[WIP] Adult Scootaloo + Cloudy Scene

[Ai]

That water's looking pretty sexy now.

r1k has a good point. I didn't want to overwhelm with information, but.. there are certain shapes that just look better when AAing.. by 'shapes' I mean in the vector sense, since that's what you're approximating with AA.
In general, for smoothest AA..

* Think of all curves as smooth as possible (I mean, avoid abrupt turns at every opportunity)
* Avoid leaving a single pixel sticking out. Unless the shape is very small in scale, AAing to it inevitably looks ugly (you did this on your cloud before, not sure about the current ones)
* Avoid placing an AA pixel that creates a 'corner', unless you really want one. r1k didn't have to change it so drastically, but that lumpy area on the left had a shape that's hard to AA prettily.

Animated edit:

* red arrows point out locations where AA creates corners (ie. it reduces apparent resolution rather than increasing it.). I resolved some of these by reshaping slightly
* blue arrows point out blurring and banding. I prefer to resolve these by converting AA into buffering (which gives a smoothing effect of a slightly different kind.). That's a stylistic choice -- there are a few other ways.
* Examples of smoother AA (esp. on clouds)

[Ashbad]

Woo, awesome info, Ai!  Didn't know much about doing manual Anti-aliasing before you gave this info (I basically eyeballed it, and just did the AA-ramps in an unorganized fashion, without thinking about the implications of curves, etc.)  Later today or tomorrow, I'm going to go back over this, after having seen your AA edit above, and try to polish it up ^_^

[Ai]

Cool. In that case... You might find one or more of these helpful, on the technical side of 'what AA is': one (basic concept) two (@ the 3rd comment down -- more descriptive on the conceptual side) and three (an older one which covers the various techniques and the exact maths involved at some length)

.. and now I'll have to add my previous post here to the list. I'm surprised by just how much I've written about AA.

[Ai]

9 days later..
What's happening?

[Ashbad]

9 days later..
What's happening?

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you guys on this; the large amount of stressful situations I've been dealing with the past week or so have distracted me from just about all pixeling; in the time I did have to work on this, the stress had been tiring me out and demotivating me from doing more on this.

However, tomorrow should be my first day reprieved from the said situations, so I plan to use them polishing this up with the great suggestions you've given, and then start on my next piece as well

[jams0988]

These colors don't really read sunset to me, actually. It looks like you have a purple screen over a noon-time scene, in my opinion.
Quick color edit:

Mine's probably a bit washed out, too; I got sick of changing the colors, since you have so many AA colors going on. Hopefully if gives you some ideas, though.

Also, it says on DA that you used MS Paint to make this. Either you're lying for bragging rights, or you haven't looked around more than five minutes for an art program, and you've wasted tons of time because of it. Try Graphics Gale or Pro Motion. A five dollar USB mouse will solve your trackpad problems, too. =P
Edit: Actually, I don't like mine either. They both look wrong to me now! XD

[Ashbad]

Not sure if I agree with the color choice there -- I do like the idea of red used in the clouds for the middle shade, but the hair is now *way* offcolor to what it should be

And, as I've said before here as well, I *did* make this in MS Paint.  I've done more than "looked around for 5 minutes" for another art program.  I've tried out multiple different programs, but I'm still the fastest with MS Paint.  GraphicsGale is indeed a nice program, but I'm not using it for full-on pixel art until I get more used to it.  I've also tried out Usenti, which was basically MS Paint with a few palette tools on top; I used it rarely, usually only when I want to get a quick color count on something.  I've also played around with the GiMP, but I have only used it when doing something like converting a mess of a scan of a drawing I made into something I can base lineart from (but even then, I've only used it like that once.)  As for the USB mouse, you're assuming I have to $5-10 and a ride to some place like Best Buy to get a mouse/pad to use under it.

I haven't lied about the MS Paint deal, it's all I use.  I've wasted far more time trying out tons of different image editing software than anything.  I don't see how this is outside the capabilities of what MS Paint can achieve.

[jams0988]

Not sure if I agree with the color choice there -- I do like the idea of red used in the clouds for the middle shade, but the hair is now *way* offcolor to what it should be Tongue

Might be too red. Not sure. Red sunset + purple hair doesn't equal purple or blue, but it might not equal red, either. X3
You're right, I am assuming you have five dollars for a mouse, hahah. I can't imagine many life situations that would afford you the leisure of hours of time spent making pixel art to post online, but not a five dollar bill for a mouse. XD

About MS-Paint Vs. Graphics Gale: You say you're not used to Graphics Gale, so you're not using it yet. My advice to you is to learn the program, and then use it from now on. It takes literally fifteen minutes to learn everything Graphics Gale does, and it's much better and faster for pixel art than MS-Paint is.
And I didn't say what you made was outside the abilities of MS-Paint. You could do the best pixel art in the world with MS-Paint. It just won't be as fast or convenient as using a better program, hahah. ^ ^;;

Sorry for the way I worded my last post, though. It made it sound like I thought you were lying about using MS-Paint, when I don't. What I basically meant to say was that you should really look into another art program, because there's not much reason not to. Anyway, here's another edit with the hair color changed:

I still like the first edit I did more, though the newer one may be more accurate to the show. The first one I did looks softer and more sunset-y, though...maybe I just don't like the idea of an orange horse having highlighter-purple hair, hahah. The color combination burns my eyes. XP
Edit: Actually, just grabbed a screencap from the show of Scootaloo sitting down outside on a sunny day, and the color I used for her hair in my newest edit at sunset is *the exact same color.* Which means my older edit actually *IS* more accurate (and better looking, in my opinion), since her hair should obviously shift more toward the red side during sunset compared to her noon-time hair. The color you picked for her hair, for example, is actually *more blue* than her naturally lit hair, which is what my complaint with your color choices were originally - it looks like there's a blue haze over everything.
Anyway, happy pixeling! This piece has improved a ridiculous amount since you started it. ^ ^

[Seiseki]

You should totally start doing avatar requests on deviant art
You'd make those 5 bucks in less than 10 seconds flat..
I can't even imagine using a mouse to draw, let alone a trackpad, I've been using a tablet for a year or so..

Imagine the things you could do if you were using photoshop and a mouse or tablet.
Did you see that pyxel editor?

[Ashbad]

You should totally start doing avatar requests on deviant art
You'd make those 5 bucks in less than 10 seconds flat..
I can't even imagine using a mouse to draw, let alone a trackpad, I've been using a tablet for a year or so..

Imagine the things you could do if you were using photoshop and a mouse or tablet.
Did you see that pyxel editor?

I probably should start doing that -- A guy I met and have been starting to get to know better, PixMeister on dA, has done that and has already made about $40 from 8 or so avatars.  I really, *really* do want a tablet, since some of the things that were suggested edits (like the hair detail) would be a lot more possible for me to do with one (I simply had a horrible time making anything in a flowing motion with the trackpad, the clouds were a bit painful by themselves)

As for that image editor you threw at me there, seems like another one I should at least check out

And, back to Ai's question again, I should have some sort of decent edit tomorrow; I do better when I do two mini-projects at once, so I've been held up  by starting on another pixel (though it's barely past the lineart phase) so I can polish this up and have something to do once this is done.

EDIT:

And, I just saw your edit, jams -- and I must honestly say that I have to agree with most of it -- For some reason I have a hard time getting myself to discard the bluish colors (they just look so pretty even though they're incorrect), but I'll play around until I satisfy my craving for contrasted, pretty colors and a realistic sunset scene