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.


Messages - Stefano
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 8

21
Pixel Art / Dithering practice.
« on: December 31, 2009, 07:26:36 pm »
I have been practising my dithering skills to try and improve my entry for the Random Challenge. Pixel art wise, dithering has always been a major pebble in my shoe (along with palette picking) and this seems like a good opportunity to try to get rid of it.

For starters, I'd like to say that I'm fairly well acquainted with with the basic concept of what dither is (and what it's used for) and tried to study Arachne's marvellous mastery of this technique in some of her works. I've also read many useful posts.

And yet something seems to be still lacking... :blind:

----[EDIT 1]----

I'm now dithering something with a less dull topography (still in 2-bit, for the extreme contrast).
I'm starting with the black lines on white background, adding a 50% dither band, in places I see fit.
01.27.2010 - Still upgrading.

----[EDIT 2]----

[Ptoing's dither reference!]
The major difficulty seems to be creating a illusion on 3Dness with such a markedly 2D-enforcing pattern.
Looks like the less uniform bits of pattern can't be used or they'll break the rhythm and pop up from the rest of the pixel "mesh". Maybe they're meant to provide a smoother ramps for huge areas? I'm in fact using only 4 or 5 out of 256:

Hum....

----[EDIT 3]----

I spoke too soon. I'm managing to assimilate more and more of the shown patterns into the mixture.
It seems the brain slowly starts to visually make sense of each repeating formation (as if they were little pictures or letters) and after a while it feels a lot like you're "reading/writing" the gradient, on a multi-directional text. It's really weird.

I still didn't get rid of the "dot-matrix printer" effect because I could't get it to look right. *sigh*

----[EDIT 4]----

Well, the scope of this work is rapidly getting of getting out of control. But in a good way.
It's teaching me so much more than diether techniques as I read through magnificent dither-related posts I keep finding.


I hope I don't get lost inside the sea of information and end up neglecting my piece as it has happened many times before, but dang: this is interesting!

----[EDIT 5]----

Yep. I'm still working on this one (April 15th).
I've been studying anatomy and hopefully that'll allow me to improve this piece.

22
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: Game Artin': Start -> Finish (updated 6/27/09)
« on: June 30, 2009, 09:23:35 pm »
Doppleganger,

I know you declared this thread finished and I also know that enough has been said about anatomy.
But just because this is an awesome thread, I did an edit anyway, just to show you a few more ways to use anatomy on your male character.

swaping:


final product:


Apart from the anatomy part I have absolutely nothing to add!
Awesome mockup my friend. :y:

23
Challenges & Activities / Re: Palette Workshop Challenge
« on: June 18, 2009, 02:29:02 am »
Still WIPs, but getting them done, finally:
(1)


(2)


(3)


(4)



24
2D & 3D / Re: Official OT-Creativity Thread 2
« on: October 10, 2008, 08:29:53 pm »
Interpretation of a character called Granny Rurbuncle, for an online competition:
Granny Rurbuncle runs the orphanage. She’s somewhere between 65 and 95 years old, and is an orphan herself. She’s lived in the orphanage for all her life. While she complains about the pain in her back quite often, she can move in a way you wouldn’t expect from a lady of her age. Nevertheless, when she walks she intensively uses her cane (not just for walking by the way). She normally wears a coat and hat, that were donated by the mayor’s wife (fifteen or so years ago; it’s worn out nowadays).


25
Challenges & Activities / Re: Mockup Frenzy #8: Megaman!
« on: September 01, 2008, 10:58:06 pm »
Quote from: ptoing on September 01, 2008, 10:40:05 am
It's no problem if you submit later, it's not like there are prizes to be won :D
Silly me. You're right! :P
Will be posting soon.

[right here!]

26
Challenges & Activities / Re: Mockup Frenzy #8: Megaman!
« on: September 01, 2008, 01:40:52 am »
Tsc. I don't think I'll manage to finish until midnight. :ouch:

EDIT: oh. It was past midnight already.

27
Archived Activities / Re: Isometric Collaboration IV - IT IS UPON US!
« on: August 28, 2008, 11:44:15 pm »
Quote from: ptoing on June 21, 2008, 01:10:17 pm
FREE TILES:
NONE

 :'( Noooo! I'm too late.

28
Pixel Art / Re: Aldo's Adventure
« on: January 16, 2008, 07:37:38 pm »
The only thing I liked in the original version - that seemed to give your mock-up a fresh look as it has already been stated -, was that "pond" that started behind the character plane and seemed to extend all the way back to the mountains, killing the usual "gap" between these planes, and relating much better to your main character. Reeds, pebbles and moss would add to the overall mood...

Great work, Mask.
Makes me want to play the game... :y: ;)

29
Pixel Art / Re: Forest Minesweeper Mockup
« on: January 16, 2008, 07:19:40 pm »
Yeah, I was enjoying the nymph look on the girl too. But then came the cowboy and the octopus(?) and she seem to be out of place, all of the sudden.
I feel a slight lack of cohesion when I look at the character choices. It's like in that game: "which one of these is not an animal?" and then there is a cork lying in the middle of the zoo, except that in this case, each character takes me to one different group of sensations. I think since mine-sweeper is a casual game of sorts, I think a clearer relation between the characters should work better (like you did with the basic themes. Forest, Desert, Sea. Green, Yellowish, Blue. Perfect!).

Suggestions:

A: Fantasy
1. Forest - nymphy girl. Pointy ears, wings, crown of flowers (leaves)
2. Desert - maybe a little red sand daemon. Snake/lizard resemblance, wearing sand-colored rags (Tuareg feel).
3. Sea - a little sea man with fins for ears and fish "lips".

B: Animals
Tons of options! Would look lovely if all looked like your cute octopus.

C: Heroes(or)Villains (couldn't come up with better examples, sorry)
1. Jungle boy (Tarzan style!)/pollution dude(environmental cliché villain)
2. Cowboy/Bank robber
3. Sailor (Popeye!)/Pirate (Har!)

D: War themed (relates well to mines)
1. Army - leaf camouflage
2. Army - desert camouflage
3. Navy

30
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] my first avatar...
« on: January 16, 2008, 06:26:56 pm »
Quote from: Helm on January 15, 2008, 03:50:07 pm
Well you obviously know what you're doing, so only nitpicks for you.
If you really mean that Helm, I feel like I've just taken a step towards the right direction. Thanks.

Now to your comments:
A: I see what you mean. Originally that dark area was part of the hairline and should have received the same treatment as the chin puff (thus preserving both the dark-hue depth and maintaining it's vertical aspect).
Hadn't really thought about the single pixel dither, but I agree it looks kind of choppy.

B: LOL! You caught me. Basically I was just trying to add an extra AA using an existing color hopping it would go unnoticed.

C: Yeah, I've considered both options. Breaking the line seemed like a better path to take (at least to my eyes), since:
1. doesn't feel like "selout" in this case, meaning the broken line in question blends well to both sides it is in contact with.
2. but I guess my main motivation was reducing the...
|
 \__ -> ...angled feeling I get when part of a curve have to be made of several single pixels in diagonal. It feels that no matter what I do, that flattening stair of pixels always screw up my curves.  :mean:

Dithering as Arachne would be a dream come true. I've always loved her outstanding dithering skills and was hoping maybe she'd drop by to give me a hand.
I guess I'll look at her works and practice some more and see if my non-50% dithering start looking less like crap.


Ikke,

I see what you mean, man. I agree it's more logical composition wise, but I dunno... in this specific case it isn't bothering me.
Maybe because it looks like a photo taken a few milliseconds later than it should have been...

Anyway, can't say I have any strong arguments to say this: it just doesn't bother me.
I'll definitely give your sugestion a shot, just to see if I'm missing something you could see.

Thanks a lot for helping me.  :y:

Cheers,
-Stefano

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 8