AuthorTopic: SHMUP Progress  (Read 5692 times)

Offline Delibrete

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SHMUP Progress

on: March 23, 2014, 04:50:33 am
Hello all,

I've been wanting to do pixel art for some time but have been too lazy/haven't had the time. I'm currently working on a shmup with my friend. I've only sort of just started and this is what I've made so far (100% and then 200% zoom):


This is my progress from left to right.

My inspiration is this: http://opengameart.org/content/retro-spaceships

I don't know how he (Jerom) does it, but he only uses like 4 colours and each of his ships look really detailed :O

I'm quite a beginner and I have much to learn. I want my lines smoother, my colours to look nicer and my shading to look better. What C&C or advice can you offer me?

Thanks :)
« Last Edit: March 23, 2014, 12:52:12 pm by Delibrete »

Offline Kich

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #1 on: March 23, 2014, 08:59:32 am
You could try some hue shifting too, like Jerom did. Take a look at his purple~brown~green~yellow palette. Yours fade from darker to lighter green, from darker to lighter gray, etc.

(4 colours either)

Offline Delibrete

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #2 on: March 23, 2014, 12:45:48 pm
thanks for the reply :)

What is hue shifting? Is that where you take two colours and make one the light colour and the other the darker colour?

Thanks for showing an example btw :)

Offline Johasu

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #3 on: March 23, 2014, 01:44:57 pm
It's more moving from one color to another rather than from one color to a darker version of that color.
I've been learning the ropes on this myself lately.
http://wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=2836.0  <-- a thread about it
http://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/tutorial-palettes-and-hue-shifting/ <-- maybe more useful if you read the specifics on which direction to go.
More specifically look at Lucas Kich's edit. Notice how he moved from a bluish gray to yellow and used that lighter blue color as a bridge to get there.
Hue shift from darker color to a brighter and different color.
Bridging is the use of the blue color in between as a middle man.  :y:
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Offline Delibrete

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #4 on: March 24, 2014, 06:27:04 am
Ah I see, thanks for the links and the explanation :D

Going to work on a new design using hue shifting. Thanks for the support :)
« Last Edit: March 24, 2014, 09:12:44 am by Delibrete »

Offline Daimoth

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #5 on: March 25, 2014, 05:05:20 pm
Your green ship could use quite a bit more contrast. Try making the dark shades darker, and the light shades lighter.

Offline Delibrete

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #6 on: March 26, 2014, 07:05:02 am
Ok I went and did some hue shifting:



However it doesn't seem right to me. What can I do to improve this? This is by far my biggest piece of work. It's supposed to be a boss for the shmup game. But it doesn't feel defined enough? I don't know. What do you suggest?

Here is a little sketch I did while in a lecture before making the boss:

Offline Pizza Tom

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #7 on: March 27, 2014, 05:14:49 pm
Your boss doesn't seem defined because the shading doesn't describe his form, it just gets darker toward the middle. From your sketch I can see you're already thinking of his shape being made of different forms, just pick a light source and shade accordingly. Here's a quick, sloppy non-pixel art example of what I mean:

I didn't fix the issue of each "sphere" seeming to be on the same plane, but hopefully this at least gets you to think in the right direction.

Also, your palette has a lot of colors that are too close to tell the difference, you could probably get away with cutting it in half.
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Offline astraldata

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #8 on: March 28, 2014, 10:32:10 pm
You have waaay too much dithering on there. None of the pixels have any purpose.

I used the circle tool a lot to revamp your sprite to look more like the sketch:

I'm offering free pixel-art mentorship for promising pixel artists. For details, click here.

     http://mugenzero.userboard.net/

Offline Delibrete

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Re: SHMUP Progress

Reply #9 on: March 30, 2014, 12:28:49 am
Regulus Awesome:

Yeah I didn't really know what I was doing and I couldn't figure out why it didn't look right. Thanks for telling me what was wrong with it :) I'm still progressing but thanks for the example :D It will help!

astraldata:

Oh wow! That's totally what I was going for actually :P I just couldn't achieve it but you made my sketch come to life! Thanks for the inspiration :)

I was going to give up on this sprite but I might try and fix it, thanks for the help guys! :D