[WIP] Small icons and game tileset - critque please

[Bkeegan]

Hey guys,

I've been working on some graphics for a game. I'm a pretty inexperience pixel artist so your input would be appreciated.









Cheers,

Bkeegan

[Bkeegan]

*deleted*

[Shrub]

Hmm. Free C&C for art belonging to a games company, which earns actual money (or is trying/will try to) - and we get nothing for our advice which makes your game better.
Seems kind of like we're being used. Just my opinion.

Anyway, the magnet arm looks definitely non pixel art.
If it's done by hand, you've used FAR too many shades of grey. Metal needs to be hard and reflective, not a soft gradient.

[Bkeegan]

Thank you for your input 

I do not see how my planned use of the art has anything to do with it. I was under the impression that this forum was a place where pixel artist could improve. 

[Gil]

The problem is that your gradient is not going to get smoother by throwing more shades of gray at it. Try to follow a light source. Try thinking in terms of polygons and how light hits them.

Hmm. Free C&C for art belonging to a games company, which earns actual money (or is trying/will try to) - and we get nothing for our advice which makes your game better.
Seems kind of like we're being used. Just my opinion.

This is Pixelation, we offer C&C to anyone, even professionals. Why wouldn't we?

[Bkeegan]

Gil,

Thanks for some feedback. I originally envisioned the light source coming from the upper left.

[Helm]

Yours is about 177 colors and utilizes an alpha layer for transparency. Mine is 16 colors and utilizes methods and techniques we've developed here over the last 6-7 years. If you want to move towards something like this you need to approach pixel art with a purer intention, even if at the end of that journey you are not a pixel purist.

[Rawsushi]

Curses, Helm! You got yours in before mine, and it's a hell of a lot more complete/fun.



Regardless, here's the version I whipped up. It has MORE colors than Helm's and is very much incomplete. That said, it utilizes dithering in a way where it's not terribly noticeable. Meh.

[Bkeegan]

Thanks for the input guys! (and the time to do those pieces)

I can see that by comparison mine looks pretty flat. I like what you have done with the shape of the magnet Helm. I also think the way you did the wire wrap was interesting. It's kind of exaggerated. I've noticed a lot of that in pixel art, sometimes you have to exaggerate stuff to really make them look good. I suppose it's a human perception thing.

I like what you handle the shading of the poll Rawsushi and yeah I didn't even realize you use dithering until I zoomed in. I'll take all of this into account and see what I can come up with.

Cheers,

Bkeegan


EDIT: In interest of not double posting. I have redone the magnet arm based on your input/examples. I'd love to hear everyone's input =)
I used 13 colors (including black). I dithered the hell out of it.


Honestly, most of my stuff doesn't use so many shades as the first magnet arm.

[Rawsushi]

Only touched up the upper-half. Didn't address the wires or the yellow/black striping. I'd suggest, for now, using as little dithering as possible. a) It's not the easiest thing to pull off and b) when creating shiny objects, dithering has a way of dulling shiny effects. I don't have the time at the moment to write up a response on the proper usage of dithering, but I'm sure that there's a tutorial on here somewhere.

Still, I'd suggest using it as little as possible for the time being (because it's just too easy to go overkill with it)--- regardless, you definitely took a step in the right direction.

[Bkeegan]

Right, it's a texture thing. As I mentioned in the other thread, I was put to task to use less shades so I was aggressive with dithering to see how few colors I could use.

I'll take a look at your edits and learn from them. Thanks again for your input/time.

[NaCl]

Less shades does not mean dithering! It just means less shades. Go through the pixeljoint top rated gallery and convince yourself that you do not need a ton of colors, or a bunch of dithering, to make something that looks smooth. The reason you were "taken to task" over having so many shades, is that it makes the object you are trying to render look gummy and soft, in my experience at least.

[Kren]

Remember that metal tends to be smooth, and with dithering you give it a non metal texture, so a minimum dithering or no dithering is required.

[Bkeegan]

Updates:

Here's the changes I made based on rawsushi's input. Thanks guys =)

[Helm]

This is much, much better than the original, however some places now have banding artifacts and in a lot of places it's clear you didn't spend a lot of time thinking what pixel clusters to let survive and for what reason.

Hey you know what, you could read this. It covers a lot of fundamental theories on how to approach doing something like this, you can take or leave whatever you want but at least after you've read it I can do quite smaller edits than the last one to fix comparatively smaller issues and you'll 'get' them straight away if you're coming fresh off of the ramblethread.

[Bkeegan]

Thanks again helm! I started to read that thread, some pretty intense stuff there!

Yeah I know what you mean about the color banding. I think I need a new monitor though, it was tons more obvious on the one I have at work.

I'll work on it.

-bk