Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Opacus on October 28, 2007, 02:37:47 pm
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Yes, well this is a bit of a colour experiment. I wanted to get the colours in a bit of Helm's style. I still am nowhere near being able to understand his understanding of colours.
Each time I look at his pieces I still often think "Why these colours? What is the theory behind them? How come these odd colours look so incredibly good together?".
So I went with a real experimental pallete here inspired by helm's pieces.
(http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7320/spacemarinewz7.gif)
(Yes, if it has potential I will turn this into a bust, maybe full picture. Hence the rather large canvas.)
Newest shizzle:
(http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9864/chaoscolour4fw8.gif)
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I'm sure Helm would agree with me when I say that if you want to learn about color, don't just study from one person. That being said, it's still good that you're trying to understand what makes another artist's work look good.
Generally I have some readability issues--it seems to look better at 2x and I think that it's because you're not giving the colors enough room to work properly with all of the dithering and blending you're doing. Looks pretty sweet otherwise, though.
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Yeah you got a good point bout the readability. I made a total new piece:
(http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/9505/spacemarineagaincolouryf2.gif)
(More pleased with this anyway.)
Yes, I will study more then one person. I'm planning to do a couple of colour studies on several artists.
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Looking good! My only gripe is that the helmet looks a bit squashed. I'm looking forward to the end result.
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Thanks. But could you elaborate your critique a bit? How do mean he looks squashed?
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8720/spacemarineagain2uu3.gif)
Small edit, shading like this takes forever :)
I use this picture: http://fr.games-workshop.com/40k/fonds_ecrans/eyeofterror8-1280.jpg
And some of my own Warhammer figures for reference.
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Looks nice so far, but I think you should go into dithering and aa at this early stage.
It would deffo be better if you blocked out the whole thing. What Helm did on his unfinished metaldude is good practise and helps fleshing out volume.
http://www.locustleaves.com/lolmetal3.png (http://www.locustleaves.com/lolmetal3.png)
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Wow man, it looks loads better as a bigger version. Are you trying to go for a metallic or translucent surface on the helmet? Because if it's translucent I would definitely up the contrast. It looks really nice, I can't believe how much you're improving.
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who's this helm jerk you're all talking about.
Opacus forget the dithering until you've got volume down, as they say. Your newest wip is good, but you're working from reference so you're effectively *stealing* volume knowledge from an artsit that already has it. It's not a bad thing, but you'd learn more and faster in you did volume studies on your own, from life.
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Thanks. But could you elaborate your critique a bit? How do mean he looks squashed?
Small edit, shading like this takes forever :)
The head looks vertically squished. The forehead is not big enough, the head looks a little blunt :P
His helmet skull is also a little large, but I think that's a style choice because of how varied a Chaos Space marine's armor can be.
Here is an edit to show what I mean:
(http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8486/marineditmg2.png)
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His mouth piece is much too wide.
But as everyone has said, just work on simple volume shading and then start dithering.
Don't go too detailed until you've at least started the body.
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im pretty sure that this is a mortal sppace marine, not chaos spawn? the skull on the helmet in most codex chapters represents veteran status. a few things about the shapes:
the skulls in the painted artwork are typically represented as being fully realized skulls, not the simplified versions on the models.
the mouth piece looks like the proper width to me based on images i've seen.
the side bits of the helmet though seem much too wide, i would shrink them considerably horizontally.
I also agree that it's superstatic. when i think of space marines, i dont think of cutout soldier mugshots, i think of the last bastions of human survival getting wrecked starship trooper style by the arachnids "tyranids" ....
(http://xs320.xs.to/xs320/07442/spacemarines2.jpg)
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I think that a front on type piece can still be really good for a picture of someone with a gun, makes them look like they are only there for killing.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/chaos-engine/screenshots/gameShotId,222637/ (http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/chaos-engine/screenshots/gameShotId,222637/)
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I also agree that it's superstatic. when i think of space marines, i dont think of cutout soldier mugshots, i think of the last bastions of human survival getting wrecked starship trooper style by the arachnids "tyranids" ....[/img]
Nice sloped composition, gets the eye rolling in a good direction :]
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(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/555/chaostf8.gif)
So there you have it.
My new sketch. It's a Chaos Space Marine killing some chanceless Imperial Guards.
I hope to update soon enough with basic colours and shades.
With as most influential reference:
http://pds4.egloos.com/pds/200701/30/17/c0054317_11015689.jpg
(Man I love that pic.)
Update: Added some base stuff. Removed a few details for convenience, but they will be added back later:
(http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9864/chaoscolour4fw8.gif)
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Update time:
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7901/chaoscolour11bj9.gif)
Still largely unfinished but getting somewhere I think?
Somewhere around 23 colours I think.
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You do realize that the muscles in your lower arm are made to be able to turn it around its own axis, not to keep position while carrying the weigh of a human body right? (Now it's even worse because the sword gives a 'lever' effect) - I suggest you adjust the angle of the hand/sword/human so that the human is on the ground and the arm is just stretching to joust through the torso of the standing human..
If this was the intention to begin with, your perspective is off, or your sword is too thin according to the width it should have (thinking about the fact that human is the same height as the chaos marine himself).
You're improving quick indeed. Good luck on this piece!
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I agree with trevoriuS, the arm needs some fixing. It looks pretty awkward and even though a chaos marine might be capable of easily lifting a cadian (looks cadian), could probably pull it off with a sword but would not be using such lack of form. He's not a berserker of Khorne. Tzeentch's men usually prefer long range weapons, spells and the colors blue and yellow. Tzeentch also has a huge crush on egypt and just about everything egyptian. Or at least that's how I interpreted everything.
@TrevoriuS:
Space Marines are pretty big ( genetically altered) guys to begin with. Now imagine a big (genetically altered) guy encased in pretty awesome armor that not only increases your strength but it's pretty strong. Now imagine this hulking (genetically altered) brute in armor tainted with a demonic force that instills various powers and possibly mutations on him. He's pretty big now. So I think the marine and the imperial guardsman are pretty good as far as size goes.
Ok so enough about not pixel art.
I think you need to fix those horns, they seem a bit off, his right one (our left) becomes straight, it also looks very flat. I think his torso needs to be fixed up, I think they're more like spheres ontop of cylinders instead of body shaped. His backpack thing also looks weird, looks more like a slab of metal on his back instead of the backpacks most of them have. You should either replace the cadian's head with a bolt gun or a power fist. The sword arm has a goofy wrist, looks like it can bend/articulate. You should consider modeling it after a gauntlet.
P.S. You can probably view each individual piece that makes up your hulking brute on the games workshop website or fan sites. Good luck, I hope I've typed up some decent information for you. Use google and wikipedia for more info.
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I wasn't really disagreeing on the character sizes, but suggestion (probably most to myself) how this could be in perspective with a ground plane.
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this new piece still suffers from a static composition. moving the figure over to the side and twisting his hands doesn't make a piece dynamic, here it actually makes it awkward. Read up on good compositions (my time is too limited for me to write this really, as you can fill volumes with the basics), and start from scratch again. there's very little wrong with your pixelling but it wont ever look good if your composition sucks.