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Messages - astraldata
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21
General Discussion / Re: A question to the pixel art veterans!
« on: August 16, 2018, 04:12:47 pm »
Lol, and back on topic --

Street, I definitely agree with everything said here so far about finances, etc.

As Kiana mentioned, professional pixel art is generally just one of many mediums of "art" many of the "veteran" pixel artists dabble in.

However, at the same time, I think it's important to mention that pixel art can also be a springboard into other forms of art that take you farther than the pixel medium can do alone. It was what got me more heavily into animation, digital painting and also into 3D modeling and design. I still use many of the concepts I learned in pixel art and animation when working in other mediums. It is a very robust and highly worthwhile skill to have when you take the time to get into the weeds of it and learn "the way of the pixel" -- Doing this will teach you how to "see" the process of making art in a way no other medium can offer, and in a way that will help you in some way with nearly any visual medium you'll ever pursue.

I hope this also helps you in some way and gives you some further insight on why pixel art is still meaningful to learn, even if it isn't very financially beneficial to you specifically.

22
General Discussion / Re: A question to the pixel art veterans!
« on: August 16, 2018, 03:37:32 pm »
or something that looks like that new thundercats reboot (absolutely not good)

Oh wow... wtf... I am completely behind the times on my "reboots" these days.

I had to google this because I thought the (anime-style) Thundercats reboot was actually pretty decent-looking (and I always wondered why it was cancelled!) So, after your comment, I had to understand why Samurai Jack looked "better" than the reboot I remembered. I know not everyone likes anime, but it was really well-drawn... Then that's precisely when I saw... "Thundercats 2019"... and... well......

Thanks, MysteryMeat, you just made me barf in my mouth after that one.



23
Pixel Art / Re: Is this ghostly bow appropriate?
« on: August 16, 2018, 03:08:01 pm »
I'm seeing it too, and I think that edit CFK did actually makes it worse xd

Lol -- I think you're right...!

There is no angle I can see that would not make this look sexual in some way.


There are only a few options here that could help:

1) let the arrow float up and down (separate motion from the bow) with the string not moving while the bow floats as it is now
2) no movement at all on the bow
3) tell your client to make a ghostly joke about pr0n when the player sees the arrow icon for the first time because no matter how you move it, if the arrow continues to move *with* the bow (in the same direction), the player's mind will always think the two are together rather than the bow *and* the arrow...

24
Pixel Art / Re: Flourish Animation
« on: August 16, 2018, 02:56:57 pm »
That's definitely an improvement in adding some interest to the motion, but the arc seems to be a bit too straight at the beginning (coming from the straight throw). It might be worth it to give some sort of a hint as to *what* she is actually throwing (i.e. a spear, a ball of energy, or what?) to get a better idea of its weight and trajectory (and thus be able to give us a better idea of what we're seeing too and why its trail seems to be wobbling at the end or why the arc suddenly jerks so quickly back to the spot where she falls).

Also, I won't say that the fall is too fast (but there is no clearly-visible anticipation before the heavy fall), however I will say that there needs to be some delay before the rainbow energy shoots up to make up for that lack of anticipation (and to make the rainbows look like they've got *some* sort of impact -- assuming this is an attack of course.) To help with this "impact" or give a sense of danger, you could apply some variation in the lengths or angles of the rainbows coming from the ground. If they're all supposed to be equally dangerous, then you might want to make them all end up at the same height (but maybe vary their widths).

Regarding the shadow/snake guy, it's hard to follow what's happening with the (our) right hand as it's turning so it's throwing off the impression that she's turning around. Perhaps have the dark glove lag behind a little bit when the snake is behind her head and see if this helps the impression of her turning. You could also have the dark glove cross in front of the shirt too and poke out of the silhouette a bit to help with the impression. Either way could work.

Hope this helps!

25
Pixel Art / Re: Bear Punch animations for prototyping
« on: August 16, 2018, 02:35:37 pm »
This is a great concept, drawn very well, and Atnas has totally nailed almost everything, but there's a couple of other things too:

First, the arm is bent slightly (at the moment of the punch as well as the moment *after* the punch too.) There is no frame where the arm is extended directly straight from the initial position, which results from the movement/blur losing power and no frame (or secondary motion) shows the impact or its follow-up. The arm would be directly straight from a solid punch that was moving that fast, but it is curved the entire time of the punch.

Also, Atnas touched on this a bit, but the lower frame-count and the "speed lines" in the animation cause it to seem too jerky and distract from the movement itself. I know how tempting it is to draw these if you come from an illustration background, but you have to not be afraid to add in more frames (when you need them), and to avoid drawing anything too distracting (in an attempt to lead the eye), you definitely need the additional frames.

Rather than the distracting speed lines, you could open the fingers slightly for a frame and clench the fists (while adding secondary motion) as an alternative to the speed lines. Remember, speed lines are where light is smeared across frames. Use secondary motion and body language (through squash and stretch) instead to indicate speed.

Sometimes, even purposefully skipping frames and adding them in (with almost no changes) where you might otherwise not think to is enough to indicate the "force" you want. Try that before (when building up power) and delaying after impact too! This is how you have to do it sometimes when there isn't the convenience of "floppy" ears or material to bounce around.


Sorry for butting in, Atnas -- I just wanted to approach this from an illustrator's perspective a bit more too!

I hope this helps, Dawck!

26
Pixel Art / Re: Isometric Walk Animations
« on: June 12, 2018, 12:01:16 am »
These are really good for being "programmer art" lol, so great job, especially with anatomy.

Regarding the animation side of things, I just wanted to offer the "less is more" advice on regards to the mirrorable poses and shadows/shading on those poses.

To explain a bit better, the shadows are very jumpy. Now, while this may seem "more accurate" to the lighting to light each side individually in reference to the form and light source, in the end, it only creates more work and more "noise" for the viewer to have to process.

Keep in mind that the player sees more than this specific asset. There's a whole environment with other enemies, obstacles, etc, plus the layout of the terrain and the terrain details, not to mention the fact that he's on the lookout for danger and opportunities. That player is looking everywhere BUT at your carefully-shaded light source. In fact, as long as the form consists of the correct volumes and materials, you can forget about lighting direction almost entirely.

This is the reason why such detailed fighting game sprites get away with mirroring. Frankly, the player just doesn't notice! When you're so focused on dodging attacks and finding an opportunity to strike back, you rarely have time to notice the light shouldn't fall on a particular part of your character's thigh and biceps.

The key word here is "clarity" -- this is part of the KISS principle too. That is why you'd want to mirror the poses you can, and keep the volumes consistent for these poses, even if they're mirrored. In pixel animation, volume == lighting, and as such, the purpose of lighting pixels is to convey a sense of material and a sense of volume, simultaneously. To do this properly, the pixels you place and the colors you use must "feel" consistently used, and therefore must not move unless there's a change in volume or the location of a particular part of the material. Many sprites are "lit" from the front and above to make the mirroring process more consistent looking.

Hopefully this gives some useful insight on the hows and why's of some decisions made on the majority of professional sprites.

27
Pixel Art / Re: Help With A Horse Animation
« on: June 11, 2018, 05:29:37 am »
There is no lean forward with a head and shoulders. The horse almost looks like he's trying to slow down or keep his head back from running into something. He's definitely not running head-first into the wind.

You could try making both his head and neck longer. This will help the anatomy. Have you ever seen BoJack Horseman? He's got a huge neck and giant snout. Your horse has a micro head.

Also his back leg closest to the viewer looks like it is hurt as if it's trying not to touch the ground are put any weight on it as if it were a dog with a bum leg. That affects how he appears to run to the viewer. Try adding some up and down motion on the head and back. Currently, there is no sense of weight which leads to the appearance of a bum leg, exacerbated by the fact that the leg doesn't seem to bend either.

Hopefully this helps.

28
Pixel Art / Re: Flourish Animation
« on: June 11, 2018, 05:19:06 am »


I also decided to swap the throw arm, as it occurred to me that she might as well use the momentum of the swing.  It involved removing a frame of lead up, as well.

Doing this on my phone, but there needs to be some kind of anticipation before the throw. It starts too high, and even with the momentum of the spin in the air, the angle of the throw doesn't follow any visible arc to carry the momentum forward into the throw angle.

I'm really glad to see you still doing these. :D It's always really fun to see how crazy one can get with physics and still be somewhat convincing. :)

29
Pixel Art / Re: "No no" finger animation...
« on: September 28, 2017, 04:30:20 am »
I suggest repeating the animation with the whole hand moving 3 times continuously (without stopping) and then see what you think.

30
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP][CC]A little kobold, struggling with leg/arm anatomy.
« on: September 27, 2017, 09:35:09 pm »
Nice edit, Kellawgs! -- That's closer to the construction method of his reference image and was pretty much exactly what I was talking about in my first post in this thread.

It's worth noting to the OP that the two 'styles' of coloring are both valid (I have seen both in various retail games, and each has its own charm), but eliminating the outline like this has many practical benefits (which, too, is a stylistic choice for a sprite of this size, but in smaller sprites, it is generally a requirement). For one, removing the outline gives you A TON more room to work in your details and shift your forms around while keeping your silhouette having the same footprint across the canvas. The sprite looks bigger, but that's because it's taking advantage of all the unused space the outline took!

@ the OP:

As you can see in the edit, his forms are much easier to read -- the outline removal gives you one full shade more to work with in your forms, plus a ton of additonal pixels to use too! The difference is that these pixels were sparsely varied (reducing "noise" in the image, but again, a stylistic choice!) -- And as much as I love the "clusters" theory of pixels (usually credited to Helm), it was THIS style (the noisy one!) that tended to look the most "realistic" and "painterly" to people as it helped to show that 2D pixel art could look like a genuine (modern-day!) 3D rendered model when it wanted to! There's an appeal to that, and when you render a model at such a low resolution, you get a similar "noisy" look (trust me, I've done it lol) -- and of course, when doing this by hand, the result can be hundreds of thousands of times better than a simple render, so don't be afraid to accept that the "no outline, no noise" method is the only way -- it's just a different way -- with pros and cons -- and the biggest cons are the noise (sometimes leading to a lack of clarity and unintended artifacts) and the time it takes to render it by hand (which is generally a LOT in pixel art timescales!)

Another point about Kellawgs' edit is that if both were on a solid white BG, and you performed the squint test, you could tell his distant arm/leg are on a separate plane to his body due to the darkness of the colors he chose. Additionally, Kellawgs put the feet on a wide "table" rather than a thin "tightrope" as I mentioned in a previous post. The thighs are enlarged, the tail is lowered from the spine to behind his legs, and the claws are more pronounced. There's no real need to distinguish the claws from one another with various shades, but it's possible to do with one of the "green" shades if you really wanted to give the toe claws some 3D depth in the foreground. I'd leave the toe claws in the background leg of his edit alone though. The important thing about the claws being pointed down like that is that they "read" better as curved, dangerous, claws compared to your straight ones.

I hope that helps give a little more insight as to the hows and whys of the choices in Kellawgs' edit and reasons to potentially stick to your own style (or even a hybrid style) too! :)

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