Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: JimKurth on August 11, 2007, 04:00:36 am
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I'm new at pixel art and have only briefly gotten into drawing pixels rather than turning vectors and layers into smaller sprite bitmaps and letting the computer do things for me. Pixel art is tedious I must say and my hat goes off to everyone who does this. Anyway, I made a blob-like creature and didn't have a clue how to shade it or how to improve on what I have so far. Previously, I took off the black border around the blob creature but I think it looks better with it. However, my backgrounds for it to be placed on make it look like clip-art. Any ideas or suggestions I could do to make this creature more realistic with the background and have more depth? Thanks. ;D I've blown up the picture 2x for visibility.
(http://www.geocities.com/jimkurth/blob1.gif)
(http://www.geocities.com/jimkurth/battle-blob.gif)
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The shading is actually pretty good for starters. You defined shapes within the shape, giving it a very good 'blob' feel. The problem is, though, that you've given it no specific lightsource. The middle is lit, but that's the only part it seems the light is hitting from. I mean... it is a lightsource, but not a very productive one. So what you have now seems almost pillow-shaded, where you shade it from the outline in.
Also, other things I think you need to change is the dithering, and outlines. You've dithering an object that is gelatin in nature, very slimy, slick and glossy. Dithering completely kills this vision and gives it a rough texture. I think you need to go back and remove the dithering to smoothen things out a bit. It might also help to give it some nice highlights to define the gloss of the blob. About the dithering, black is strong and hard to look at around sprites most of the time, especially without AA. It would most likely look better with a dark green outline, or perhaps even without one at all(probably stretching it), and this goes for the rest of the sprite too, like the teeth and such.
ps. don't worry about posting 2x, the forums have a built-in zooming feature(click on an image, you'll see), so you might wanna go back and post them 1x.
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Another update...
Thanks for the tips, I've smoothed the dithering out and replaced it with a color in-between both shades. Also, changed the edges from black to a darker shade of the neighboring color. I'm more pleased with it this way (without dithering). THe lighting is still catching me off guard though (I think?) I tried adding a lighted spot to give it a gelatin-like texture to it but so far so good.
(http://www.geocities.com/jimkurth/blob2.gif)
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That looks quite excellent to me, but something seems to be missing that I can't specify. Perhaps lack of certain details?
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i think i know what it lacks... remember in the matrix when the Agent seals Neo's mouth? I think i'll add a bit of slime/skin connecting towards the end of his mouth on this side and back side (behind the teeth).
And the other thing I think is the jaw (the skin there comes over the teeth), I'll try to fix it.
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On second thought, the bit at the lower right of the blob looks rather pointy. Perhaps you should smooth that out?
(Edit:)
Like this: (http://www.cubeupload.com/files/81d266blobedit.png)
Just a thought, maybe.
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How about this...?
(http://www.geocities.com/jimkurth/blob3.gif)
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Much better stuff, now you just need to AA the outlines of stuff like the teeth. It'll really make them look a lot more smoother.
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You could add some slime in the mouth and from teeth to teeth
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wow, I can't believe how great it looks from the first drawing. I just drew the outline with my mouse and started with just 1 nasty green color. Wow. I still can't believe it. I have to read some tutorials on AA (I have bookmarks on my browser) so I can get the teeth to look more defined and I'll have some slime seep down from the top of the mouth into the gumline.
Thanks everybody! Wish I could stay up all night to do this. Gotta work in 5 hours though.
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Before you start AA'ing I would work on adding some more specular highlights (assuming the character is slimy, and not a matte, clay-like consistency). As wet things are usually reflective, it would also be a good idea to include some reflected color; if it is going to be outdoors, blue is a good color to reflect. You have a lot of pillow-shading and bad lighting going on, especially on the edges of the blob and on the teeth. I agree, more slimey bits around the mouth would be good for the character; you could check out the Flans in the FF games for some inspiration, perhaps. Keep at it!
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Here's another update. I repainted the whole interior and attempted a more liquidy/gelatin approach as stated before. I haven't touched the teeth yet. I referenced the Flan sprite from Final Fantasy 6, and the light source was not meant to be the same exact area. It just ended up that way ;) This is my first pixel art sprite, so I am slowly learning things by experience.
(http://www.geocities.com/jimkurth/blob4.gif)
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The uhm.. dont know what they're called I'll just call it waves in the slime, are too high contrasted. Next to that it looks quite flat now. You must try to shade a cilinder or orb and use that technique on this guy. You can still have light details everywhere, just like you have now, but in shadow a lighted detail is darker than in a strong lighted spot.
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In this edit, I used the previous bit of information from TrevoriouS, and removed most of the completely black lines that made the Flan/Slime Monster/ Etcetera look very flat. I also went a bit overboard with highlights on the Teeth, but I think they look rather fitting. Furthermore, I shaded some areas that should not have been as bright as they were. (In my opinion.)
I also added a bunch of unnecessary jaggies, but it was just a quick sketchy session. I couldn't fully remove the details that made it so flat looking, but I dulled the effect slightly.
(http://www.cubeupload.com/files/523241blobedit2.png)
The Sun object and arrow point to where I think the lightsource is, because I can't find where it is. I'm hoping you'll tell me?