AuthorTopic: [WIP] Mushroom  (Read 9589 times)

Offline Obsidantion

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[WIP] Mushroom

on: June 06, 2007, 11:40:15 pm
Hello Pixelation, I am new to pixeling and wish to improve so that I can produce my own graphics for games. I have created a pixel of a mushroom and any comments or criticism (regarding anything from touching up the lineart to colours etc.) will be greatly appreciated by me. Thanks.

Edits So Far:

« Last Edit: June 09, 2007, 06:04:08 pm by Obsidantion »

Offline Krut

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #1 on: June 07, 2007, 12:17:05 am
Hey man:

First of all, i think you could add a more interesting dither pattern to the mushroom, as right now it seems too simple.

Second of all, the casting of shadows needs to be more pronounced; right now those whitey things are popping quite a lot (according to the way you shaded and highlighted them), so, they need a bigger casting of shadow upon the mushroom itself otherwise make them a bit more "inner"; this can be done by removing the highlight on top and decreasing the shadow below, or either increasing the shadow below.

I like the colour pallette, but you could make things more interesting, integrating a few of these colours in other parts; for instance, that deep blue could be used instead of that blood red on the bottom of the head of the mushroom.

Like i said the casting of shadows is off, and the mushroom isnt really well colored according to the lightsource; there could be a counter reflection (forgetting the name here, sorry) common in round/ball figures, on the bottom of the head, and the actual part that holds the head should be much darker, and there you could include some nifty light effects.

The way the grass is shaded doesnt respond to the lightsource of the mushroom either, i imagine that since the lightsource is casted directly over the top of the mushroom, it blocks the direct light on the grass (wich here doesnt appear to be the case)

The shape itself i like, but maybe the curves could be done on a more stylized way, i could probably edit if you want, since its hard to explain.

I would also reccommend converting this into a complete mini-scene, as i definetely see potential in it.

Keep at it, and just give a shout if you need an edit.

Hope to see some progress in this.

-Krut.


Offline Obsidantion

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #2 on: June 07, 2007, 03:58:48 am
Thanks a lot Krut! Much help there. I would definitely like to turn it into a mini-scene, would be good experience. As to your critiques, I have given another edit a shot taking into account your comments on dithering and some of your shading ideas. I would much appreciate an edit from you illustrating your points on the more advanced aspects of shading and light (i.e. the mushroom's cast over the grass) and how I might go about stylizing the lineart as you said. Thank you very much.

Edit:
« Last Edit: June 07, 2007, 04:07:33 am by Obsidantion »

Offline Xion

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #3 on: June 07, 2007, 05:23:34 am
I think the dithering would be much smoother if you added a sort of half-tone thing. Look closely at where one dither turns to another...you see that? Yeah, you can still see the line that separates the colors. I mean, it just makes it look sorta striped.

Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #4 on: June 07, 2007, 06:48:21 am
I wouldn't fret over the actual technical bits of the dithering overmuch right now, you still have some pretty fundamental lighting problems.  While you've not pillowshaded it, you've done the next worst thing, which is to just paint swaths of darkening colors from top to bottom, irregardless of any reasonable lightsource or the shape and contours of the mushroom itself.  The way you've shaded it, it looks like your mushroom is a thin section of a donut, rather than a cone shape.  Find some references online or IRL (like an upside-down plastic or paper cup under a lamp) and see where the light actually hits the surface.  You don't need to do photo-realistic lighting in order to do a good pixel of a mushroom, but it might be a good place to start if you're looking for tips on how to sell the shape of your subject better.

EDIT

Ok I was fidgety and hadn't pixeled anything fun yet today so I thought I'd do a seriously, hella sloppy little helper image here to show you what I mean about painting gradients without thinking about form.  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, please, no one take my specific example to closely to heart.  Let it merely serve as a rushed and crappy illustration of an important principle for beginners.  I did a similar image for mountains and landscapes before that seemed helpful, so I thought I'd do one for your mushroom (or really mushrooms everywhere) too:



These two images have pixel-perfect, identical silhouettes.  The one on the left is shaded with broad swaths of color, brightest to darkest, irregardless of the form of the subject.  The one on the right is haphazardly but well-intentionedly (yeah that's not a word) shaded with some little amount of thought and consideration given to the form of the object I am trying to illustrate.

While I was doodling this I came across another point that is probably not to early to start thinking about.  That is, the side effects of dithering.  Unless your shades are very very very close together (and even then this can still happen) dithering almost necessarily results in TEXTURE.  Meaning, as you blend your lighter and darker colors together, any place they are adjacent, your eyes will perceive some small geometrical protrusions, also called bumps and shit.  This is because bumps on things catch and cast shadows and light, and that is what painting is; telling people where light is falling on an object.  So as you experiment with blending your colors, remember to cast a critical eye on the results of your dithering; does this add any unwanted texture to my subject?
« Last Edit: June 07, 2007, 07:09:35 am by AdamAtomic »

Offline Obsidantion

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #5 on: June 07, 2007, 03:15:23 pm
I'm really happy with the help I've recieved so far. In this edit I've concentrated on the comments from AdamAtomic of shading and changing the direction of the light source to bring out the shape and I've added shades to smoothen the contrast as suggested by Xion. Thank you both for your help.

Edit:


If anyone has some suggestions regarding the grass I would appreciate those as I haven't had much luck in my experiments trying to design an appeasing style. Shading on grass is especially confusing for me.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2007, 09:11:33 pm by Obsidantion »

Offline Stwelin

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #6 on: June 07, 2007, 04:48:37 pm
Greeaaat improvement. The form is much clearer now, and it looks a lot more eye-catching. The one thing to remember though (and this is illustrated in Adam's drawing) is that right before the edge of the mushroom on the right (dark) side, you should use the midtone again, to show ambient light. In Adam's drawing you see that the darkest colour actually isn't used on the farthest right side, but only close to it, he then goes back to the midtone.

Offline Zee

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #7 on: June 07, 2007, 05:34:28 pm
Wow that's a lot of improvement in such a short time.

Offline Obsidantion

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #8 on: June 07, 2007, 06:22:03 pm
Thanks Stwelin for the comment. Ambient light makes so much sense to me as the light would bounce off of surrounding objects and reflect into shadows cast from the direct light source, but I would have never thought of it (great help for general pixeling knowledge). I used a hue shift into a pale blue for this ambient light. I calculated the colours by adjusting the hue, saturation and luminosity values in Paint's palette by even amounts between each shade (although I'm not sure that's the best method). Anyway here's my attempt at it.

Edit:
« Last Edit: June 07, 2007, 09:13:31 pm by Obsidantion »

Offline Krut

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Re: [WIP] Mushroom

Reply #9 on: June 07, 2007, 06:31:03 pm
Hey man:

Basically i think its a gret improvement lightsource-wise i think you have AdamAtomic to thank for, since his example was really illustrative;

I think though, that your colour management is a step down since you have added a lot of unnessesary tones, and the original spirit of the first (wich was more comic-esque) has been lost with the new dither pattern; a bit messy for my tastes with the factor of newly added shades, make it seem more of a colour reduction than anything else  (but that may be your intention, and of course my opinion)

The first concern wich i expressed was the shape itself, that wasnt really polished, the outline of the head could be fixed a bit i think. So, this is what i would do.



First retouch the actual outline, making the curves and lines have more coherence.
The i would add maybe a bit more of those whitey things, but on a smaller scale, ill stablish the lightsource with the colours, a "bounce lightsource" on the back, and in there you can change the hues, towards an ambient lighting, (this in case you are planning to make it a small scene, should be according to it; duh.) change the outline to a variable light one acording to how you casted the lightsource, then i would antialias to make everything more curved, and make all the shades more integrated, and lastly, i would dither.

Keep pushing it, its looking better.

-Krut