AuthorTopic: First Ditch Attempt  (Read 8815 times)

Offline Souly

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #10 on: February 23, 2009, 07:16:33 pm
Well I use MSPaint, so I doubt I have the tools to do such a thing.

Offline Corinthian Baby

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #11 on: February 23, 2009, 07:25:21 pm
It seems like everyone is copying the simple cave-story style these days. I'm getting tired of seeing it. Yes cavestory was a great game but move on yo.

This post contains nothing but an unpleasant remark about the style of the piece, which would have contributed more if you'd tried to actually convey something to the orignal poster of this thread instead of just casually displaying your opinions in a snide manner. Refrain from these kinds of posts in the future, please. /Jäd
« Last Edit: February 24, 2009, 08:05:02 am by Jad »

Offline Souly

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #12 on: February 23, 2009, 07:43:46 pm
Pixel didn't invent the flat pixel style.
He just used it effectively and with great creativity.
Cavestory isn't the only video game with this style mind you these games did come after cavestory.




BTW, sorry for the thread overhaul Masna.
Are you a coder learning to do art?
« Last Edit: February 23, 2009, 08:01:16 pm by Souly »

Offline vierbit

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #13 on: February 23, 2009, 08:31:16 pm
Yeah, is is inspired from a few other games. But I donīt see this as a big problem considering thats his first pixelart.
Seriously, Iīm pretty sure nearly everyone "copied" something for there first few pieces.

Generally speaking its not bad, but can surely improved. I donīt know if the purple shade edit works,
the blue one just makes more sense to me.

@Corinthian Baby
Yeah, thats also something i donīt get. No idea why a simple, detail less style is favored these days.
I believe 2D games have to look ~retro~ today , which basically means they look like pimped NES games.

Offline Masna

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #14 on: February 23, 2009, 09:33:26 pm
Wow!   Thanks for all the replies, guys.  ;D

If you guys don't like the gradient, that's cool.   I wasn't really going for any kind of minimized color count or anything.   I never really understood the people who limit themselves to NES restrictions, or anything like that.   Is it just for the challenge?

Corinthian @ I was somewhat inspired by cavestory, but certainly wasn't going for a cavestory kind of feel.     And I agree with Souly, Pixel didn't invent the style.

So I've decided for a little redesign.   I'll post more later. -- and it will be x1.  ;)

EDIT:

Forgot to mention, no I don't code.  Never have.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2009, 09:41:44 pm by Masna »

Offline Ignacio

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #15 on: February 23, 2009, 09:38:50 pm
I add more lumber to the fire! :D Sorry...

I also agree with the "don't zoom your images, forum features can do it", but, I think it shouldn' t be a problem if zooms are made by certain numbers (X2, X4, X10...), no? You can always scale down changing size of the pixels. Zoom X2--->Redouce by 50%, X4, by 25%, X10,  by 10%, etc...

Anyway, as said, it' s better to learn propperly from the beginning, so, no bad vicious to unlearn later. Same with 200 colours gradient, IMHO... It might not be "A no no that invalidates this piece of art to be here", but if it's done in "pixel art", the better.

And Masna, about your question about "colour restrictions". I will quote you something Helm told to a friend of mine.

Quote
Our first target is to make people understand that we do follow the rules of pixel art, not because we are a sect of self-centered people, but because experience proves that doing that we get a better result, with less work

It might have not reproduced it 100% accurate, but I perfectly agree with the spirit of the sentence.
I come here humble, trying not to repeat the mistakes of the past, for improving my art and try to help the others improving their own when I can...

Offline Shrike

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #16 on: February 23, 2009, 10:24:58 pm
There seems to be more ass-pats than actual critique.  Let's get going guys!   !yus!
Well, there doesn't seem to much pixel-level detail or control.  The rocks could be dithered, which would help identify texture; it looks kind of messy right now.
I think the grass ought to stick up in blades.  That's what grass is, it's not some omeba that's completely flat on the top but looks like grass on the bottom.  Give it some blades.

Bridge it rather uninteresting.  make it start as the same level as the grass, give it some personality and sag it, maybe some vines twirling around it.  I mean, geez, not EVERYthing is all perfect and new.  Almost everything isn't, unless the style calls for that.  The rocks seem pretty realistic and gritty so I assume you're going for something like that.
Quote from: Masna
I never really understood the people who limit themselves to NES restrictions, or anything like that.   Is it just for the challenge?
For the challenge, and the old palettes are honest-to-god fun to work with, and it's surprising how well they work.  It's also a nice thought to think that all of the work the older generation gamemakers put into organizing these palettes is carried on for far longer than they'd expected for sure.

By the way, if I'm coming off mean I'm not trying to. It just seems like you're not receiving all the critique you ought to.  I do really like this piece.

Later
Shrike

Offline Masna

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #17 on: February 23, 2009, 10:40:55 pm
Thanks, Shrike.  :)

I'll definitely work on that grass.   I never really understood dithering, though.  :huh:   Dithering is just like a checker-board kind of shading, right?   Should I dither where there are only slight shadows?

Offline QuaziGNRLnose

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #18 on: February 23, 2009, 10:46:09 pm
did it ever strike you that flat pixel is the easiest and fastest style to do, not to mention it looks real nice very easily, and when trying to make a game where you need 200+ sprites and backdrop tiles, you dont want a single piece take ages to make.

anyways hes new to pixel art and hes obviously trying his best, which i think looks very good at this stage  :y:
who cares if its similar to cavestory.
Originally posted by Jeff

I AM A GIANT DONUT MANATEE

Offline Shrike

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Re: First Ditch Attempt

Reply #19 on: February 23, 2009, 10:55:16 pm
Ouch.  Dithering is hard to explain.

I'm not entirely clear myself, but this is the best I can do (correct me, pixel masters, if I am wrong):

Dithering is a technique created for old consoles to blend colors as there were restrictions, in order to let the eye blend thinks and make them smoother and/or different colors, or for certain effects.  It was later adapted for adding texture, NOT making it smoother!  Right now, it's used to either add a bumpy texture, or to smooth a line out, or even to add noise for the sake of adding noise.  Dithering, even though it only originated as a checkerboard pattern is now a very loose term;  you can dither tons of different ways.  Basically, dithering is an interesting way to bridge two colors, and checkerboard is the most dull yet most common.

Something like that?
Really, pixel-peoples, correct me because I'm almost SURE I'm wrong somewhere.

Thanks.
Shrike