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Messages - eishiya
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1171
Pixel Art / Re: [C&C] rpg charater
« on: June 15, 2016, 03:21:35 pm »
It's probably because the noisiness on his do-rag is more apparent than it was when you had all those extra colours softening the transition. With fewer colours, just as with fewer pixels, the position of every pixel counts, and you're not using your shadows to show the form of his head. The dithering(?) looks like noise, because at this size there isn't really room for it. Instead, use that limited space to make the head form clear, and maybe suggest some folds for a little extra polish.

I don't feel like you need the middle colour on his beard, the colours are similar enough that you can probably do just fine with only two of them. Also, it looks a bit weird that his beard is lightest in the middle and darker above and below. I'm guessing you were trying to have outlines on the hair? At this size, there isn't really room for them, so you're better off using that space to show volume of the beard. So, bring the lighter colour into the upper bits.

You changed the eye shape on him, making him look like he's squinting. I think that's an improvement over the eyes from before, but if that's what looks weird to you, try lightening his lower eye-lid, have each of those three pixels be the lightest colour (with appropriate AA below it). That will give the impression that the eye is open a little wider when the image is viewed at 1x-2x.

Speaking of 1x-2x, unless you're planning to only ever show a piece at a higher zoom, make sure you have a 1x preview open (or zoom out to 1x very frequently if your program doesn't allow making such a preview). When you're zoomed in, it's hard to see the relationships between clusters and the details that they create, and it's easy to get stuck placing pixels according to specific objects you're trying to represent without concern for what they actually end up looking like. With pixel art, especially at smaller sizes, each pixel often serves to represent more than just one thing, but it's hard to see how well that's working while you're zoomed in.

1172
Pixel Art / Re: Pixel Fonts - Week 6
« on: June 14, 2016, 02:54:00 pm »
Your JPGs won't stop anyone from taking the font, the pixels are still clear because there's so much contrast. Just reducing your image to 2 colours gets back the original:

Saving as a JPG only works when there is subtle information that can be lost, such as AA or fine, low-contrast details like what you'd get in a drawing. Don't bother with that kind of protection for your fonts. People who want to steal your work will find a way to do so, and it probably won't even be that difficult.
To make money, focus on the font's features - e.g. accented letters (of which preview only a small subset), including multiple sizes and weights of the same face (which is more challenging for a pixel font), and perhaps features like ligatures. Also, while pixel fonts often have standard spacing, some of these look like they would benefit from some kerning work, so that's something else you can include in your fonts without it being steal-able from an image.

I'm also not sure it' a good idea to sell that Star Wars font. It's not technically illegal, but typically people distribute fonts like that for free both to be on the safe side, and because that's just the non-jerk thing to do since they're so heavily based on someone else's work.

Bottom left is hard to read, but I suspect increasing the letter spacing to 2px instead of 1 would help a lot.
The big example in the middle doesn't really feel like a "pixel" font, it feels a bit rough, like a decently-hinted font being rendered at a small resolution with no AA, rather than something hand-made. Also, the long tails on Щ and Ц aren't very readable at that size, and don't quite feel like they belong because they don't have the same style of weight variation as the rest of the letters.

All in all, the fact that you're doing 10+ fonts per week shows. These fonts look nice, but some could benefit from taking some extra care to make them more cohesive and more usable, especially if you're planning to sell them.

Also, since they're pixel fonts, you may have made some clones of existing fonts unintentionally, especially in the smaller sizes. The top left and the 2nd from top on the right in particular look like things I've seen frequently elsewhere, simply because there are only so many ways you can use that space and even fewer ways to make it look good. I would avoid selling those fonts. Even though you put all the same work in, it might not go over well with customers and other font designers. However, it would be fine if they're included as additional sizes of other fonts that have the same general look.

1173
Pixel Art / Re: (WIP) Game graphics - ive got stuck :(
« on: June 13, 2016, 05:05:06 am »
I think in a style this stylised, it would be easy to get away without the cloud-shadows at all. They don't really add anything, and the realism and atmosphere they could add isn't needed in this style.
I also agree about the opacity. Unless clouds hiding game elements is part of the gameplay, they should be translucent.

1174
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Treasure Chests woohoo
« on: June 09, 2016, 03:38:51 pm »
The lock/gem/center-metal-thing bits are off-center on them.
I think the silver bits are too light, they "shine" more intensely than the gold parts, so the chest doesn't really read as "lesser" to me. If I saw the two together, I'd guess the silver chest is the fancier one, perhaps platinum.

These look very flat. They're full of texture, but there aren't shadows. Where is the light coming from?
To help the chest look more interesting, you should change its silhouette. For example, make the metal bits stick out a pixel. That would both break up the silhouette, as well as give you more areas where you can have shadows that show the form of the chest better.

1175
Pixel Art / Re: [C&C] elf charater
« on: June 08, 2016, 05:25:08 pm »
To embed images, you need to use the actual IMAGE link, not the link of the page that the image is on. Image links typically end in a file extension, like .png. If you go to the image from your imgur album, it'll even give you the correct embed code.

1176
Pixel Art / Re: Beach Tide - 30x30
« on: June 06, 2016, 06:04:38 pm »
The water's edge doesn't change its shape or opacity at all, which makes it look like a solid object. Water isn't solid, different parts of it move at slightly different speeds and in different directions, because the beach isn't a perfectly flat surface and there is turbulence in water.

Since the water is liquid and doesn't move as a single sheet, the previous wave will be moving back out as the next wave comes in. Your animation doesn't have that at all.

Here's a gif I find very useful, it has all the key features:

- The shape of the wave changes as it moves inland
- The wave goes over the previous wave pulling back
- The waves spread and cover a larger area as the sand blocks the path and there's nowhere for that water to go but outward
- As it moves further inland and gets flattened by the sand in the way, the water gets shallower and therefore more transparent.
- The sand doesn't dry so quickly xP
- The wave motion isn't perfectly smooth. Each new wave "trips over" the previous wave as it goes out, this causes the breaking wave and foamy white bits.
- The tripping doesn't always occur at the same spot on the beach, it's random-ish (depends on water consistency, wind, etc). For a looping animation having it always be the same wave is fine, just make sure that the wave break doesn't occur in a perfectly straight line, have it vary. You don't even have to have the wave-break be a single line, it can and probably should be broken!

1177
Pixel Art / Re: (WIP) Game graphics - ive got stuck :(
« on: June 06, 2016, 01:34:36 pm »
The clouds don't have JPG compression so what I think is happening is OP saved his original work as JPG, and has been working on that same file since, and the JPG artifacts are part of the original now, so it's no longer an issue of saving (he's got that down now), but rather an issue of the original being ruined and it needs to be redone.

1178
Pixel Art / Re: (WIP) Game graphics - ive got stuck :(
« on: June 05, 2016, 07:38:49 pm »
Your PNGs still have JPG noise in them. What is your process for working on and saving your art that this happens? it's bizarre, and it's ruining what otherwise would probably be some good graphics!

These cloud shapes are better, though the interior shadows don't follow those stylised blocky shapes as well, and the blockiness doesn't always read as intentional. Try building the clouds out of squares and rectangles and rounding the corners only a little. The top part of the top right cloud has the most interesting stylization, everything else feels wishy-washy. This could be a cool style, but you have to commit to it if you want it to work.

1179
Pixel Art / Re: Character Sprites (Posing/Color Practice)
« on: June 04, 2016, 02:58:58 pm »
Her front leg seems to be attached in the wrong place. Remember, there's a single bone from the hip to the knee, it shouldn't bend. If I'm mistaking the way the skirt falls for a bend in the leg, then that's still something to work on.

1180
Pixel Art / Re: first walk cycle attempt [Nudity]
« on: June 04, 2016, 02:32:41 am »
An outline is fine, the problem isn't the outline, but the shading.

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