New to pixel art/art and need help to understand banding

[Kelmaro]

First would like to say I'm both pretty new to pixel art, and just art also. basically started new years so I may not understand certain terms or words. (and secondly id like to mention I'm not good with punctuation.)

And so my first question is if anyone could give me a more simpler explanation on banding, I've already looked at a couple of guides and I just cant seem to understand what banding is or why its bad.

and my second question is, I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips or information on what I may have done wrong with this character I made, though I'm not totally finished it and ill probably redo this character latter in a somewhat different style cause I don't really like the hair to much right now.



also I was using this as a reference for the character youll notice the face is very similar
http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5282653/il_fullxfull.206233681.jpg
not sure who this is made by though.

[Applzor]

instead of using black lines all through her hair, you should use darker and lighter blues to shadow and highlight her hair.
*bottom picture  http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs8/i/2005/298/c/c/Pixel_Art_Hair_Tutorial_by_BloodyBlackRoses.jpg

the gun could use some improvement as well. guns aren't a gradient of one colour to another, they are made up of lots of individual pieces: primarily the barrel, slider and grip.

[Kelmaro]

Well I did already try to do something like that, though cant really say if it turned out better or worse.(I think I made the gun/scarf/knife outline a bit to dark.)


And with the gun well I wasn't thinking much when I made it, but my idea was that it was a laser pistol so it didn't need a big barrel, and I'm not to sure what you mean by gradient unless you mean the blue and grey dots on the barrel which the blue were meant to be lights or were you talking about the checkered grip, but yea if it looks like a gradient may need to change it some.

[Arne]

However, when doing pixel art, you also need to consider some stuff like... pixel relations in the bands. Sometimes the pixel steps will enhance bands or create little banding staircases. It's best to move the pixels around then and see what creates the smoothest looking gradient out of the bands.

[Kelmaro]

Ok so if I understand correctly banding will simply cause the colours to look less smooth,(and the outline also possibly?) and instead more choppy so it isn't extremely important then?, but should be something always to look out for if its damaging your pixel art?

[Arne]

Banding, thick bands, draw attention to the borders between since something change there. It will make the eye think, hey, this area is important. But, often with banding, it's noticeable but serves no function other than confusing the eye. By compressing the bands, the change is over so quick the eye doesn't see the borders. And, you can place the banded edge near a place on the form where the light changes from light to dark naturally because of the form's form.


Super quick edit. I didn't really optimize the pixel placement here and I left some areas rather messy.



Notice the band compression here, on the red dress, particularly the "shelf".

Many minor pixel details were removed. You don't need to render fine details like teeth or nails. Some of the outlines can be simplified so the lines flow better, too. Outlines can have a little color to them if you feel that the black is too heavy. Large shapes like the hair don't need equal colors everywhere, it's okay to go darker and lighter for large areas.

[Phlakes]

Arne ninjad me while I was writing, so I'll condense it to just this. As an example, this is what my brain thinks this piece of hair looks like in 3D.



And he explains the rest.

[Kelmaro]

Well I don't know why, but I'm having so much trouble getting my head around this idea of banding, I think I understand what it does now by your explanation but I cant understand how to see it at'least when it comes to pixels.

so here I've tryed to spot out some of the banding if you can tell me if I did or not.


also gotta say yea I think I did try to get to many details since I like your version a'lot more, though the teeth I'm not too sure if I would want to leave them alone like that or not since the purpose of the teeth detail was because she is sapposed to have shark like teeth, and I'm not to sure how else I would detail that though.

and I was wondering is there any method to how you decide to switch out the black outline with another colour outline, or is it just mostly by what looks good or randomly?

[Arne]

You're outlining some places with quirky anti aliasing mostly.

Hmm. I seem to remember some post, way back, talking about the small-scale banding that you get at the pixel level. There was an image explaining it, showing how putting equally wide pixel lines next to each other creates a jarring appearance (e.g. /// ). I see it on the left side of her red skirt.
Who did that image, was it Helm? Anyone knows?

Another term to throw at you, Kelmaro, is Pillow Shading. It's when you start dark outwards and fill with lighter tones inwards. It's generally considered bad. Here's an example of it:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/mega-lo-mania/screenshots/gameShotId,395638/

It's a sort of human compulsion to work like that though, filling every void with a piece which fits.

[yrizoud]

About banding, maybe you're thinking of Cure's tutorial on PJ :
http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139322#139322