Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Jhelle on February 09, 2007, 12:35:00 pm

Title: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 09, 2007, 12:35:00 pm
Hi all, I'm quite new to pixelation so I thought I'd start with the what I thought simplest thing to make , a slime, but I am having some real trouble with the shading and highlight, if anyone would be so kind to give comments or critique :) Thanks!

(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4949/slimerlt5.png)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Ragnarok on February 09, 2007, 04:47:52 pm
No. 1: This has a severe case of the jaggies. Try making the lines more regular, or failing that, or at the same time, use anti-aliasing.
No. 2: Pure white and black are very bad and eye cancer inducing.
No. 3: Smooth out them lines!
No. 4: Dump the dithering until you have the basic shape sorted.
No. 5: Make it smaller!
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 09, 2007, 05:26:16 pm
Thanks for the critique, ill try to apply and remove the things youve said.
But its odd , the place where I made this sprite the dark green wasn't so dark at all, but now that I am at home its almost black, anyone know if this is the cause of the system or the monitor, or both? :)

And  No. 2: Pure white and black are very bad and eye cancer inducing. , is this like for real or just a joke?.. I hope a joke :/
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Ragnarok on February 09, 2007, 05:57:24 pm
It's a joke, but they do hurt your eyes like mad...
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 09, 2007, 06:21:30 pm
I polished the lines (I think) :)
(http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7619/slime3uu3.png)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Ragnarok on February 09, 2007, 08:19:51 pm
The lines currently look rather good, but as you are just starting pixel art, I recommend making a smaller version of the monster unless it is a boss (I've been spriting for 2 years and it takes me a long time to do large work...) I did an edit, which fixes many of the issues I had with the monster. I shrunk down the original monster, polished it, added hue shifting, anti aliasing (or selout, I can never remember the difference) redefined the shape slightly, killed the black outlines, added one new colour and got rid of two or three other colours. I also altered the sketchy dithering. I hope the edit helps you:
(http://www.toolkitzone.com/vault/stuff/13231_Slime.png)
The large outline is yours, and the small monster is mine.
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 10, 2007, 11:40:19 am
Thanks mate , that looks very nice :), since its not a boss monster I guess I can make it a bit smaller ,  but the resolution is 800x600 for the game so I won't make it that much smaller, and now that ive seen your edit it seems I did get the shading out quite ok, except that the colors were kinda off  ::)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Ragnarok on February 10, 2007, 11:54:48 am
I have no idea why, but I just realised that it looks like a worm is controlling the slime... Mind you, that might not be a bad thing...
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 10, 2007, 12:13:27 pm
 :o   , I kinda had this thing going that the darker green is its inner core and the lighter is the sludge that surrounds it, which makes the mouth kinda misplaced but I like it that way :)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 10, 2007, 03:40:27 pm
Ok I reduced the size a bit (and destroyed the whole inner core idea as it was getting annoying :o )and did the coloring and tried the AA not sure if it totally worked out but I like how it looks now

(http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/7839/slimer2qe3.png)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: madartiststan on February 10, 2007, 05:07:36 pm
Whoa looking good man. but that darkest shade on the front heavily bothers be. I'd say extend it further or remove it altogether. :D
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 10, 2007, 07:02:09 pm
I see what you mean , the shade there looks very unnatural, I am working on a better shade and update this post asap with it.

EDIT:
(http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3687/slimer3po8.png)
I made 4 different edits, but its weird imo the second shade seems to fit best .. hehe maybe it wasn't such a good idea to start with a slime but o well now that im at it ill finish it :)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: SCiDT on February 11, 2007, 01:20:24 am
Wow your getting better.

Keep at it! You'll do great!

My only advice is to start small and Google some tutorials to start getting a basic understanding on whats happening. Another thing to do will be to study the art of others and see how they apply the principles of pixel art.

Anyway,

Good Luck!
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Ragnarok on February 12, 2007, 08:25:47 am
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to start with a slime.
For slimes, you need to know shading, refection etc. The good side is you don't need any anatomy (except classical slime anatomy).
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: AdamAtomic on February 12, 2007, 05:07:00 pm
I'd recommend a more top-down lighting scheme - otherwise it is going to look unnatural when you have to flip the sprite in-game, and it also makes the form of the slimeball very hard to read.  Even given the basic shape of your slime ball, the way you have shaded him makes him look like a flat piece of clay, rather than a round piece of slime!  I think you need to do some research - look up pictures of slugs and frogs and things, to see how slimy things actually look!
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: fil_razorback on February 12, 2007, 09:32:45 pm
I don't have time (nor talent) for an edit but I found a good reference which could help you while shading :
(http://graeme.woaf.net/otherbits/jellypics/jelly_set.jpg)
Title: Re: [WIP] Slime
Post by: Jhelle on February 14, 2007, 08:59:34 pm
Wow your getting better.

Keep at it! You'll do great!

My only advice is to start small and Google some tutorials to start getting a basic understanding on whats happening. Another thing to do will be to study the art of others and see how they apply the principles of pixel art.

Anyway,

Good Luck!
Thanks mate, I have been reading some long tutorial on spriting and the basics of it, too bad there isn't anything about slimes in there :D

I'd recommend a more top-down lighting scheme - otherwise it is going to look unnatural when you have to flip the sprite in-game, and it also makes the form of the slimeball very hard to read.  Even given the basic shape of your slime ball, the way you have shaded him makes him look like a flat piece of clay, rather than a round piece of slime!  I think you need to do some research - look up pictures of slugs and frogs and things, to see how slimy things actually look!
Hi, about the top down lightning scheme, it luckely is't nessisary. I have been looking up on some pictures about slugs and frogs and I noticed that the lightning reflected is almost  always pure white except when its a colored light.
Thanks for the advice :)

I don't have time (nor talent) for an edit but I found a good reference which could help you while shading :

Thanks , nice pic to research lightning for me :)

---
I've tried to apply the lightning on my slime but I am not totally sure it worked out. But it definatly looks more slimey now

(http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/5298/slimeulzb8.png)