AuthorTopic: Steve's Pixel Art Thread  (Read 6704 times)

Offline Steve

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Steve's Pixel Art Thread

on: May 04, 2009, 11:01:58 am
Hey guys, as this is my first post here, I am trying to make a good impression on you guys.

The pixel art will be separated by programs made in.



GIMP:









All of the above are pixel art for a game I'm making.

I did this quite a while ago:



Chibi style 32x64 Sprite:



My first sprite:




MS Paint:






There you go, feel free to rate x/10 and post suggestions.


Regards,
   Steve.


« Last Edit: May 04, 2009, 07:50:38 pm by Steve »

Offline boojiboy

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #1 on: May 04, 2009, 12:16:26 pm
It's hard to critique most of this stuff without really knowing what it is. A lot isn't even pixel art. Why did you post the shading test? The car sort of looks like a paint over.
The only one I can really comment on is the knight sprite.
The costume is a bit strange, knights usually have at least some armor, but that's your choice.
The pose and proportions a bit off.
Here is a quick edit.


The knees don't have to buckle like that, it looks like he's squatting. For the most part, a straight up stance usually has straight legs that aren't too far apart.
If he is not using his shield in battle (which is what I gather) then his arm shouldn't be out to much, it would be as relaxed and close to his body as possible.

You use pillow shading (shading dark to light from outside in). Instead chose a light source (usually from above). Use a bit more contrast on the dark colors too. There's not much point shading if the colors are too similar to each other.

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #2 on: May 04, 2009, 12:35:48 pm
- don't pillow-shade
- use AA (your log needs it badly), don't over-do it (your car)
- learn anatomy (chibby guy)
- don't throw random pixels instead of textures (gimp tiles)
- don't demand replies through PM. People comment when they feel so and have time to do so. If you think my criticism is rude, that's why.

Offline Opacus

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #3 on: May 04, 2009, 01:56:58 pm
I think you're kind of missing the point of pixel art here. I don't really think you understand what exactly pixel art is.

Pixel art is an art form that uses only minimal tools with at most a 256 colour pallete, and 256 colours for pixel art is already an insane amount.
Most artists try to work with a mininmal amount of colours, like 16 or 32 at the most.

In pixel art everything is hand drawn. Hand placed. And the only tools really allowed are the pencil, the paint bucket and the eraser.
You are not allowed to apply automatic techniques such as gradients, brushes, spray can and transparent layers among others.

For something to be qualified as pixel art it also requires a certain amount of clean up. Such as getting rid of jagged lines.

Though automatic anti aliasing may not be used, you may hand place it.
You can also use techniques such as dithering to save colours.

The point is: Most of what you have here does not qualify as pixel art.

Offline Jad

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #4 on: May 04, 2009, 04:49:56 pm
Opacus, I'm totally sorry, but you're not on the completely right track.

You can use automatic AA within an indexed pallette, same goes for gradients.

When us mods 'quality check' we try to check if the end result that we see uses the benefits of colour conservation and pixel placement in a competent way.

If it does, then we don't care if it's been done by hand or by an automatical tool.

Usually, to get good results out of an automatical tool you still need to know how it works (and thus probably be able to do it by hand) so that's why we don't really shun away from pixel-friendly tools at pixelation.

Just wanted to say that. Because if people start pixelling in inefficient ways just because they want to go ONLY TOOLS THAT ARE IN MS PAINT BECAUSE OTHERWISE IT'S NPA (non pixel art) then that will be a loss for the pixel community.

THAT SAID

not much of this is pixel art. I might come back with an edit and explanation on what we consider pixel art, and why it will probably benefit your art, even though the limitations are more severe.

STAY TUNED or something
' _ '

Offline Opacus

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #5 on: May 04, 2009, 05:47:53 pm
No need to be sorry really :). I think in that way the term is a bit relative.
If you upload something with automatic AA on Pixel Joint for example, it will not be accepted.

I don't think there really is a very set description of pixel art. My description is simply how I see it, and how I've always done it.
Though I admit that I do occasionally use the dither tool in ProMotion, only because I know that I could produce the same effect by hand.
It's just a damnable job.

But auto-AA is for me not a pixel-art friendly tool. Mostly because it usually creates a crap load of extra colours.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2009, 05:49:41 pm by Opacus »

Offline Steve

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #6 on: May 04, 2009, 07:45:07 pm
"In pixel art everything is hand drawn. Hand placed. And the only tools really allowed are the pencil, the paint bucket and the eraser.
You are not allowed to apply automatic techniques such as gradients, brushes, spray can and transparent layers among others."

I didn't use any of the automatic techniques.. I just placed the pixels one by one. Alright, I may have used the noise filter one or two times, but take in mind I started pixel art only a month ago.

Also, I am only here to get advice and to improve pixel art. Without advice and suggestions, there would be no specialty, everyone would have to teach themselves things, and etc.

Hope this clears some things up.


Regards,
   Steve.

Offline 0renji

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #7 on: May 04, 2009, 08:06:23 pm
Asking for help through PMs is pretty rude, makes it seem like you're assuming you're more important than any other posters on the forum. I'm sure that wasn't your intention though  ;)

The first few, the ground textures, look like you liberally used a noise filter or an airbrush tool. The end result is alright, probably a bit too noisy, but the pixels were definitely not individually placed or placed with care. I'd say these are the best of the lot, especially the first - the rock texture is great. I'm not entirely sure what texture the last one is meant to convey though so you might want to rework that one.
The human sprites are typical beginner fare. Stop pixelling and start drawing at least semi-realistically on paper.
The car is weird, you say you did it in MS Paint but both the shading and the black outline look extremely automatically anti-aliased as if you did it with a Photoshop brush. If I'm wrong and you did indeed do it by hand, well done I suppose. The black outlines and straight sideways view really flatten it, it is just a coloured lineart rather than anything resembling a 3-dimensional object. Consider the texture of a car also; it is more shiny than the matte texture that yours has.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2009, 08:09:17 pm by 0renji »

Offline Atnas

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #8 on: May 04, 2009, 08:15:46 pm
Quote
Alright, I may have used the noise filter one or two times, but take in mind I started pixel art only a month ago.

ASDFGAARRHHFHFUUUUUHHGAAACKK... KKK..

Well at least the sound that I made in my mind when I read that. But I'm going to tell you why it's not a very good idea! c:

See, a big thing in game art is clarity. It's important to be able to make out things for what they are. Most of the time, people try to make them eye pleasing. Eyes like relatively uninterrupted pools of color, or at the very least, mine do. Noise and grit interrupt this desirable clarity and fuzzy up how the eye looks at it. And at the distance you're drawing these things, texture wouldn't be too noticable! Things like the grain of wood or the grit of stone can be hinted at, but the grit blurs out into the delicious pools of unified color and only the larger deformations show.

Like, take a grain of sand and a boulder, hypothetically. Place them in a big field of fluffy grass. Climb a tree, or fly, or whatever, about forty feet in the air. Supposing these objects were of the same exact shape, and completely proportionate in 3d space, what would you see? You'd see the boulder, but not the grain of sand. It's common sense, right? WELL, now you see why you shouldn't be using a noise filter right? Or maybe there was a ladybug on that rock. You don't see it from that far away. Things simplify.

Offline Steve

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #9 on: May 04, 2009, 08:25:28 pm
Thanks guys, I'll be sure to consider these suggestions when I redo the pixel art.

Regards,
   Steve.

Offline Malor

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #10 on: May 05, 2009, 02:17:49 am
No need to be sorry really :). I think in that way the term is a bit relative.
If you upload something with automatic AA on Pixel Joint for example, it will not be accepted.

That's because pixel joint has an annoying "pixel purity" ideal, which is ridiculous.

Anyways, I think you'd benefit greatly form general form practice. Although you're working in a cartoony style, it helps to know how things work. The car is pretty great, keep it up :)
Quote from: Adarias
I'm not going to pretend this is a small task either; certainly none of us here can claim to have accomplished it.  it's the realm of masters.  still, it's what we all have to try for.

Offline Helm

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #11 on: May 06, 2009, 12:56:25 pm
This isn't pixel joint, this is Pixelation. We've already had this discussion in the general board if you care to look. Please don't apply the standard of one place on another.

Offline Cure

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Re: Steve's Pixel Art Thread

Reply #12 on: May 06, 2009, 11:10:55 pm
No need to be sorry really :). I think in that way the term is a bit relative.
If you upload something with automatic AA on Pixel Joint for example, it will not be accepted.

That's because pixel joint has an annoying "pixel purity" ideal, which is ridiculous.

Not really.  Guess you missed the gigantic thread here a while back.  The existing rules may be a tad misleading, but they'll be updated with v.3

not much to say on the artwork here that hasn't been said already. pillowshading on the swordsman, banding on the car.  Just have to wait till it's updated.