house

[yyboyyy96]

hey guys I made this small house to test my skills in pixel art!

I would love to know what you guys think about this picture! feel free to edit it! maybe some tips for me how I should have made it etc...



Many thanks!

[Manupix]

Waaaay toooo laaaarge (again).
34 colors because of no color conservation, some of these are used in very small areas where existing colors would do just as well.
You need to learn about building and using a consistent palette.

I don't understand the yellow window: is it supposed to be light inside the house? You wouldn't see that in daylight, and certainly not that pure saturated yellow even at night.
Sky is too blue. Generally avoid pure colors as well as pure neutrals (chimney).


Here's a 100x150, 12-color version, starting from your colors and shifting some hues. I kept the main outline but it's not necessary at all, it's a matter of preference.
I didn't bother with ground and grass but added dereliction detail on the house.

[yyboyyy96]

nice work! I like it a lot!

I'm gonna try experimenting with the colors and size of the image. I also made a character that should matches your house what do you think of it? is it too mutch color and what about the outlines?

[Groggeneral]

As for the general concept of the image - it's interesting (and/or because it's a bit contradictory). The house looks rather rundown, but the girl looks rather petite and tidy. I like the petite frame of her :]

The Eyes need some refinement - the black borders suggest that she may be wearing glasses (but the sprite lacks the nosebridge for that). The way the pupils are positioned, it also looks like she is looking at the ground. If that's intended - good. If not, it's an area for further improvement

Considering the small pixelsize of the girl and the detail of the arms, you could boil down the eyes to 1 or 2 pixels each

What's important is that in this case one can see in which direction the girl is looking to.

To change the direction where she's looking at, also consider how you look at stuff -> you move your head.

So if you want her to look to the side, you can play around with the alignment of the eyes and the perspective of the head. maybe not completely lose the right eye but you get the idea.

I recommend to look at some sprites from snes or nes games to get a sense of how pixels can be placed in the face area
Example: http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/chronotrigger/ or http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/ff6/  (http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/ff6/sheet/6707/)
giving the eye a black outline imho makes the outline too bulky at that pixelcount.

Hope that helps :]

[Manupix]

Just a heads-up: edits are not made for you to use as-is, but to study and try to replicate on your own. Not that I'd mind anyway, but that will be much more helpful to your long-term improvement =)

That sprite is seriously inconsistent, in style and outlines. Why are the arms and legs pixeled so differently? Why no outline on the dress at all?
You have to make an important decision: either separate sprites from bg with outlines, or color, or both. Each have their pros and cons.
If you outline the sprite(s), do it consistently, and do not outline the bg (or tone it down much).
If you don't outline the sprite, tone down the bg colors (lots, esp. the reds) and pick contrasting colors for the sprite (pink vs red = nope).

At this sprite size, I don't think outlines work so well: the 1px wide legs + black outlines on each side = 3px wide mess.
No inside outlines either! They take up precious pixel space that should be used for shading instead, and they don't read well (she's got a beard). That's why I didn't use them in the house.
Agree with the General about the eyes.

[yyboyyy96]

thanks for the tips I'll keep those in mind when making another character!

however how would I make those legs and arms better then? I had a littlebit of a trouble making those because they or looked to thick or looked ugly ":S
(I'm also planning on animating this character once I'm done with the sprite itself and if the sprite is to small or too narrow it will be hard for me to animate it)

[Groggeneral]

thanks for the tips I'll keep those in mind when making another character!

however how would I make those legs and arms better then? I had a littlebit of a trouble making those because they or looked to thick or looked ugly ":S
(I'm also planning on animating this character once I'm done with the sprite itself and if the sprite is to small or too narrow it will be hard for me to animate it)

That's a reason why I referred you to charactersprites from others games. Draw inspirations from different approaches to how it could be done and just well, try around until you find your own solution. Manupix also pointed out the parts which are particulary inconsistent. You can see how other more trained people solved these difficulties and you may then get an idea on how you could do it, too.

I would recommend fixing the issues before you animate it as that would just mean that you carry over the things without learning how to do better next time.