Sparkly brain stuff

[Tremulant]

Past Versions:
http://h1.ripway.com/tremulant/Dreamer2.gif
http://h1.ripway.com/tremulant/Dreamer3.gif
http://h1.ripway.com/tremulant/Dreamer4.gif
http://h1.ripway.com/tremulant/Dreamer6.gif

Current Version:


First pixels in a while. They still need work, but I think I've gone about as far as I can on my own. I think the palette needs an overhaul, but all crits/opinions/etc. would be great.

[GOODNIGHTdestroyer]

Excellent colors choices, as always. The rock in the bottom right really sticks out from the rest. I don't really thinm it needs to be there. There might be some contrast issues in the whole piece, but i still don't think you should change it.

It's a very nice piece. Glad to see you back to pixelling. For awhile there you were posting like three pieces a week, and then you stopped. Did you get artist's block like I sometimes do?

In any case, can't wait to see more from you.

[vellan]

really cool piece. love the character design and poses.

in terms of criticism, i think the two pieces of the 'earth' that look like jutting stones (the bottom right, and to the left of the dangling leg) seem too pronounced and lack the dithering of the rest of the earth. Not sure, but they look more like chocolate when compared to the rest.

[Doppleganger]

Hey, very nice piece. Your work is always pretty kick ass though. Usually I like your palettes a lot more but, you're right this one needed an overhaul. Using my palette skills and borrowing from your own, I took it upon myself to mess with your palette. I think that your earthworm jim piece inspired me most of all.



If I had the time, or wanted to mess with more than the palette, I would've edited the rocks and the shrubs. I feel that a lot more thought was put into the characters and general upper half than the bottom half.

[eqko]

this is tasty stuff.

agreed with the two big rocks looking out of place. I think adding'texture' to them would pull them right back into place.
they seem to smooth compared to their surroundings

[Soup]

I think the ground looks a bit generic.
You know the whole brown-purple shift.
Everything else is awsome though.

[Tremulant]

Updated. Thanks for the replies, fellows.

GNd: Contrast issues and me are like... two... things that go together... good. Anyway, bad similes aside, I'm not sure if the contrast is worse, better or indifferent in the new version. I see your point about the rock probably not needing to be there, but I think the lower half of the pic looks a bit empty without it... I could be wrong; stranger things have happened.

Vellan: True enough, about the rocks. I tried to texture them without being to blatant about it; too much dithering and they look messy, not enough and, like you said, they look chocolatey, or fake or something. I tried to address it, anyhow.

Doppleganger: I really like the colours in your edit. High saturation palettes are something that I really enjoy, but am also a bit scared of and inexperienced with. Consequently, when I tried to make it higher sat on my own, it just ended up looking... funny. Palette's been overhauled regardless, for better or worse.

Eqko: Thanks . Like I said, I textured the rocks a bit, but probably not enough. Hopefully they blend a bit better now, but you tell me.

Soup: Agreed, to an extent, as I do like purple shadows. Personal preference aside, though, I guess they are used rather a lot. Anyway, the new palette's ditched 'em.

Thanks again, guys.

More crits, please! I know it's not finished.

[Doppleganger]

I like the new palette a lot better. Looking back and forth between the old and the new, I can see what the main problem with the old palette was. Apparently those deep oragnes, reds, and browns stole the picture. The new cliff colors bring the picture together a lot better. The old ones just seemed to be yelling "HEY LOOK AT ME!"

I still feel that there are some issues with depth on the cliff however. The cliff looks rather two-dimensional. I think this could be fixed with a few simple shadows around the edges and the bottom. Right now, the only piece on the cliff that shows off depth is the "chocolate bar" (sorry ).

As far as high saturation palettes go, I too enjoy them but am only getting back into them recently. When I first started pixeling, every piece I did was with the same high sat 256 color palette. Although, I had no clue how to utilize high sat colors. So, after quite a few years of working with ragnarok onlines extremely desaturated palette, and then my own extremely desaturated palette I felt it was high time to get back to basics. That, and it would seem that purple shadows and desaturation are going out of style. XD

[Ragnarok]

Mayhaps some kind of marking on the "chocolate bar" would make it less generic and chocolatey? Like a glowing rune or something...

[Soup]

Current Version:

Love the new pallete.
Looks very new or modern.

[Tremulant]

Small update. Tried to add some depth to the earth-chunk, added some more stones, tweaked some other stuff.

Doppleganger: I hope there aren't too many people rallying against low-saturation purple shadows 'cause if there are, I'm pretty well boned. Whatever... if things go too far, I can just keep using both, get all pretentious and snobby, and look down on others for being conformists.
I tried, like I said, to add some depth to the earth. Better, I think, than it was, but probably still far from great. I meant to ask you: what would you recommend for the shrubs? Any particular problems there, or just a general lack of glamour?

Ragnarok: Something, maybe, but I dunno how well a glowy rune'd fit in. Might draw more attetion to the bottom than I'd like. I'm open to edits and stuff though, if you think it'd work.

Soup: Much appreciated.

[Doppleganger]

Now you're getting somewhere! I very much so enjoy the depth, I think that helped alot. Especially with the cracks in the rock. The dark solid lines you originally had gave it a pasted on sort of feel. As far as the shrubs go, it looks to me as if they aren't really taking into consideration the rest of the lightsource. (maybe) In addition, they lack the detail the rest of the piece has. I'm going to do a quick edit on the shrubs, maybe the rocks. I'm having a hard time conveying what I mean...so stay tuned.



Okay, I kind of got carried away with my edit...I always do though.

The shrub on the left, I completely redid, with more of a leafy texture rather than bunches of circles. Whether or not it came out that great is another thing. The main point with that is to show a better way to handle leaves. I probably deviated from the original idea a little too much, and got a little too carried away with the shape of the leaves that I forgot to address the lighting aspect. So....nevermind that area too much. Gather what you can from it.

The shrub on the right, turned out better than the left. I pushed it further into the background since it was just asking to be pushed back. I kept your general shape and tried defining the leaves a bit better. Hopefully this one makes up for the less than great left shrub.

As far as the rocks go, I noticed that there was a lot of unnecessary dithering going on. Your colors mesh together pretty well and your dithering seemed to me, to be a lack of understanding of where exactly light should go. I'm not exactly an expert, but I feel that all that dithering worked against the piece.

What I did was solidify the lighting a bit more. This was done by filling out some dithered areas with solid colors and utilizing your highlights a bit better. This is where I did the most random pixeling so I can't say exactly what went on but hopefully you can check it out and know.

** Edit **

Alright, the shrubs before were crap...really I felt they would offer little if any intuition. So, I redid them. Since I've gone into editing my edits, I'll refrain from doing any more edits on this piece. XD

As PKmays has said, this piece has gone very far since the beginning.

[Atrophy]

I love the little guy.
Well the whole thing is great the only thing I find needing to be fixed is his head it looks to much as if he has no chin. but besides that its perfect in my eyes

[pkmays]

There's been a huge improvement in this piece from its inception to its current state. Congrats.

I think taking away the green from the magical brain sparkle cloud makes it a little less...magical.

[GOODNIGHTdestroyer]

Amazing edit Trem. Great job. Love the blue feel to it all.

[Tremulant]

Updated again. Did a lot of work based on Doppleganger's edit, and screwed with the whole chest-ribs area (which still bothers me, but I'm not sure how to fix it).

Doppleganger: Thanks so much for all the attention you've given this. The edit is fantastic, and I based most of the changes in the latest update on it. Not too sure what I did, aside from... blatantly copy you, so we'll leave it at that. The shrubs still need some work, but I think they're better than they were... I'll keep at it, anyway, and see where it takes me.

k0re: Thanks! Funny you should mention that, about the head, 'cause he does, essentially, have no chin. It was intentional.

pkmays: Thanks. I agree that there's been a lot of improvement, but I take no credit for it. It's due mainly to everybody's great crits, and doppleganger's amazing edits. I agree, too, about the green. When I changed it to blue, I lightened it too much and took away the sparkliness. It's back.

GNd: Thanks. I like blue, too.

[Doppleganger]

Thanks for the recognition.   

I'm a big fan of your work and it was lots of fun helping you through this piece. I think you got it from here though.

[Tremulant]

Final update, unless anyone sees any glaring flaws. I just played with the anatomy on this one, possible messed it up, but I'm sick of looking at it, to be honest.

Thanks again, guys, for all the help.