Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: MadToaster on October 18, 2005, 03:28:58 pm

Title: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: MadToaster on October 18, 2005, 03:28:58 pm
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/arachnid_plate.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/bug_armor.gif)

I did my best to make this look more finished and cleaned than my previous work.  He started out as a generic looking warrior guy then I decided to give the armor a more insect like look. C+C is appreciated.

Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Peppermint Pig on October 18, 2005, 05:10:53 pm
The design is good. I like the bug theme you intended. The outlines are crusty, however. Do a bit of cleanup and find more pixel-friendly lines. The feet look squished/stretched. How about a highlight along the top of the shield?? Pretty good AA detail in the work, and the speculars are a nice touch. Just clean up your lines, and animate it please. :)

Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: crab2selout.png on October 18, 2005, 09:17:17 pm
Wow, lovin' this, too. The highlights on his right leg and arm look incorrect for the light source. I also think the near static hue for the green isn't working well IMO, you'd be better off with some more hue-shifting. Could look better if your skin shadow had more of a red tinge to it to complement better with the green. Same goes for the sword, maybe make it a near whitish-green for the highlight, with a deep red for the shadow.

Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Naso on October 18, 2005, 09:30:38 pm
this is very nice and yes it dose have nice AA i didn't notice it until i zoomed in lol
but what i think will make this look really sweet if is you make the armor more metal like
thats all i have to say =D , i love the chibi-ness of this =P
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Conzeit on October 18, 2005, 11:14:16 pm
that is very nice. the way his pose was brought out makes me want to animate him, it is quite enlightning.

yes, it is true, it looks very rough. but if I was you, I wouldnt completly smooth out his outlines like everyone suggested, I think that sort of crustyness to the outlines kind of adds to his character and makes him look a bit sloppy and kinda lazy (as a character), I would barely have the outlines that cross trough the highlighted parts lit up just like solid colors, but not really AA every edge to death.

spend more time enriching the actual content, the shading of his armor and his sword.......that sword does need it's own outline shade though.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Zach on October 19, 2005, 01:50:35 am
this is still wip right, and you're going to finish the colors and stuff, make it more complete right?
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: MadToaster on October 19, 2005, 02:03:10 am
I agree about the lines looking crusty.  I've been a Line art guy since forever so I think it gives me the bad habit of laying them in too thick, giving it a coloring book look.

...you're going to finish the colors and stuff, make it more complete right?

Yeah, I'm really trying to get over myself and improve so I'm gonna look at other pixel art that inspires me and figure out how to make this look more finished.  ;D
I got the design and the cool pose stuff down, it's time to work on the weak spots.

Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Darion on October 19, 2005, 02:54:40 am
I say keep the rigged lines, I LOVE IT. My only suggestion would be to add more colors; not severely different, just to add variation/completion.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: MadToaster on October 19, 2005, 11:50:24 am
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/bug_armor_old.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/arachnid_plate.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/bug_armor.gif)

It's weird how you can decide your work is an 8 out of 10 then you realize what you think is a 10 is really a 5.  :P  I think this looks better. I widened the range of color intensity and added some inbetween colors where it was much needed. Also made some changes to the design. More criticism please.

Edit:
I added the original sprite that I did a few months ago for comparison.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Helm on October 19, 2005, 12:34:28 pm
(http://www.locustleaves.com/bug_armor.gif)

12 colours now. The skintones on the plate are more there to show usage of unified palette than it is actually a good idea on it's own. Tinted towards blue in shadow, and towards yellow in light to get an earthy range for bug armor. You're not using enough contrast ( for game art. For general sprite art do whatever you want ) and enough segregation of the parts. I still think your outlines need to be cleaned and also lightsource dependant.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: MadToaster on October 19, 2005, 01:29:37 pm
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/bug_armor.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/madtoaster/bug_armor_contrast.gif)

Hey Helm, your edits are always appreciated. At first I had no idea what you meant about lacking contrast but then I corrected my gamma setting and saw how washed out it was. I'm definitely trying to learn how to make video game art so thanks for catching that.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: crab2selout.png on October 19, 2005, 10:12:38 pm
Much improved toaster. The arm to our left still seems like it's being lit from the left while everything else indicates a right lightsource. Love what you did to the feet, really puts those old squished ones to shame. I think Helm had a good idea where he made the eyes a light shade of the skin instead of white. It helps make the skin seem like it's own distinct material from the armor. His other additions certainly helped further this distinction, so it might not still hold true, but try it and see if you like it.

Like the sword much better now, could use a bump in saturation to bring it in closer with the armor colourwise.

That's about all I can think of right now.


@HELM:I'll make this short cause I don't want to shift attention. I like. If you really want to give this a very polished look, Toast, study this hard.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Faceless on October 20, 2005, 07:30:44 am
Just one minor crit for now, as I actually really like how it is in its current state, I think the way his chest plate overlaps his legs in the stage where his shield has teeth looks a lot nicer than having his leg plate over the top of his chest plate (as is the case in the more current versions.) I also prefer the shading on the old chest plate to the shading on the new.

Love your style man, and Helm...
O.O You sure do go crazy with your edits... still, it's nice to see what a more detailed version would look like.
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Filax_666 on November 01, 2005, 07:18:03 pm
(http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/4039/bugarmoredit5hd.gif)
Well, I made a small edit, but I think it still depends too much on the outline  :-\
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: Filax_666 on November 02, 2005, 08:33:05 pm
(http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/6421/bugarmoredit22jb.gif)8 colours+transparency

I had some fun trying to reduce the colours on this one ;D hope you like it
Title: Re: Plate Armor Guy
Post by: MadToaster on November 03, 2005, 10:28:21 am
About the edits being too dependent on the outlines, that's my fault. The orignal line art was drawn before I learned how to build things up from simple forms like spheres and cylinders. It would be impossible to give believable shading to something that was drawn like a cut out doll to begin with.  :P