Ah, I just realized I never answered all your questions Manupix.

First thing to clarify: is it a real bird in a toy-like setting, or is everything supposed to look toy-like?
Then how is it going to be animated, what actions are planned?

I originally was trying to make it look more stylized and wooden/toyish. I seem to have gradually gone against that, partly because I can't seem to get my old tree to look right lit from above, and partly because the owl looks so much better now and doesn't really look wooden/toyish to me. If you have any recommendations on how to get the original tree looking lit from above, yet maintaining it's elegant simplicity, I'd absolutely love to hear it.

Something I didn't think of about the wheel is the problem of size vs anim.
It's going to require a large number of frames to look smooth at this size, and lines will look bad at all angles other than the present one. Can you downsize it significantly?
It can be done anyway =)

Unfortunately I cannot downsize it. The bird must interact with it. I've removed the water wheel from my recent images because I'm going to rework it to try to come up with something that works better at odd angles.

Previous grass was better. When I said noisy, I meant that the bright pixels looked random instead of defining blades of grass clearly. Keep a few blades only but make them clearer and a bit larger if needed.

Thank you for this! It put me on the right track and I now love my grass.


I reworked the grass. The tree became a kind of bushy tree with more detail. Fence shading was improved. And I randomly added: a bucket, a ladder, and another bird. I tried to make the bird look more toyish/wooden, partly because that's where my original concept laid, and partly for practice.

Sorry for changing the scene up so much. My approach is kind of scatter shot until I finally get what I am going for.

Oh my sh*t. Thankfully, it seems you didn't get badly hurt. Get well soon!

Thank you for your concern. I'm alright -- just some bruising, aching, and tenderness -- nothing permanent.
I wouldn't have mentioned in but I wanted Manupix to know I was really taking his advice to heart and was not slacking, but aching.

And thank you for your suggestion YellowLime, I checked out some of those games and while some look a little shiny, I didn't get a huge toy vibe. I think the animations were too smooth and it's too hard to give that effect with a tiny image. I may just go for the "they are toys" approach, where it is known that they are toys (because you tell the player), but via the powers of imagination, have come to life and appear to be real (or as real as my pixel art can get).

So I started over completely on the bird as you suggested. I have been struggling for a while but finally got inspired by some cute little owl pictures. This is what I came up with. I think it's MUCH better.

Thanks for your feedback Manupix! It's exactly the stuff I need to get on track. I added a little more description in the topic.
I pictured the light source being top right but I agree it's inconsistent if not non-existent at this time. I'll work on it tonight.