Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: qunit on July 30, 2008, 04:09:24 pm

Title: MystcTree
Post by: qunit on July 30, 2008, 04:09:24 pm
hi all

Im new here. my nameis Yaron, im 21, live in Israel, just got realsed from the army. i have been pixeling for the last 5 years ( and at the last 3 years, being in the army and all, i slowed down a bit...)
thats all about me, hope it will e fun :)

anyhoo.. this is a piece i have been working for the last 2 days. i think its allrigh but the woman sitting there is bugging me for some reason... if you have ideas how to improve her i would like to hear it.
besides any cnc is welcomed

(http://www.pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/mystictree_v3.gif)

**edit** fixed the leg
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: ortodoxx on July 30, 2008, 05:57:29 pm
Hello Qunit.

I think this looks great , but the whole piece suffers from strong jaggies and strange black borderdots. Itīs almost like you'we used Magic Wand Tool in photoshop and deleted a black background. If you can smooth out the outline i think it will look even more awsome.

Also the flower in her hair. I would guess its supposed to be stuck with it's stalk behind her ear, but it reads as if its in front of her face atm. I Would have some of the hair go infront of the flower and slightly adjust the angle having the flower looking away from us.

Her left foot seems twisted and broken in a painful way, have it go behind her right food also to have it avoid looking like they grow into eachother.

And Welcome to Pixelation :)
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: Antago on July 30, 2008, 06:38:22 pm
I don't like the black shading, either. Especially the dithering with it.

I think you can push the dithering a little further by adding some more in-between/blending colors
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: qunit on July 30, 2008, 07:09:54 pm
sorry for the question but what is"dithering" ?
as i said i have been out of the buisness for some time :)
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: Souly on July 30, 2008, 07:17:48 pm
Dither is the pixel pattern you used in the shading of the rocks.
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: Helm on July 30, 2008, 09:24:34 pm
Hello. That's pretty awesome. A big Henk Nieborg influence, am I right?

Question for you, how do you feel about those outside black or dark pixels making a broken outline on the piece? We call this 'selout' (from 'selective outlining') and some people like it, others don't. If you were to evaluate that technique yourself what would you say it's achieving and at what cost?
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: qunit on July 30, 2008, 09:53:45 pm
well, firt - tnx for the explations on the terms..
secondly, i kinda like this kind of outlining, i think it makes your painting stand fo itself/
Meaning that until i will not make a BG for it have to stand nicely for any BG color - therefor the thick outlining is nesecery i think
besides it gives more depth to the image, yeh  it might look messy but its ok.. things atrife are not so smooth too :)

anyway thats how i see it

still - something is buggig me with the lady... maybe its the pallate, maybe the face, the hair, i trie alot for her and she doesnt seem to fit in ... it kinda drives me mad...
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: Sherman Gill on July 30, 2008, 10:36:07 pm
Maybe it's that she has no back?
(http://lorne.lastchancemedia.com/Images/two/Tricksandcrits/20.gif)
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: Fool on July 31, 2008, 12:17:42 am
Beautiful.=) I think if you go for a face it would benefit greatly.=)
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: Helm on July 31, 2008, 06:31:37 am
Don't you think the single black broken outline pixels on say, the hand, defeat the same purpose you said they serve? Namely they seem like 'holes' in the paper against a light background color such us on pixelation's?
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: qunit on July 31, 2008, 10:16:04 am
tnx all so far

helm - you know what.. i will try to get rid of them and see how i like it, those black outlines is a method that i have been woring with so far so i cant really see how they are wrong :) but i will try
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: ptoing on July 31, 2008, 01:16:42 pm
Quite nice what you got going on so far.
You do not seem to optimise your colours at all. Having full control over every single colour is one of the biggest benefits in pixelart.

Yours: 69 colours - My edit: 32 colours
(http://ptoing.net/edit/mystic_colour.gif)

This of course is very extreme and perhaps a bit more monochromatic in places, but it is just to demonstrate what you can do. As a middleground you could so something like 40ish colours and it would be closer to the original colourwise. Back in the days stuff like this served a purpose because computers could not handle too many colours at once. Nowadays you still need it something when you work on stuff like the Nintendo DS. But for many of us it just became good habit and I for one think it's fun. :)
Title: Re: MystcTree
Post by: PypeBros on July 31, 2008, 03:46:36 pm
/me love the tree and the rocks. not too sure reducing the number of colours benefits to the scene in this case. I'd be tempted to say that she has got loong back and arms compared to the size of her legs, but it's always difficult to find in those kind of poses... maybe if you can find a reference picture or ask someone to take the pose for a comparative sketch ...