Retro Room

[PsiGamesInc]

Hello everyone I'm Ron, I've really been into pixel art as far as 2D for a long time, however I currently started working with isometric pixel art. Here is my first shot at Isometric pixel art and I would like for you advanced artist to give me some critiques as well as advice, and tips. Please remember this is my first shot at it so don't be too harsh  .



This is all my own work done in photoshop, however I did use resources to see how other people had done their own objects no C&P whatsoever so I want to thank everyone ahead of time for the inspiration for some of the items in the pic. It took me about 16 hours to finish everything and set up the room ( the design went through several edits).

Somethings I should work on and like to improve:
color matching
furniture design
Room layout

I think I did a pretty good job but also know I can improve a lot.

:edit:


Still learning and trying to apply some of the techniques and advice I've been given so here is another shot at the room with a few changes, and a hardwood floor. I know it's not perfect, and I'm still really new at this but I'm trying 

[CrazyMLC]

You did well on the cabinet bit the rest... not so much. I've found with isometrics you want to only use dark outlines for the outside of objects, and use highlights to show the corners pointing towards the viewer/within the outline. You did that with the cabinet but with nothing else.

The lampshade doesn't fit in- it isn't correct as far as the shape goes.

[PsiGamesInc]

@ CrazyMLC - Ah I see exactly what you mean, I meant to go back and take off some of the outlines to add the lighting effect like with the cabinet but got distracted and totally forgot thank you for pointing that out to me, I'll make sure to fix that with the next edit.

I really wasn't sure how to do the lamp so I went with what I thought it would look like. What do you think I should do to fix it so that it is the right shape, and fits with the rest of the room?

Do you have any other tips for me to improve on this? I'm not asking for you to fix it for me but more for advice, and some tips since I'm pretty new at isometric pixel art.

[NaCl]

Not bad man, but I think if you want to take it to the next level you're going to need to really investigate what all these objects you drew actually look like, not just what they seem to look like. Sure a chair has a seat, back, and legs, but do these all have to be perfect rectangles? A couch is more then a perfectly square back with slightly rounded square cushions. These things all have properties that exceed squares, and squares are really not sufficient to represent them well. Don't be afraid of curves! I quickly snapped out a new chair to try and show you:



It's not great, I rarely do any iso art and this chair doesn't stand up under any close scrutiny, but the point remains. Don't constrain yourself to rectangles, the representations of things you can convincingly create with them is limited, most objects have curves, and complex areas of light and dark.

As for the lamp, I don't do iso, but what I've gathered from one of ndchristie's posts, draw a square first, then draw the 90 degree circle segments within that. After the circle exists, remove the square reference frame.

Also, whoa you got some crazy color situation going on. When making pixel art it's very important that each color is selected manually and purposefully. You have 200+ colors which is impossible to manage, and on some sites like pixeljoint.com they would not consider it pixel art at all. The carpet seems to mostly be the problem, but even ignoring that I suspect you could really consolidate your palette.

[PsiGamesInc]

@NaCI - Thanks bro, this was a first attempt at something new, and I was going off of ideas like Habbo Hotel and whatnot with what I was trying to create. I do agree with you on the shapes, I didn't notice at first how many squares and rectangles I have going on here and some shape would be nice for the furniture. Do you think not having the lighting effect on some of the items make them look more squared then I intended?

The carpet is a bit much, I added a filter to it to see how it would come out and forgot to revert it before moving on so there are a lot of extra colors in there. I plan on the final product to be a hardwood floor once I learn how to make it look a bit more realistic and not like I just placed speckles all over the place. Thank you for the chair example it does help me see the flaws in squaring everything, and shows me how to make the designs look better. I appreciate the tips, and if you have any more throw em my way haha.

I'm a intermediate game developer so I'm thinking on working on a isometric game where you can customize your character rooms so this is why I started the project. I truly appreciate you guys taking time out of your life to throw pointers my way cause I really want the furniture to look as nice as possible.