[WIP] Adapting Digital for Pixel

[LeshrotArt]

I'm adapting a sketch in Fireworks for a Sprite in Pixel art or something more clean.
By the same way, i pretend to do more details and improve the sprite, any tips?

[LeshrotArt]

First step:


*Light and Contrast
*Little changes and cleaning.
*Some Details.


Yep, it is a sitting dragon in perspective 45º degree

[Ai]

Advice? Instead of editing the shrunken down CG just like that, you should first build a palette for it and indexize the image to that palette. Then you can use the original CG as just a guide, and get a much cleaner result; your current version has way too many colors, the more you add details without a predefined palette, the harder it's going to be to achieve a clean result.

In general, looking at this image

* The color choice is respectable, it could be improved by more hue variation in color ramps.

* I find his posture confusing. Why is his head down like that? He looks like he's about to fall on his face. Maybe this is because he feels out of perspective. In particular I can see the plane that his tail follows, but it would imply a rather strange body shape.

* Take it easy on the detail. Every high-contrast part will draw the eye, and right now there are a lot of high-contrast parts. You need to think about what areas deserve the most attention, give them the detail and contrast, and reduce the contrast and detail in other areas. Images that don't obey this tend to be overly demanding to look at and ineffective at conveying a message.
A specific example: you probably would consider his head more important than his belly, but right now his belly is more emphasized.

* Remember to make sure the texture follows the angle and scale of the relevant plane it lies upon. The belly, for example, shows blocky scales that are almost entirely upright (compared to the diagonal angle of his body). While this is possible visually,  making the flow and size of scales match the underlying 3d shape communicates the structure of his body much more clearly. Another example is the top of his neck, in which the scales somewhat match the flow of the underlying shape, but do not noticeably diminish in size on planes that recede from the viewer.

[LeshrotArt]

Thanks Ai, and sorry but... what is CG?

Digital Edit + New Head > "Pixel Art" version.


I hope I have fixed the head

It would be nice to do a comparation of Digital and Pixel art so I'll know what improved and what is worst.

In "P.A version" I reduced the distinctness of the paw with less contrast.

[Ai]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CG_artwork

CG is a term most commonly known in the West for its use in Japanese webpages to denote digital artwork. In traditional Japanese, it is an abbreviation of the Japanese gairaigo computer graphics (コンピュータグラフィックス?), used to refer to any form of digital artwork, from digitally shaded dōjinshi to legitimate cinematic art (like Toy Story)

In this context, while pixel art technically qualifies as a type of CG, the denizens of Pixelation typically will distinguish between pixel art, in which every pixel is individually placed, and CG (in which you might use tools such as soft brushes, airbrushing, filters, rescaling, etc.)

In this thread, your CG would be the first image you posted here

.. or the larger version of it.

To be quite clear, the problem was not with the head specifically, so much as the entire body. The darkness on the neck gives the visual cue that the head is a fair amount forward from the feet. If his other limbs (wings) were resting on the ground, this would not be an indicator of falling over, but as is (with his wings up and head down), it is.

I believe that there's a basic problem in the planning of this image, ie. making sure everything matches up and makes sense both with regard to perspective and body weight distribution/posture. If it were me, I'd be going back and trying to come up with a fixed version of the basic design, and building a new rendering off that.

On the subject of the wings, the pattern you have put on them doesn't match the angle of the wings. Each individual segment of wing is at a different angle to the camera, and when you put a pattern on them all without any variation, it flattens out those angles.

You've definitely improved the detail level, good job there.

[LeshrotArt]

Ohhh, thanks

I'm trying to fix the errors in anatomy and perspective (and the ones that you quoted too).


I saw other errors in the wings symmetry

As you said/I think you wanted to say (my English is very bad, sorry), the angle of one (<) is more curved than (>).


Should I increase the size and let it "stand up?"

[Ai]

I see, you are going for Ultima style projection (which is an unconventional type of isometric projection). In that case the dragon is not as far out of perspective as I thought. I actually thought that you meant normal isometric.

I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to what else I can say to you, right now. I find this particular projection rather difficult to think about.

EDIT:
Actually, I found this link:

http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/reverse-engineering-ultima-vii-isometrics-wip

And a comment near the bottom of the page describes how to setup this perspective (apparently a 135 degree 'oblique' projection) in Blender. If you have basic skills with blender, enough to slap some boxes together, this can work as a way to check the basic geometry and perspective of what you're drawing.

[questseeker]

The second iteration looks more refined, but it comes with new problems:

• The fingers in the wing membrane have disappeared; it's a worthwhile anatomical feature of the original "CG" draft, which defines the shape and proportions of the creature. Do you mean to depart from the bat wing style that you got quite right in your original drawing? Why? You can switch to bird or pterosaur wing styles if you think they look better, but boneless soft wings are physically wrong.
• The regular dithering/stippling patterns, particularly in the wings, are inappropriate. The hide of fantasy creatures can have strange features, but grid-aligned 2x1 and 2x2 clusters aren't one of them.
• The wing has a presumably unintended single pixel white hole.
• Without horns, the head has too little contrast and too much noise to see its shape clearly. There should be a hierarchy: shading and outlines that make the head appear in front of the neck and shoulders should be more visible than head texture details.
• The palette has many similar colours, and you don't use it strictly (e.g. the blue of the eye).