AuthorTopic: [WIP] A N00b's Work  (Read 3791 times)

Offline Caliguhpuh

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

[WIP] A N00b's Work

on: July 25, 2009, 04:16:14 am
As the topic suggests, I am one of the biggest noobs to pixel-art you could possibly find.  You see, at the heart, I am really a mathematician and programmer.  Although I somehow stumbled upon creating something halfly-decent and pixel-like when I started screwing around in MS Paint and said to myself, "Say...this might look good if it was smaller..."

Hopefully the image thing works. *crosses fingers*



If not...here's a link...I guess...as lame as a link might be...

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad223/Caliguhpuh/Pixel/Workshow.png

I come to this forum seeking guidance.  While I may throw him into a game and make some gifs of him and whatnot, I should probably perfect the original image, first.

I'm pretty amateur when it comes to shading, coloring, and detailing, but I think even adapting to the pixel-style makes my work suffer.  My main concerns are the shine on the hair and the shoes, both of which I think need tweaking.  Any suggestions?

Oh, I'm also using MS Paint.  Is...that a problem if I plan on pixelating for a while...?

Offline Souly

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 957
  • Karma: +0/-1
  • Killer of threads.
    • View Profile
    • Punkys Portfolio

Re: [WIP] A N00b's Work

Reply #1 on: July 25, 2009, 04:21:23 am
First question;
Why did you start off with a huge head and then decide against using the old shape for the head you had?
Now his head is round, and wayyy too big for his body, arms usually make it to about the persons knees.
Also your starting sketch his eyes are too high on his head.
Your also guy has no neck, you've used too many colors on his face texture and you've done alot of banding (where two or more colors hug each other constantly)

I'd say start over with maybe the first or second head you had, re-draw the body considering the average person is 5-6 heads tall.

Offline Caliguhpuh

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] A N00b's Work

Reply #2 on: July 25, 2009, 04:50:46 am
First question;
Why did you start off with a huge head and then decide against using the old shape for the head you had?
Now his head is round, and wayyy too big for his body, arms usually make it to about the persons knees.
Also your starting sketch his eyes are too high on his head.
Your also guy has no neck, you've used too many colors on his face texture and you've done alot of banding (where two or more colors hug each other constantly)

I'd say start over with maybe the first or second head you had, re-draw the body considering the average person is 5-6 heads tall.

Why did I change the head size?  I don't remember.  I think that I noticed the eye's looked a little high, so instead of lowering them, I did the most logical thing to raise the jaw XD.  Guess it gave it a chibi effect, huh?

When I read that you said arms usually make it about to the person's knees, I was like "LIES" until...well, I put my own arms to my sides. XD armSize++; and headSize--;, got it.

Huh...you know...they are high...

NECK!!  Of course!  I've been questioning its transition between the head and the body when I completely forgot what the transition even is:  THE NECK.  Hmm, I'll try to smack out some of the colors on the face; it's definitely the most colorrific thing about him.  And could you elaborate more on this banding?

Starting over with the body might be a good idea.  I really had no clue what I was doing.  You can definitely tell by looking at the first sketch of it XD.  5-6 heads tall, you say?  I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks!

Offline NaCl

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 437
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • When it rains it pours
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] A N00b's Work

Reply #3 on: July 25, 2009, 08:58:34 pm
A normal person is about 7-8 heads tall, but you can play with that all you want really. It just depends on what you're going for. Some chibi stuff is 2 heads tall, some realistic stuff if 8, there is no rule that says you have to use X number of heads.

For your first piece, this is pretty good. A few things to keep in mind:

- Don't just shade towards the "edges" of a shape, like you have done on his head, shirt, hair, everything. This is called pillow shading and it will always look terrible.

- Don't try to use a bunch of colors to make the transition smooth between shadow is light, it will make everything look doughy. If a shadow looks bad with just one color, then it's going to look wrong with a ton of colors, though less noticeable.  Instead, try and shade it with one or two colors so that it looks right, then add more depending on what you're doing. Not too many though.

- Try and think of the characters spine, and align his body to it. Right now his head is too far forward, and his feet are not balanced very well. I'd shorten HIS left foot by a pixel so it is level with the other foot.

- The head is not a perfect sphere. It looks like you abandon the decent shape of head you had, and made it perfectly round. This doesn't look good, as Souly pointed out.

Offline Caliguhpuh

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] A N00b's Work

Reply #4 on: July 26, 2009, 01:53:52 am
A normal person is about 7-8 heads tall, but you can play with that all you want really. It just depends on what you're going for. Some chibi stuff is 2 heads tall, some realistic stuff if 8, there is no rule that says you have to use X number of heads.

For your first piece, this is pretty good. A few things to keep in mind:

- Don't just shade towards the "edges" of a shape, like you have done on his head, shirt, hair, everything. This is called pillow shading and it will always look terrible.

- Don't try to use a bunch of colors to make the transition smooth between shadow is light, it will make everything look doughy. If a shadow looks bad with just one color, then it's going to look wrong with a ton of colors, though less noticeable.  Instead, try and shade it with one or two colors so that it looks right, then add more depending on what you're doing. Not too many though.

- Try and think of the characters spine, and align his body to it. Right now his head is too far forward, and his feet are not balanced very well. I'd shorten HIS left foot by a pixel so it is level with the other foot.

- The head is not a perfect sphere. It looks like you abandon the decent shape of head you had, and made it perfectly round. This doesn't look good, as Souly pointed out.

W00T, awesome feedback.

Pillow Shading, you say?  Wikipedia has no article on this...but I have heard of it.  I think when I did that, I was trying to make an outline of the character by using a darker shade instead of black.  I am starting to understand, though.  Since the light source is not in front of this character, it would not be hugely sensible to shade the entire edge of him.  I sees it, I sees it...

In addition to pillow'dness, I also understand the dough'dness you speak of.   I think I was trying to use more different colors to make up for my lack of detail.  Detail will have to come after I fix the coloring, though.

Spine...you know, I never really considered it...I probably should have put more planning into this.  Or, planning at all, for that matter XD.  And that foot has stumped me for a while.  I had moved it down in order to preserve the perspective you were seeing him at.  But I think by trying to preserve the perspective, I screwed up how he looked.  Yeah, I hears ya.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I still do not understand why I made the head a sphere, nor do I remember WHEN I did that in the first place.  I want to say MS Paint did something when I did some final shading and moved it over or something.  Vista paint is kinda glitchy...I should get a better program...well, by either Microsoft's fault or mine, it stands that the head will be reverted to one of its previous shapes.

Thanks, yo.

Hoofta, pixelation is a lot trickier than I originally thought.  But NO MATTER, for I am too hard-headed to quit, while light-headed enough to accept criticism!  With this combination, I shall overcome everything in my way!!  FOR GREAT JUSTICE!!

Offline Yo-Yo-Master

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 31
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • My failed attempt at mimicking XenoStriker's style
    • View Profile
    • My DA..nothing much yet >>

Re: [WIP] A N00b's Work

Reply #5 on: July 26, 2009, 02:01:12 am
I have no further critique of the art, because what you have to work with right now is plenty, but as for pixel art programs, perhaps try Graphics Gale?  The free version lets you do plenty, and if you animate, its easy enough to work around any saving/opening limitations they give you for this freeware.

Offline Caliguhpuh

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] A N00b's Work

Reply #6 on: July 26, 2009, 02:59:19 am
I have no further critique of the art, because what you have to work with right now is plenty, but as for pixel art programs, perhaps try Graphics Gale?  The free version lets you do plenty, and if you animate, its easy enough to work around any saving/opening limitations they give you for this freeware.

Haha, well hey, the more critique, the better.  I was gonna try to get severals of perspectives on what needs to be done.  So, as the gangsters back home would say, "If yo got sumthin' to say, say it and say it now, punk."

Graphics Gale...this isn't the first time I've heard of this...I think I tried to download it once before, but the language was something very far from English and I was afraid of illegally downloading something or something.  But if it's truly free, I'll try again and check it out.

Thanks for the tip, bro!

...

Meanwhile in the labs where Caliguhpuh dwells, he is rediscovering the definition of perspective and color with a mirror as he applies them into pixelation.  While his picture looks worse than when he first started, he is constantly learning new things with every pixel placement...hopefully he won't have to stop this work in progress without making...well, progress...