AuthorTopic: Wallpaper Sized Pixelart  (Read 1797 times)

Offline Akumu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Wallpaper Sized Pixelart

on: June 03, 2019, 04:23:25 pm
Hey I made wallpaper sized pixel art of Hotline Sunset and I am looking for some critique! :D



What I had problem with and didn't like about this piece was the trees, the light made it so i can only use 1 colour so I had to show it's shape by silhouette only. Other thing is gradient of light from lamp posts, i tried to make it as smooth as possible but it took really long so it's a bit choppy, any tips on how to do gradients faster?

Offline daramon

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 73
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Wallpaper Sized Pixelart

Reply #1 on: June 04, 2019, 09:03:40 am
This is suitably epic!

I like the style in general, but something bothers me about those streetlights. I feel like the bands of light should be curved rather than straight, in order that the light is following the laws of physics. Light radiates spherically, at least in theory.

But what happens in reality? Here's a photo of some streetlights at night:



There's quite a bit going on in those cones of light.

 - For a start, they are at right angles to the angle of the lampshade. In your image they always go straight down.

 - The edges of the cones are diffuse rather than sharp.

 - Sometimes you'll see lens flare on the light itself.

 - The light cones have an internal structure, probably caused by a combination of subtle lens flare effects and the path of light around the edges of the lampshades. As if they're extending fingers of light.

Admittedly this could be difficult to replicate exactly using the geometric lines, limited palette and lack of anti-aliasing your style demands, but I do notice that you're using glow effects around some objects (including the lamps) so there may be some wiggle room. I'd quite like to see those front two cones follow the angle of the lamps though.

If you're using Photoshop there's a gradient tool that would make short work of your gradients. You can set it to linear, radial etc. and define it in such a way as to create gradients of both color and transparency. You can also (if you're careful) create hard divisions between colors so you can achieve the effect you have here. Or you could posterize it afterwards I guess.

If you're not in Photoshop you could construct a gradient layer, where you create a large area of gradient once, then whenever you need it just copy/paste a chunk from it to another layer to carve it into the exact shape you want.

For the record I like the trees! Maybe the ones on the left could have slightly more pointy leaves to match the ones on the right?

Offline Akumu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Wallpaper Sized Pixelart

Reply #2 on: June 04, 2019, 11:48:35 pm
Thanks for the reply! Definitely going to check more reference photos when doing stuff with light as I only used 1 which was stylised already.