AuthorTopic: help with learning pixel art  (Read 9997 times)

Offline milleja46

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help with learning pixel art

on: November 07, 2011, 06:19:55 pm
Ok i've started to try and learn how to make pixel art for games i want to make but i'm confused. I try and make tiles and such but i just can't get them to look as good as other pieces i've seen. I know it will take time to learn but i want to learn what i can to get better. One thing i've done semi right(mostly because i drew it out first) was a sprite i made:



but my problem is when it comes to stuff like the grass tile and such:

  :'(

 ??? Is there any guides on how to do this right so that i can make this better? (btw i have: gimp, ms paint, and graphics gale to do this)
Any help would be appreciated thanks

Offline pistachio

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #1 on: November 07, 2011, 08:04:30 pm
Sometimes I feel like a bit of a novice myself, but here are some tips to start with:

Learn the fundamentals. Try drawing cubes, boxes, cylinders etc. to get the hang of basic forms (you'll need them.)

Drawing from life helps immensely with learning the characteristics and proportions of an object you want to draw, particularly humans and animals, probably the most common. Studying, possibly copying the work of masters (that exist out there in the field of pixel art as well) helps as well. There are some tutorials in the Tools, Resources and Linkage topic that will get you started, and, as always, here's another I usually refer to.

But remember that this won't happen overnight, or even the course of a few nights!
« Last Edit: November 20, 2011, 05:31:56 am by pistachio »

Offline milleja46

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #2 on: November 07, 2011, 08:07:13 pm
Thanks for the tip

but before i even read your suggestion i did something right in gimp XD i'll probably never do this again at this level XD



I still need to learn the grass stuff though i keep looking at others and it makes me mad when i try to do it myself. The sprite i had in the first post was a hand drawn one(yet another fluke that came out great(though i haven't uploaded my most recent changes to it i actually added some shading and such))

Offline Sharm

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #3 on: November 08, 2011, 12:17:51 am
Don't worry, if it was easy it wouldn't be worth it.  Picking a light source and drawing from references will help a lot.

This is my favorite tutorial to get the concept behind the good pixel art, not just walking you through how they did it:

http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_almighty_grass_tile.php

Just remember, all the greats went through this stage.  As long as you keep your mind open to possibilities and always want to be better, you'll be able to get there.

Offline milleja46

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #4 on: November 08, 2011, 01:22:24 am
Yea i've looked up that tutorial many a time...the problem is i'm still lost on stuff like the grass and such XD

Offline milleja46

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #5 on: November 08, 2011, 12:11:44 pm
Even studying others work doesn't help that much XD looking at sharms grass i came up with:

which isn't much better than the first post's grass XD

Offline imnumberfour

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #6 on: November 08, 2011, 04:18:40 pm
You seem to be using very large texture scales, try your hand at making 16x16 grass first.

Offline Sharm

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #7 on: November 08, 2011, 04:19:34 pm
I think it's better.  My next step was to tile it over a large area and see what stood out.  Then I tried to eliminate the grid.  I don't agree with everything on this tutorial (following it exactly makes it not tile well), but this is the one I followed to get my grass in the first place. http://pixel-zone.rpgdx.net/shtml/tutmini-grass.shtml

Offline milleja46

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #8 on: November 08, 2011, 05:43:29 pm
@imnumberfour well the reason i started at such a large scale is because i've tried at 8x8 or 16x16 and it seemed to small of a canvas to work with XD

@sharm yea i'd found that tut long ago and it's nice grass and a good tutorial at that but i don't agree with it's style of grass because that frankly looks like weeds and trash compared to the tile i saw of yours XD don't know why but i perfer the more detailed grass types  :-\

Offline milleja46

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Re: help with learning pixel art

Reply #9 on: November 09, 2011, 03:20:06 pm
Well this is a better piece of grass i think  ::)