AuthorTopic: AA help  (Read 12313 times)

Offline brigadon

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AA help

on: November 18, 2007, 11:02:33 pm
Okay, I am having a little trouble with my hand antialiasing. I am doing game graphics, so I definitely need to have a light-colored AA to contrast with the backround, but my own attempts look...jagged. and a bit pillowshaded.
anyone have any crits that might help me?

Offline Saitus

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Re: AA help

Reply #1 on: November 19, 2007, 12:13:22 am
This piece has way to much dithering, it makes it look like sandpaper. The piece is small, so just straight contrasting colors should do fine. AA should be a color that matches the part you're AAing and the background, or in this case a lighter color as the BG will change. AA around the edges, not inside the piece or it will look like shading.

Offline bengo

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Re: AA help

Reply #2 on: November 19, 2007, 12:54:00 am
Bla:

I think the edit speaks for itself.

Offline Darien

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Re: AA help

Reply #3 on: November 19, 2007, 01:04:43 am
I definitely need to have a light-colored AA to contrast with the backround

I'm sorry, what do you mean by this?

Offline brigadon

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Re: AA help

Reply #4 on: November 19, 2007, 04:06:17 am
Bla:

I think the edit speaks for itself.

Umm, wow, that looks absolutely nothing like I was trying to do.
and how exactly is this supposed to help?

Offline brigadon

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Re: AA help

Reply #5 on: November 19, 2007, 04:08:29 am
I definitely need to have a light-colored AA to contrast with the backround

I'm sorry, what do you mean by this?

I am trying to make a character that looks...smoother, for a game. I am having trouble primarily with the jacket, trying to make it look like cotton instead of plastic, but with the 'floors' I have already made I think it would be best to have aa that brings the character into focus, something lighter but not a true outline.

Offline bengo

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Re: AA help

Reply #6 on: November 19, 2007, 06:06:43 am
Umm, wow, that looks absolutely nothing like I was trying to do.
and how exactly is this supposed to help?
It helps because it fixes almost alll the things you've done wrong.

On a piece like this, thats very small, you can't do much dithering but that doesn't matter because your piece right now is well, I'm not going to sugar-coat it, pretty bad at the moment. You have an odd light source, very undefined, you have many useless colors(Just a bad color scheme over-all, it doesn't seem like you've studied up on the color theory or anything related to color, I suggest you do so) and not enough contrast and some features distract and overwhelm the eye like for instance the giant yellow buttons, dithering and AAing is the last thing to worry about.


Now, let's fix this, shall we?

Why is your light source very odd(It seems like it would be coming from the top-left, but other light sources on the body are coming from different directions)?
Keep it all on top, that way its less work for you to do with the sprite. If you stick to a definitive light source, especially a overhead one, you're less likely to make the piece look like its pillow shaded.

Why is your color scheme bad?
Its mainly filled with very bright, super-saturated and low contrast colors, I would suggest checking out the color theory along with this tutorial: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm I would also look at other pixel art and see how coloring is done there(See how the hue and saturation changes as it gets darker/lighter). Not only this but according to you the background will be very bright so along with a bright character? You're trying to make him smooth, not difficult as hell to see. Learn to 'recycle' colors as well i.e. use a skin color that could also be a yellow button as the same color.

Why not dither so much?
You can't fit as much detail on smaller things, not only this but small things like this rely on contrast and other things, dithering doesn't help with that much because it makes things a lot smoother and makes two significant colors now blend and not be as significant.


I hope you actually listen to me and try to see what I did with the edit, if all of this is useless then I've basically wasted about a half-hour of my life on you.

Offline brigadon

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Re: AA help

Reply #7 on: November 19, 2007, 06:39:04 am
I appreciate the advice. I wasn't asking to get flamed.
The grey for the jacket looks quite washed out, and I plan to have 40+ different pirate 'outfits' available. This was actually intended to be for a brighter, more... low-fantasy, almost comic adventure. The bright golden buttons were actually part of the outfit that I used as my model.

I do like the idea of eliminating the dithering, don't get me wrong, and I appreciate the half hour it took you to compose your message. I don't, however, imagine it will be easy to change the entire focus of the figure, but I will certain take the advice in mind when I remake it.

actually the backgrounds are somewhat darker, for the most part. I just wanted to avoid actually having a white or yellow outline for the figure itself. Would grey be a good color to use as an outline?

And considering the 'bad' thing... this is the very first game figure I have ever tried to make myself, I understand that it looks amateur, but this and the spacecraft on the dodonpachi pages are the only sprited things I have made so far.

Prior to this, I have always modified other game graphics instead of making my own, but over the last two years of coding, storywriting, and recoloring I have learned that, in truth, there is no substitute for having your own graphics.

And no, I have no formal schooling, I am trying very hard to learn color theory but I am a bit late into the game (I am 36) and all of my artistic experience has been black and white sketches and cartoons.

Offline sharprm

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Re: AA help

Reply #8 on: November 19, 2007, 08:56:59 am
The legs are too short.  Move the belt down too. If that is the max sprite height u can have, consider making the arms shorter etc.

Take a look at some monkey island sprites for ideas.

Not sure that characters in games need outlines, but i guess it depends on the game. What kind of a game is it? What kind of background are u making?
« Last Edit: November 19, 2007, 08:58:45 am by sharprm »
Modern artists are told that they must create something totally original-or risk being called "derivative".They've been indoctrinated with the concept that bad=good.The effect is always the same: Meaningless primitivism
http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/Philosophy/phi

Offline brigadon

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Re: AA help

Reply #9 on: November 19, 2007, 09:28:26 am
QR

Is this any better?



I was trying for a bit bow and shortlegged. I wanted the person's topcoat boots and hat to be far more emphasized than their lower sections, the females tend to have longer legs and, I hope, a more attractive general form, but the enemies are supposed to look rather cute and kinda goofy.

color composition wise, the backgrounds look a lot like Secret of Mana 3. I am working to get more tiles made before I put up a composition, though.