Need Help with Hokage Building from Naruto

[Zettman]

Ok so I'm still working on my game as you or may not know, and I've come to find myself stuck on another piece - this one made me give up for a couple of weeks tbh.

So this is it, the Kage building.

Palette from a Naruto GBA game.

As you can see It's minimally shaded right now, I wanted to try and shade the main body, but because of it's size I couldn't find the right way, everything would look ugly...
There's obviously other mistakes in there, and things that I could add to make it look more like an actual building - in a sense, but this is my main concern atm.

[rikfuzz]

This is hugeeeee.  I find a lot of the geometry a bit confusing too, you need to use perspective guides:



I made this by making a big circle split into 5º slices that was then squashed to (roughly) the ratio of your flat ceiling circles. 

As for colouring, I think you just need to split it into areas of light and shadow and have detail only in the division, and at the very edges. Otherwise it'd be hard to manage (and at least take ages).  I'm wondering how much you're even gonna see at a time if this is for a game?

[Zettman]

Well that helps me on the lower set of tiles.. But I didn't really understand what you said about shading, and yeah I know it's going to take me a long time... Also, the screen is about 1200x800 so you should be able to see a good portion of it ingame.

[big brother]

At that resolution, I don't think pixel art can provide any aesthetic benefits. It will take a long time to draw using this fine level of control, but the results will be too small to appreciate.

[rikfuzz]

Well that helps me on the lower set of tiles.. But I didn't really understand what you said about shading, and yeah I know it's going to take me a long time... Also, the screen is about 1200x800 so you should be able to see a good portion of it ingame.

I couldn't find a decent reference pic, except some (smaller) pixel art. I assume you've seen that since it looks like you've picked colours from it, so I'd probably just do dithered gradients similar to that.  If you have a decent reference, post a link to it - I'm not really sure what texture the building should have.

[Zettman]

Yeah, the texture is what I'm mostly worried about here... And I've tried dithering it dosn't end up looking pretty here. And as for the resolution I can't shrink it down, I'm trying to go for realistic sized buildings in my game lol...

[Jad]

Do you have any ACTUAL color restrictions? If not, use dirty tools and way too many colors. Or spend way too much time on this thing. Heh.

I do agree with big brother, I'm afraid that pixel art doesn't really provide a benefit in this resolution ' 3 ';, You should cheat a bit. (this coming from a pixelation mod, haha)

[rikfuzz]

Done a super quick noise dither:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1534394/hokage.png

It's not brilliant, but it does the job. I've added a couple of sort of pock marks. Doing more and varied sizes of these will help a lot.  Honestly, at this size maybe a curved gradient would preferable.

[Zettman]

That could work, but there's one problem... I don't know how to apply any of that on any programs I have... (I have PS, GG, etc) Could you show me how that noise dither is done?

[rikfuzz]

I use photoshop: 

1)  Make a gradient on a new layer with all the colour steps you want.
2)  Edit>transform>warp;  change the warp from 'custom' to 'arch' and change the bend to around -70.
3)  copy the layer into a new file
4)  Image>Mode>Indexed Colour in the new file, reduce to however many colours you want to restrict to, change dithering options in this dialogue too.
5)  Copy paste back into your art work, then hide the gradient layers. 
6)  Select the area you want it to cover with magic wand.
7)  Create a mask on the new gradient layer (3rd button on the bottom of the layer window)
  You're done!  But if you unlink your mask (the chain icon) you can move your gradient around in the correct area for adjusting.

[QuaziGNRLnose]

That could work, but there's one problem... I don't know how to apply any of that on any programs I have... (I have PS, GG, etc) Could you show me how that noise dither is done?

alternatively, you could use the spray can in paint to the same avail, just make the spray can size uber big by pressing ctrl then the plus button on the numpad button long enough so that the brush size gets huge (this works for resizing any ms-paint tool beyond the given sizes, its a neat little secret that really shouldn't be one) you can also adjust the size with the minus, to make it smaller.

[Jad]

NO NOISE DITHEER @  A  @ BETTER TO COPYPASTE HANDMADE STYLEDITHER THAN NOISEDITHER SRSLY SRSLY

[Zettman]

I tried the spray can and it came out to be messy, the way he did his noise dither came out much cleaner and smoother I'll give that a try now.

[rikfuzz]

NO NOISE DITHEER @  A  @ BETTER TO COPYPASTE HANDMADE STYLEDITHER THAN NOISEDITHER SRSLY SRSLY

Normally I'd agree, but at this size, when there's no real texture to work with?  I can't see him finishing this century doing it by hand. Better to use the tools available and add details by hand after.

[QuaziGNRLnose]

NO NOISE DITHEER @  A  @ BETTER TO COPYPASTE HANDMADE STYLEDITHER THAN NOISEDITHER SRSLY SRSLY

made me lol , and i kinda like the texture the noise dither gave, it looks more like concrete than a "griddy" pattern would

[Jad]

I don't hate tools, not at all. I just do hate noise dither with a passion. It puts pixels next to each other in ways I'd never allow them to be if I did it myself and creates jaggies, banding, 2x pixel clusters and banding hell.

Maybe spraycan and then edit away stuff? I mean randomness can be good for art. Sure! Anyways he can't go it all over by hand, but he could copypaste portions of dither that he's made by himself without it taking too much time. Anyways control is important yo! : D haha. Well I know we both agree really.

[Zettman]

So this is my Kage Building at the moment...



I've used the dithering methods mentioned above, and shaded in some of the yellow tiling, this thing isn't easy... Anything that I might want to check before continuing this?

[Rydin]

Think about where the light is coming from when you apply shading.

[CrazyMLC]

I'd recommend against dithering or gradients. Why have a pixel artist when you have flash? Programs do much better gradients than any human could do anyway.

As pixel artists we need to stick to our strengths.

[Maru]

I think your shading should follow the curve of the building...right now it doesn't make any sense @~@;;;

So if the building is round, the shading should be round and curving around the corners too. Your shading looks way too straight and not following the curve of the structure...if that makes sense, herpderp. ºwº

[Jorund]

At that resolution, I don't think pixel art can provide any aesthetic benefits. It will take a long time to draw using this fine level of control, but the results will be too small to appreciate.

I think you should re-read this.

Looking at your last version, with the dithering and all, the building is very monotonous. You should add A LOT of details, to make it come to life.
I know it's in an early stage, but maybe it would be better to have a building not proportional to the characters.