some of that color or some that looks like that under her eye, ull get better effect ;)

(http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4041/hlpdf3.png)

Good Luck !, BJ
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend
Post by: leel on December 27, 2006, 03:35:59 am
m0d: I agree on the cheek high light and the lighter brown on the lid of her left eye (right side).  The nose thing though -  I know it jpeg'ed in the picture,  but when I originally made that part rounder it looked almost droopy, and Snader said to make it "less pointing down" and it looks better now than when I started out, so I think I'll keep it straightish for now.  As for the colors, well.. I won't be making the lips at all, but I'll definitelly add some pinkish hues to the nose and under the eyes,  but again - I usually save the colors for last, cause that's my favorite part! 

Senad: Like I said before it doesn't have to look 100% exactly like her, though you're right about the eye.  I'll try to work on that tomorrow, but I am taking a few liberties on this, so if I end up liking the rounder version better I'll just go with that.  Your point about the eye-brow is extremely helpful, I see now it gets too close to her nose, so that'll be at the top of my list tomorrow.  I've been trying to fix it, but didn't know what to do with it so I'd move on to something else, so thanks for mentioning that too! And again - the colors I'll work on a wee bit later.


Thanks for your replies! (-:

edited: (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-3.png)
and again: (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-4.png)  am I ready to move on to the hair? I still think the part above her nose is too flat, but I don't want to overdo the dithering again..
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated]
Post by: AdamAtomic on December 28, 2006, 10:17:50 pm
the bridge of her nose is thinner in the photo - I like how you've drawn the tip of her nose and nostrils though, that is adorable.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated]
Post by: Senad on December 29, 2006, 01:08:37 am
awesome, love it !
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated]
Post by: leel on January 03, 2007, 01:54:11 am
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-7.png)
Here's the latest update.  I couldn't work on it much over the last 2 days, but I did start to aa the hair.  Let me know if I'm on the right track, ok?

 
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.02.07]
Post by: alkaline on January 03, 2007, 04:04:59 am
Okay, well here's my edits and such, to give you a better look at how it could look hopefully.

(http://imagehost.ensellitis.com/imagesv2/6511410888faceedit1.gif)

and uh here's an animation.

(http://imagehost.ensellitis.com/imagesv2/1566626801faceedit.gif)

basically i applied more AA and smoothed out some areas. I also didn't really like the hair at the bottom so i thought i'd see how that turned out. so yeah, uh, I hope that helps. you should probably get rid of that grey spot on the bottom and add hair or something. I'd also suggest making the colors pop more with some shinyness, etc..the prettier the better right?  !yus!
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.02.07]
Post by: leel on January 07, 2007, 11:58:16 pm
To be honest alk, I liked my version better - you said to make things pop more but in your edit you just blurred everything more.   I like the subtle highlight in the eye, but I don't think I should soften the lid like that.  Also, I'll put in a bit of the lips.  Thank you for putting in the time to show me, even though I don't agree with everything, I got some other ideas from it, as well.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.02.07]
Post by: alkaline on January 08, 2007, 01:05:57 am
That's alright, I just thought it looked a little on the harsh side from what I could tell. you know, maybe add smoothness but while still keeping a..popness. anyways, looking forward to an update.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.02.07]
Post by: leel on January 08, 2007, 01:12:32 am
I'm a bit swamped right now, but I started working on the bunch of hair at the bottom - and it's gonna be much lighter and less.. buggy, I promise ;-)   I'll try to have an update tomorrow night
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.02.07]
Post by: leel on January 21, 2007, 06:34:46 pm
I know it's been a really long time but... uhm.. *taps chin* good excuse good excuse.. midterms! yeah, I was .. studying >_>  yeaa...

I come bearing updates!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-8.png)
Worked on the little bunch of hair at the bottom, hopefully it's less buggy now.  hm I think the only things left are the top rightand bottom left corners (I'm not really sure what to do with the hood thing, to be honest.)  and then some palette tweaks.

I'd love some c/c now, since I don't plan on studying World Politics tonight (ew midterms!)
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.21.07]
Post by: Stwelin on January 21, 2007, 07:31:37 pm
as you're softening it, it's losing depth. the face looks a lot flatter than in the original sketch. If you squint and look at the photo, you can make out the areas that should be highlighted, you need to have more shadow towards the left side (her right) of the face.

The anti-aliasing on the face is ace. :)
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.21.07]
Post by: leel on January 23, 2007, 02:17:24 am
you're right about the cheek - I've tried several times to make it darker but the dithering always ended up dirty.

this is the last that I could come up with, is it any better?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-9.png)  >> (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/leelcmw/pixel/lisa2-10.png)
I also worked on the rest of the hair and the little part of the hood - which is a pillow shaded disaster.  I honestly had no idea how to go about shading that, but I don't want to get rid of it because then the little curled hairs will make even less sense >_< hehe.  So suggestions on that would be awesome.

So, as of now every part of the thing has been worked on at least a little bit and I'm getting close to being done.  Any CC at all is welcomed =)  Thanks

edit:  I made some other changes to the eye (the shape of the bottom lid was too round)  And also tried something different for the hood using more of the eye colors
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: Panda on January 23, 2007, 08:14:41 am
Before you jump onto dithering, you should nail down the facial features first.
Right now your picture looks swollen overall, but since visual examples will work better to show what I mean, I did a fast edit (hope you don't mind).

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/Hagane/lisaedit.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/Hagane/lisaedit_anim.gif)

The eyes still need some refining, but I don't have time for that.
Good luck with further progress.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: Malor on January 24, 2007, 01:47:59 am
hmmm I remeber seeing this on tip.it....what was the user name for it? Im trying to figure out who you are  :P.. anyways, it looks pretty good, but pandas edit makes it alot more real looking..although it is quite rough...
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: leel on January 24, 2007, 05:14:31 am
You saw this on tip.it?  Mind finding the link for me?  I'm not a member there and I haven't played runescape in a year or so..

Panda - would you mind explaining more what you mean? Because from a quick glance at your edit it seems like you simply made everything smaller, I didn't really see too many differences other than making the size of the eye more proportional and realistic.
I'll study it more when I get a change tomorrow, but I'd still appreciate further explanation if you can, thanks ;)
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: ptepid on January 24, 2007, 05:40:21 am
leel: I think the nose looks a fair bit flatter in your rendition than the photo. Needs to be a bit more tapered around the middle (not as wide), and the tip should be more rounded. The nostrils are a bit too small also. Panda did a good version of it in his edit, the general shape of the end of the nose is closer to that.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: Panda on January 24, 2007, 06:57:48 am
Panda - would you mind explaining more what you mean? Because from a quick glance at your edit it seems like you simply made everything smaller, I didn't really see too many differences other than making the size of the eye more proportional and realistic.
I'll study it more when I get a change tomorrow, but I'd still appreciate further explanation if you can, thanks ;)

Practically what you had mixed sizes and looked unproportioned. Some elements were kept big (eyes, nose), and some others weren't (shape of the face overall) and made it look swollen.
Also the shapes and volume weren't too loyal to the reference you were using. I guess you got carried on the dithering.

On the edit,
- I changed the shape of the eyes, pulled down the one on the right, and moved both so it would look more like in the reference.
- I made the nose thinner, and pulled it up and changed the nostrils.
- Moved the curve of the eyebrow a tad but kept its size.
- And overall I moved the hair to the right, made the face a tad thinner.
So yeah, I didnt change much, just cropped, painted over and moved stuff.

Anyway, the thing is that if you are going to increase the size of something, you should do it with everything else too.
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: Malor on January 25, 2007, 10:35:19 pm
You saw this on tip.it?  Mind finding the link for me?  I'm not a member there and I haven't played runescape in a year or so..

Panda - would you mind explaining more what you mean? Because from a quick glance at your edit it seems like you simply made everything smaller, I didn't really see too many differences other than making the size of the eye more proportional and realistic.
I'll study it more when I get a change tomorrow, but I'd still appreciate further explanation if you can, thanks ;)


mmmm I have searched for quite some time, and I cannot find it.....I might have mistaken this forum with tip.it...I doubt it though..I'll keep looking...
Title: Re: [wip]an LJ icon for a friend [updated 1.22.07]
Post by: Zolthorg on January 26, 2007, 08:20:03 pm
Well, given the attention we've had from tip it lately, i wouldn't say it's unlikely that a bad apple wandered over here and tried to pass themselves off as leel back home.