[C+C] [WIP] Tank Boss

[WienerDog]

Hello everyone!  So this is a final boss I will be featuring in a little game I've been working on as a side project.  It was done in Paint.NET, freehand.



Basically my question/concern is about the look and feel of the tank.  It seems very flat and bland.  Was wondering if anyone would have any tips? 

Specifically: 

- The chassis looks pretty boring and am wondering how to detail/spruce it up a little, maybe adding some paneling that looks like it sticks out at certain parts.
- The tank treads are a little flat, and I'm unsure of what to add to the non gear parts.  Maybe a little more darkened spaces?
- The arm looks a little out of place with the rest of the design...

Edits are accepted, and any tips would be appreciated!  Thanks in advance!

EDIT 11/23/14

@Seiseki: Thanks for the awesome edits and suggestions!  This is my first time trying shading and such on a piece and having such a excellent example really helps!

Here is what I have done recently after doing some homework and inspired by your edits:



I'm still working on it, hopefully learning something in the process.

[Seiseki]

I see four things you need to work on.

1. Clean up those lines.
2. Forget about lines, work on shading and getting depth and shapes right.
3. Adjust the color palette to be have more impact, be more restrictive and stick to only a few colors.
4. Forget about dithering for now.

Only add the detail once you have clear base shapes and shading.
If you want dithering add it after everything else.

Be prepared to put time into studying these things.

Here is a rough edit.
It's not all that clear, shape wise, I just messed around with shading and attempted to dark down everything...




Edit: Couldn't resist working some more on this.

[Decroded]

Excellent edit 
From there I would say consider painting him with some hue, then scratch some of the paint back to metal underneath.
Some more suggestion that top of arm protrudes over the base would be good, and perhaps a different hue to make it stand out.
Now I can help wondering where is the cannon??
maybe the hand can have a gun inside it?

I'm not rly digging the whole glass window look, the size of it seems like a weakness especially that it is right at the front where most damage is taken.

Also would probably add some guard plates over the top of the tracks to make them less of a weak point.

I wonder if tanks overall size is appropriate for appropriate boss?
Can't know without seeing more about ur game idea but unless ur hero is real small then seems like a boss should usually be larger and more intimidating?

[WienerDog]

The game is a robot styled beat-em-up with (mostly) hand-to-hand combat involved.  The window is the weakness the player is suppose to take advantage in this situation, jumping in and out quickly to deal blows while evading hits.

Also, yes the player models and other enemies are quite small (32x32).  The not-quite-optimized-for-combat look of the robot goes with the theme; the player has stumbled upon a secret research facility and a lot of the enemies are repurposed mechs/robots responding to the unexpected threat of the player.

[Seiseki]

@Seiseki: Thanks for the awesome edits and suggestions!  This is my first time trying shading and such on a piece and having such a excellent example really helps!

Here is what I have done recently after doing some homework and inspired by your edits:



I'm still working on it, hopefully learning something in the process.

Well done! That's a huge improvement!

Try to exaggerate the contrast a bit more though.
You should paint out the palette in the image and make sure that you can tell each color apart, if you have two really similar colors they might as well be just one, for the sake of clarity and sharpness.
The more colors you have, the harder it will be to manage.

Also, you should try to shade using shapes and larger chunks of pixels, try drawing without lines at all to get a sense of the depth. Especially for the arm.
You can just make basic shapes like boxes in different sizes and then afterwards go in and deform and add detail. But that will make sure you get the basic shapes right.

The arm is pretty hard to read, especially the claw against the cog in the background.
It doesn't really look like the parts of the arms are connected, you can break up the outlines and have them to blend into each other more.

[Decroded]

Yeah I'm a slow drawer so I can't recommend my methods but I don't even use lines in pixel art.
I just paint up from blocks of colour and add some outlines towards the end if I think it does any justice.
So like a sprite might need some outlines to stop it from blending with surroundings where as I wouldn't have any in a background or at least they would be pretty low contrast if they were there.

Remember that within a sprite, the edge between contrasting clusters of pixels is a line in itself ;-)