The Resource WIP thread 2

[Sharm]

That is much better.  You should put the handles on the back lower, the back support doesn't usually go that high.  It normally stops about shoulder blade level.  Sorry I didn't notice before.

 

[Shiroi Akuma]

Sorry for bothering so often, I drew another angle. Is it okay? I mean the one with the speech bubble of course. Thank you very much for your critique so far. It's really helpful. 

Spoiler

 

[Sharm]

Yep, looks good.  I have nothing to suggest.

 

[That Bread]

@Shiro those are great!

Trying out drawing up a style


Here's what the style looks like, I did not draw it

Spoiler

Here's a whip of my attempt

Spoiler

Tell me what you think, did I do a good job? Or how I can improve.

Does it match somewhat?

 

[Bonkers]

Actually managed to get this working tonight:

Spoiler

I tried to keep to the style, but I can't get the heart to behave without breaking through the emote bubble guide.

 

[Gamer_Omlett]

Ello again,

@CorneredCosmos:

Hi friend, I can see how your trying to match the original character artwork. Your efforts might be vain. Bare with -  It looks like your source art style base images were scanned. By that they were hand drawn ink nib drawing - then the artist touched them up in Photoshop. The clue to that is how thick the outlines of the character's are - typically digital images have a much thinner outline if one at all.

Your outline is weak and inconsistent compared to the source artstyle. Right breast is sagging - left shoulder is at a slighter higher angle then left. Ear isn't the same artstyle - the source art seems to start the ear on the inside toward the face, your characters ear seems to be outward in. Pupil of source artstyle has bubble effect using strong black lines - your art uses colour rather then sharp lines. These are nitpicks - but if your intention is to put your art into the same game as the source art style it'll look jarringly out of place.

Looking at your art, it looks like you painted it freestyle with a mouse or a tablet. You might have better success using the path pen tool if your using photoshop. Another option is using the polygonal lasso tool. Could also try experimenting with an Indian ink pen with real media and scanning it in- just ensure you use a heavier weighted paper. (You can get both at a craft store like Micheals.)

Frankly your source art style would look way better if the ink lines were lessened to about 2 pixels or used colour to create barriers between objects. That's one of the reason I assumed you didn't use a scanned ink outline as your pupil didn't use the strong black lines.

My advice might seem harsh, it isn't. You asked for how you could improve - thought about how I would go about recreating your source art. Good Luck!

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@palladinthug

Ello,

Looking over your emotes (they look great by the way) - I noticed you grew the bubble for  line 1 - block 4; Exclamation point, line 2 - block 4; Question mark. Line 5 - block 5; Stressed/Anger, plus some others.

Did you try breaking the bubble with your heart? I know you said it's unintentional, but no reason not to embrace what could possibly look like a cool effect. Like make the emote look like it breaks out like it's beating, or even stretch it like the other emotes you already used the effect for? Kind of like the Grinch heart breaks the scanner.

Regardless looks pretty good looking at it. Good Luck.

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@Sharm

Thanks for your reply Sharm. I'm currently using Celianna's tileset, though I fully intend to try to create an entire original tileset from scratch. Honestly my skills aren't at a high enough level to make my tiles match a professional artists rendering. Your art style of your Germania Pixel Myth is wonderful also.

Style-wise I'm trying for a SNES Secret of Mana 2 or 3 art style. Maybe I should blow up the log's size to 2x3 blocks - looking back as some screen caps of those games. I use a lot of Parallax mapping, because I find it looks better in-engine. Should I limit myself to 4 colours for a more SNES feel? Not trying for a cartoony vibe like Earthbound.

The reason I didn't paint my image with less colours is it seems the base sprites are full 32bit. Since I'm still working on my tileset's - if I make them all SNES era or colour limited, I'd have to retool all the sprites as well. Otherwise nothing would match.. Seems like a lot of work to reinvent the wheel.

Cheers,

G Omlett

 

[Taugenichts]

Hello community!

Yesterday I tried to make my first tile (or is it called sprite?). I've never did something like this before.

I know it's not perfect and it has a lot of mistakes. But I can't find them as a beginner.

Maybe you could help me to find them? Maybe you have some tipps for me how to improve this tile?

I'm open to criticism.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Kes]

There is a thread in this sub forum called the WIP thread which is specifically for getting feedback.  I shall ask for your post to be moved to that thread, as you will get better and fuller help there.

 

[Sharm]

@palladinthug:  That's funny, I was working on something nearly identical for my IGMC entry.  I think you over AA'd the grumble and sweatdrop, the rest look good.  Just don't use a lighter color as a full outline unless you want it to look glowing and you'll be fine.

 

@Gamer_Omlett:  It sounds like you don't understand what pixel art is.  Here's a good place to start to learn about it.  Celianna's tiles are not pixel art, Pixel Myth tiles are.  Also, games from SNES era in general use pixel art.  There were a few exceptions but they were rare and they still all had limited colors.

 

4 colors is too small, even the NES had 54, but limited colors is a good idea.  Both Earthbound and Seiken Densetsu use pixel art, Earthbound just had a different art style and lower color count.  If you're aiming for Seiken Densetsu 3 style art though, be warned, it's very good.  Earthbound style would be much easier to emulate.  Doubling the pixel size is an option, the tiles work up quicker and it gives it a very distintive pixel look, but you also have less room to put details in.  It's up to you.  The POP! Horror tiles and Old School Modern tiles are both double pixel sets, if you're curious how that would look.

 

Most sprites out there are pixel art.  The only ones for use in RM that I know of that aren't pixel art are Celianna's sprites that come with her Rural Farm tiles.  If you're planning on using those sprites then you should give up on a 16 bit look.  Otherwise you're fine.  16 bit doesn't refer to the color count in this case (which, btw, would be huge) it refers to the processing power of the gaming system.  I'm not sure where you're looking to find out that your sprites are 32 bit, but I can assure you that even Celianna's sprites aren't using that many colors.  It's probably just indicating the way the image is saved, saying there's a potential for a full 32 bit range of color.  Anyway, I'm getting a little off topic.  If you're using anything but Celianna's Rural Farm sprites you can have pixel tiles and it will match.

 

@Taugenichts:  What is the end result you want for that bus?  Do you want it as decoration on a map?  Do you want it usable as a vehicle?  Will it move?  Turn?  Are you doing a side scroller or a traditional RPG view?  Are you trying to match an existing art style or do you want to make everything from scratch?

 

[Gamer_Omlett]

@Taugenichts:Cool bus friend. Only issue is it looks 2D, if your game is going to be like full 2D Paper Mario it'll be the great as is though. Frankly looks good, just fake a bit of 3d with it - maybe a bit of shading the colours and it'll really pop. Either put in a darker shad of red along the bottom of the bus, I don't have a lot of experience with vehicles. Maybe small white slash/dot in the windows for a shine effect? Still like that style of bus, good work.

@SharmThanks! Really, that site lead me down the rabbit hole as it were. (Most any tile in SM3 used was like 7 colours.) Been messing around making some tiles;

Here's a Tree Trunk

Only 4 colours, but it's coming along. Still need a lot of practice. Looks hella better. (Not quite SM3 quality, heck not even same style or league - baby steps ;p)

Yeah, I was using the paint brush and didn't even realize it auto AA anything I drew. Dithering and using purple as a shadow was a new idea as well.

Seems funny I didn't even know about the pencil tool.

I'll post again when I finally get a good version of the log for you guys to look at.

G. Omlett

 

[Taugenichts]

@Sharm Oh I should have given you some more information. Because it's my first tile I tried to make something which is not complicated. So I began with this bus for the intro/scene. The protagonists will sit in the bus (when they exist someday) and go on holiday. You will see the background passing by - Germany, Paris, Barcelona, Beach. I know it's 2D and I want this style for the intro. The background of the scene will be 2D, too. Maybe it will look fine :/ Later I will create the bus in 3D - an ordinary tile. But this bus won't be used as an usual vehicle.

@Gamer_Omlette Thank you Do you think it will work for a cutscene/intro?

Oh, and I'm sorry for my English skills. You forget so much vocabulary and grammar after leaving school.... damn.

Thanks for your answers!

 

[Sharm]

@Taaugenichts:  Ah, okay, cool.  I'm going to assume RTP style then, since you haven't said.  See if you can get the shading to define everything as if there were no lines.  Think about each segment, how it would react to the light source, where the highlights would be and where they wouldn't.  You'll be tempted to use gradients, but don't.  They're too hard to control precisely and gradients have a rather distinctive "I'm a gradient" look.  Be sure to pick a good light source!  Right now it looks like the sun in your game must be almost set because of the placement of the lighting for those hubcaps.  They also look pretty flat, you should round them out a bit.  Looking at real life references is a really great idea.

 

[luzi]

We're animating standing sprite of the third main character. Not quite confident with isometric view. We used to just have normal up-and-down motion. Your comment is welcome!

 

[Sharm]

Ah, a good character animation is always fun to see.  You said we, are you working on this or is it someone else?  It's looking rough but it has all the right elements.  It's hard to give suggestions at this stage though, it's likely everything I have to say is something that the animator is aware of and working on.

 

[luzi]

@Sharm : It's a group project. I draw base frame and quality check after my friend drew animation frames.

 

[Bonkers]

I haven't had much luck with this particular item:

I am attempting to make a shopping cart, and unfortunately there are none in any style I could find to convert so it's building from the ground up.  Attempting to do so in Pop Horror style.

I think next I'll try to work with a solid rhombus and pick at it slowly.

 

[Sharm]

Hmm.  Instead of faking the holes with colors of gray, you should actually just have holes in it.  And use references!  Memory is fallible and mutable so drawing things from memory results in strange errors.

 

[Avery]

I couldn't explain what I'd make different, so I made an example from scratch^^'

 

[Bonkers]

I couldn't explain what I'd make different, so I made an example from scratch^^'

Oh wow!  That is really generous to do with your time, I am very appreciative of that.  Thank you much.  It's perfect.

@Sharm  I started looking at references and compared the results with an example Joy gave me as well.  You always have such good advice, thank you.  My second attempts at things are far better with your critique and instructions.

 

[Dracowulf]

I've just started to try pixel art, decided to do some simple styled tile sets. This is 6 tiles so far and I've put examples of what they look like together. Please give feed back, it would really help :3