Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: HanClinto on September 14, 2009, 05:39:36 am
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For a side-scrolling game concept, various armor upgrades are vaguely based off of animals, to build up a sortof mechanical exoskeleton to augment your character.
The first one I thought I'd tackle is an antelope skull. Here is the reference. (http://www.museumofosteology.org/images/artiodactyla-display2-lg.jpg)
(http://hanclinto.com/dav/Clint/PBE/PSK/antelope_skull_lg4.png)
What do you think?
Thanks for looking! C&C is extremely welcome.
--clint
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Needs more contrast. The darks should be darker, lights lighter. I also think you should add a bit of perspective, show both horns. Also if the light source is coming from the top-front, the horns should cast a shadow on the head a bit, especially near the base of the horn.
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Hey Sam, thanks so very much for the feedback!
Latest version to try to incorporate your suggestions:
(http://hanclinto.com/dav/Clint/PBE/PSK/antelope_skull_6.png)
I think it really helped, but I'm still very interested in more C&C.
Thanks!
--clint
Edit: I switched gears for a little while to make an owl skull:
(http://hanclinto.com/dav/Clint/PBE/PSK/owl_skull_1.png)
And that made me realize how much my antelope skull lacked depth / volume, so I revisited that one again to try and make it "pop" more.
(http://hanclinto.com/dav/Clint/PBE/PSK/antelope_skull_7.png)
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Update:
(http://hanclinto.com/dav/Clint/PBE/PSK/antelope_skull_8.png)
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I like it, not really anything I can crit, but I would say that it could use a scene, being lonely as it is. The lighting looks like low sunlight, maybe a setting sun desert scene?
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I might suggest sketching on paper the antelope skull you'd like to pixel before actually pixelling it - the brain has this funny habit of misinterpreting the actual proportions of things, drawing what we 'think' we see as opposed to what we actually do.
I can't actually tell which skull from the link you're trying to do - none of the ones I see there have the same 'm' shaped horn, and I'm not edumacated enough to know which is an antelope (they all seem antelopey, except for the big ones that look like rams).
You might even like to borrow colours from the photo, too - as is, the skull to me looks like a flatter fossilized version thereof.
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I like it, not really anything I can crit, but I would say that it could use a scene, being lonely as it is. The lighting looks like low sunlight, maybe a setting sun desert scene?
You're right -- I should make a scene for it. I've started on some of the other sprite components to start building this up. The various heads are meant to be armored helmets to go onto your side-scrolling character -- I'll work on a mockup of that whole thing.
I can't actually tell which skull from the link you're trying to do - none of the ones I see there have the same 'm' shaped horn
Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't trying to make the horns "m" shaped -- they were meant to be in a spiral like several of the horns in those photos. I guess I failed. :) Do you have any suggestions as to what could make them appear more spirally and less like an "m"?
You might even like to borrow colours from the photo, too - as is, the skull to me looks like a flatter fossilized version thereof.
"flatter" -- as in it lacks the 3d feel of a skull that has actual volume?
Thanks so much for the feedback!
--clint
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Aye, it looks flat as in lacks volume. I wondered after if you meant for the horns to be spirals. I have no pixel software as my laptop died just five minutes ago... but I'd say perhaps try it without the shading and just the line art, to see if you can convey the spiral there. Zooming is all fuzzy on this browser so I can't get a decent look. :(