AuthorTopic: Exterior AA and selout  (Read 3725 times)

Offline Dusty

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Exterior AA and selout

on: January 11, 2010, 03:22:48 am
I find myself doing this a lot simply because it irks me so much to see such jagged black outlines. Is it acceptable to just have jagged black outlines for the sake of background compatibility? For example, I started some icons simply for practice and fun:

And it started off without any exterior AA because I felt it didn't need it. But as I started playing with more shapes on the swords I started adding more and more. Should I just resist the temptation and keep the black outlines or can AA like this be excusable, even if it does happen to pass over lighter backgrounds? Is there an alternative method to making it more appealing? This is the sort of thing I have a constant problem with in all my work.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 03:24:27 am by Dusty »

Offline Jakten

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Re: Exterior AA and selout

Reply #1 on: January 11, 2010, 05:55:16 am
I'd say it depends on what the background is that your image will be laid over. If the sel-out is noticeable it should be changed or removed. I think it would be fine for a static image like this against this background as it doesn't negatively effect your images.

Nice swords by the way, I really like the 3rd one.

Offline Indigo

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Re: Exterior AA and selout

Reply #2 on: January 11, 2010, 05:59:25 pm
You can do a trick if you're up for it and use alpha'd color indexes for outer AA.  You can't properly index you image if you do that (it'd have to remain 32-bit), but it works well none the less.

Offline Dusty

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Re: Exterior AA and selout

Reply #3 on: January 12, 2010, 04:42:41 am
I'd say it depends on what the background is that your image will be laid over. If the sel-out is noticeable it should be changed or removed. I think it would be fine for a static image like this against this background as it doesn't negatively effect your images.

Nice swords by the way, I really like the 3rd one.
But is this a 'percentage' thing or a 'if it ever crosses a darker background never use it' kind of thing? I know some games use selout/exterior AA on some sprites that are rarely seen on darker BGs, but when they do it's so noticeable.

You can do a trick if you're up for it and use alpha'd color indexes for outer AA.  You can't properly index you image if you do that (it'd have to remain 32-bit), but it works well none the less.
Indeed, though I must say I don't like working with alpha AA because I have to use photoshop, and it's not a very fun/easy process compared to pixelling itself.

Offline Indigo

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Re: Exterior AA and selout

Reply #4 on: January 12, 2010, 06:11:39 am
I use photoshop for nearly all my pixeling.  Its just a matter of getting the hang of it - as with any other program.

Offline Jakten

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Re: Exterior AA and selout

Reply #5 on: January 12, 2010, 06:16:31 am

Well doing a little test, I used a gradient from a value of 0 to 100 and drew a red line across it. On one side I AAed with a value of 25% and on the other I AAed with a value of %50. Both sides do a decent job of not being noticed up until around %50-75. I acctually thing %25 does the best job. So if you are planning on posting on really dark background maybe choose %75 and on light %25...

I'm not sure if this is any kind of an accurate formula here but hopefully it helps (also I don't know if my terminology is accurate) :lala:

Offline Gil

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Re: Exterior AA and selout

Reply #6 on: January 12, 2010, 11:48:01 am
I use photoshop for nearly all my pixeling.  Its just a matter of getting the hang of it - as with any other program.

I don't know. Photoshop is just a very inferior pixel tool to me. So, yeah, I could switch and pixel in it, but it's never going to be as good as Promotion for example.