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Messages - elderPixark
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Pixel Art / Re: Violetblight Quarry
« on: April 05, 2013, 05:31:28 am »
I know you said you're pretty set on your color palette, but take a quick look at this. It's just a quick edit of color levels, but I think it is more representational of basaltic rock.



IMO, the level of detail is fine; the floor tiles complement the walls. I would say that the shading around the edges of the floor tiles seems to round out the appearance of the tunnel. You may want to edit that a bit if that is not the desired effect.

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General Discussion / Rendering 2d (pixel) sprites in a 3d world
« on: July 24, 2012, 12:50:23 pm »
In some older video games, billboarding seemed like a cheap workaround for low poly restrictions. I can't remember any particular title as an example, but I do remember seeing scenery objects like trees and crowds of people projected as billboards, but in most cases, it was obviously an attempt to be realistic, even though the high amount of detail in the images in combination with alpha blending went against the grain of its low poly 3d environment.



Some games, however, were quite successful in substituting 3d models with multi-angle animated sprites, as seen in many FPS games like Quake, DOOM, Duke 3D, Wolfenstein 3D, etc., and in my opinion, those video games had really integrated those graphics well to create a unified 'composition' (if I can call a video game a composition).



However, in neither case (IMO) can we really call the examples "pixel art". But let's not get into a debate about what constitutes pixel art or discuss the methods employed by the artists of those games. In this thread, I'm interested in discussing the ways that contemporary artists EMBRACE restrictions and actually use pixel art in 3D graphics. The first example that comes to mind (for me, anyway) would be Minecraft, which uses low poly models in a voxel environment and pixel textures. Minecraft really doesn't use a lot of billboarding (except for dropped items that aren't blocks) but it renders pixels in some quite interesting ways.



One example of pixel art embracing sprites would be Infiniminer; the playable characters are rendered as animated 2d sprites with a front and back (probably textured quads with alpha blending).





What do you think about this application of pixel art? Do you think that using reminiscent, "8-bit" graphics in spite of modern rendering capabilities is quaint or creative? When does it cross the line? Share your thoughts and post more examples, if you know of any!




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Pixel Art / [WIP] Portrait dilemma
« on: July 15, 2012, 04:26:16 pm »
I finally got around to pixeling a portrait and decided to make a post about it. So far I've spent maybe 5-6 hours on it and I'm at a point where I need to make some serious decisions. Right now I'm considering adding her bust to the composition and spending some time on a detailed background. But first, I need to make some corrections with what I've got. Hopefully some insight from other posters will push me out of the stalemate so I can continue working on this!


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Pixel Art / Re: 16x16 sprite w/animation Need C&C ASAp
« on: July 01, 2012, 11:03:30 pm »
The restrictiveness of your sprites are reminiscent of some RPGs on the NES.

What are you making these sprites for? It's not fair that you just post the sprites and demand quick c+c!

As of now, your sprites look kind of monochromatic. That can be a good thing, but with what you're trying to do, a little color enhancement can mean a whole lot.

The skin tone you have chosen is very subtle and washed out next to white. The black in your palette is too strong against these colors and drowns all the detail. If you're going to stick to three colors, you will need to keep a dark color. I would experiment a little with heavily saturated dark colors. In any case, your second color should be somewhere in between that and your lightest color. Since your palette is so small, try to make a "ramp" between your darkest and lightest colors with the one in the middle.

Many sprite palettes on the NES do not use the peach skin tone that you are using here, just FYI. If you're going to stick with it, instead of using white, you may want to use a very washed out sky blue, which will stand out against the orange-y skin tone (basic color theory; complementary colors).

For the most part, your sprite animation is OK. If I saw it in a NES game, it would probably fit right in. Not much you can do with a limited frame rate and the size limitation, but you might consider animating his hair a little bit for a final touch.

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Pixel Art / Re: Walking chicken animation
« on: July 01, 2012, 06:44:50 pm »
Thanks for the breakdown of the chicken-strut. I'm probably going to have to do something basic like that if I want to keep a low frame limit... however, the more and more I watch reference videos, the more random the head-cocking seems. However, my goal is not to be realistic. Once I have the basic motions down, I want to develop the animation into something silly and laughable. Maybe even a retarded chicken who barely (an obliviously) manages to dodge his fate by a mere feather.

I agree, the more I continue to develop the animation, the more it begins to look like a human. I tried to make it more abrupt by erasing some frames, but it turns into a big mess. I decided to take a break from that and focus on other things. I did add some details to the sprite after choosing a palette to start with.

Check out this funny marching chicken video for a few laughs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXhuzw_03EU&feature=related

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Pixel Art / Re: Walking chicken animation
« on: June 29, 2012, 08:26:09 pm »
Started from scratch, this time with a 16x16 size restriction. I'm having trouble getting a perfect loop and can't seem to get the legs in sync with the head-cocking animation. In fact, it's turning into a big mess as I continue to develop it.


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Pixel Art / [WIP] Motherclucker (chicken platformer)
« on: June 28, 2012, 03:33:38 pm »
As I continue to work, the original post in this thread will be updated.
(Sorry for the lame title, it's temporary.)

I had an idea for a platformer game that made me chuckle, which involves a chicken escaping from a slaughterhouse and dodging several kinds of deathtraps and processing machines. It would be trial-and-error gameplay in which losing is apparently fun.

Animation Progress
Starting point:


Draft 2:


...

Most recent work:



Notes:
Took a break from animation to reflect on my work. I started working on a tileset and I edited a sprite (mouse) I made for a previous project to include in this one. I adopted Arne's generic 16 color palette for the time being because I am working on a craptop with a washed out screen. And yeah, I know this doesn't look like a meat-processing plant, but I figure that some of the levels with have an outdoor setting.

Currently working on: making new tiles; mostly background details - stars in the sky, scenery, foliage. The grass tile; needs to be unified with style of other tiles.

Frustrations:
The underground/dirt tile didn't turn out quite like I wanted. I started out with dirt pixel clusters that look pretty nice, but the way I completed the tile makes it seem flat.

I made a color ramp for foliage, but I can't fit it to the tree. Adding purple shadows just doesn't look right and I think I need a more subtle green in order to add details.

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Pixel Art / Re: Small iso dump, need input [wip]
« on: May 31, 2012, 11:59:32 am »
This work is for a project idea I've had for a few years. Let's just call in Vestige. Vestige is a sort of turn-based strategy game that I'd like to complete for my own enjoyment. It is inspired by several games that I enjoyed in my youth, none of which satisfied me completely. Those games would be Civilization: Call to Power and Age of Empires II. The blocky style I'm using for the project is somewhat inspired by Minecraft.

Basically, CtP bothered me because all the advances/units/etc. in the game were a sort of bricolage of random nuggets of history, and the idea that you could be George Washington in 3500 B.C. is just silly. I wish AoE was turn-based and not so battle-driven. On the other hand, I adore the graphics of these games, and I admire how AoE has construction animations. I like CtP's economic and diplomatic aspects as well. There's also a game series called Anno (my favorites are 1404 and 1701). Those games have a remarkable infrastructure/economy simulation and expansion gameplay.

My idea is to have Vestige make accurate references to history, particularly to to Migration period with a focus on Germanic/Celtic tribes. The turns would take place between 50 B.C. and 800 A.D, and gameplay would be around a particular tribe/band of tribes. It'd be less focused on warfare and have more aspects regarding economy and diplomacy with other tribes and any empires that form. Advances would be quite different than those in CtP and AoE; for example, going into warfare would give you some technology points that would allow you to modify a type of weapon a little bit; i.e. make the blade longer or wider. There would be quite a bit more micromanagement in the game, like Dwarf Fortress, and I would also like to employ a class system in which the ruler of the tribe rises up out of success in warfare or some other manner.

I hope that gives you an idea of what I'd like to do with this.

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Pixel Art / Re: Small iso dump, need input [wip]
« on: May 31, 2012, 11:31:01 am »
Thanks for the suggestions. I removed the pixel from the dirt tile and that helped quite a bit. I still notice the grid but it's not much of a problem now. I tried using different color combos on the dirt and cannot decide which is best! I also noticed you removed the boss on the spearman's shield, so I'm not sure if it's all that readable.

Instead of a dump/mockup, this time I'm providing a sheet of everything I've got so far. An explanation is below the image. I must give credit to Dragon Warrior (NES) for the Latin and Russian alphabets on the image - the Runic and Celtic scripts ARE my own work, though.

Edit: disclaimer: some of the pixels on the elder sprites were messed up from my copypaste.



The rows of human sprites are as follows: normal, king, spearman, swordsman, bowman, woman, and child. The old man sprite on the far right is the original with a longer beard. Next to that are my bull/cow sprites so far. I'm working on other animals right now but decided not to post them yet. Below those is a simple tree. I don't think I'm going to keep the foliage as a solid block, but I'm wondering more about the trunk.

Next is a grubenhaus model. Those are one type of dwelling typical of Germanic tribes. I'm satisfied with the wood texture, but I can't figure out a way to do some thatching texture for the roof! The interior will be furnished later... right now I'm focusing on diffusing the dirt tile from the wooden walls - Grimsane, your edit doesn't go as well with that as the grass tile.

I'm starting to think in 3d now, since this is an isometric project; I've been working on textures for the sides of the blocks. Some of the dirt tiles go better with the side textures than others. Please tell me which ones you think work better - I've numbered them for this.

The scripts are as follows, from the top left. I made my own runic script based off Elder and Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. Some characters have been added to allow each rune to represent a sound in the Germanic languages. Next to that is my own invention of a Celtic script - it's influenced by the ogham inscriptions found in various locations. To the right of that is a more calligraphic and non-monospaced version of my runic script that is the size of Dragon Warrior characters.

Below that is a sample of my Celtic script, and underneath the Dragon Warrior scripts and my script are the first four lines of Beowulf in my runic script. Below that is the same phrase written in my Celtic script, but in the actual (and hard to read) Ogham script.

I bet you're wondering what all this is for. I'll explain in my next post. But for now, please add your input and suggestions!

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Pixel Art / Small iso dump, need input [wip]
« on: May 29, 2012, 02:28:50 pm »
Hello forum!

This is not my first attempt at pixel-pushing as you might be able to tell, but I'm no expert, either. This is my first time doing isometric work, though. That's why I'm posting some of my work - I'd like some input on my work as I make progress. This is a small "dump" of everything I've made so far for this project.

Some goals I have for this are to improve my palette and develop my tile-making skills. Right now I'm at about 26 colors, and as I continue to make sprites and tiles, I want to develop my palette into a more limited color range.


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