AuthorTopic: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art  (Read 7051 times)

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #10 on: July 26, 2017, 08:21:43 pm
I quite like the top one! Nice use of warm and cool greys. The characters are difficult to read against the background in both - that's a design issue rather than a palette one.

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #11 on: July 27, 2017, 01:29:43 am
The top one has a way more somber aesthetic to it than the bottom one, but depending on the tone you're going for either work!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline hexcode

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 63
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • I'm a Full-time Pixel Artist for hire!
    • @joseph_silipo
    • mrsilipo
    • View Profile
    • Joseph Silipo's Portfolio

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #12 on: July 28, 2017, 02:25:08 am
I love the first one (first post) the best! Really nice colors and blends :)
Twitter @joseph_silipo
AVAILABLE FOR HIRE
I'm dedicating my life to become an amazing pixel artist.

Offline vie_draws

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 10
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @vie_draws
    • View Profile
    • artstation

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #13 on: July 28, 2017, 07:49:17 pm
Thanks for your input guys!  Well we are going for a more somber aesthetic indeed, so I'll be pursuing on the same theme as the grayish one.  Ya it's really a challenge the make to characters stand out! I'd really rather work on the background though for the changes, because the characters animations are already advanced.  This will prove to be a challenge.  So I'll keep on going on that same type of idea.  I also liked the first on, Hexcode, but it just seems too lively to me for what we want...

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #14 on: July 28, 2017, 08:14:24 pm
It looks like most of the characters are dark, at least around the edges. This means the parts of the backgrounds that they'll overlap should probably be kept light. If readability continues to be an issue, you could always tweak the colours on the characters without having to redo any of the animations - that's one of the great benefits of pixel art after all.

Offline vie_draws

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 10
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @vie_draws
    • View Profile
    • artstation

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #15 on: July 31, 2017, 06:56:00 pm
Thanks Eishiya!
Your message really made us rethink the colors of the characters.  We had not realized how big of an issue it was.  So I'm working on many iterations of the characters and also practicing my color ramping.

I tried a few effects to add dept to the image and augment the readability.

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #16 on: July 31, 2017, 09:13:34 pm
They're still pretty hard to read. Something that may help with that is putting an outline around them, usually I go for a dark brown/purple but simple black or white can work too.
It's a bit of a cheaty solution but it'll fix the problem and most of art is, in fact, cheating like a motherfuck.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline vie_draws

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 10
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @vie_draws
    • View Profile
    • artstation

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #17 on: July 31, 2017, 09:27:17 pm
Thanks MysteryMeat, but we are trying to avoid going for the contour.  I have not mentioned that the sprites are going to be scale up x 2 in engine and the smaller character has hands of one pixel, so we cannot really use a contour. 

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #18 on: July 31, 2017, 11:58:52 pm
contour..?
I'm not sure what you mean by that!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: [WIP] mock up for 2d platformer, new to pixel art

Reply #19 on: August 01, 2017, 12:10:30 am
@MysteryMeat: Contour = outline.


Try keeping the lower portions of the walls and other background elements flatter in colour, so that the characters are usually against solid colours rather than a bunch of detail. That will help them stand out even if their values aren't very different from those of the background. Currently, most of your examples concentrate the background detail in the same areas where the characters are, which hurts clarity. Your "rushed" tileset from July 26 was actually the best example in that the wall behind the characters had very low-contrast details and was mostly a solid colour, and the higher-contrast details were all high up, where the characters didn't overlap them.

It would probably also help to make it so that the sky and such are closer in value to the walls in the areas where characters overlap those elements, so that the boundaries between different objects don't form very high-contrast areas. This is currently an issue with your dark walls and light sky. Try having some darker foreground clouds, perhaps?
« Last Edit: August 01, 2017, 12:13:46 am by eishiya »