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Messages - madforthefiddle
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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Generic Platform Hero #784
« on: February 25, 2009, 03:47:44 am »
So by making the jump from the "at his side" to "out in front" frames without much in the middle, it looks like a quicker attack?


Edit: Duh, of course it'll be quicker - what I meant was stronger.   :yell:

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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Generic Platform Hero #784
« on: February 25, 2009, 03:33:06 am »
Here's what I ended up with after working with your version:



The upward swing is a nice animation, but it doesn't suit a morning star. For most blunt force weapons, a downward swing with a little bit of hip pivoting is a lot more damaging than swinging up towards the jawline.
With that in mind I kept my "morning star is closer to the viewer" frame in order to keep that downward arc consistent.

I incorporated your two extra arm animations (start-up and follow-through), but I moved the hair around a bit (and fixed up some shoulder pad stuff too - or maybe I screwed it up  :blind:). When you say you added extra strength was it by throwing the hair forward while the morning star was completely extended? If so, I think I may have undone that change, but having the thing sticking out mid-swing seemed odd.

Oh yeah, I noticed that the extended arm on frame 6 is all wonky - I've fixed it up in my still version, but the only method of gif making I have at the moment is too much of a hassle to repost the animation just for that.

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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Generic Platform Hero #784
« on: February 24, 2009, 11:50:04 pm »
Okay, I think I got the banding out of the hair. No more gradient snakes there.

I decided to emulate the platform hero and press onward. Today was the day that the platform hero learned his most useful skill. What could this be you ask? Walking? Jumping? NO!


Hitting stuff.

The hair gave me more trouble than I care to admit - especially the shading. I tried to keep my light source in mind, but I also wanted to make sure that the hair looked like it was moving. Here is a break down of the frames in case you want a closer look at that mess.


The four frames on the bottom comprised my first hittin' animation, but the static hair looked a little dead. Two more frames and a little extra hair on the standing frame later and I ended up with the second row.

Any advice on shading, animation, or anything else you see wrong with today's work is greatly appreciated! Thank you all very much!

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Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Generic Platform Hero #784
« on: February 23, 2009, 08:47:46 pm »
Well, I learned quite a bit from your critique Gil, thanks!

The thing I immediately noticed was the contrast. Working with a limited palette, making those related colors pretty different goes a long way. Also, darkening the outline really made those colors pop.

After that, I had to look up what banding referred to (like I said, I've never done shading before). I saw bad banding in the left boot and in the right arm - if y'all thought it was terrible elsewhere let me know.

Speaking of things that were terrible, I hadn't noticed just how awful that lump of flesh at the end of his right arm was. Funny how shaving off his Popeye forearm by one pixel and extending the hand solved that one. I did steal Gil's skin tone and shading on the right arm because, so far, I haven't managed to find anything that looked better (if it isn't banding, it baffles me). I'm going to keep trying though - I don't want to steal from the critique.

Here's the thing I still don't get - anti-aliasing. Gil really made the hair outline flow into the guy's hair color nicely, but I'm not sure the rhyme or reason for the particular locations of lightened pixels. Is it just the sort of thing you eyeball until it looks good?


Well, enough blathering about my continued education of the pixel, here's my updated version (number 1 is the original, 2 is Gil's critique, and 3 is my update):




As awesome as the blue hue in the armor looked, I wanted to keep his colors in the "warm" range. I can't decide, though, if my choice of color has made his armor look something other than metallic.

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General Discussion / Re: Read the Rules, then introduce yourself here.
« on: February 23, 2009, 04:50:36 am »
Assuming this gets read, here is a quick introduction:

I've been playing games since the C64 and I've always been amazed by what people have been able to do with a few strategically placed dots. In the bits of time that aren't really spare but aren't entirely someone else's either, I've been known to throw some dots together with disasterous results. Over the past few weeks I've decided to buckle down and learn a thing or two about serious pixel drawing, and in that time I think I've made some small progress. Still, no way better to learn than to throw myself at the mercy of those with more experience! I'm  looking forward to learning from all y'all.

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Pixel Art / [WIP] Generic Platform Hero #784
« on: February 23, 2009, 04:41:14 am »
Hello pixel artists! Just slapped together a little fellow that's been floating around in my head for some time now. Thing is, I've never really given shading an honest try, so I was wondering if y'all had any pointers for me (my shaded attempts are on the right, complete with Earth's yellow sun as a light source). If you're wondering, I've got a 12 color palette because that's how many colors the guy had in my head (I know the idea is to use restricted palettes, but I just had to color in his black leggings - even if it only is 2 pixels in this particular pose).

I plan on giving him more frames (running, jumping, ducking, attacking, and all of the other things a generic platform hero might need), but before I go nuts I'd like to know how I could improve my shading.



Thanks everyone!

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