Pixel Art

[Olly K]

K, so this is what I've done since my last post in this thread, you work out how long it's taken.

It's not finihsed yet, the tower will be bigger, mountains in the background and flaming red sky, if all goes to plan.
Oh and it's based on Mordor, not the black gates but a watch tower kind of place along the wall.

[FunkyMasterM]

Sure Mordor is dark but I think this one is too dark.

[pooon]

I can't see it too dark

[JohnnySix]

Wow, great work guys, I'm always impressed by how people work out curves on an isometric grid. Are you working by sight or do you work things out mathematically?

I did a series of isometricn scenes a while back for my old companies web-site, though the final version was much different, only keeping the isometric-cube logo.


A quick question, where do the lines blur between pixel art and something else?
For example, a lot of the style seems to be mostly flat or cell shaded ( ***** ) though as posted in this thread (Labels Comedy/Drame guy) has smoother rendering.

Is pixel art just a generic term for low res, mostly pixel by pixel draw images? ?

Cheers

John

[argonauta]

wow, cool wok guys. Hey label, yes, the poster is so cool, but it seems the face has too much make up

You know, I love your domino's pizza box, you have it as an animated gif as well?

Do you guys sketch your piece before doing it? or go directly to Paint and start pixeling to see what comes out?

[FunkyMasterM]

o pixel art isn't just a generic term for low res, mostly pixel by pixel drawn images. Most sprites are just tiny because it's very easy/not that hard to animate tiny sprites. Everything that does something in a video game (Enemies, Player character, bullets etc etc) is called a sprite just in case you don't know. Well you could say that everything drawn on the computer is pixel art because everything on the screen is made out of pixels. But we don't call that pixel art. If you "draw" something pixel by pixel you call it pixel art. It's like setting a mosaic.

[Olly K]

Originally posted by FunkyMasterM
Sure Mordor is dark but I think this one is too dark.

Rwally? Oh ok, well you guys need to change your screen brightness then
Ok, I can see it fine but I'll make it lighter when I finish it

Thunda Chunk, pixel art is art that is draw pixel by pixel, not just any old low-res picture
I do curves by eye, adjusting it untill it looks right.

Argonauta, I don't know about the others but I just draw mine straight, I don't even have a plan of what it will look like it just develops itself with me

[Olly K]

Ok I've finished my Mordor watch tower thingy.
I know I said it would be taller but I couldn't think of anything to add to it, so I just put a flag on top .

I've done a ligher version one too:

Any better?

[pooon]

Curves - I draw them by hand also. Usually its pretty close, but if its way off I'll go back and redo it.

Pixel Art - Basicly if you draw it pixel by pixel, at a size of about 6X or 8X then its pixel art. If you draw big pictures with the line and circle tool, then its a drawing made in paint. Thats the way I see it.

Sketch - Nahhh.... I just draw it. I usually draw the small things first, like the computer and the phone, then I draw the bigger things under them like the desk and floor.

[FunkyMasterM]

There are enough people who do sketches before they pixel anything. If the sketch looks fine they scan it, open it in some art program and do the pixel job on a different layer. I think it’s better to do sketches/some rough animations when you have to do some sprites like seen in Wakku Wakku or Street Fighter. When the animation looks good you can pixel them.
I do most of my stuff directly in paint.

Olly K: The newer version looks better but the hills need some fixing. It’s really hard to see some details.

@ pooon: It doesn’t depend on the file size. That’s for sure. You can do pixel art in nearly every art program.

[label]

Thanx for the kudos! :P
I do most of my stuff by eye (that is curves and similar human figures) But in my isometric stuff I have to make perfect pixel lines and not jaggedy pixel ones in order to make the image look good. For those who dont know what isometric pixeling means. The word isometric means "of equal measure" and by this you try to make all of you pixel the same. Normally you tend to use 27 degree angles or 45 as well and the key in this is making them equal in size and shape.

[Drakkin77]

This is a sprite for a game I'm making which I made into an aim buddy icon. I'm obsessed with these little things . Unfortunately when I exported it I had to take his highlights out to make it small enough for an icon.

[pooon]

Originally posted by FunkyMasterM
@ pooon: It doesn’t depend on the file size. That’s for sure. You can do pixel art in nearly every art program.

I ment the zoom size. i.e. each pixel zoomed to 6 to 8 times it orignal size while drawing.

[pooon]

Hey drakkin, thats pretty slick man. Really smooth animation.

[Drakkin77]

Originally posted by pooon
Hey drakkin, thats pretty slick man. Really smooth animation.

Thanks. Took me probably 2 hours to do but I think it was worth it. I'm trying not to think about all the animations for enemies I have to do now.

[xup878]

Originally posted by Olly K

Any better?

the darker one looks way better...
people should turn up the brightness and contrast on their monitors if they can't see it!

mordor is meant to be dark, very dark!

[Olly K]

thanks xup, Ihave my brightness at home on 75% and I can see every detial. Though I'm looking atit on the school computers now and it's really dark, I can't see anything!

[RUSHVision]

It's my guess that is how most people are going to see it...way, way too dark. All I see is the color at the top, with the bottom portion of the image being completely black. I took the original image you posted and adjusted the levels until all the colors were clear on my monitor just to give you an idea of how much brighter it needs to be for people to see it who don't have the brightness maxed on their monitor. Do you use Adobe's Color Management to control the gamma on your monitor?

[pooon]

cool, now I see it. Good work olly!

[FunkyMasterM]

now i like it, olly


Time to post some other pixel crap. This one is a really old sprite from a space game. I hope you guys like him anyway: