GR#123 - Pixel Cars - Sideview

[tim]

I think a bit of perspective would make it more interesting.
Look at this very easy worklow to rotate something :



The result :



If you put them in the same space, you can really feel the difference :

[Lachie Dazdarian]

This is a WIP rough replication of Cyangmou's edit:



I want to keep the original design of the frame around the front tire (tire cut-off at the top). But I need to figure out the shading for that part.

Thanks for the great input tim, I might use your method somewhere else. Really useful.

For this very game it's problematic, because in it the car will move in a straight horizontal line. I could work with a slight orthographic perspective, but I don't think I can execute it at this point of my life.

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Ok, finally got to finish this, more or less:



I was pretty much confused by the tire work, since that part is particularly awesome and out of my league at this point, so it's for the most part blind replication. In other areas I hope it was replication with understanding. I pertained some of the shapes and distances out of my own preference. Overall, I would be completely helpless without Cyangmou's help.

Hopefully I can exploit this process when working on a new model from scratch, starting right now.

If something should be fixed on the latest rendition on this model, please, it will be appreciate. I will mostly likely return to it from time to time with occasional nitpicks.

[tim]

For the wheels, to understand Cyangmou's edit, you need to understand what you're drawing. It's not "out of your league", it's just that you're probably not trained enough and don't have the right way of thinking. You're not drawing shapes here (like you did at the beginning), you need to draw how the light is going around the shapes, which is very different.
This is the most common plague I can see on pixel art : people just fill each different part with a different color, without emulating light, without emulating the look of the different materials.

So, how to draw the light going in the wheel ? It's not that hard if you use photos and start to think about it :

• Because the wheels are under the car's body, they don't receive light on their upper part : so add a shadow.
• Paint the metal reflection of the wheel rim : which means variations of grey inside a shape, instead of one grey like you did.
• Add some specularity using well-placed bright pixels. This helps a lot to sell the metallic look.
• Also, the tires needed to be darker.

When you are in doubt, always do some research and use photos as references for shading and lighting your elements.

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Thanks, tim. As you said in another thread, proper workflow is the key. Lessons are being learned.

Anyway, finally got to start another car model, after losing my work yesterday (luckily outlines preserved), I had to redo it, and the results aren't half band:

Outline reference:


Shapes/shading reference:


Current WIP:


Pointers are more than welcome. The outline around the frame above tire is confusing me...one lighter shade defining another ligther or?

[Cyangmou]

This car looks a lot better than your last try. and the focus of your issues moved a bit.
You also added alreay some nice details, like the door handles.

It looks rather good as a whole, but if you compare it more in detail with the reference a lot of detail issues appear.

You have by far less jaggies in the sprite, however some inconsistent lines can be found over the whole sprite, try to get rid of them. Also at the bottom it doesn't really make sense that you don't use a straight line there.

The other big problem you have is banding. nearly all areas around the windows, the bottom line and the line above and at some other places the sprite suffers heavily from it.

And because those are both sprites for the same game, you should be consistent with some details, like the transparency/lighting of the windows. Use the same colors/technique like in the last sprite, to achieve a style.

I am not confident about the tonal alues of the yellows, the contrast could be a bit higher, to emphasize the metallic effect.



In detail there are quite some planes which are off in their angles, i filled up some of these areas with red in your sprite.
You also don't added the front windscreen, which could add a lot if it'd be there.
the magenta area is heavily off in proportions
the blue areas could need some work for detailling
at the top of the cyan area you can see a disconnected line, this looks strange.


The area you pointed out looks imo like a conical panel, or at least I'd shade it like this. The light gray areas there look indeed strange. Is the reference a photo or a 3d render? I suppose it's a render and 3D programs aren't as exact with lighting like nature a photo is a much bette rreference for tonal relationships.

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Thanks for your suggestions. Very useful. Already continued working on it before your post, and quite some of your suggestions I implementing before reading your post. Out of some other changes you did not mention, I increased the height by one pixel, because a lot of stuff is going on the top of the car and I needed more space there. That is also the case in the original as well.

Anyway, ...

Old:

New (still WIP, but close to it):


Still the part above tires is bothering me. Would I ask too much if I would ask your edit only of that specific detail (above the car)?
Yeah, I think that reference image is computer rendered.

Anyway, the new model side by side the first model:


Edit: Uh, forgot that I break a straight line on the bottom of the front-side window. Will fix it.

Edit: Maybe a better shading reference:



Chevrolet Aveo 4 doors Sedan, BTW.

Edit:

Another rendition:
-->

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Working on a 3rd model, Dacia Duster.



Refrences:



Can't seem to get it right. Uh, would love to see an edit, on either model 2 or 3, by someone more proficient.

[Chris2balls]

Hey there Lachie,

I thought I'd try to help. I don't usually draw cars but this reminded me how difficult it can be.
For now you've got quite a few jagged lines, and the way you shaded the car ages it badly (reminds me of a '70s paintjob). If you look at the finish of the Duster in your ref, it's really shiny-not only that, but smooth too. Making smooth gradients isn't obvious when you want to avoid dithering and banding.

Here's my edit:

My clusters could be better, but I hope you get the idea...
I think you're going the right way with small highlights and small areas of shading, it'll avoid you having to do complicated shading: it's all about edges and getting the right shape for the clusters to convey volume (thinking of the back lights and wheel areas).

Keep going!

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Thanks Chris. This was very useful color-wise.

Trying to reboot my coloring, but stumbling over.



To be honest, I posted a wrong photo of the car. Well, not wrong. It was mean to illustrate the shapes, not the light source. But you did a great job pixeling that specific light source. Only, it confused me a bit as my light source is sorta center-top. Well, my fault. Basically, I'm trying to replicate this light source:



Continuing my battle with the 3rd model.

2nd model updated: