AuthorTopic: Any tips on this pixely-cupid?  (Read 3727 times)

Offline sculptedpixel

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Any tips on this pixely-cupid?

on: February 06, 2010, 11:53:11 am
First new topic I've posted, trying to grok your pixel-fu ways..

This is for a flixel-based game I'm working on; can't quite nail some of the details & coloring.  Ideally, Cupid should have blond hair but, no matter what skin shades I use, it just gets lost at this resolution; not that my skin shading is good to start with.   :'(



Any tips greatly appreciated; he's going to be scaled to 64x64, but I'm working in 32x32 to retain that blocky old-school flavor.  

This is such a great community - thanks in advance!
« Last Edit: February 06, 2010, 12:13:07 pm by sculptedpixel »
"If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten." — George Carlin

Offline HC_Bret_Measor

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Re: Any tips on this pixely-cupid?

Reply #1 on: February 06, 2010, 04:43:55 pm


I'm not super dope as many of the other pixel gurus here but I figured I would take a stab at your work. First I figured I would adjust your colours to 1 flat tone for each area and keep the colour palette count low. Then I used darker versions of my flats to give some depth but nothing to overpowering. Then I just outlined the areas in black, and I only did that so I could make distinct areas on this character.

I could be totally wrong with what I did, but heck I am here to learn just like you.

Offline Tourist

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Re: Any tips on this pixely-cupid?

Reply #2 on: February 06, 2010, 07:48:56 pm
My suggestions (and I'm still a beginner too):
Take advantage of the finer resolution for positioning the larger blocks.  You can keep most of the image as 2x2 pixels but still cheat with the positioning (the placement of the eyes, for example).

If the head is at a 3/4 view then the eye closer to the edge will appear narrower than the other due to the curvature of the face.  How much narrower depends on the angle of the face.  The eyes will remain the same height though.

I think the trick with blond hair is that the hair adjacent to the scalp is generally darker while the hair on top is lighter.

The nearer arm is not really separate from the chest.  Maybe swap the toga left-right so the cloth separates the arm.

Here's a reference pic that might be useful, for the wings and hair at least.


Tourist

Offline sculptedpixel

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Re: Any tips on this pixely-cupid?

Reply #3 on: February 08, 2010, 05:31:19 am
HC_Bret - that's really nice man, I like the idea of outlining him and may do it in flash after all, but I don't think I'll go with the line on the arm (it certainly helps it read better, but just doesn't feel right because of the difference in width).  Thanks for the suggestions!

Tourist - the tip re: taking advantage of the block size is damn smart.  I definitely think I'm giving that a go; re: the hair - I think I'm simply going to forgo the blond and, like your ref below, go with something darker.  I swapped the toga around, great idea!  

Thanks a bunch both of you!
"If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten." — George Carlin

Offline KhrisMUC

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Re: Any tips on this pixely-cupid?

Reply #4 on: February 08, 2010, 11:57:11 am
Mixing resolutions is a big no-no.

I'm not sure how to go about lores with flash; ideally you should build the whole game at, say, 320x240, then use a x3 nearest neighbor filter or something like that.

Offline Jad

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Re: Any tips on this pixely-cupid?

Reply #5 on: February 08, 2010, 02:52:50 pm
To be honest, I agree O:

a big no-no isn't the wording I'd choose, I'd just say that it looks more or less ugly D: It can be done for interesting effects too, I think, I don't feel like disqualifying any particular pixel gimmick but

but for this project it takes away from the actual art and just makes you go 'OH HAHA SQUARES' or in the case of moving the face sub-pixel-wise you're just being lazy with your pixels! There's always a way of conveying what you want with the given pixels, and figuring out how is totally one of the biggest draws of pixel art O:!
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