Pixel Art Thread

[Anonymous No.2568331]

Previous thread : >>2509410

In this thread you are free to post any of your OCs/studies, ask for tips, critiques, help, post tutorials, references, other artists' cool works and talk about your experience or anything concerning Pixel Art. Please make it clear whether you need critiques or not as to avoid misunderstanding in case you are sharing something that is not yours.

If you are new to Pixel Art feel free to read this first : http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

http://pixeljoint.com/
http://pixelation.org/
http://2dwillneverdie.com/
https://twitter.com/Pixel_Dailies
http://finalbossblues.com/pixel-tutorials/

[Anonymous No.2568334]

I will gladly accept any suggestions about what could be added and changed about the text and links from the current OP.

[Anonymous No.2568740]

[Anonymous No.2568848]

what software do you guys use to pixel paint?

[Anonymous No.2568859]

>>2568334
Always loved that graphical style, but when will people finally admit that those faces were NOT OK and we should NOT go back to them?

[Anonymous No.2568871]

>>2568848
Graphics gale is actually pretty quality, color palette is good and its perfect if you broke ass nigga. I still use it over my paid programs for character designing

No animation capabilities in free version though.

The animation in paid version is very good but not as good as something else you could pay for.

[Anonymous No.2568876]

>>2568848
Graphicsgale

[Anonymous No.2568943]

>>2568740
Saw this on PJ. Good shit.

[Anonymous No.2568945]

>>2568859
Grafx2

[Anonymous No.2569051]

>>2568848
Aseprite.

>>2568859
>those faces were NOT OK
This is completely subjective and rather an extreme opinion. We still have artists today inspired by the old ways, look at Kabaneri for example.

[Anonymous No.2569058]

>>2568848
Aseprite.

>>2568859
>those faces were NOT OK
This is completely subjective and a rather extreme opinion. We still have artists today inspired by the old ways, look at Kabaneri for example.

[Anonymous No.2569154]

What's a good program to animate sprites in? Photoshop seems really clunky for animating.

[Anonymous No.2569314]

>>2569154
Aseprite.

[Anonymous No.2569328]

>>2568876
>>2568871
So I've set for graphics gale after trying some stuff with it
Now what? I have lots of graph paper if that helps at all.

[Anonymous No.2569350]

>>2569328
>I have lots of graph paper if that helps at all.
It might be easier to use a computer. Just a thought.

[Anonymous No.2569369]

>>2569328
just do pixel art. Use the pencil tool.

[Anonymous No.2569456]

What about some good apps to do pixel art in Android?

I have dotpic but I don't know if others are better. I can't stay in front of the computer as much as I want...

[Anonymous No.2569500]

>>2568871
>The animation in paid version is very good but not as good as something else you could pay for.
what software would you say is best for animating then?

[Anonymous No.2569750]

>>2569350
>>2569369
I tought it'll be helpful to doodle on graph paper first and then see how it translates into pixels

[Anonymous No.2569769]

>>2569750
It wouldn't

[Anonymous No.2569850]

thought some diagonal pixel art would be funky

pic related but not yet finished

[Anonymous No.2569882]

>>2569154
I like pyxel edit so far.

[Anonymous No.2569884]

>>2569850
gettin there

[Anonymous No.2569899]

>>2569884
im confused. Did you want him to run on a +45 degree angled cliff face? Or did you want to rotate the camera.

[Anonymous No.2569901]

>>2569899
I wanted to rotate the camera, not sure how to do that while looking good

[Anonymous No.2570468]

added colour - any crit/help would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous No.2570499]

>>2570468
The style vaguely reminds me of some old MS DOS games.

[Anonymous No.2570906]

>>2570468
i think shading/value is going to make or break your game desu

also make it so that the hair doesn't stretch so far out from the head - it extends too far left and its too tall

[Sirderer No.2570975]

>>2570468
i'd say that it looks a bit forced, like its just a low quality normal drawing, i think you need to try pixelating without drawing referance first.

[Anonymous No.2571083]

>>2570468
You should be trying to get the most out of each individual pixel as possible. Right now it barely looks like pixel art because there is so much unnecessary space.

[Anonymous No.2571429]

>>2570975
>>2571083
Thank you - I knew I was doing something wrong but I just couldnt put my finger on it. You guys are totally right im depending too much off of my original linework.

[Anonymous No.2571592]

Is it advised that I learn how to draw first before doing pixel art? Do most of you have drawing backgrounds?

[Anonymous No.2571605]

>>2571592
yes
>>2571429
think less about linework, more about pixel clusters. for the final product, anyway. pixel art isn't too dissimilar from painting.

[Anonymous No.2571615]

>>2571592
Yes. The only exception is if you're stylizing so heavily that you don't really have to know how to render what you're depicting. But otherwise you're just going to frustrate yourself, much like if you tried to learn to paint without first knowing how to draw.

[Anonymous No.2572455]

dunno if this is supposed to be in animation or pixel, serves both. Tried to think something else for a while and did this.

[Anonymous No.2572982]

>>2569500
One of them Photoshop programs

[Anonymous No.2572985]

>>2570468
Redo the face

[Anonymous No.2573075]

>>2568331
Why does Pikachu's body get stretched when she is pulling his cheeks?

[Anonymous No.2573320]

Do you guys usa mouse or a tablet? what is better?

>>2572455
It looks good up until the walk cycle, looks kind of clunky.

[Anonymous No.2573354]

>>2568334
Holy shit, I would love to be able to make pixel art that looks like some PC-98 VN.
How would it be done, just using a lot of stippling? (I think it's called stippling anyway)

[Anonymous No.2573393]

Best programs for animating sprites?

Photoshop seems really sucky for it.

[Anonymous No.2573443]

>>2569500
>>2573393
I already answered Aseprite many times in this same thread, guys. Next time I'll put it in the OP for sure. It's open-source so you aren't forced to pay for it, simply google an already compiled version.

Here's a link to 1.1.6 :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14699133/aseprite%201.1.6.dev.4.june.2016.rar

>>2573354
>stippling
I might be misunderstanding but dithering is more commonly used when talking about what you're referring to.

[Anonymous No.2573615]

>>2570468
>>2570975
>>2571083
>>2571429
>>2571605
>>2572985
I re worked the entire thing using my original as a reference and did it again from scratch this is what I came up with. I like this version a lot more than what I originally drew but I still think I have a lot to learn still. sigh
what do you guys think?

[Anonymous No.2573698]

Making more rock based art to practice lighting

>>2573615

I like the new pose. The colors might look better with more contrast

[Anonymous No.2573701]

>>2573615
much better but like you said, still much to learn

[Anonymous No.2573747]

>>2573320
tablet for sketching rough key-frames and in-betweens, mouse for actual pixel art work of clean lines + placing individual pixels.

placing individual pixels with a tablet sounds like it would be super annoying.

[Anonymous No.2573754]

>>2568334
Can someone explain to me how this is still pixel art and not oekaki? Isn't pixel art typically smaller images? I know street fighter and stuff have larger sprites but this is pretty huge.

[Anonymous No.2573773]

>>2573615
imo. the fringe looked better as a straight cut, but if you're going to stick with that new style it needs more work.

the current style (hair clumps forming pointy triangles) looks like the front of a head-crab, because every clump of hair is the same angle / length / thickness. they need more variation, including the bangs.

look at 80s manga for some examples of nice hair. specifically, the work of johji manabe. the hair posted earlier too >>2568334

also, when resizing pixel art, don't just scale it up to some arbitrary size with nearest neighbor scaling, some of the pixels end up thinner than others.
resize the canvas in multiples, eg. 32x32 would become 64x64 (32 x 2), or 96x96 (32 x 3), or 128x128 (32 x 4), etc.

keep it up! it's getting there, and i like the colors you've used. consider also playing around with dithering here and there, to spice things up.

[Anonymous No.2573780]

I guess i'll post this here too.

How does one make better character designs. I know about silhouetting (well, not enough), but I want to know of some other things I could do to conjure a memorable design

[Anonymous No.2573791]

>>2573754
>>how this is still pixel art and not oekaki
>>Isn't pixel art typically smaller images
the difference between pixel art and oekaki isn't the image size, that has nothing to do with it (picture related, this is still pixel art).

oekaki = free-hand drawn art that looks similar to pixel art because the artist used pixel brushes that don't have smooth edges / anti-aliasing (a trait also found in pixel art). you wouldn't typically manually hand-place each pixel in oekaki, and if any of the coloring is using a dithered pattern, it's usually just an automatic effect using a paint bucket flood fill tool (you can do this in MSPaint).

pixel art = individually hand-placed pixels, usually intentionally crafted to have certain line thicknesses, certain patterns for blending between colors, etc. unlike oekaki, this is not free-hand. you might start out with free-hand to draw the initial shapes, but the rest is edited pixel by pixel.

in the picture you referenced, the intricate pixel-perfect details in the hair, hat and dashboard are an easy give-away that this is pixel art.
another thing to note here is that the artist has a subtle mixture of both aliased and anti-aliased lines. this anti-aliasing would've been done manually by hand, eg. the smooth writing on the back of the chair.

the only thing that is questionable in that picture is the usage of dithering on the chairs. that definitely hasn't been done by hand.

[Anonymous No.2573793]

>>2573791
Alright I get it now. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

[Anonymous No.2573861]

>>2573780
work on colors, distinguish the characters focus points. specifically:
- complimentary colors (hair vs clothing, the dark blue is complimentary towards orange...but is too currently dark to really notice it)
- and contrast (the dark clothing is VERY striking compared to the rest of the image. should that be the focus point the viewer notices first, or should the hair be the main thing they use to distinguish the character? this is the sort of thing you want to ask yourself)
technically, the hair is also the shape with the most mass in this image. that's something to think about.
- skim-read this for more info on how to balance the "visual interest" among each feature on your character: https://support.steampowered.com/kb/9334-YDXV-8590/dota-2-workshop-character-art-guide#valuepatterning

as for the pixel art itself...

be a bit more consistent yet playful with your lines, their colors and their shading:
- if its a dark color fill, give the edges a lighter, more vibrant line color (eg. violet outlines on dark blue).
- your current piece has a very overbearing black outline that varies in effectiveness. it's strong against the hair, but weak against the dark clothing....overall it kinda just clashes and doesn't fit well with the inside of the hair and green clothing (darker versions of the fill color). consider making these lines colored instead, and if you want black around it all, put a line of white in-between first.
- the inner hair outline and shadow doesn't work. it's barely noticeable, and just acts almost as making the hair look like it smoothly blends into the skin.
- work on your line thickness. in some areas around the edge it reads as 2px instead of 1px. i'm not sure if that was intended or not (eg. the arms).

finally, play around with color combinations (eg. goggles), and maybe sway the fringe side to side.

check out the pixel art of paul robertson, it might give you some ideas (especially the way he colors line art).

[Anonymous No.2573963]

>>2573443
Getting weird error:

---------------------------
aseprite.exe - Application Error
---------------------------
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

[Anonymous No.2573975]

>>2573780
In addition to >>2573861 you also are looking for a story you can tell with the character, about the character.
Why does the character look the way he looks, why does he wear a particular armor or carries a weapon, what caused his/her scar on the face etc..
If you can convey what a character is all abou with his design, then you're in for good character design.

Just look at the example of Hanzo from overwatch, one of the best designed characters imo.
You can easily understand what it means to "tell a story" through a character.

Why does he have a dragon tattoo?
>Because is one of the shimada brothers, who are said to control dragons
Why does he wield a bow?
>Because he killed his brother, while being the better swordsman, and swore not to touch a blade ever again.
>Why does he have his hair the way he does?
It would be unfortunate to have his eyes covered by hair, when trying to shoot with a bow
>Why does he have all the pouches and a tea can around his waist?
Because he goes to shimada castle one time a year, to drink some tea and honor his dead brother in order to find peace.

TL;DR tell a story with a character instead of adding unseless shit.

[Anonymous No.2573977]

>>2573963
Not 1.1.6 but try those then :
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yv8rq13652hi22h/AACP8IwruIRsRCxbGeJ16cTaa?dl=0

Even older :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9iof9oci8dvmvb/aseprite%2029%20feb%202016%20%281.1.3%29.rar?dl=0

I'm fairly sure the 1.1.6 I'm using right now is the one I linked you, but it might also be one I got from somewhere else. If others are having a problem with the one I linked earlier I'll upload mine.

[Anonymous No.2573978]

>>2573861
>>2573975

Thanks you two. This is actually really helpful

[Anonymous No.2573979]

>>2573963
You can compile it yourself if you get MinGW or cygwin

[Anonymous No.2573983]

>>2573963
Also worth noting some antivirus program can be a bitch towards Aseprite. But I'm just a random anon on the internet who sent you a .exe so it's up to you whether or not you should trust me.

[Anonymous No.2573989]

>>2573975
>Why does he have a dragon tattoo?
Because dragons are asiany.
>It would be unfortunate to have his eyes covered by hair, when trying to shoot with a bow.
Too bad he has a big swath of cloth flapping around on his head then.
>and a tea can around his waist?
Because it's asiany. But I mean, yeah, carrying something around with you at all times that you use once a year is also totally legit.

This character can't even figure out how to put his clothes on.

[Anonymous No.2574119]

>>2573983
And even if someone doesn't trust you, they can just get with the times, man up, and run the EXE in Sandboxie, which will prevent it from doing any dodgy shit to your PC.

Source: This is what the mods on ThePirateBay run things in, to check if they had viruses or not. It's like god-mode for people who can't be bothered using virus scanners.

[Anonymous No.2574240]

>>2573989
Great work at missing the point of my post entirely.
I've never said Blizzard had good writers, nor will ever say that.

What I tried to say is that the character has to tell a story and in the case of hanzo it clearly does.
The major details of his concept have reason to be there, even if the reason is ridiculous.
He is also a nod to the yakuza, since they are known to be the one of the few people in japan to even have tattoos.

And if you're seriously complaining about him having his left arm out, then you clearly didn't play the game.
Because there's a reason why that is.

But hey if you want to look at people who put their clothes on the right way you might wanna look at battleborn, maybe that's your cup of tea .. around the waist :^)

[Anonymous No.2574250]

>If you're the artistic type, pixel art is very accessible and easy to get into.
IT'S A LIE
A BIG FAT LIE

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?(...) No.2574251]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oICHvlqApBc

[Anonymous No.2574453]

>>2573443
Yeah, I called it stippling because my only experience with pixel art is http://simonm-hunter.squarespace.com/tutorial/ Thus far.

He mentions a technique called Stippling which looks extremely similar

[Anonymous No.2574934]

Did some background work, I'm heavily influenced now by GitS. Love how impossible this scene is, yet it gives good feeling.

[Anonymous No.2575075]

>>2574453
Pretty shitty tutorial t b h

[Anonymous No.2576088]

Tips or good tutorials for spriting?

Especially for 16x32 sprites.

[Anonymous No.2576298]

>>2574934
more, this time hallway

[Anonymous No.2577181]

>>2576298
still keeping this thread alive, tried different law enforcers. Bigger ones would suit my needs.

[Anonymous No.2577187]

>>2576298
woooo this is great anon!

[Anonymous No.2577250]

>>2576298
>>2577181
That's quite nice.

[Anonymous No.2577381]

Just did this today. I'll get around to the other two starters eventually.

[Anonymous No.2577440]

Natural rock shapes are difficult for me so I'll give square-like rocks a try.

I also started with a warm up sprite, My hair is terrible.

[Sirderer No.2577660]

>>2573615
i hate to say it but the work before was actually better, you need to use a lot more time on the shapes rather than the details, and also use smaller size pictures to make it look more like pixel art than normal artwork.

[Anonymous No.2577783]

>>2573615
Should've just resized and cleaned up the original

[Anonymous No.2577786]

>>2574934
>>2576298
>>2577181
Great stuff mate

[Anonymous No.2577902]

>>2574934
>>2576298
>>2577181
please post at actual size, the pixels are distorted.

Also
>.jpg

[Anonymous No.2577912]

>>2577902
Not him, but when you're showing your game assets on /v/ and /vg/ it's advised to scale your work and save it as a jpg so it won't get stolen. Apparently that's a big problem over there

[Anonymous No.2578001]

>>2577912
Didn't know that, but I was kinda thinking similar. I prefer sharing unusable material, that serves the viewing purpose. Thanks for the advice.

[Anonymous No.2578327]

My first ever attempt at pixel art, ever
I wanted to try isometric perspective with the PCjr/Tandy palette

the canoe was a bitch to draw, maybe isometric perpective isn't the best idea, at least on this resolution. Also the tandy palette is kind of dissapointing.

[Anonymous No.2578348]

>>2577912
Oh dang, well if that's the case, ignore what I said then. Also, I didn't even notice at first that it was a jpg, it wasn't till I opened it up in paint that I saw the small distortions. I was still able to appreciate the pixel art I think because of the scaling, despite again, those distortions.

[Anonymous No.2578603]

>>2578001
I'd suggest adding sort of like a visible end to the train as well
I guess its just a repeatable asset that consists of a head and a wagon part?
a tail part with perhaps a wall visible through the window would finish it

[Anonymous No.2578704]

for a 80's game

his stance is a little crooked so i gotta adjust that.

[Anonymous No.2578706]

>>2573989
>the dragons cant even figure out how to put his clothes on

we all know the best designed character is zenyatta.

[Anonymous No.2578709]

>>2577912
I guess that makes sense for /v/ and /vg/ but this is /ic/?

[Anonymous No.2578826]

>>2577381
Can anyone tell me if this eye looks better or not

[Anonymous No.2578851]

im making a present for my artist pal but need an animation software that bests suits pixel art, i got all the assets but Photoshop CC seems to be really finicky, any other options?

[MassNerder No.2578898]

My first attempt @ pixel art started out easy.

[Anonymous No.2579149]

>>2578898
It's terrible

[Anonymous No.2579226]

>>2578709
Right, because /ic/ is only visited by perfect human beings

[Anonymous No.2579245]

>>2578709
People aren't limited to one board. Myself I browse the game making thread on /v/, /vg/ but also browse /ic/ for art-related stuff.

Personally I think as long as you update your blog or whatever on the side before putting assets or anything you care about on 4chan you're fine. Plus going out of your way to alter your work is a bit stupid, it reminds of these dA people always putting watermarks on their drawings or telling people to not post their work on the internet... if someone wants to steal it they'll still take it regardless and salvage it anyway, .png or not. If you absolutely want to not worry about any of this then keep your work to yourself until you release your game or whatever your work will be associated with.

[Anonymous No.2579247]

>>2578709
People aren't limited to one board. Myself I browse the game making threads on /v/, /vg/ but also browse /ic/ for art-related stuff.

Personally I think as long as you update your blog on the side before putting assets or anything you care about on 4chan you're fine. Plus going out of your way to alter your work is a bit stupid, it reminds of these dA people always putting watermarks on their drawings or telling others to not re-post their work on the internet... if someone wants to steal it they'll still take it regardless and salvage it anyway, .png or not. If you absolutely want to not worry about any of this then keep your work to yourself until you release your game or whatever it is.

[Anonymous No.2580108]

[Anonymous No.2580301]

>>2577181
see
>>2573773

stop manually resizing pixel art to a random size.
scale the canvas up in multiples, otherwise you get distorted pixels and it looks bad.

[Anonymous No.2580308]

>>2577912
>>scale your work and save it as a jpg so it won't get stolen

what a silly reason to butcher pixel art, it wouldn't even stop someone from stealing it.
almost as bad as those crappy censor attempts that are just slightly darkened rectangles...bypassed in a couple of seconds.

as soon as you figure out the percentage it was scaled up by, you just scale it back down with nearest neighbor scaling, using division on the width/height.
it would barely be noticeable that the original was a jpg, maybe you'd have to fix one or two off-color pixels here and there, but this is a really silly reason to share pixel art as jpgs.

[Anonymous No.2580374]

well this was hard as fuck but entertaining
i'll be back again tmrw

[Anonymous No.2582029]

My limited knowledge of light and color theory is beginning to fail me. I may have to ask for advice on a dedicated pixel art site.

[Anonymous No.2582040]

Been trying out dithering for a skybox. Too new to know if it can be improved to a better standard of quality.

[Anonymous No.2582063]

>>2582040
could probably intersperse the colours with each other more

odd streak of dark blue near the bottom

[Anonymous No.2582068]

>>2582063
So thin the levels of dithering then, or maybe have them overlap a bit?

The bottom 'bar' of blue is to have detail retained for things on the ground. At least that's what I hope it does.

[Anonymous No.2583041]

linkle alttp style

[Anonymous No.2583042]

>>2583041
o r thi s one

[Anonymous No.2583229]

>>2583041
>>2583042
Cute.

[Anonymous No.2583267]

Finally got back to having some time to spend on this piece. I'm a little high so my judgement might be a tad off but I think its looking better. I have no idea how to get the shading on the hair though so thats kinda flat.
What do you guys think?

[Anonymous No.2583648]

>>2583267
this one:
>>2570468
has MUCH better proportions, and a better pose. honestly I'd scrap the current one and go back to those lines. resize it if you have to, but the current is much more stiff

[Anonymous No.2583764]

>>2583648
?
New one is much better. Aside from the head which feels a bit awkward.

[Anonymous No.2583779]

>>2583764
>arms stiff by sides
>armor much less complex and interesting
>neck and shoulder uneven (shrugging stage left arm)
>trades 'S' posture for '|' posture
>huge face
>volumes look bad because shading is done in large 'bands'
the original line art was way better, sorry.

[Anonymous No.2583825]

>>2583267
I have to agree with the other guy. The old one is better. Maybe not design-wise, but in terms of execution.

[Anonymous No.2584177]

>>2578327
I tried again and I hope this is good enough, tho I released it is not properly scaled.

[Anonymous No.2584408]

>>2584177
lighting/dithering, foreground/background contrast and color choices all need more work:

- it's too obvious that the dithering was applied in chunks using a fill tool. it needs more manual work done by hand. break up the dithering with holes and the occasional horizontal line to represent light scattering across leaves.

the larger checker squares in the background are a great idea, but again they need more work so the dithering looks intentional. specifically, the smaller dithering could be made to look like clumps of fog that are breaking up.

- shift the hue of your shadow colors to build a more vibrant contrast between shapes. this is especially important between the purple/brown/red. the light green could also be changed, as the yellow flowers don't really stand out that much.

- finally, the black on the tree doesn't work. it just looks like a hole in the art. stick to the same shadow color you have elsewhere for brown.

pic related. changes listed above, plus:
- tried to distinguish things a bit more.
- fixed a few rogue pixels (brown on green, light brown in areas where i'd expect only shadow).
if you're going to have brown in the grass, make it look intentional (eg. a piece of wood, or old leaves).
- roughened up the lower edges of the grass a bit more, especially along the boat edge where it felt too parallel and straight.
- added random fancy shit here and there (colored edges, a background frame, etc)

[Anonymous No.2584427]

>>2584408
Thanks, I understand all the suggest but I can't get what does this one means:
>shift the hue of your shadow colors to build a more vibrant contrast between shapes
So like this is the reason why you added outlines to everything?

[Anonymous No.2584535]

>>2584427
>>this is the reason why you added outlines to everything?
nah, those were just the "random fancy shit" that i added to make things look cool. to highlight the edges, make them stick out a bit.

"shift the hue" means to change the hue of your colors in the color picker. i "shifted their hue":
- mix the green tree shadow with blue
- mix the brown dirt shadow with pink

without shifting the hue, colors can look a bit dull (especially in pixel art). this is what's called a "straight color ramp", because you just move in a straight line when picking colors in the color picker.
if you also change the hue option in your color picker, the colors become a bit more nice to look at (in real life, colors bounce around and also get absorbed into things, there are many different hues).

a break down of stylizing your colors would be; when you pick lights and shadows, think of WHAT you can change, and WHY.
for example:
- WHAT: i can change the green tree shadow to be partially blue.
- WHY: because leaves are kinda see-through, and you can see some of the blue sky through them.

so you end up with two different color hues for your light and shadow (eg. i used green for light, blue for shadow)....rather than the original, which was just two different shades of green.

[Sirderer No.2584711]

>>2583267
dude, do yourself and scrap that one, and make a new picture (with new character and) with worse resolution, also try to use less shading and blurring

[Sirderer No.2584929]

>>2584711
*a favor

[Anonymous No.2585012]

>>2584535
I heard about this before and now I can see the differences in color from my work and your correction BUT the new colors are out of the scope of the palette I used, the tandy/EGA. Still next time i will try to shift the hue is the palette permits it.

[Anonymous No.2585501]

>>2584177
So I tried to take the criticism and apply it to the same work but I also tried using another palette, the nes palette.
I tried sticking to the tile based restrictions but that plan got ruined very soon, still I managed to stick to the restriction of 4 sets of 3 colors

Hopefully I did something learn from the discussions on this thread.

[Anonymous No.2585829]

>>2585012
>>the new colors are out of the scope of the palette I used
whoops sorry about that, I should've researched a bit into that palette. hopefully the advice is still applicable.

>>2585501
the NES color palette is a big improvement, the greens and blues look great and i'm quite liking the background.
try adding a few lines of the dark brown in the canoe, to act as shadows for the seats. also, consider switching to the burgundy brown color for your dirt and tree shadow (i believe the NES palette has a few of those), it will work nicely as a hue shift.

my critique would be:
- you've removed a rather excess amount of dithering from your piece, perhaps consider restoring some of it in the tree leaves and dirt.
- the tree shadow down on the grass doesn't quite work without dithering, because it just looks like a solid shape that is hanging down from the leaves. i think you had that part spot on in the previous image.
- the new tree leaves are nice, but maybe add a bit of dithering in the dark side, just to have a smoother transition from light to dark.

>>Hopefully I did something learn from the discussions on this thread.
i'm seeing some good changes based on the previous discussions. keep it up!

[Anonymous No.2586972]

>>2585829
>try adding a few lines of the dark brown in the canoe, to act as shadows for the seats.
That will be interesting but I ran out of colors on that set.

>- you've removed a rather excess amount of dithering from your piece, perhaps consider restoring some of it in the tree leaves and dirt.
>- the tree shadow down on the grass doesn't quite work without dithering, because it just looks like a solid shape that is hanging down from the leaves. i think you had that part spot on in the previous image.
>- the new tree leaves are nice, but maybe add a bit of dithering in the dark side, just to have a smoother transition from light to dark.
Balancing the texture, yes but the dithering was an stylistic decision because of the tandy/EGA's limitation. Look at pic related for example.
Still I will take this into account when I try a another work but that will have to be in my free time, I'm going to get busy with other stuff now.

[Anonymous No.2587011]

>>2586972
For fuck's sake i forgot the picture

[Anonymous No.2587483]

>>2586972
>>2587011
ah, i understand now. good point.

[Anonymous No.2587939]

I can't for the life of me figure out how to shade properly.
I tried looking at references where light falls through windows and I know that it has something to do with the edges of objects that receive light looking shiny, but everything I tried ended up looking completely out of place.

[Anonymous No.2587951]

>>2587939
set up a light source first, like the window or a chandelier inside.

[Anonymous No.2588061]

>>2587939

When you're looking at references, try looking for light source in 3d space, then break down all of the objects into the scene into simple 3d forms.

Practice with grey values first, and do your best to work on one layer and avoid fancy photomanipulation tools.

[Anonymous No.2588065]

Did this one a while ago

[Anonymous No.2588110]

>>2587939
pretty sure i played that game

[Anonymous No.2588151]

>>2578603
what game

[Anonymous No.2588340]

>>2568848
Photoshop

[Anonymous No.2588483]

>>2588065
Background is a blurry mess

[Anonymous No.2588558]

>>2588065
you've clearly just shrunk an actual image down and then blown it back up. Not really pixel art.

[Anonymous No.2588716]

>>2573791
Oh my god that image is my new goal.

[Anonymous No.2588719]

Can I get into pixel art by doing 16x24 character sprites like the ones in Final Fantasy?

[Anonymous No.2588734]

>>2583267
The face really bugs me. I tried to fix it up a bit.

[Anonymous No.2588817]

>>2588719
of course

[Anonymous No.2588830]

Hello, i'm new to pixel art. This is my first real animation, any tips would be appreciated

[Anonymous No.2588943]

>>2588558
I didn't. Made from scratch referencing this picture: http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/10-laputa.jpg?itok=gnGSV89C

[Anonymous No.2588945]

>>2588483
Yeah I'm not too happy with it. What do you think of the golem?

[Anonymous No.2588999]

>>2588943
WELL, you've created a blurry mess that looks like a resized image. What on earth possessed you to spend all that time messing around with slightly different shades of blue, green and brown? What effect were you trying to achieve?

Start with simple shapes, and using shading to show form. And you're needlessly overcomplicating things by working with such a staggering number of colors. Try rendering shapes with two colors, bushes with light green and dark green etc, so the forms are clear, then go in with two or three other hues to smooth and add highlights/lowlights.

[Anonymous No.2589689]

Currently working on this. Obviously WIP, especially the light lines in the background which are left from the preliminary sketch.

[Anonymous No.2589690]

>>2589689
Forgot picture.

[Anonymous No.2589725]

>>2589690
Breddy gud, do you plan to add a light source and give the flat surfaces different shades?

[Anonymous No.2590100]

>>2589725
I might, although I plan on keeping it functional. Making heavy use of light sources is hard if you want it dynamically animated afterwards. I'm focusing mostly on clarity and easy of use right now. I will make the interactive surfaces more easily distinguishable for sure.

[Anonymous No.2590340]

>>2589690

Why are the crew wearing hot pants?

[Anonymous No.2590655]

Made a potion icon thingy.

[Anonymous No.2590673]

>>2568334
This is some of the most authentically retro shit that I have ever seen.

[Anonymous No.2590685]

>>2590655
I like it.
Maybe change would the reflection highlight, curve it a bit more. Looks too straight right now.

[Anonymous No.2590689]

>>2578704
No game looked like that in the 80s. he wouldn't have a diagonal sprite, and his body would be symmetrical, in order to save on ram. also, video games in the 80s used bold primary and secondary colors.

[Anonymous No.2590692]

>>2582068
both.

[Anonymous No.2590698]

>>2584535
Most retro games used strait color ramps, and those that did use "stylized lighting" usually did so because of pallet limitations, not stylistic choice.

[Anonymous No.2590701]

>>2568334
I love it, keep doing you.

[Anonymous No.2590714]

>>2568331
Is it just me or are the hard edges of the chin and the white bunny ears biting with the dithered coloring of the hair in the OP pic?
I get that anime hair always is the part with the most shading, but that dithered hair so close to the monocolor edges makes it look wierd to me.

[Anonymous No.2590752]

>>2584535
I think it needs to be said that this image is wrong in that it called the lighting on the right stylized. This is how light works in reality. No light will be a ramp that just adds black to something.

Left is just incorrect and right is correct.

[Anonymous No.2590767]

>>2590655


Light loses it's brightness/momentum as it passes through most liquids, if you make the only the surface on the liquid bright, and the deeper parts darker, it should look better.

[Anonymous No.2590823]

>>2568848
Paint from windows xp.

[Anonymous No.2590827]

Graphics Gale

[Anonymous No.2590875]

>>2590673
Here's more.

[Anonymous No.2590877]

>>2590673

>>2590827
It's cute I like it. Are you working on a game? If so, what is it about?

[Anonymous No.2590879]

>>2590340
Because the wonderful thing about art is that you can do absolutely whatever you like.

Also it's a Gunbuster reference.

[Anonymous No.2590883]

>>2590877
yes I am. unfortunately I am under contract so as far as I can disclose its a game about artists.

[Anonymous No.2590909]

>>2590875
Holy shit how adorable

[Anonymous No.2590921]

I can't animate but I can kinda sprite

[Anonymous No.2591036]

>>2590883
Understandable, no problem. Do you have a blog?

>>2590909

>>2590921
I like your style. Reminds of Pokémon Black & White.
>I can't animate
Have you tried animating yet?

[Anonymous No.2591043]

>>2591036
sure thing, here you go.
http://rolandoortiz.tumblr.com/

play around with the menus to filter for better results.

[Anonymous No.2591148]

>>2590752
the image isn't "correct" verses "incorrect". that's not the intention.
it's just showing two different methods of picking colors that's all.

the purpose of it was to show how to make the colors feel more realistic (as you have mentioned, and as mentioned also in the text posted along-side that image).
i'm well aware that the right-side is closer to how things work, but because the pixel art is still trying to retain a certain stylized look to it, i labelled it as "stylized lighting". it's closer to real yes, but it has to make a compromise and find a middle ground, so that it still looks like pixel art (eg. cutsy or following a certain color palette).

>>No light will be a ramp that just adds black to something
this is correct, however the usage of a straight ramp is still relevant in some cases, eg. making certain fabrics look wet/damp (this is actually one of the things that sticks out the most for me when i look at art, when things look wet because of straight ramps).
finding the balance between straight and non-straight ramps for wet things is really hard.

[Anonymous No.2591155]

>>2591043
brilliant work!
i love how your blog shows static in place of images until they have loaded...that looks really neat.

[Anonymous No.2591379]

I like doing WoW-related pixel art. Fairly new to it all, but it's fun.

[Anonymous No.2591464]

>>2590875
nice

[Anonymous No.2591469]

>>2590875
I like how you seem to use 80s and 90s anime for reference, which is what most pixel artists did back then.

[Anonymous No.2591475]

>>2591469
pretty sure it is old art, not that poster's

[Anonymous No.2591481]

>>2591379
lighten up the black outlines, and it would legit look like an old pc game

[Anonymous No.2591853]

>>2590767
>>2590685
Not that anyone gives a shit but I did a quick fix to what you guys suggested. I also added an extra outline to make it look more "icon-y" *shrug*

[Anonymous No.2591868]

>>2591853
I think it looks a lot better. Nice job.

[Anonymous No.2592473]

>>2591469
It is not mine, they're from /vr/-tier Visual Novels. For the sake of fairness and anonymity I've never used my work for the pics in the OP.

[Anonymous No.2592914]

Where can I find a tutorial or anything similar (maybe a sprite sheet) to help me animate a window curtain? I am working on an isometric room, and I want the curtain to lightly flow out of the open window, but just can't find any how-to.

[Anonymous No.2593144]

How long does it take to get good at pixelling y'all? I look at the work of some artists and I'm like "damn, I'll never be at that level", you know what I mean?

[Anonymous No.2593259]

>>2593144
Depends on how hard you work and how well you already know the fundamentals. An experienced/professional artist who has never pixelled can pick it up in no time, because 99% of pixel art is just understanding the fundamentals of art. A total noob to art would probably be better off learning the basics via drawing before tackling the additional challenges that pixel art presents.

[Anonymous No.2593290]

>>2568871
i tried it an the selection system looks so weak

[Anonymous No.2593315]

>>2573443
That program would be nice but it's missing like, 3 DLLs

[Anonymous No.2593379]

Here's some retarted OC

[Anonymous No.2593405]

>>2593315
Try this one then :
https://www.sendspace.com/file/6eq5mq
From : https://oxwugzccvk3dk6tj.onion.link/agdg/res/26681.html

[Anonymous No.2593420]

>>2591853
Nice

[Anonymous No.2593769]

reuploading this from my DA, I was wondering what can I do to improve it?(besides not using the stock mario cloud image) I want to redo this image so feel free to criticize.

[Anonymous No.2593857]

>>2593769
I like the idea.

The girl doesn't feel like she's underneath though as there aren't any drops falling behind her. Try to create a 3D effect if possible. Just my opinion.

[Anonymous No.2593879]

>>2593857
Thanks for the tip! I was planning to give her an umbrella and do a side view this time.

[Anonymous No.2593884]

>>2593769
Would be nice to have more colours or gradient in the cloud I believe.

[Anonymous No.2593942]

>>2590823
This

[Anonymous No.2594264]

>>2593884
Will do

[Anonymous No.2594491]

>>2569058
>>2568848
Is there a way to "desensitize" the pen tool in photoshop and aseprite, like in graphics gale?

It would make me save so much time for line arts. And yeah, graphics gale tools put me off.

[Anonymous No.2594982]

>>2593884
>>2593857
well?
I know it's mixed media at this point but I wanted to see if it improved

[Anonymous No.2595071]

Been productive lately. Here are some of the assets made during the week.

[Anonymous No.2595073]

Another

[Anonymous No.2595074]

Last one for now. Working on some more elementals at the moment, so maybe those will be put up soon.

[Anonymous No.2595175]

>>2594982
You need to study anatomy. The legs and neck area are off. Also her head is too short.

The grey dark cloud, feels out of place, next to the light and colorful girl and the shiny stars. The shape of the star sky have clearly not being thought, and it looks ugly and potato shaped.

Thoughts on this? it's for an rpg maker game portrait

[Anonymous No.2595326]

>>2595175
alright will do
and basically you nailed it on what it was for

[Anonymous No.2595540]

Opinions?

[Anonymous No.2595600]

Disclaimer: I am completely new to pixel art.

This is my second pixel art (?) I've ever made and I came for critique.
And on a scale from 1 to 10 how bad is it?

[Anonymous No.2595602]

>>2595540
looks good

[Anonymous No.2595767]

Animated

[Anonymous No.2596056]

>>2595600
3/10 It has form and the colors are fine but the pose is shit and you need to make up your mind on having outlines or not.

[Anonymous No.2596072]

>>2588830
sick!

[Anonymous No.2596079]

animating the page was alot easier than I thought
do sprites like this need contrasting outlines or is it fine like this?

[Anonymous No.2596177]

>>2595540
>>2595767
looks really comfy, nice work. maybe add a bit of the darker orange in the main flame too?
also i think your animation might have an out-of-place frame somewhere near the end, it has the illusion of the fire "lagging" as it loops.

[Anonymous No.2596232]

Made this quick 4 frame animation.

[Anonymous No.2596253]

>>2596232
Another

[Anonymous No.2596301]

>>2596253
Cute.

[Anonymous No.2596304]

>>2596253
Animating sprites in photoshop is such a pain in the ass.

>>2596301
Glad you like it.

[Anonymous No.2596305]

>>2596304
This one is only 2 frames because im lazy as shit

Girl knitting.

That's all I got.

[Anonymous No.2596557]

>>2596305
>>2596304
>>2596253

these are really great, that dance is adorable.
i feel like perhaps using 4 frames for the knitting could help, especially if the needles were more obvious.

great work

[Anonymous No.2596903]

>>2596304
I linked Aseprite earlier in this thread. >>2593405
If you don't trust it you could just google "aseprite download" and find alternative links, too.

[Anonymous No.2596982]

>>2595175
Pretty good. I think you've got a bit of pillow-shading going on, though (it's when you shade the edges of something instead of shading certain parts to give it actual depth). I'd also recommend a more vibrant color that isn't just a darker orange for the shading, maybe try shifting it to red a bit.

[Anonymous No.2597085]

>>2596903
Asesprite gives errors when I try to run it.

According to google, some of my windows files are fucked up.

Nothing I can do about it unless I want to potentially ruin my system32

[Anonymous No.2597088]

>>2596305
My filthy mind tells otherwise.

[Anonymous No.2597203]

3rd attempt at pixel art

I think there's some sort of secret trick to coloring/shading or getting more value out of smaller pixels that I'm missing out on, but I'm not sure what.

[Anonymous No.2597225]

I made this sprite sheet in three days for a talent show at school. When I tried animating it, it didn't come out well, but I still got first place for some reason. Anyways, what does /ic/ think of each sprite individually?

[Anonymous No.2597234]

>>2597225
>spear
Das clearly a glaive, knave

I'd like to see the animated version, even if you profess it as bad.

[Anonymous No.2597249]

>>2597225
I think you're stealing from Fire Emblem

[Anonymous No.2597262]

>>2597249
The design is from Fire Emblem, yeah. It's my avatar.

>>2597234
It's holding a naginata from the game, which is ironically the main weapon of the Spear Master.

Anyways, I made the animation in Movie Maker, since I have no gif programs. Because of that, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the animation.

[Anonymous No.2597627]

>>2596982
Thanks, i am happy!

>>2597203
Desaturate the colors a bit

[Anonymous No.2597831]

>>2597203
shrink your image down a bit man, it's huge.
3x3 per pixel is fine.

[Anonymous No.2597838]

>>2597262
>>gif
>>Movie Maker
what the fuck man, no. STOP.
Movie Maker is for videos, not pixel art gifs. Google "gif maker tool", or heck even just save each frame individually and then use something like UnFREEz to animate them.

encoding a gif into a video makes it look like utter shite because of compression artifacts and keyframes. there are many free tools for doing animated gifs properly.

[Anonymous No.2597839]

>>2595175
i really want some cereal now.
fuck.

[Anonymous No.2598090]

>>2594491
pencil tool

[Anonymous No.2598605]

>>2597838
Give me a break, man. It was 3 in the morning, and I was too tired to look for that stuff. I couldn't just show a 2 second gif to everyone, so I used Movie Maker to include a sped up video of me making the thing in the first place.

>>2597234
Pic related.

[Anonymous No.2598841]

>>2598605
Dash seems a little slow, but looks neat.

[Anonymous No.2599122]

Some /agdg/bro is making unorthodox Pixel Art tutorials.

Part 1 & 2 out of 4 uploaded so far :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L7QIXIsrcc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTHNrD_5ivM
for anyone interested.

His work here : http://theonian.tumblr.com/

[Anonymous No.2599133]

still missing a leg and unfinished hair/accessories

Would anyone give me any crits on how im going with this so far? I don't know too much about pixeling this is my first serious attempt. s:

The face outline looks off to me but if i change pixels around it looks to square or misshapen.

[Anonymous No.2599422]

>>2599122
>>large brushes that use anti-aliasing
>>dodge tool
>>barely any actual pixel-by-pixel work
this is NOT pixel art, it's just drawing a regular picture at a small size.

for it to be pixel art he should've started out with a limited palette of colors, and should be doing all that anti-aliasing and blending by hand, not letting the brushes and dodge tool do it for him.

agdg/bro needs to learn his shit.
this is like teaching someone to build a car by showing them how to make the outside of it only, not the rest of the details that actually make it a car.

[Anonymous No.2599424]

>>2598605
>>to include a sped up video of me making the thing in the first place
you never mentioned that before anon, i'm not a mind reader bro

>>It was 3 in the morning
how much sleep do you get

[Anonymous No.2599616]

>>2599422
>agdg/bro needs to learn his shit.
He perfectly knows he's not doing standard or proper pixel art. He's simply showing how he does his assets for his game (which are, whether you want to admit it or not, great, and will be considered pixel art by 99% of people) as a way to offer an alternative to devs who cannot afford anything but programmer art.

I guess I should've added a disclaimer to prevent that sort of obvious reply you just laid.

[Anonymous No.2599758]

>>2599133

Try more contrast and defining shapes and values better. The shape of the head looks fine to me.

[Anonymous No.2599770]

>>2599616
>>He perfectly knows he's not doing standard or proper pixel art
>>I guess I should've added a disclaimer

>>PIXELART FOR ANYONE
>>Having worked on pixelart for a good while, I have developed a lot of useful techniques which don't think other people know of
The video titles and descriptions suggest otherwise. I'm not saying it's bad that he's showing people how to make sprites, but it is really stupid that he's calling them pixel art. They aren't, at all.

>>programmer art
A programmer should just be using the most basic static placeholders, not wasting time drawing/animating something as intricate as this.
This kind of practice as a programmer is how you end up not even finishing your prototype, by trying to make detailed art when you aren't an artist or even a graphics programmer.

Regardless of whether or not it resembles pixel art, this is a bad methodology of teaching it, especially if its intended for programmers.

[Anonymous No.2599777]

Any good tutorials on doing isometric interiors and whatnot?

[Anonymous No.2599787]

>>2599770
You have a rotten inflated ego and just wanted to open it in the end, come on fuck off and stop projecting, no one likes you.

[Anonymous No.2599797]

>>2599770
>A programmer should just be using [...]
And may I ask who you are for trying to patronize people on how they should draw?

I've always disliked this hatred and elitism against non-conventional ways of drawing pixel art. Myself I do it the "right way" but that doesn't mean other "newer" and different ways should be shooed away. Art is something very unique and subjective from one to another, besides if he had done that fish by placing pixel by pixel you'd have called it pixel art.

[Anonymous No.2599872]

>>2599797

>I've always disliked this hatred and elitism against non-conventional ways of drawing pixel art

This argument was had many threads ago. It has nothing to do with elitism, It's more about preserving the actual definition of what pixel art is, regardless of whoever may feel uncomfortable that their art does not fit the standard.

[Anonymous No.2599885]

>>2599787
>>make simple observation, back it up with reasons why you think its true and why it's not a good idea
>>anon gets mad and flings shit about "ego", pretending their opinion suddenly represents everyone else's on an anonymous imageboard
Thanks for the sensible chuckle mr overlord. Hope you can afford to replace your projection lamp.

>>2599797
>>may I ask
Why do you need to ask? Just take a guess man.
I made an observation of something that I felt was poorly labelled, and didn't represent the practice it was claiming to show. I then backed up why I felt that way about it. Simple.

I don't care if you disagree with it. Feel free to. My observation has nothing to do with patronizing anyone, nor hatred. I simply disagree with it that's all. Elitism? Sure, I can see why you'd say that, I laid on the observation a bit heavy.

Why do things have to be so black and white around here? Take a chill pill.

>>if he had done that fish by placing pixel by pixel you'd have called it pixel art.
He didn't though....that's the entire reason I pointed it out.

If someone catches a fish I'll call it fishing...up until they try to pretend that buying frozen fish at the supermarket is "fishing".
See how stupid this is?

>>Art is something very unique and subjective from one to another
Whether or not art is subjective, doesn't change what is and isn't "pixel art".
Pixel art is a specific technique you USE in art. It's a well-defined technique, because it's literally created in a specific way. If this wasn't the case, the act of making it would never exist because we would just subjectively call any image drawn on a monitor "pixel art" instead...in the literal sense that it's all pixels.

[Anonymous No.2599901]

>>2599872
Precisely. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.2599915]

>>2599885
>Take a chill pill.
The irony.

[Anonymous No.2599934]

> hey guys check out my plein air painting
Wow that's a pretty massive and detailed painting bro, you really did that on the spot?
> no I took a photo and painted it in my studio over the course of a couple months
... then it's not a plein air painting dude...
> but it's a painting of a landscape I saw when I was outside! Stop being elitist.
...

[Anonymous No.2599936]

>>2599934
what a mess of a post, couldn't have chosen a worst way to try to get your point across

[Anonymous No.2599947]

>>2599936
>worst
You got wieners on the brain bro? You a kraut, or a faggot?

[Anonymous No.2599950]

How come you can't limit the bit depth in Aseprite?

[Anonymous No.2599956]

Just finished this.
Any critiques?

[Anonymous No.2599958]

>>2599947
juggling between 4 languages at 4am sometimes does this

doesn't make your post any less worsE though

[Anonymous No.2599961]

>>2599950
You could suggest that to the dev on github.
You can limit your colors to a chosen palette though.

[Anonymous No.2599963]

>>2599956
www.4chan.org/rules#ic
>Do not claim authorship of works you did not create.

[Anonymous No.2599970]

>>2599963
He might actually be the Aggy Dagger creator though, maybe he has a sense of humor.

[Anonymous No.2599973]

>>2599970
If they were the one that made it they would not ask about how it was made
>>>/vg/148270335

[Anonymous No.2599983]

>>2599872
>It's more about preserving the actual definition of what pixel art is
Rather than fighting this battle that you will lose, just come up with a new term that means what you want to preserve, since the hoi polloi have no regard for accuracy or precision. Once the new term becomes mainstream and corrupted by the plebs come up with yet another term, ad infinitum

see: trolling being diluted into meaning "disagreeing", so true trolling became "bait"

[Anonymous No.2600100]

>>2599915
Not really, quite fitting if you read the posts being referred to. Have a great day, friend!

[Anonymous No.2600104]

>>2599958
what is it with all the people on /ic/ that can't handle the heat past like 2am ish.

you guys never sleep or something?
have some fruit or something man. take better care of yourself.

[Anonymous No.2600105]

>>2599950
It's open-source, so you could probably add that yourself if no one else has yet.

Definitely a good idea.

[Anonymous No.2600450]

>>2599122
Part 3 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDLS7wGfddc

[Anonymous No.2600521]

>>2599983
There is no battle. It's just pissing away words into thin air on an imageboard.

[Anonymous No.2601725]

well?

[Anonymous No.2601739]

so I kept doing the same subject with different palettes and techniques
This got very tiresom very soon but atleast I answered my question of what palette should I stick to and I got lots of experience tho I still have to try doing a caracter.

I'm going to stick to the EGA palette, not for nostalgia, the opposite, DOS games have a very mysterious feeling for me

wich one do you guys like the best?

[Anonymous No.2601826]

>>2601739
Try top-center with top-right's boat. I feel like that would be the most appealing, but also feel it's just my own opinion.

[Anonymous No.2601891]

>>2601739
did you re-draw the entire picture each time you want to do a palette swap?

try using something like aesprite and just editing the palette colors instead.

[Anonymous No.2602211]

>>2601725
It's better

WIP of this guy

[Anonymous No.2602456]

>>2599770
in regards to the programmer art thing you said,

I disagree so long as it doesn't impede development. The real issue is developers who refuse to make their game at all because they "don't have an artist." At that point, you should just like make game and use functional placeholders, meaning placeholders that let you know their purpose. If you do have the skill to make art for your game though, there's no reason why you shouldn't at the start, especially if it's easy to do. Yes, the game itself is more important, but if you can make the assets as you go, all the better. Besides, there are also cases of games where the art is required early on, such as a game where animation timing is important to the gameplay.

All in all, I would personally go with placeholder or just sketchy stuff to get the game itself out as soon as possible though.

[Anonymous No.2602480]

>>2595600
not pixel art in that it's uncontrolled at the pixel level. Maybe downsize it to 50% and try to make it look clearer from there? I recommend making everything one color first, focusing on the shapes and forms.

I actually like the pose btw.

Also
>artifacts in a png wtf.

[Anonymous No.2602598]

>>2590823

>XP

Cmon, this isn't Gaia Online.

[Anonymous No.2602722]

>>2599956
aayyyy

[Anonymous No.2602740]

>>2590921
Lookin gr8 rap, how's the game coming?

[Anonymous No.2602913]

First time doing sprites/characters and I know is quiet bad
what can i do to make it better?

[Anonymous No.2603241]

>>2602913
I can't stop

[Anonymous No.2603248]

>>2603241
>>2602913

You could make it bigger. Unless you're going for small and ambigious.

[Anonymous No.2603268]

>>2603248
16x32 is what Chrono Trigger used, I know I could get more details at larger resolutions but I want to stick to a standard.

[Anonymous No.2603600]

>>2599122
>>2600450
Thanks for those. I'm a programmer and I have to do art for my game. Besides the painting that I do for a hobby, I really don't have much experience with art so I'm really thankful for tutorials that make it easier for me to make my assets.

I have to do it myself simply because I don't have an artist. Since I don't plan on making money off this game, I don't really have a budget for hiring artists. If you look for volunteers that would like to work on a free and open source project here, you just get spammed by memers getting mad that you just want to exploit everyone and demanding money even if you specify that you are looking for volunteers on a thing that's not going to generate money.

[Anonymous No.2603604]

>>2573963
>>2593315
I recommend compiling yourself from source if it doesn't work.

https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite

You just follow step-by-step instructions in INSTALL.md and you can do it in less than 15 minutes. Also, you can be sure it's as clean of viruses as the official build since it's the official repo.

[Anonymous No.2603607]

>>2593379
kek. I recommend giving it a strong directed lighting, It will give it a dramatic effect which could be pretty funny. Right now it's a bit bland.

[Anonymous No.2603804]

>>2603268
Then at least enlarge the picture.

We can't see shit.

[Anonymous No.2604654]

>>2599122
>>2600450
Part 4 (and final part it seems) here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzsC6BfgCIQ

>>2603600
I'm glad you found these useful. ^Check that one too.

[Anonymous No.2604991]

>>2602456
>so long as it doesn't impede development
that's entirely why i brought it up actually. i've watched programmers stall and quit on projects because they want things to "look nice", before actually getting any of the gameplay working.

i entirely agree about the real issue being people avoiding a project until they can get an artist, because placeholders even as basic as simple shapes like colored rectangles/circles/triangles can do wonders.

that's not to say there aren't people that can DO both art and programming, but to generalize a video as being a pixel art tutorial, when it's really just a video of making nicer-looking art at small resolutions...is a bit misleading really.

>>or just sketchy stuff
this is what i personally do. not actual detailed placeholders, but just lay out a few basic shapes like rectangles/circles/triangles, and just quickly scribble in some lines that represent certain key features (like showing where a weapon would sit as the character runs) or certain states (eg. buffed, dead, etc).

>>2602598
MSPaint from Windows XP is almost like an entirely different program, that's why some people still prefer to use that. the new paint in 7 and above has too much fancy shit added to it that just makes using the UI more effort than its worth.
also the ribbon interface is gayyyyyy.

[Anonymous No.2605009]

>>2603600
>>If you look for volunteers that would like to work on a free and open source project here, you just get spammed by memers
Yeah this isn't exactly the greatest place for that. Most of the good projects that have spawned from around here tend to involve people moving away from just imageboard posts and doing things like group chat...to separate their-selves from the "sea of piss" so to say.

It's a great place to just post content on though, and get peoples feedback about it.

[Anonymous No.2605487]

I'm starting Pixel art because it feels more 'right' to me, should I uses a 32x grid or a 64x grid? What are the pros and cons of both?

[Anonymous No.2605629]

>>2603600
So hard to find good slave labor these days

[Anonymous No.2605823]

>>2602913
Better in what way? Is there anything in particular you'd like to improve on?

Regarding posting size, I personally don't mind 1x because I can just download the image and resize on my own. However, not everyone wants to take the time to do that, so if you have small image like this, it's best to post at at least 2x. A sprite like this may require even larger, like 3 or 4x.

I made an edit for you and showed my process. First thing I did was make everything a single color, so no shading. Then I changed the colors and made them more faded because the original colors were very highly saturated.

Afterwards I applied a single value's worth of shading, that is, I added a secondary shade for each color and shaded with the thought of an upper-left light source. I then added highlights, again one for each color, also adhering to the light source. Lastly, I added a fourth darker value for some extra/final shading.

The final step was an extra thing. I added an outline and some eyes. Anyway I hope this helps you in some way or gives you some ideas. Good luck and happy pixeling.

[Anonymous No.2606145]

Posting a screenshot of a project im working on nowhere near finished, Can /ic/ work out what im redrawing.
BTW when I say redrawing im not tracing im just going by eye.

[Anonymous No.2606319]

>>2606145
I don't know, football players? Also how are you drawing this? you use any blur tools?

[Anonymous No.2606674]

>>2605823
Its complicated, I wanted to be more detailed but I know that is not possible in pixel art.
I should probably design the sprites with more care but I'm unsure how.

the recolor you made has made me realease that I could had used many other browns, oranges and maroons to give depth to the character tho most of the colors you used out out of the scope of the palette I used, the EGA palette

The yes are a nice detail. originaly I doodled a character in graph paper and then with the graph paper's rid converted it to pixels, I tought about adding eyes but all the means i found were too big or off centred.

[Anonymous No.2606689]

>>2606319
Yeah, a neo-Tokyo football game from this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DgAfs4FutI,
also yeah im using some blur because right now i cant be assed doing anything propper

[Anonymous No.2606860]

>>2606689
Where will you post the finished project? Looking forward to it

[Anonymous No.2606910]

>>2606674
For future reference, I think it would help to let us know details like if you're using the EGA palette, etc. I personally never worked with it so I didn't recognize it, but I was wondering why the colors were so saturated.

I wouldn't say that it's not possible to have detail in pixel art, but it depends. Part of the challenge, especially at smaller sizes/with more limits, is knowing which details you should include in the sprite, and which ones to leave out. Back when they made Donkey Kong, Mario's sprite was made with overalls, a hat, and a mustache purely for the sake of readability. Do you intend to have a limit on the amount of colors per sprite?

[Anonymous No.2607300]

>>2606910
Noted.
EGA is 64 colors but can only show 16 at time, so the colors of the sprites must be chosen with care so they don't conflict with the scenary. No surprise you're not familiar with ega, DOS games are always kind of obscure.
I did these figures in 32x16 because that is what Chrono Trigger used for most of the game

Next time I'll have to think harder on how to add detail and make full use of the palette for that, right now is just a matter of experimentation.

[Anonymous No.2607344]

>>2606860
dunno, I never really post projects, know any places to post it on?

[Anonymous No.2607415]

>>2607344
If your project is a game then /agdg/ over /vg/.

[Anonymous No.2607572]

I'm making a tileset for Angband/Poschengband.

[Anonymous No.2607573]

>>2607572
Cant be fucked making a sheet yet

[Anonymous No.2607574]

>>2607573

[Anonymous No.2607575]

>>2607574

[Anonymous No.2609205]

spoopy spirit

[Anonymous No.2609634]

>>2609205
Pretty nice but his weapon is an eyesore. Make light reflect on it from one way or another, that pillowshading is ugly.

[Anonymous No.2609934]

>>2568848
MSPaint

[Anonymous No.2609935]

>>2568859
what the fuck your talking about

[A Huge Boner No.2609977]

I do pixel garbage sometimes. I started back in the days of Bob and George sprite comics and just sorta kept going.
I guess I'm okay idk.

[A Huge Boner No.2609979]

truth be told I would love to make a scrolling shooter but my motivation dies the moment I'm put in charge of designing levels. so basically everything is me slamming out ~AESTHETIC~ and not getting anything done.

[A Huge Boner No.2609980]

>>2609979
It's a shame really. but what can you do?
Tank player sprite from a thing I was working on. might pick it up again once I get my life shit back on track.

[Anonymous No.2610747]

Heya, I'm new to this pixel art thing. How did I do?

[Anonymous No.2610761]

>>2610747
Not very well. The point of pixel art is to deliberately place each pixel, not just draw with a binary brush.

[Anonymous No.2610771]

>>2610761
Right, thanks. So should I just readjust my canvas size and go down a lower resolution?

[Anonymous No.2610772]

>>2610771
Or you could read what i wrote and interpret it correctly.

[Anonymous No.2610773]

>>2610771
Sure, or just polish up what you've got. The idea is to go through and make sure every pixel (or at least most pixels) is communicating what it needs to. Honestly though there's nothing wrong with what you've got so far as a rough beginning. Maybe work on that before you start polishing. I feel like the hair doesn't make sense.

[Anonymous No.2610793]

>>2610773
Unfortunately beyond this point, I'm not sure what I can polish/add without making the image too busy or overdone.

[Anonymous No.2610863]

>>2610793
the lines and shapes are jaggy. You can make it more aesthetically pleasing by having smoother pixel lines/clusters (blobs). The two eyes for example are imperfect when compared to each other. Since it's a front facing image, I would even consider straight up mirroring the eyes. The mouth line is the most apparent as jaggy.

What you did was good because you were essentially "blobbing in" the shades. You did so in what I think is an "intelligent rough" kind of way, but now it just needs to be cleaned up. As an aside, I also suggest changing the red color of the eyes. They're too highly saturated and it makes them stick out from the image in a bad way.

[Anonymous No.2610865]

>>2610863
>>2610747
I also suggest mirroring the entire image once in a while. When I mirrored it, flaws in the anatomy were much more apparent.

[Anonymous No.2611023]

Pixeldorf - 64x
Dont have a 64x version of this one, but this is the oldest of 3 versions.
(1/3)

[Anonymous No.2611025]

>>2611023
(2/3)

[Anonymous No.2611028]

>>2611023
>>2611025
(3/3)
Would like to know what I did right and wrong on it over time.

[Anonymous No.2611042]

>>2610793
- clean up shapes/lines
- fix the rogue pixels everywhere
- add dithering
- add texture in the hair, folds in the fabric

it's no where near being "overdone", in fact it's the complete opposite right now...very underdone.

[Anonymous No.2611196]

If pic related is not Pixel Art, what would be the right way to call it? Simply "painting at low resolution"? "Pixel painting" perhaps? Wondering if there wouldn't be or a term more suitable out there, or a need for one, for these sorts of things.

Before anyone angrily replies : no, the original artist himself didn't call nor tag this piece of work as Pixel Art.

[Anonymous No.2611213]

>>2611196
Oekaki as far as I would say, although it might be that real oekaki is only black and white pixels.

[Anonymous No.2611280]

>>2611042
>>2610863
Is this any better?

[Anonymous No.2611476]

>>2611280
still way too large for the amount of detail it has. size of the thumbnail is sufficient desu. otherwise why execute this image in pixel art rather than another medium?

[Anonymous No.2611477]

>>2611196
just digital painting

[Anonymous No.2611661]

animooted (poorly but I tried)

[Anonymous No.2611972]

>>2611023
Here's what I currently have, screwing around with the colors right now.

What direction do I go from here? Would love some input.

[Anonymous No.2612461]

A little something I was working on for a contest a while back but procrastination got the better of me

Character is Ashka from an upcoming game called Battlerite

>>2611972
I think there's not enough contrast between the base color and the shade on the beard and the highlights stand out too much.

Once again on the beard I'd say the brown tiny on it's darkest shade is a bit off, the armor and skin both seem to fade off into a blueish tint, considering you have a black background you can pretty much go with whatever but I'd recommend trying out a bit more in the purple direction to keep it uniform.

[Anonymous No.2612617]

>>2611280
Definitely slightly cleaner and the dithering adds needed shading detail. The color of the eyes definitely seems like part of the image now without sticking out too much. You're making progress.

It still needs cleaner lines I think. There's spots here and there that are still jaggy, mainly in the curves. Basically the pixel ratios in the curves aren't smooth. It should be incremental, one pixel, then 2 pixels, then 3 pixels. (Not that exact mind you, you can have several single pixels then a line of 2 pixels then a line of 3, etc.) Hopefully pic-related shows what I mean.

[Anonymous No.2612627]

>>2611661
I like it.

Some of the shading seems to be more detailed than other parts. Mainly the tail and the face don't seem fitting to me.

>>2611972
The contrast is weird to me in this. The colors in general are too dark and highly saturated I think. Here's a small edit to two shades on the face.

[Anonymous No.2613028]

Looking for feedback on texturing, mostly with the hair and scarf. I'm okay with how the hair has turned out, but the scarf still feels off. Earlier on I had tried using dithering to give it a more woven feel, but it really didn't look good so I canned it. Now the scarf has turned into this awkward mess of fold lines.

[Anonymous No.2613074]

>>2599915

you lose

[Anonymous No.2613079]

>>2613028
1/2
I'd say the scarf looks pretty good, the light source is a bit boring but hey that's your choice. What's a bit odd about it is that it has no highlights accentuating the folding lines or anything of the sort. I'm not sure what type of scarf but if your going for woven (wool?) you probably need to draw in either the patterns or the "hairs" making it look more frizzy.

[Anonymous No.2613086]

>>2613028
2/2

The hair looks a bit pillowshaded, the actual ears look fine

the problem is mainly the curve of the highlights. It looks like the hair is a complete separate thing from the rest of the picture because the curve is concave instead of convex

Try experimenting with smaller, sharper and more wellplaced highlights

Also it says 'mouse headshot' but why does it have cat ears?

[Anonymous No.2613330]

New :

>>2613325
>>2613325
>>2613325
>>2613325

[Anonymous No.2613964]

>>2611280
better. liking the color adjustments.