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Pixel Art / Re: [Feedback][CC] Retro 90s RPG Mockup
« on: August 19, 2019, 01:05:25 pm »
I agree it's probably best to remove it at this point.
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Pixel Art / Re: Anthro Arctic Wolf Portrait (48x48 pixels)
« on: August 19, 2019, 11:14:42 am »
A quick question: what kind of style are you aiming for? Illustrative? Cartoony? Have you got any examples of work in the style you want to achieve?
And a quick request: if you use the image zoom tool (the button below "bold") to display your work, it allows people to zoom in to your work in the page itself, and makes critique a lot more convenient.
And a quick request: if you use the image zoom tool (the button below "bold") to display your work, it allows people to zoom in to your work in the page itself, and makes critique a lot more convenient.
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Pixel Art / Re: [Feedback][CC] Retro 90s RPG Mockup
« on: August 19, 2019, 10:01:33 am »
Definitely looking way smoother! Good work.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so there's one horizontal-ish pattern of 4 bright pixels I'd probably want to break up or rotate through 90 degrees. But honestly, I'm stupidly sensitive to tiling issues and 99.99% of people will never notice an issue with what you have here. It's good, and any more work you put in will have diminishing returns.
I noticed the shadow coming off the left of the buildings. I mean, I've been looking at this image for a while and it took a while to spot, but it looks like the light source is coming from the exact right (but mainly from directly above), as the shadow extends horizontally from the base of the building. However, then you would only see a small triangle of shadow as the rest would be hidden by the wall.
If the light was coming from south-east (assuming north is up) then we wouldn't see the angled part of the wall casting a shadow, just the straight section. Assuming the shadow was long enough. At the current length it would be hidden.
The fact that both the angled section of wall and the straight section are casting a shadow kinda makes it look like the whole isometric design has been mapped onto a flat shape which is raised off the floor.
You could change the angle of the light or lengthen the shadows to fix it.
This is difficult to describe in words, so if you're interested and want an example as an image, let me know. But as I said, it took a while for me to notice this so you may not want to open up this particular can o' worms.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so there's one horizontal-ish pattern of 4 bright pixels I'd probably want to break up or rotate through 90 degrees. But honestly, I'm stupidly sensitive to tiling issues and 99.99% of people will never notice an issue with what you have here. It's good, and any more work you put in will have diminishing returns.
I noticed the shadow coming off the left of the buildings. I mean, I've been looking at this image for a while and it took a while to spot, but it looks like the light source is coming from the exact right (but mainly from directly above), as the shadow extends horizontally from the base of the building. However, then you would only see a small triangle of shadow as the rest would be hidden by the wall.
If the light was coming from south-east (assuming north is up) then we wouldn't see the angled part of the wall casting a shadow, just the straight section. Assuming the shadow was long enough. At the current length it would be hidden.
The fact that both the angled section of wall and the straight section are casting a shadow kinda makes it look like the whole isometric design has been mapped onto a flat shape which is raised off the floor.
You could change the angle of the light or lengthen the shadows to fix it.
This is difficult to describe in words, so if you're interested and want an example as an image, let me know. But as I said, it took a while for me to notice this so you may not want to open up this particular can o' worms.
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Pixel Art / Re: thoughts on my kurama?
« on: August 08, 2019, 12:59:26 pm »
That's beautiful Keops. I love your style.
I made a couple of iterative steps working more on the front side of the beast. These are really quick and rough to demonstrate some ideas, not polished or finished.
Here I took your ear and smoothed off the outline. Previously you were creating a 'staircase' look (with double outline pixels at the steps) which looks blocky. If you want to make nice curves, avoid staircases and find a single pixel line. I also smoothed the forehead, getting rid of that big square corner.
Try to create curves by altering the number of pixels per "step" slowly and in sequence. So a curve of 3,3,2,2,1,1,1,2,2,3,3 would look good, but 3,2,3,2,2,3,2,2,1,2,1 etc. will look jagged. If you see what I mean. Making right angle with 2 pixels per side will also look jagged. If you need that explained more, just ask.
There were a few issues with the head IMO. I've tried to address some of them here.
- It was completely side-on. I rotated it a bit and smoothed it off (using the curve rules above) to give the impression it's looking round at you. It's for the drama, dahling.
- The mouth was a bit small to create a decent expression. I made it a bit bigger and tried to give it a little bit of a sneer.
- The rear ear was a completely different shape to the front ear. I changed the shape of both to make them match a bit more, based on the artwork above.
- I added some shading around the face. Under the eye (shadow), and to the side of the eye (furrowed brow).
- I added a little lighter red and white to the eye, to make it stand out. I added a pink to help here.
The rest was creating some clumps of fur around the back of the face. They should act as an outline to separate the head from the body, and also start giving the impression of fur. Some of the outlines are a bit thicker to start giving the impression of shadow.
I've roughly placed the new head on the body. I think hunched shoulders will look a bit more menacing and a bit less like a well trained dog.
I've smoothed out the front paw and the back a bit as well, using the same rules as above.
Here's a first go at some clumps of fur across the back. Pull out the fur, add a shadow underneath. There were a couple of changes to the head fur and a bit of shadow under the ear. I added a new shade for that.
Now I started adding in shadow, taking into account the shape of the parts of the animal. This is really rough, I was running out of time! Still, the belly shadow starts to sell the impression of clumps of fur more; the top doesn't look quite as much like it's made of chiseled wood. Notice the shadow between the claws on the front paw, adding more 3D information.
These are just some ideas, I hope you find them useful. If you haven't read it yet, the fox thread in the featured section goes into a lot of anatomy, which really helped with the shape of the overall animal. If this was my piece I'd be starting off by moulding the shape of the beast to make it more convincing.
I made a couple of iterative steps working more on the front side of the beast. These are really quick and rough to demonstrate some ideas, not polished or finished.
Here I took your ear and smoothed off the outline. Previously you were creating a 'staircase' look (with double outline pixels at the steps) which looks blocky. If you want to make nice curves, avoid staircases and find a single pixel line. I also smoothed the forehead, getting rid of that big square corner.
Try to create curves by altering the number of pixels per "step" slowly and in sequence. So a curve of 3,3,2,2,1,1,1,2,2,3,3 would look good, but 3,2,3,2,2,3,2,2,1,2,1 etc. will look jagged. If you see what I mean. Making right angle with 2 pixels per side will also look jagged. If you need that explained more, just ask.
There were a few issues with the head IMO. I've tried to address some of them here.
- It was completely side-on. I rotated it a bit and smoothed it off (using the curve rules above) to give the impression it's looking round at you. It's for the drama, dahling.
- The mouth was a bit small to create a decent expression. I made it a bit bigger and tried to give it a little bit of a sneer.
- The rear ear was a completely different shape to the front ear. I changed the shape of both to make them match a bit more, based on the artwork above.
- I added some shading around the face. Under the eye (shadow), and to the side of the eye (furrowed brow).
- I added a little lighter red and white to the eye, to make it stand out. I added a pink to help here.
The rest was creating some clumps of fur around the back of the face. They should act as an outline to separate the head from the body, and also start giving the impression of fur. Some of the outlines are a bit thicker to start giving the impression of shadow.
I've roughly placed the new head on the body. I think hunched shoulders will look a bit more menacing and a bit less like a well trained dog.
I've smoothed out the front paw and the back a bit as well, using the same rules as above.
Here's a first go at some clumps of fur across the back. Pull out the fur, add a shadow underneath. There were a couple of changes to the head fur and a bit of shadow under the ear. I added a new shade for that.
Now I started adding in shadow, taking into account the shape of the parts of the animal. This is really rough, I was running out of time! Still, the belly shadow starts to sell the impression of clumps of fur more; the top doesn't look quite as much like it's made of chiseled wood. Notice the shadow between the claws on the front paw, adding more 3D information.
These are just some ideas, I hope you find them useful. If you haven't read it yet, the fox thread in the featured section goes into a lot of anatomy, which really helped with the shape of the overall animal. If this was my piece I'd be starting off by moulding the shape of the beast to make it more convincing.
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Pixel Art / Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG
« on: August 06, 2019, 05:19:26 pm »
About using different styles, be careful. If you use a consistent style throughout your game will seem tighter, more consistent and more professional. If you use different styles you run the risk of looking like a game assembled from asset packs.
The only game I've seen work with different styles well was one where each level was a different era in computer game graphics.
You're acting as de facto art director for this project, and as far as I can tell, one of the jobs of an art director is to maintain a consistent art style throughout the project...
The only game I've seen work with different styles well was one where each level was a different era in computer game graphics.
You're acting as de facto art director for this project, and as far as I can tell, one of the jobs of an art director is to maintain a consistent art style throughout the project...
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Pixel Art / Re: thoughts on my kurama?
« on: August 06, 2019, 11:20:40 am »
I just noticed that the example image I found was also working on 100% saturation for the two shades it was using. I don't recommend using this palette.
It could be that this intense saturation is part of the feel/personality of the character (who I admittedly don't recognize). If that's the case then at least these shades are separate enough in hue and value that there's an obvious difference.
It could be that this intense saturation is part of the feel/personality of the character (who I admittedly don't recognize). If that's the case then at least these shades are separate enough in hue and value that there's an obvious difference.
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Pixel Art / Re: Attack Animations
« on: August 06, 2019, 11:14:15 am »
Just a generally positive response. It definitely looks like the character is rolling a marble or similar between fingers now. Great work.
The thumb work makes me think of LucasArts Monkey Island animations for some reason. Not a bad thing by any means!
The thumb work makes me think of LucasArts Monkey Island animations for some reason. Not a bad thing by any means!
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Pixel Art / Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG
« on: August 06, 2019, 11:10:43 am »
This is a 3 minute edit to remove shadows and increase spume opacity over the underwater shells.
Not my best work but I think they look more underwater now.
Especially the leftmost shell.
Not my best work but I think they look more underwater now.
Especially the leftmost shell.
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Pixel Art / Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG
« on: August 06, 2019, 10:19:45 am »
Your spume is beautiful! Please tell me you're going to animate it! 
Something about the shells in the sea makes me think they're above the surface. It could be the shadows and the spume opacity. I'll try an experiment later today, if it works out I'll post it.
Something about the shells in the sea makes me think they're above the surface. It could be the shadows and the spume opacity. I'll try an experiment later today, if it works out I'll post it.
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Pixel Art / Re: [Feedback] Hearthstead - farming/town life Simulation RPG
« on: August 05, 2019, 02:10:41 pm »
No worries. I forgot to say: I really like how you've made the leaves poke out of the edge of the tree. That kind of edge detail is really important for "selling" an image to the brain.