[WiP] Game project "Jobel" mock-up

[MoD]

A lot of people ask 'Why?' about the color restrictions, and most of it goes back to carrying on traditions from pixel art's roots on the earliest consoles with extremely limited graphical capabilities. It's generally considered wasteful to use more colors than you absolutely need and using them creatively to stay within a numerical limit can be useful when trying to increase artistic skill within the medium. Conforming to a limited palette encourages hueshifting and requires good knowlege of color theory, so doing so can serve as a test of artistic knowlege.

I personally think you should've had the magic bar's stalagmites as stalactites instead, because though they would logically form under the stalactites of the health bar, they wouldn't form in the other area and moving them closer together might not be a good idea as the player would be confused by bars touching squares at both ends. I'm also wondering, what is the game's general theme? I'm getting a cave vibe from the HUD but not the environment.

[Luzeke]

Changed the stalactites & stalagmites to have the actual bar look more like the brick pattern the globe and cube has. I liked the stalactites, but they felt unnecessary when I thought about it.





I normally use three shades of each color, maybe four (if it's a static object or an object with very little animation).

About the healthbar, it's build up of three objects; the static object, the weapon icon and the actual red bar. I like to consider at least the icon the rest as spearate objects. This because there
will be other icons displayed, which will likely use the same amount of colors, maybe more. I see no reson to use colors from the static picture more than the two darker shades I used for outlining the icon.

[Luzeke]

Started sketching on a boss yesterday. Continued today. Still not done yet, but I thought I'd put up a pic of it as it is now, see if people have suggestions. I think he may be a bit too big though. And possibly hard to animate. THat is, however, a later problem. I'll probably make a new version then. Here's the latest version anyway:


Same picture but with added stuff

^^

[Slothien483]

I think it's an amazing concept, but you're right, maybe it's a little too big comparing it with the main character. Cant wait to see it done  .

[Franky G]

Same picture but with added stuff

^^

Whoah!

only thing that bugs me is his stomach. I think his pack should curve over just a little. looks like his back has snapped otherwise.

[Opacus]

Started sketching on a boss yesterday. Continued today. Still not done yet, but I thought I'd put up a pic of it as it is now, see if people have suggestions. I think he may be a bit too big though. And possibly hard to animate. THat is, however, a later problem. I'll probably make a new version then. Here's the latest version anyway:


Same picture but with added stuff

^^

I need to see that coloured, NOW!

[baccaman21]

Could you please tell me why it's such a taboo using a lot of colors?

It comes down to what you like asthetically... this forum is dedicated to pushing pixels in the traditional sense... adding your own AA... defining your own pallette gorups and ramps and what have you... this is the traditional methodology of old skool artists such as myself... tried and tested... however with the transition from 4 & 8bit graphics into the relams of what we have now, with 32bit graphics, alpha masking, channels and all those other fancy pants things you can muck around with in photoshop et al then that opens up a whole new avenue of possibilities creativly... but that's NOT what pixelation is about - hence why you'll be lambasted by using too many colors... it IS about economics... primarily because there was less space (ram/rom wise) to play with in the old days so hence the SKILL of the true low color pixel artist came into being...

Like I said... it's asthetics... people here tend to scoff or turn their nose up at new CG 'rendered' sprites or backgrounds with millions of colors which in itself is an artform - it's just very different - I personally believe true pixel art has SOUL... because every single pixel is placed with thought from a human mind rather than computated by some very clever lighting algorithms based on a lot of technical polygonal creation (not belittling my brothers in the polygon domain as I respect what they do equally) - I can just aprreciate the purist nature of pixeling... and I think I speak for a lot of people around here when I say that...

So to answer you question... it's not a taboo thing... it's just a tradition...


As for your work... Generally speaking I like it - it shows creative flare and you obviously know what you;re wanting to acheive... what I would say is that I feel at the real low level... when you get i really close to your sprites... they are a bit scrappy... but that's me being really pedantic...

oh... and I guess your a fan of Jak & daxter? judging by the ears on your hero? and the buddy control mech?

[Luzeke]

Here's an update on my golem-thingy.


This will definately need to be redone later on. But I'm gonna finish it and have it as a separate pic anyway.
EDIT// Maybe I should scale everything else up instead?! 

On the ride home I made a test sprite of a character from the game. He supposed to be a sneaky bastard. I did three versions with alterations of the same pallette.



I'm not gonna say much more on the color-subject. All I can say is that I'll try to use as few colours as possible, but since I'm not trying to emulate anything on this particular project I'll use as few colors as I can manage, but if I feel I need particular colors I'll probably keep them as is. Oh, tw, how can I make my sprites less 'scrappy'?

And, actually, I have never laid hands on any of the Jak & Daxter-games. I know of them, but I have ignored them. 

[Luzeke]

Update:

[Hishnak]

Hmmm...he's very wrinkly...the skin on his form arm almost looks like its melting off or something.