Cute deck of cards

[Zenobia]

Well since I've been feeling terrible all week I haven't been able to do any serious work, pixel wise or school.
My head's fuzzy so I can't think of anything to say about this right now. I'd just like some critique.


edit:

[Crow]

You should flip the hearts/letters at the bottom horizontally, right now you cant read them when tilting your head You might also want to add some AA on the inner borders of the cards.

[Zenobia]

Like this?

[Feron]

You should flip the hearts/letters at the bottom horizontally, right now you cant read them when tilting your head

Have you ever used a pack of cards?  They are supposed to be like that so you can read the card no matter which way up it is.

I quite like them... they're just a bit bland though.


//EDIT: adarias is quite right... i got confused with all the head tilting 

[ndchristie]

what feron means is


Take a moment to study your transformations and make sure you know them.  You don't need to use automatic flips and rotations in your work, but understanding what they are and how they work is part of a very basic and necessary understanding of space.  If you didn't get it in art, you should have gotten it in math, so if you really have trouble and need someone who is much more capable than the internet, ask an instructor of either discipline.  Bottom line, do whatever it takes to know two-dimensional space intimately before doing anything else in art.

And I must agree that they are a bit bland.  The think about cute is that it usually involves things that are round, bright, boldly lined, etc.  Fine lines, imperceivable colors, and lots of detail is more along the lines of, well, doilies.  There's nothing cute about it.

[Zenobia]

Ah right, stupid. Should have understood that.
edit: oh I'm terrible with math, so that explains

Any suggestions on how to make them more interesting then?

[Feron]

Check some references:



I know your trying to be quite minimalist and going for a clean un-detailed style... however i'm not convinced it will work for cards.  I mean what you are actually pixelling is bits of cardboard, so you can't really be creative with how you shade them (unless you make them old/stained/battered which isn't what you are doing) so the only way to make these interesting is with the actual design on the card itself.

I like the heart/wings themes, but maybe make it a lot more intricate (like the reference).  See how one part of the alien blends into one of the other side. 

Also the colors you have chosen are just generally de-saturated low contrast bland colors.  Spice it up a bit!

[ndchristie]

round. soft. simple (ignoring the flower background which is ugly as sin).

[Feron]

look how cute those refs are (especially the kitten).  "cute" style is quite hard to pull off,  I suggest quite thick lines with tonnes of AA to make it smooth.

i think Bisque/Jericho has mastered the cute style to the max:  http://pixeljoint.com/p/787.htm

[Zenobia]

Ok but based on what I've already got, what exactly should I do to it/add to it? I'm a little confused because it seems you guys just want me to start over altogether? I'm kind of attatched to my shiny winged heart. So should I add more to it? And backgrounds with fluffy white clouds and such?

edit: good? bad?

[Sherman Gill]

I actually think the Queen and King are really good and actually do have a cute quality to them.
The jack and ace on the other hand are very convoluted.
However, you guys are making assumptions as to what Zenobia wants. He's never actually said that he wants the cards to be cute.

So really, what is it that you want these cards to convey, Zenobia?

[Zenobia]

I'm not sure. It's for a pixie themed place, so I want it to be cute but... not to make guys throw up when they see it either, since it should pretty much attract both genders. This set is very, err, pink... but of course there's diamonds and spades and such too, which will be different colours.
I'm not at all certain what I actually want. I started out doing the Queen as a shiny winged heart and then... got stuck on everything else. Anything anyone comes up with is welcome.

I'm the very rare species of 'she' by the way.

[Helm]

This is not soft nor simple, but boy, is it round. Not cute for me, nor a good example of cuteness to try to emulate. Generally avoid the calarts aesthetic!

Zenobia, I would suggest AAing the letters, and pushing the contrast up juuuust a little bit and you'd be set.

[Zenobia]

Raised the contrast. Can't do the aaing right now because my fever is making me dizzy, so I can't see if I'm doing it right or not.

[ndchristie]

Not cute for me, nor a good example of cuteness to try to emulate. Generally avoid the calarts aesthetic!

well you don't get to be the hated establishment by sucking outright, and most people i know (teen and college age white coastal America) do find lilo and stitch very cute, but yeah, everything has its detractors and direct emulation in general is a good way to become a bad artist.

Zenobia, I would suggest AAing the letters, and pushing the contrast up juuuust a little bit and you'd be set.

plus AA the rim which has some wicked banding, and IMO reduce the detail about the jack and the ace - cuteness, regardless of style - tends to come from editing and simplicity as opposed to business.

[ptoing]

Some nice improvements here, but my main gripe is that one a quick glance they all look kinda like fancy ace cards and not like jack, queen and king.

[arzosah]

However, you guys are making assumptions as to what Zenobia wants. He's never actually said that he wants the cards to be cute.

well, she never said it BUT the title IS "cute deck of cards" so it's pretty understandable that everyone is talking about the cute style

I agree with ptoing about the cards looking like ace cards more than queen, king and jack. Reason to that is because the aces are the only cards that you can't turn around (making the bottom the top) and it still look the same. But if you turn around a queen or a king you'll see that it will look the same.

However, I think you've done a great job and I like your edit.


edit: yes ptoing, I meant the joker and not the jack XD edited the text

[ptoing]

I guess you mean Joker and not Jack. Jack is what comes before the Queen in the card hierarchy.

[Zenobia]

Ok so after a couple of pills and a cup of coffee I wrote one illogical page on my math assignment... and I changed the letters (and the border slightly).

I'd like to reply to all the commenst but maybe tomorrow if things look up a little. In any case I did indeed intend it to be cute (though I've got the feeling that might not be the smartest thing to tell you guys) and I went with the heart design because I really can't do little chibi like people for the k/q/j. I originally thought of doing something like birds or bees or sheep or something, but it seemed way too random, especially considering there willl be three more sets. And the ace is the way it is because I studied some cards, and decks usually don't do much with the aces, except give it some sort of celtic design sometimes, so I went from there and got this. I should remove it from the preview images really since it's not really what I'm concentrating on. The image cards are what I want to fix.
Well I guess I did sort of reply now. Oh and Lilo and Stitch creep me out.

[willfaulds]

i personally don't like the new type as much or the strong outlines. they feel to chunky compared to the original's delicacy.

i've got 2 links for you. don't know if they'll be of much use to you but this thread made me think of them...

http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/9461.htm i think that one because of the colours and i was thinking you could maybe gently dither shade the background of the cards to add more interest. dither suits the style in my mind because its delicate.

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=3973.msg50773#msg50773 because they're cards and you might get some shading ideas from them.

i think some subtle shading could add a lot.

[Zenobia]

*nods* I'll take another look at it tomorrow. Thanks.
Edit: well I added some shading before going to bed. It feels like if I add anything more the whole simplicity is gone. Well it's basically gone already but yeah. But maybe that's just my ideas of adding things. If someone else knows something to add I can try.

[Terley]

I think you're just blurring everything rather than AAing (which what I see as anti : against, Aliasing: distortion?), and your AAing is distorting this somewhat and using colours that don't particularly make any difference, around the edge of each card especially its all banded to the center which doesn't really make sense.

The white and light pink are very close, I'd either stick to a colour in between or use the difference to do something a bit more interesting. Probably not what you would do but I'd see if this works.



Also I've tried to mess around with the colours slightly, clean up some AA and well its mostly self explainatory.

[Aline]

I guess you wanted something like this:



But in playing cards form, right? Well, I'd look a bit more CLAMP-styled drawings, and try to see the cuteness in their shapes, using their style as reference, ans mixing it with other cutesy styles XD It always works, I guess

[Zenobia]

Wow I didn't know something like it existed o_o

[Zenobia]

Well, I made a start on the next set.