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Messages - YDVitamins
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1
Pixel Art / Re: theater scene
« on: September 07, 2018, 07:07:41 pm »
Eishiya's points still apply here; you've not addressed them. Maybe you're misinterpreting.

The biggest issue here for readability is value and color. Your middleground (the front of your background in this case since your chars are the foreground) is standing out too much because of your wide range of values all across it, and your characters are blending into that value range because it's so busy. Like, if I squint my eyes, I can't distinguish your chars from the middleground. Revisit your background with colors that you can assign to a particular value on the scale, while keeping the idea of how atmospheric or aerial perspective affect this the closer your land gets to the horizon.

You have an idea of atmospheric/aerial perspective, but you can push it more and lower the contrast as you go into the distance. Here's an example photograph of this:

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*rkGrwbvnjm1MSDWt.

As for understanding value in color, take a look at this image from this website that explains the steps. You can also read the next few pages on the site's lesson on color as it still relates to using color to create a value scale:

http://www.sovek.com/view/basics/color/01.htm

If you take a look at backgrounds for video game stages for example, you'll often be able to see how the background's colors and lighting allow for foreground characters to be emphasized and readable. You get a sense of uniformity, like in this Street Fighter example, this one from Mario Odessey and something awesome from fellow user darkfalzx.

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Pixel Art / Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite
« on: September 07, 2018, 04:19:46 pm »
Mm, well, if you were going for specifically an anime shtick, that didn't even come across for me. I wouldn't even call that "chibi" because there's a certain convention in how that's portrayed. Older games designed the sprites they did as a decision concerning not just style and gameplay, but money and time budgets on console restrictions, not necessarily because they're Japanese with a pop convention in art if that's where your head's at.

Anyway, you've been given some strong advice from three of us now, so try applying them and practicing. When or as you practice your fundamentals and get a decent grasp of them, take a look at some tutorials that analyze game sprites since you used one as your reference and tried to stick to those limitations. This one personally helped me when I made my own 16x32 overworld char sprites for the first time this past month, and it talks about some of the things that have already been mentioned here. Good luck!

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Pixel Art / Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite
« on: September 07, 2018, 01:20:46 pm »
Not sure what you mean by "super deformed". What I understand is your attempt at showing off too much in a very limited space without the fundamental knowledge of anatomy, proportion and elements of design to alter it stylistically.

If you want to draw Johnny Bravo—an established character and easily identifiable silhouette—then draw Johnny Bravo. The proportions, colors, and shapes that comprise a form are signature of character design. When you understand that and practice this deconstruction and reconstruction, you'll have less trouble discerning what details are and aren't unimportant information to convey to the audience.

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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] [Feedback] My D&D Character
« on: July 22, 2018, 07:43:00 pm »
I share Teriyaki's statement. Your original concern was about how to shade and highlight the clothes. I know you have the colors you used for the specific palette that makes up your character, but if those are the only colors you're allowing yourself, your character will keep their low-contrast, and therefore flatter-looking clothes. We use highlights and shading to suggest a more 3D form. The best example on your avatar right now is the contrast in the face, and upon closer inspection, the subtle use of that single middle tone pixel to suggest a gradation which softens the edge. In contrast (no pun intended) the cape itself has no other values to match the lighting your outlines are suggesting for the whole form.

So when I asked if you were limiting yourself to a palette, I mean the preset array of colors from which you selected for your sprite, not exclusively the colors your sprite is made of (ex. My palette is the 54 colors used in the NES; one of my sprites uses only 8 of those colors). If your palette has more colors, you have more opportunity to add different contrasting colors so your character's lighting is more dramatic and arrayed. But if you're limiting yourself to just the colors you have here, it's time to think about incorporating your outline colors into the actual form, and making some adjustments.

I'd edit your sprite as an example to show you what I mean if I knew which you're going for.

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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] [Feedback] My D&D Character
« on: July 22, 2018, 01:44:07 pm »
No problem, Crow! It absolutely looks more uniform.

Are you working with a particular color preset? Like myself, using Aseprite, I'm working on larger sprites with an NES color preset (index 55; 54 colors) so it's limiting to me and forcing me to come up with color compromises and shading techniques. If you aren't limited to anything, I think you can absolutely go more dramatic with your lighting overall on your sprite.

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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] [Feedback] My D&D Character
« on: July 21, 2018, 08:36:21 pm »
Now that's one cutie right there!

Because this is pretty minimal everything needs to contribute to a directional light source. That includes your colored outlines. The bun in the back has a very light top, but the outline for the rest of the hair and face is dark, and gets lighter towards the bottom, so it's as if light is coming from below in the front and above in the back. Then there's that "refracted" light in the color of the hair on our left side that's muddling it, too. And yet still, your cloak is light at the top, but the outline gets darker as you go down. You have something going on with the pants, but if it's not just a stripe pattern and is supposed to represent shading below the knee, it's too high on the leg, but shows directional light from the front and above as with both the belt buckle and what the cloak possibly suggests. And then the shoes have light coming from either side there at the bottom.

Once you focus your light source, your shading will fall into place. Think about where you want your light coming from, make an easily recognizable dot off in the ether to represent the source, and imagine that ray striking from that direction. You can draw directional lines if it helps you more visually zone.

7
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Stone Statue
« on: March 20, 2018, 02:41:00 am »
Oh, thank you!

I hadn't even noticed the chip off her right hip, yeah. Applying that now.
The greens look more like a tone now after clean-up.
I didn't even think about noise. I think I'm so used to dithering and mark-making to try and convey what I want, but noise definitely adds a weathered texture here that I ultimately want. Did you draw every mark, or is there a tool that does some distortion?
Mm, I messed around with an open mouth, but I haven't found anything I liked yet. I'll try redoing the face for a scream.

8
Pixel Art / Re: Pixel Kylo Ren
« on: March 20, 2018, 01:05:22 am »
I tried to do a quick sketch over it and see what could be done.



I don't know anything about Star Wars, but from how stocky he looks in your image, I just imagined he was a beefcake. Also, I am by no means an anatomy expert, so pardon if it looks cartoonish. I've seen some here color out the muscle groups, maybe that person will stop by.

The big thing here is proportion and foreshortening. His shoulders are wide, but his left arm is thin and too far out. Bring that whole arm in some, thicken it, and get a little more exaggerated with the ribbing in his sleeve to show more direction and depth. We want it to look like that elbow is going back in space, and we want to keep the length of the upper arm equal to the length of the forearm. Right now, the upper arm looks shorter than the forearm.

For his right arm and hand, it's again more foreshortening. The hand and forearm are closer to us in space, so we want them to be larger—they're too small right now. And the curve of the ribbing on the forearm can be a little deeper too, just to push that illusion of perspective. (I changed the angle of your hand a little in my sketch, but that's not necessarily a suggestion, that's just me not into hands today, lol). You may want to add some visible darks and red highlight in that hand, too. It's pitch black and no light escapes it.

That's all I see, though. I hope that helps!

9
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Stone Statue
« on: March 20, 2018, 12:10:04 am »
Alright, here we go:



Removed the highlights and thinned the black shadows so that the contrast is low, got rid of the green and went for a lighter base grey just so the darker grey became another middle tone, tried with the hand, and redid a few things including the face since I want a dramatic appearance.

Thoughts?

10
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Stone Statue
« on: March 19, 2018, 01:48:16 pm »
Thank you, folks!

Yeah, as I look at it, the hand is resting on the fold and not actually gripping it. I need to show the cloth between the thumbs. I'll finagle with that.

Metal, I totally see that. Earlier when I colored, I think I had more metal in mind. I played around with the idea of changing the green to a rust color (rusted iron), or keeping the green and changing the greys to a copper color (tarnished bronze), but then I felt the placement of the eroding color would look too directional and not organic. Consequently, I turned around and said, "It's no longer metal; now it's stone." I see now that someone picked up on that too in the contrast. I'm still gunning for stone though, as I need to learn!

I'll cut back on the shadows and try a more neutral/warmer green. Smooth out some lines, etc. Might mess around with different colors in another mock-up to compare what I can do about this palette. I'll share it in my next post!

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