AuthorTopic: Ship Sprites  (Read 19940 times)

Offline figurestone

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Ship Sprites

on: October 21, 2009, 12:59:36 pm
Hi guys,

A friend and I are building a Flash game and I'm designing the ships and all the graphics.

I'm pretty new to pixel art, especially working on such as small scale. So I could really use some advice on how to bring out the detail of the designs and really make them "pop", as my partner in crime likes to say!

My current method of creating the graphics is to draw the ship in vectors using Flash, scale it down and take it into Photoshop to start pixel pushing.

Ship 1.12c

http://img14.imageshack.us/i/112csprites.png/

This is the most finalised of our ships, we are quite happy with version A.

We'll be posting more soon.

Help me make the best use of my pixels!
Thanks in advance,
Will
« Last Edit: October 21, 2009, 01:03:57 pm by figurestone »

Offline Mathias

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #1 on: October 21, 2009, 01:29:29 pm
Mega problems. I'm afraid you're not understanding pixel art. What you've posted isn't pixel art at all. Version A has over 256 colors in it. And even though you've posted a PNG, a format supporting indexing, your image is not indexed, and on top of that the image data was once in JPG format.

I also see no evidence of manual pixeling. Version A looks like photoshop stuff scaled down. If you're confused, you have much research to do.

Get'chya some

Offline Gil

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #2 on: October 21, 2009, 03:04:38 pm
Mathias, a simple "this needs to be in low spec" would be sufficient, no?

I see no clear evidence of JPG artifacts either, where did you get this claim?


Figurestone: I think that some more work steps would be appropriate and a move to the low spec forum. Right now it's hard to see where the detail attention kicks in, though I can see from the three different versions that there is probably some sort of small-scale detail attention in your workflow.

Offline NickZA

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #3 on: October 21, 2009, 06:27:28 pm
Hi all

Just to introduce myself and jump into the conversation -- I'm figurestone's developer partner, the tech and design lead. I'm a UI and game programmer but I've studied fine art, worked in graphic design for web and print, and have a clue about what makes a game look good having been playing them every day since 1984, and building them for the last few as well. So I thought I'd join in. ;) I've been trolling these forums anonymously for a couple of years now just to see what people were up to, and have been very impressed.

@Mathias, appreciate your input but figurestone is producing according to my technical spec, which takes precedence over arbitrary limitations. I do agree with two things you've said though, yes less colours could well do the same job (better, even); and scaling things down from a larger source image is a no-no. This may seem obvious, but figurestone's workflow needs some overhauling, which is why he's here. He is a graphic artist by profession but is dipping his toe into pixel art for the first time. Having just looked at your pixeljoint portfolio I do not think you have room to be cutting *anyone* down, particularly not on a forum where there are people who have been practising pushing pixels (professionally) for a quarter of a century.

@Gil, thanks, when you say more work steps, presumably you mean a larger number of snapshots through the process?  ???

PS. Just read the sticky at top of the low-spec forum and I see what the difference is. Thanks for clarifying, guys.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2009, 06:51:56 pm by NickZA »

Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #4 on: October 21, 2009, 07:13:37 pm
Having just looked at your pixeljoint portfolio I do not think you have room to be cutting *anyone* down, particularly not on a forum where there are people who have been practising pushing pixels (professionally) for a quarter of a century.

:n: You should value the merit of the feedback itself, not of the artist giving it. I'm sure Mathias didn't intend to piss you guys off and though you're clearly somewhat upset, reacting in that way makes me feel much less comfortable with giving you any critique.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #5 on: October 21, 2009, 07:17:47 pm
Mathias, a simple "this needs to be in low spec" would be sufficient, no?

I see no clear evidence of JPG artifacts either, where did you get this claim?

No. He needs help in coming to understand just what pixel art is, if he's mistaken these sprites so far for pixel art, by it's typical definition.

JPG artifacts, just a side-issue, but since you asked. GO HERE for a version with brightness boosted and blown up to 400%. You'll notice the obvious 8x8 jpg artifacts. Bad because it means the artist is possibly degrading his image qualtiy as he works. Should be avoided at all costs. Though, I assume Figure only saved it in jpg for some presentational reason.



@Mathias, appreciate your input but figurestone is producing according to my technical spec, which takes precedence over arbitrary limitations. I do agree with two things you've said though, yes less colours could well do the same job (better, even); and scaling things down from a larger source image is a no-no. This may seem obvious, but figurestone's workflow needs some overhauling, which is why he's here. He is a graphic artist by profession but is dipping his toe into pixel art for the first time. Having just looked at your pixeljoint portfolio I do not think you have room to be cutting *anyone* down, particularly not on a forum where there are people who have been practising pushing pixels (professionally) for a quarter of a century.


Hi, NickZA, welcome to the party.

Hehe, Ironically, I disagree with both of your agreements, since they're both misunderstandings -If this isn't intended to use a controlled palette, having less colors is no longer valid. The ship is gray and yellow. If anything, it could use more colors, since precise index colors aren't even a consideration now who cares about color count? It's irrelevant.
For full color work, starting at 200 or 400% and scaling down to 50 or 25% is a brilliant way to get high detail into a small peice without monotonous manual detailing.

Cut down, what? Don't be silly. Leave those sensitivites behind when seeking honest feedback, grasshopper.

Offline NickZA

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #6 on: October 21, 2009, 07:36:54 pm
Yes, welcome to our party, little buddy.

You are one of those unfortunates who believes that your abstract definition of a thing is what is important. Sadly it's not. Money makes the world go round, and we are engineering a product here. The results are what count, not the definitions you cling to. Probably the only thing of relevance there is that this thread is now in the low-spec forum, where it belongs.

Sadly, you are mistaken -- using less colours typically means a better degree of control in my opinion, and I am sure in the opinions of most on these forums, including yourself I would think since you were rambling on about it! Or perhaps you would like to argue with yourself? Since I notice you don't exactly work in 16M colours yourself? Thus far figurestone has used as many colours as he likes because the spec does not define a maximum on colours. I would welcome other opinions on less vs. more, of course.

As for scaling down, you conveniently chose not to "educate" us as to the point at which it is appropriate to scale down. Or do I presume then that you do all your work at a larger size, then the last step of your workflow is to scale everything down? Would you care to enlighten us, since you were just complaining that his work was scaled down, and now you are telling me that you do that yourself?

And, hehe, ironically it stings when someone insults your rather "low-spec" work, eh? I noticed you had nothing to say about that. :y: But enough of this... we're here for crit and not for a flame war. Cool your jets, buddy boy.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #7 on: October 21, 2009, 07:43:24 pm
My dad can beat up your dad.

Offline NickZA

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #8 on: October 21, 2009, 07:45:44 pm
Could be. But my intellect can beat up your intellect.

Offline NickZA

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Re: Ship Sprites

Reply #9 on: October 21, 2009, 07:50:41 pm
@rikfuzz: Touché. But you didn't come in here breaking balls unnecessarily, and talking yourself in circles. You came in with valid input, that's the difference. Your critique would be welcome, if you still care to offer it.