Intro to Pixelation! + Cute little Soul Calibur icons

[AlexxShadenk777]

First of all, it should be noted that I do not make pixel art on a regular basis; indeed, only once every most random day of the millenium, but I somewhat want to be part of this community. It seems very welcoming. I shall go and browse a bit on the more recent threads to see if I can offer some critique or something.

I made these icons some years ago, and I only ever posted them on GAMEFAQs back then, and I had intended on making more but editing sprites is hard work when you work as slowly as I do, which makes it boring pretty quick for me; either way, if I find the will to make new ones, I shall.

Soul Calibur
v1v2


Soul Calibur II


Soul Calibur III


Soul Calibur IV


You can tell they all have a simple 2-frame animation (Nightmare's has 6 frames for the blinking), save for Talim, whom I did not animate, it was already the sign of me losing the will to make any at the time of fabrication.

Anyway, what do you think? Should I make more? If so, make a request -- one character at a time though! Also naturally I can make of any game, not just SC.

[Helm]

Hi. Welcome to Pixelation. I'm glad you decided to join.

Your sprites are first of all very cute and it's neat to see cute version of the big scary characters from Soul Calibur.

However, they're not without problems.

You use too many colors and there is too much pixel noise. To qualify these statements: at 1x zoom one sees a mush of shading, not clean clear forms. This is the problem with too much freedom. If you had to do one of these in NES colors (3 colors plus 1 reserved for transparency) you would HAVE to choose forms clearly and the sprite would benefit in terms of readability immensely. Likewise, in NES colors you'd have to make clusters of pixels from the same color and therefore you'd auto-magically avoid single pixel noise.



Here's a nitemare that uses about 10 colors. Not NES specs, actually quite more lax, but it gets my points across. Pixels of the same color in a configuration make a cluster. A cluster can have a clumsy shape or a beautiful shape. Manipulating the shapes so where they meet they behave is a strong aspect of pixel art. Don't obfuscate that with hundreds of colors and mushy shapes. Get to the basics of this art form before you graduate to unlimited color use and the like.

[AlexxShadenk777]

Well, fortunately I do not care for NES colors, I only made these sprites for fun.

That said, I'm in no way dismissing your criticism, it's quite educational but here I was going for making the characters resemble their fully rendered designs as simply and small as possible; in other words, keeping them as accurate as an icon can be.

That also means that I do not indend into making games with them or anything.

Anyway, I like your version of my sprite too, I definitely can see the blatant changes aesthetics that, not only makes the sprite stand out more with less definition, but still retains the basic shape, although your Soul Edge looks a bit more friendly, haha. So thanks for your post, all things considered. It really makes me glad that I am met with such a first response the moment I enter a new board, I'd never gotten it like this anywhere else. Cheers. I'll try to keep in mind your tips about the shading.

[Geti]

You don't have to use NES colours or anything like that, just for the sake of learning it's often beneficial to cut down your colour count (16 colours would be loads for a sprite like this).
I've done a quick image to show the issues of yours and highlight where Helm was going with his edit. Helms is marked "a", yours "b".
-contrast in your image is lacking, Helm added more shading and highlight in his
-your sprite doesn't read easily: is that his arm off to the side or just more armour?  How is he connected to his sword? This is more clear in Helm's edit.
-The helmet is oddly shaded and the horn has too much noise, it looks segmented and jagged.. Also, what was going on with your mouth?

That said, I like your sword more than Helms even though it uses way too many colours, the white edge is a nice contrast.
The upsized and despeckled images (very roughly) simulate how the eye will read the sprite, notice how helms use of contiguous areas of the same colour describes the form better, while yours has a lot of detail that amounts to noise in the design.

I hope this helps, what I think you need to do is focus on getting the form described more fluidly before you go crazy on the colour count: in normal art the number of colours you use doesn't really matter, but in pixel art if you use too many your art won't read like you want it to.

That said, welcome to the forums hopefully you're the kind of person that can take criticism on board and learn, because it looks like you're coming from a pretty strong foundation.

[AlexxShadenk777]

your sprite doesn't read easily: is that his arm off to the side or just more armour?  How is he connected to his sword

It's his arm and more armor, and if you look at the original Nightmare, his right arm is a monstrous thing, just that it can't be seen properly when most of his body is in the way. So naturally the sword is the most prominent thing on his right side. I'll agree that the lack of contrast just sorta mashes things together, yeah.

The helmet is oddly shaded and the horn has too much noise, it looks segmented and jagged.

I agree, I didn't know how to make it properly, should edit it again based on all this feedback.

Also, what was going on with your mouth?

He doesn't show a mouth, it's still his helmet. Chalk it up to poor shading, again, though it does not look like a mouth anywhere to me.

I hope this helps, what I think you need to do is focus on getting the form described more fluidly before you go crazy on the colour count

Thanks, I will. And I love criticism!

Edit:
What does Pixelation think of this? 1x and 2x.

[Helm]

I think it's miles cleaner. You have some banding on the sword edge. Be careful where line edges meet. Did you quest for a thread named "Ramblethread" perhaps? There is useful info there.

[AlexxShadenk777]

Alright, I did what I could with the sword. It's a very weird line that it has.


Incidentally, this is one of the screenshots I used as reference when I first worked on the whole thing, though I have tenths more of the same pose in different angles.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8607/4161i.jpg

[Helm]

Don't need to resize your art for Pixelation. Click on the image, and shift-click on it too. We have a zoom script



It may seem counter intuitive but perhaps what the edge of the sword needs is a darker line and some AA (better AA than what I managed, frankly). That's one way to go. Also check front horn for some pixel-by-pixel alterations to make it work better.

[AlexxShadenk777]

Ah perfect, I love smart scripts.

Hmm, do you mind if I simply keep your final edit to the sprite so I can animate it again? I'll raise your name in a disclaimer if I ever post them elsewhere again. It seems just perfect the way it is now, though I would add some grey in his groin (the chainmail that you can see in the screenshot) but since it's just the crotch there's no real need. :p Thanks.

Incidentally, is there anything else about the other sprites? Specifically Tira's (the green girl) as I think you'd have a field day fixing the mistakes in that one, I'm pretty sure it has all sorts of wrong aspects.

[Helm]

I think you should look at the edit for a long time... and then delete it and never look at it again. Recreate the points of the critique on your own art from the ground up. You won't learn as much if you adopt an edit.