Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: ccaveman on February 01, 2008, 05:47:32 am
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Hello, I'm sorry for all of that before. I wasn't clear on what was ripping and what wasn't; therefore, I have edited all of the questionable material out of it for some comments and critique. I have a reference thumbnail for a couple of things. Tell me if it is too close to it, as I don't want to rip. I want to improve.
Reference (pipe in top left corner):
http://imgbolt.com/public/84025/ecity-all.png
My image (Old):
(http://www.goodmmos.com/uploads/f96f380fdd7c123887bba953a2f5832b.gif)
My image (Newest):
(http://www.goodmmos.com/uploads/cb5067f9feafa100161e47d47d151b26.png)
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oof. Would you please post the full reference and not just a thumbnail? :)
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Very clean looking. If there are going to be people in the city, maybe start by sketching some in first. This will give you a relative idea of the scale and resolution you will need. Personally I feel you are working at a very high resolution and scale. This would only be necessary if you were creating very detailed people. Otherwise, you could probably get better results by working with a smaller scale and pushing the limits of detail as low resolution as possible.
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Its all just random. Some of the buildings have corner highlights, some dont. Some things have black outlines and others dont. I would chose one and keep it all the same.
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Thank you for your comments, I'll edit a little later, I have to go now. I'll also make the thumbnail image bigger. [Done]
Edit: I have added some highlights to the corners. I also made a "prototype" person picking up the can from the vending machine. Lastly, I have added some detail to the window door of the yellow house in the south of the picture.
(http://imgbolt.com/public/84037/Iso_City2.gif)
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I'm going to post individual pictures from now on (i.e. a building instead of the whole scene) because of the space it seems to take up. Once I get a lot more objects into the scene, I'll show the whole scene for some review.
Edit: Isometric man/woman sketch (updated man from the above picture)
(http://imgbolt.com/public/84075/Man.PNG)(http://imgbolt.com/public/84079/Woman.PNG)
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I think their left (our right) arms should be a little bit longer, maybe one or two pixels.
You probably do need the black outline around the perimeter of the people to keep the style consistent with the rest of the piece, but i think you can get away without outlining the head / the line between the legs, etc. Try to work actual meaningful details into the faces, like their noses and cheeks and everything.
but good work so far nonetheless!
For some reason i really like the traffic cones and rubbish bins.
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I've updated the arms of the of people and some shading in the face. I don't really know how to go about making a nose for something this small. Thanks for your comment because I think they look better than before.
People update:
Old: New:
(http://imgbolt.com/public/84413/Man.PNG)(http://imgbolt.com/public/84414/Woman.PNG) (http://imgbolt.com/public/84397/Man.PNG) (http://imgbolt.com/public/84398/Woman.PNG)
I updated a bunch of things on the city:
(http://imgbolt.com/public/84617/Iso_City2.gif)
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This is more of a style complaint than anything else. but why does most isometric pixelart have to look so sterile? There's no texture on any of the buildings, people or even the grass. I think you should really work on that. Unless this style is fine for you, then ignore what I just said. I just think it's very bland and boring.
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I did a quick edit on the man, both with and without a black outline. I tried to clean up the shading a bit, and put some more detail into the face.
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh205/mikegoold/man.gif)
The scene could certainly use some shadows to give it a bit more depth.
And like every other isometric pixel art piece thats ever been attempted, its all about the little details that give it life. cars, more people, animals, smoke, etc all add up to make these sorts of scenes more than the sum of their parts. Just keep adding things (as long as they're consistent with the style of the other bits) and you can't really go wrong!
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Yeah, I've had to cut back a little on the pixel art because I just wanted a break. One problem I've been having recently has been with my colors. I'm 98% sure it's because I'm using MS Paint and saving as a .gif is messing up the palette some how. I know about the thing you can do with Photoshop to save as a .gif with that, but I'm kind of short on some cash to be buying Photoshop. Are there any free editors that won't ruin the palette when you save as a .gif?
Mike: I see what you mean about more detail with the people, thanks for the guidance.
JonathanOfDrain: Mine's sterile mainly because I'm new to pixeling and don't know all of the techniques, but I'm learning. Also, I've been trying to work on the people more than the buildings and terrain. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, though.
Edit: Updated Man / Woman:
(http://imgbolt.com/public/85082/Man_updated.gif) (http://imgbolt.com/public/85103/Woman_updated.gif)
I'm going to work on the woman a little later.
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GraphicsGale (http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/). Free editions only limitation is that it can't work with GIFs, but PNGs are pretty much the same, only without animation and can have higher color depths.
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Ok, thanks Sherman, I usually work with GIF or PNG so it's fine.
Update
Old:
(http://imgbolt.com/public/85110/Man.gif) (http://imgbolt.com/public/85111/Woman.PNG)
New:
(http://imgbolt.com/public/85082/Man_updated.gif) (http://imgbolt.com/public/85103/Woman_updated.gif)
These still seem a little too bright for my city. Maybe not. Should I add the black outline back?
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New Update on city:
- Sketch of a new person
- Flags on the side of brown building
- smoke in the chimney
- some other minor details
(http://rapid-photo.com/uploads/0fdfb7b4215f0844703dc2c6e74e8a2a.png)
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It's a nice start. I think there are some scaling issues; for example, the people are taller than the doors, and some objects (eg. garbage can, potted plant) are almost a story tall when you compare them to the buildings. Since the buildings have a black outline, it may keep things more in the same style to put black outlines around the other objects as well. The flags look a little flat; try to avoid "banding" when shading.
Good luck as you continue working on this!
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Yeah, I need to probably scale the green door up some. I'm probably going to keep the trash cans the same because when you compare them to the people, they are scaled correctly (at least to my eyes). I'm probably going to increase the size of the stories of the buildings because drawing people right now is a little hard for me at my stage in pixel art.
What objects in particular did you mean to keep with the black outline? I think the people probably need it, but is there anything else?
I should also probably dither the flag. Or should I do some other method of shading?
Thanks for your crit. It helped to catch the scaling issue before it was too late.
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Updated Image:
- Updated the man to fit the image
- Updated the pot
- I know about the blue building's post color malfunction (Just couldn't get around to fix it yet)
Tell me what you think:
(http://www.goodmmos.com/uploads/4d6aa6f3296c904d42e34cfb407ae518.png)