Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - gamingjustin
Pages: [1]

1
Pixel Art / a mug shot
« on: March 16, 2009, 10:45:17 pm »


I'd never done a pixel from reference, so I figured a cut and dry self portrait would be a good place to start. I feel it looks inconsistent in its current state, but I'm unsure of how to fix it-- the ears and hair especially. Is it possible the palette is affecting this? I can get a smooth look on the face, but the darker areas are more difficult. So, if anyone can lend a hand-- any tips/suggestions at all-- it would be much appreciated! I want it to look polished, but it still looks incomplete.

Also, I was all over the place when I worked on this. I started in an old version of Photoshop Elements, roughing in values and line work. Then, I shifted gears to the recently discovered Grafx2 which is wayyyy beyond my understanding at the time being. I mucked around with colors for what seemed like an eternity until I settled on the pale red/purple look. Afterwords I shrunk it down and chopped it a bit; 128x128 was too large for me. I hacked at it to make it more defined, then flipped back to Photoshop to jack up the contrast and seriously work on the individual pixels. Whew. So, now I'm stuck. :(

2
General Discussion / Can someone explain the use of non-square pixels?
« on: October 12, 2008, 03:54:24 pm »
So, as my name denotes I like to play games. For years I have been playing arcade games via MAME and emulation, but never questioned until now the pixel aspect ratio of many of these games. A good example are ones for the CPS2 (Capcom Play System II). On the left is Pocket Fighter's native resolution at 384 x 224, on the right is Pocket Fighter mashed into a 320 x 240 resolution.


Despite the distortion and the ugly bicubic filter, I think the picture on the right looks more correct. The native resolution makes everything look wide. How come so many older games used unusual resolutions? Was it a trick to simulate higher detail when squished on a screen? Was it the nature of the technology they used to draw the graphics? I've tried looking into this and I've seen these kinds of pixels (in CPS2 games) described as being "oblong." Other resources I've found were a bit too technical, never really explaining why non-square pixels were used. Seeing how it's all about pixels here I figured this would be the place to ask. ;D If anyone knows feel free to share, I'm pretty curious. Thanks.

3
General Discussion / How does one go about pixeling something like THIS?
« on: September 18, 2008, 03:39:12 pm »


I stumbled upon a site called gfxzone.org which, from my understanding, serves as a database for art developed on Amiga computers. My question is how can one go about making something of similar quality? The color restrictions (256) and techniques used (lots of dithering) and resolution (640 x 512) dictate pixel art-- I guess this could technically be made in MS Paint. However, the scale, the blending of colors and the sheer amount of TIME this would take in a regular pixel program dictate otherwise, like a 256-color photoshop with dithering instead of smooth high-resolution blending.

Regardless, it's still impressive. I'm wondering how something like this was made, and how it could be made with modern software that could be found on a PC or Mac.

Thanks.

4
Pixel Art / A Helping Hand (black n white) [WIP]
« on: August 06, 2008, 08:47:51 pm »


As you can see, I'm having a bit of trouble making it look like the hand is pulling the skin back. Right now, it seems like the skin decided to rip itself open and a hand is just sort of just floating in front of it. Can anyone give me tips on how to make it look like the hand is interacting with the head?

Any tips and/or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, all.



Okay! Here's how far I've gotten. I'm no pro when it comes to dithering so I just stuck with the black-dot-every-other-pixel technique... I finally realized that the eyes are totally whacked out. The bottom half of his head is turned more than the top half of his head. Pretty cool stuff!! :( So, I guess this piece has become more abstract than I anticipated, yippee. Thanks again for the input, all. If you have any extra critiques please feel free to share.

5
Pixel Art / My first BIG pixel project... Lend a hand? (WIP)
« on: July 01, 2008, 11:52:20 pm »
Of all the pixel art I have ever done (which isn't much) the largest I've ever worked was maybe 64 x 64. I decided to be ambitious and kick it up a notch. I plan to draw three of these ancient, stoic-faced individuals (from different angles). Each head will be worked in a 200 x 200 pixel field. By the end I hope to have them all interacting with each other somehow. As far as a background goes, I have not yet decided.

Here's my main concern: Color choice. I think what I'm looking for is a selection of dull, earthy tones... but I don't want to just choose one color and ramp it from light to dark. All right, onto the pictures!  ;D




EDIT: Just showin' my drawing process up above.



THANKS for the tips! A big help. I think I conjured up a pretty decent 12-color palette which I'll implement rather soon. I'll keep y'all posted.

6
General Discussion / What is transparency?
« on: June 06, 2008, 04:06:06 am »
Well, as you can tell by my post count I'm rather new around here. I've been actively pixeling for years and years, but it was only until recently (about 5 months ago or so) that I discovered other people painstakingly draw dots on a computer screen as well-- for a long time I was completely oblivious to an entire community. So, being mostly ignorant I have a question: What is transparency?

Here's what I think it is: In Photoshop it's possible to set the opacity of a color being used. By doing this, (for example) one can tint or shade something without having to handpick specific colors. Is this close; way off track? Is this considered "cheating" or just another way to pixel?  :-[

Thanks in advance!

7
General Discussion / Want to help make a thread of color palettes from old harware (NES, MSX, etc)?
« on: January 21, 2008, 02:15:43 am »
Well let me start by saying I'm new around here-- So hi everyone, my name is (wouldn't you know it) Justin. I've been doing fine art for years and years; mostly drawing and sculpture. Always been a huge videogame player (another surprise!), which led me to pixel art. Now, on with the topic.

I'm mostly a black and white, pen and pencil person so when it comes to color choice I struggle to find good, coherent colors. I also love working within constraints as I'm sure just about everyone else here does. So, I thought perhaps we could make a list/collection of all the color palettes of old hardware (NES, C64, MSX, etc.) including their respective hardware limitations so people can still follow the "rules" in programs like Photoshop.

I think it'd be a great learning experience, as well as a nice collection of all these palettes. Sure, anyone could search around with Google but wouldn't it be nice to have it all in one thread right here?

Here's an image I found concerning the NES palette (I did not make this, of course):



Feel free to add more palettes 'n' stuff from other systems! Despite poking around ptoing's site and finding lots of examples I'm still not clear on all the graphics modes of the C64 for example. So list away; I hope my idea helps other newcomers.

Pages: [1]