AuthorTopic: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?  (Read 7928 times)

Offline chaosjinni

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Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

on: November 29, 2007, 10:24:53 pm
New to pixelling, but not art (ink illustration). Here's what I've been working on. It doesn't quite gel. Any tips appreciated, but I'm really looking for ideas on how to make the face pop a little more and make the background into something that will tie it all together. Eventually I'll be using this as my online avatar everywhere I go so I'd like it to be incredibly good in the end.

I want some sparkle effects and I'd like to work the lamp in somehow, but I'm willing to abandon all that in favor of fresh ideas. Not used to working with color as you can see.

By the way, I love the look and layout of your site--nice warm colors.

My dithering is crappy as well so tips there will help.

« Last Edit: November 29, 2007, 10:29:32 pm by chaosjinni »
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Offline Dragen

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #1 on: November 29, 2007, 10:35:32 pm
There is no shading on the skin of the face, and let me be the first of many to say that your face just creeps me the shit out.

Offline ilkke

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #2 on: November 29, 2007, 10:39:35 pm
Erm.
I don't think this is pixel art at all. It's just a smooth-scaled image. If you really wanna try pixel, then turn on that pencil mode in Photoshop or boot-up (shudder) m$-paint.
i

Offline Helm

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #3 on: November 29, 2007, 11:09:48 pm
I don't think it's all pixelled either. Are you trying to trick us?

Offline Hatch

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #4 on: November 29, 2007, 11:33:20 pm
Post your references. Link.

Offline Helm

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #5 on: November 30, 2007, 12:07:58 am
So, please tell us more about this.

Offline chaosjinni

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #6 on: November 30, 2007, 12:47:14 am
Yep, that's the original image.

The program I use is called Microsoft Paint. It's pre-installed in Windows since Windows 95.

To launch it: Start ► Run, then type "mspaint.exe" into the command line. It's not robust at all, but it has everything I need. Well mostly. I use another freebie called colorpicker to get an extra zoom in on the pixels, since Paint only has two zoom levels: normal, and large.

To get my line art, I used irfanview (another freebie) to get a black and white image (2 colors). From there it's a simple matter to copy and paste that into Microsoft Paint. With the original image pasted next to it, I grabbed colors and started working on the lines.

The rest (lamp etc) is free hand. Again, I'm not used to working with color.

Did you guys have any suggestions on how to dither and shade it? Or is there a better process to use than mine going from reference to line-art? I'd rather not use expensive software though--just simple freebies.

CJ
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Offline Larwick

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #7 on: November 30, 2007, 01:24:31 am
Why the 80 colours though? Especially when using MSPaint, it's a bit extreme.

Offline chaosjinni

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #8 on: November 30, 2007, 01:45:13 am
What's wrong with that many colors? It's a 3k gif file!

Oh yes, and Ilkke did you know that your avatar dances to the same beat as Rockit by Herbie Hancock? I happened to be listening to it while reading the thread. Heh.

Can anyone tell me whose idea it was to put Bruce Lee popping up in the banner? Well it's brilliant is what it is.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2007, 01:51:42 am by chaosjinni »
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Offline Faktablad

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Re: Hi folks, help me flesh out an avatar?

Reply #9 on: November 30, 2007, 02:02:00 am
First of all, you should cite your sources from the beginning.  What's wrong with the colors is that you don't need that many colors to represent all of the shades you have here.  There are obviously some stray pixels.  Plus, if you really did pixel this by hand, then that would mean that you would have to have chosen 80 colors by hand...it's difficult to believe that you did this, and that's why it's also difficult to believe that you pixeled this by hand.