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 - cauli
Pages: [1]

1
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Underwater Tree
« on: January 19, 2014, 01:40:24 pm »
At first it was hard to see the tree was the focal point.

Looked kind of like just a negative shape.

To fix this, you can brighten the floor where the tree stands,
or add highlights to the top leaves of the tree,
or even add shafts of light coming from the sky

I think before moving to the shape of the leaves you need to fix these value issues

2
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: [WIP] Experiment with colours
« on: January 11, 2014, 05:35:40 pm »
Cels, for me it is great. Congrats, nice piece!

3
Pixel Art / Re: Alien night scene
« on: January 10, 2014, 11:04:11 pm »
I think it is more about seeing your 2d drawing as a 3d shape than merely shading, and because of that it is best to let go the mouse and go back to the pencil when studying shading, just for a while.

Take a look at ctrlpaint tutorials.

http://ctrlpaint.com/videos/form-not-shape
http://ctrlpaint.com/videos/constructive-form-pt-1

And proko videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3WmrWUEIJo

Maybe someone here has more resources to share!

4
Pixel Art / Re: Alien night scene
« on: January 10, 2014, 10:35:53 pm »
I was going to say I liked the style, but then I saw your reference, hehe

Well, I would say: You need a reference.

Even in traditional art, it is pretty common to do master copies, that way you can understand some of the subtleties of each artist, and get a little piece of what makes his/her art great. Just like Mega-Man.

But as you get better, try to start avoiding literal translations. That way you can maybe put the image you created into your portfolio.
Look at a real cloud, see if you can translate something that is not pixel art into pixels.

Compared to the reference, I would say you did highlights in the mountains that are far too repetitive (in angle and form) and that the mountains' colors are a bit too contrasty with the background. Maybe it also lacks some understanding of form for proper shading.

The contour of the mountains aren't too pleasing, and this is:
Partially because the lines are jagged (http://www.minddesk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Classic_Pixel-Art_Basics_Tutorial)
Partially because of tangents (it seems like the top of the rightmost mountain is exactly at the corner of the page, for instance)
Partially because the countour looks undecided in one point (first valley from right to left)

But these tips apply to other things in the image that aren't as unpleasing as the mountains, like jagged lines in the clouds.

I hope that helps!

5
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: [WIP] Experiment with colours
« on: January 08, 2014, 02:07:23 am »
Hi cels,

First of all, I like your first painting, it may fit really well in a game, with a background. Pink and green is probably the most complicated complimentary colors to start with, because it just feels weird, but in your case it fits the theme and I think it is a good thing.

When I work with complimentary colors, I try to think as if one of them was the main color, and the other was just a supporting color.

This means that if the main color is highly saturated, you probably want the supporting to be less.
If your main color is kind of bright, make the secondary the opposite.

I plotted the colors of your image to a color wheel à la James Gurney (His books are GOOD), maybe someone can come up with some conclusion, because I couldn't, :)

It takes in account only Saturation and Hue, not Brightness (we would need a 3d color wheel for that)



6
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] [C+C] Game walk cycle - Newbie
« on: January 06, 2014, 10:34:15 pm »
Hello Xolotl

It is much easier to start with an orthographic view, a side walk cycle.

I would suggest you to rework your walk using this image as a reference. It's from the book Animator's Survival Kit.



Notice the foot angle, height of the whole body compared to the legs angle, the bending arms can make. Your little guy is too stiff.

One major thing I noticed is that it looks like he walks one step forward then one step back. He never lifts his right leg! The arms movement are more plausible (no need for the shoulder movement though).


7
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: Pacific Grove
« on: January 05, 2014, 06:21:23 pm »
Nice work! I agree you need some weight on the left side.

Here's one suggestion on that.




You could even be subtler by just moving the clouds to top left and the trees a little bit to the center.

8
Pixel Art / Re: Black bear C+C
« on: January 03, 2014, 07:21:35 pm »
Hey AWhiteRabbit.

Well, the first thing that struck me as odd are the colors.
A polar bear is usually of a warm-white color. Many times yellow, as usually juuust slightly darker in value than the snow.
A black bear would probably be more brownish and darker in value than yours.

The head is odd because the snout is too long for the perspective.

He is missing his paw and, because you are missing his paw, the elbow joint is maybe in an odd position.

You need some color variation in the trees. Wouldn't they be covered in snow?

Maybe also improve your composition by rearranging the elements in a less ordered fashion. Add some sky, maybe a moon or some branches in the foreground, remember to always keep the composition balance.


9
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Runcycle.
« on: December 30, 2013, 01:22:00 am »
@Senevri

As HarveyDentMustDie said, your leg movement is very short.

But the main reason it is not working is that the animated body is not going up and down!

There is a moment in every running cycle where the body jumps, and both feet are off the ground.
Same thing with horses, 4 feet off the ground. Animator's survival guide is really good at teaching this.

You running cycle looks like Racewalking because of this, always a foot on the ground. It is a really good Racewalking, though!


10
Pixel Art / Re: Endboss
« on: December 30, 2013, 01:01:07 am »
Hi r0ber7,

It really is flat, and that is because you are lacking the three dimensionality in your drawing, that is something the shading can't really fix, even the best shading.

My suggestion is: grab a pencil and paper, and watch these tutorials on youtube by proko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EPNYWeEf1U&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL39135B8D190B7C97

See how the forms are based on basic primitives?

IMHO, you need to be able to depict those forms using shading on paper and only then try that with pixels.

Best regards,
cauli

Pages: [1]