First Pixel Art: Eye (WIP)

[khorin]

I'm quite new to all forms of pixel art so I thought I'd post what I've been working on just to get more insight from people who have been doing it longer than I have. Nothing great...just an eye. 

Here's what I have so far:


Here's the reference picture I drew myself from a photo: http://shizucor.com/images/eye.gif Note: I actually went back to the original just for the shading.

I'm using 5 colors right now and I've been playing around with dithering and aa so I'd like to know if I'm applying those correctly. I chose this picture just so I could practice with shading. I will begin working on line art as soon as I'm done with this.

Thanks!

[Sherman Gill]

Mm... Good color choices and usage.
I think the eyelashes should be more defined, right now it looks more like face paint. But it does look nice as it is.
AA wise, you got it kinda wrong. One point AA should be the direct middle of the two colors, whereas you're just using one shade darker.

[AdamAtomic]

Mm... Good color choices and usage.
I think the eyelashes should be more defined, right now it looks more like face paint. But it does look nice as it is.
AA wise, you got it kinda wrong. One point AA should be the direct middle of the two colors, whereas you're just using one shade darker.

I gotta disagree with all of these points actually:

1 - The color choice is definitely dull - your values are decent, but the colors could be a LOT more interesting!
2 - Actually nevermind I don't disagree with this one   the eyebrow and lashes all suffer from this.  More detail!
3 - One point AA should almost NEVER be the direct middle of the two colors, not even for values.  This is just wrong

I'm working on an edit, I'll post it up in a bit...

[EDIT]



I didn't really do much with it, just tried to show some other ways of anti-aliasing along the eyelid there, and adding just a little color to your ramps   hope this helps!  It isn't a bad start at all, it's just not taking full advantage of all the goodness pixel art offers...

[khorin]

I'm well aware that I need to add more detail to some parts. I'll probably post an update sometime soon. As for the color, I figured it was rather dull. Any suggestions?

[Sherman Gill]

Hmm... Maybe I should read more on AA. I always used my intuition.
Regardless, both the original and Adam's have quite a few 'jaggies'. Particularly on the upper eyelid.

[khorin]

Mm... Good color choices and usage.
I think the eyelashes should be more defined, right now it looks more like face paint. But it does look nice as it is.
AA wise, you got it kinda wrong. One point AA should be the direct middle of the two colors, whereas you're just using one shade darker.

I didn't really do much with it, just tried to show some other ways of anti-aliasing along the eyelid there, and adding just a little color to your ramps hope this helps! It isn't a bad start at all, it's just not taking full advantage of all the goodness pixel art offers...

I like that edit. I take it you just used like a green? Anyway, I'll edit the colors when I can (I'm at work bah). I'm aware of the jaggies, I'll fix those towards the end of the piece. Keep 'em coming!

[AdamAtomic]

using different colors reflects reality or our impressions of reality better, but they also have a lot more information.  E.g. if you have a blue color and a red color of equivalent brightness, the red color will appear to be in front of or closer than the blue color.  Especially if you are going to limit yourself to just 5 colors, I'd heavily recommend using a variety of colors in your ramp so that you can convey more information.  You can also do "color mixing" - e.g. if you want a gray tone, but you only have green and red, if you dither them together or place them adjacent to each other they can appear to be gray.  You just have a lot more options.  My edit is not necessarily what you SHOULD do but what you CAN do.

[khorin]

I wanted to go monochromatic (which is something I seem to do alot heh) but it seems as though I need to use another scheme.

[Rydin]

I am a bit concerned about the line of dithering beneath the iris; what is it accomplishing?
Also, I wouldn't have noticed it, but as illustrated by grey shade in AdamAtomic's edit, the dithering on the eyebrow and eyeshadow are very messy and unplanned.  Just out of curiosity, did you use any other reference pictures?

As for the colors, when you are working with only five, the more diverse your palette is, the more efficient it is, but if you want smoother aa, you may want some similar colors.

[khorin]

Sorry for the long reply! Too busy with work and other projects. Anyway, I tried out a new color scheme and got rid of the dithering just so I can get the basic shading done. Some, maybe most of the dithering did appear to be random and unplanned to me, Rydin.



Here's the original reference: http://shizucor.com/images/eye2.gif

The details on the brow and eyelashes will be added as soon as I get crits on color and anything else.