C64 War Hammer

[Ai]

Just a question:  When you pixel these double-wide things, is there an app that treats them as single pixels, or do you pixel them on the 64 itself, or do you fake it?  I imagine it would be hard to emulate a double-wide style with a single-pixel painting app without accidentally having some single pixels in there.  Especially when it's this large an image.

All of the above. That is, all of the above are used by different people..

Some programs (Photoshop, GIMP) support doubled pixels through DPI settings (for me, I set x dpi = 48 y dpi = 96 for widepixels)
Some programs (Grafx2) have direct support for doubled pixels.
I think Ptoing or Helm mentioned using a 1x2 brush in conjunction with grid-snapping in Pro Motion.
I'm pretty sure there are still some people who use the C64 for pixeling.
There are also programs like Timanthes, which IIRC runs on PC and does special checking to make sure the picture conforms to the chosen restrictions.

[tehwexxl0rz]

Level 2 is crazy badass!! Love that green light! Great work!

Level 3 is nicely polished, but compared to Level 2, it's not stylistically over-the-top enough with the lighting. Depending on what you want to use these for, you may or may not want to make some adjustments.

[Dr D]

I agree. Level 2 is pretty awesome. It's my favorite actually. It has a lot more crazy effects, and even lighting on the handle, makes it pop way more than 3, and a whole lot more than 1. 3 is alright, it's just the biggest. If the sizes of 2 and 3 were switched, I feel it'd be more appropriate.

And 1 doesn't look 'finished' like the other two do. It feels pretty flat and bland, it needs at least a bit of pizazz. Or even with no pizazz, make it pop a bit more.

Also, the reflections on the middle part of the metal head on hammer 2 feels more like a bulge than reflections, which is what I'm assuming they are. Pretty great work though. I really do love hammer 2.

[Mathias]

Just a question:  When you pixel these double-wide things, is there an app that treats them as single pixels, or do you pixel them on the 64 itself, or do you fake it?  I imagine it would be hard to emulate a double-wide style with a single-pixel painting app without accidentally having some single pixels in there.  Especially when it's this large an image.

I use Photoshop, which makes it very simple - View > Anamorphic (2:1) 2   Once you set this, every pixel appears to be 2x1, make a 2x1 pixel brush and you're good to go. Once finished pixeling, just stretch the image 2x horizonatally, make sure to not use smooth anti-aliasing when doing so.

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Hmm yes, I definitely agree with you guys about them all looking too different, but that's what happens when your skill changes as you work. Level 1 was done first, Level 3 was done second and level 2 was done last. Oddly, I want them to remain indicative of my ability when making them. But if any one of them has defects I do want to fix that. With too much time spent on them by now, I should probably move on to the next set. There are 4 sets total, each with 3 weapons. Coder department is next . . . mwahaha.

[Ai]

Just a question:  When you pixel these double-wide things, is there an app that treats them as single pixels, or do you pixel them on the 64 itself, or do you fake it?  I imagine it would be hard to emulate a double-wide style with a single-pixel painting app without accidentally having some single pixels in there.  Especially when it's this large an image.

I use Photoshop, which makes it very simple - View > Anamorphic (2:1) 2   Once you set this, every pixel appears to be 2x1, make a 2x1 pixel brush and you're good to go. Once finished pixeling, just stretch the image 2x horizonatally, make sure to not use smooth anti-aliasing when doing so.

Hang on -- If you've set the view to anamorphic, pixels should already appear stretched, so a 2x1 brush ought to result in a 4x1 'double double pixel' in terms of final results. Does Photoshop do some confusing automagic that changes this?

Personally in GIMP I just set dpi = 48x96 and use a 1x1 pixel brush, just like always when pixeling.

[Mathias]

When using anamorphic pixel aspect ratio view, a 2x1 brush can still place just 2 pixels. Photoshop has a display feature called "Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction". When turned on, it "adjusts" brushes back to their normal 1:1 size. So yeah, you could say it's magic and yeah it's sorta confusing. But it works, and I was ecstatic to figure it out when I did. Until then I was using a 5% opacity horrible alternating 2 pixel wide column grid thing on an above layer that sucked.

[Mathias]

Project Complete - http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/42085.htm

Thanks everyone that helped out.

I did these to practice C64 wide-pixel. Does anyone have suggestions on what I may target for the next set? At first, all 4 sets were going to be C64 wide, but now I think I'd like to use different restrictions per set. If there's a style/ restriction set you'd like to see me do, lemme know. Coder weapons are next.

I've already done the first of the 3 coder weapons in C64 wide-pixel. Done after the first GFX weapon - The GFX Gavel. But I'll redo it if I can come up with new restrictions.




CODER WEAPONS NOTES
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slashing sword weapons. jewels/ precious stones details. power element - fire

1) Coders Claymore - generic claymore

2) short sword of ykesha type lookin' thing

3) Binary Sword of Enlightnement

[Redshrike]

It doesn't look much like a claymore to me, to be honest.  The blade is too thick, and the handle isn't long enough, and it's lacking the distinctive features of a claymore's crosshilt.  Take a look at these pics: http://www.scottishsword.com/SwordPics/Claymore2-2.jpghttp://www.sidhenadaire.com/images/claymore.jpg

[Mathias]

True, it's not very faithful to the historically typical claymore sword-type, but my intent is a cartoony imitation of it anyway. Think of it as a chibi claymore. Realistic proportions would've made it too tall for my image size or would've forced me to scale it down too much. Red, throw out a new pixel restriction set for me and I may try it. I like basic/primitive right now.

[Batzy]

I think that it looks pretty done now, but the handle shadow looks a little off to me. Can you post the palette here plz