|
FraudulentEconomics posted:Placeholder art is your friend until you're at the point where you can show people what you're doing and they offer their services. As an artist, I know I could work endlessly on my designs but the core of everything I work on is always going to be the code and making the systems work. Graphics are by and large the LAST thing you hash out beyond something workable. I applaud your efforts to program and be an artist, but you should only worry about release art once you're at that point and 99% of everything code related is done. Yeah, I'm using a combination of stolen game art as placeholders along with lovely programmer art (colored squares!) for the time being. But I have to admit to myself, art is what sells a game. With my lovely art even if the game is fun, it won't be attractive. I don't even really want to play it. Good art really draws you in and builds the theme and stuff. Now if that isn't backed up by a fun game it'll get old real quick, but attractive graphics can go a long way to making even repetitive games last and make an impression. That's a great tutorial, I'll probably try to follow along with that and butcher some pixels this weekend. Tunicate posted:Just a reminder: if you want premade assets Open Game Art has been commissioning a lot of tilesets, spritesheets, et cetera so people can have free-to-use assets for games. It's all almost all CC-BY licensed (ie: use for whatever, but put my name in the credits), which is great. I've looked around open game art before, awesome website. But the problem is that you can usually only find one or two things by one person, and everything is in a different style, so trying to find enough assets to actually make a game without using a bunch of things that don't belong together and look jarring next to each other is real tough. At the very least though I could just grab some level tiles off open game art and then maybe try to do the character sprite myself? Good news is I specifically planned this project to use as little art as possible. I need only a couple animations total, everything else can get by on single static sprites. E: The art on the front page is hideous, but I dug around and found some things that'll work well for my uses, and that saves me practicing pixel art for the time being. Hurray! Back to the code... Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Feb 17, 2016 |
#
?
Feb 17, 2016 21:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 20:25 |
|
|
Site is hard to navigate, I admit. You might want to look at the LPC-compatible set, since those are all stylistically linked.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2016 21:50
|
|
|
Maybe I should just use pre-made assets (that site is pretty good Tunicate) for demos and give up on this whole drawing pixels thing entirely. It just pains me that I'll never be able to do something by my own that isn't an eye sore. That's life I guess.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 01:05
|
|
|
Japanese Phone Box posted:Maybe I should just use pre-made assets (that site is pretty good Tunicate) for demos and give up on this whole drawing pixels thing entirely. It just pains me that I'll never be able to do something by my own that isn't an eye sore. That's life I guess. Well, you can start to ease into it by tweaking premade assets. Basically start getting a feel for pixel clustering by looking at other sprites in the same style that get the same effect, copy-paste bits together and frankenstein a new sprite or tile. Read up on theory, and Waifu2x does a great job of upscaling pixel art, which includes the interesting side-effect that bad sections of your pixel art get upscaled to look worse, and good sections get upscaled to look good. It's a nice way to automate getting a second pair of eyes. Also, you want a REAL shortcut to being decent at pixel art? Take up oil painting for three or four months, try to copy photos or paint a little toy animal or two. Oil painting seems super upscale and refined but really it's super easy to do, and the skills are super transferable. Do two paintings a month, even if they don't look that good, and you'll be well on your way.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 02:55
|
|
|
Zaphod42 posted:I've looked around open game art before, awesome website. But the problem is that you can usually only find one or two things by one person, and everything is in a different style, so trying to find enough assets to actually make a game without using a bunch of things that don't belong together and look jarring next to each other is real tough. Converging the stuff you want from there onto one pallete would probably help a lot.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 03:12
|
|
|
MikeJF posted:Converging the stuff you want from there onto one pallete would probably help a lot. Yeah that's a good point. Is there an easy way to re-map pallete colors in GIMP or some other free software? I guess I should google around...
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 05:41
|
|
|
Japanese Phone Box posted:Maybe I should just use pre-made assets (that site is pretty good Tunicate) for demos and give up on this whole drawing pixels thing entirely. It just pains me that I'll never be able to do something by my own that isn't an eye sore. That's life I guess. You know why you can't make pixel art? Because you don't make pixel art. Your first attempts are going to be awful. That's true of everything creative. Make them anyway and then make things better than that. It takes a while to get good at anything like that but you can't go from "knows literally nothing" to "produces masterpieces" without travelling all the territory in between. The most important thing in pixel art is the color choice. Play with this for a while and your understanding of it should improve. http://www.pixelfor.me/crc/F0000032 Then look at some color palettes others have created to get an idea of how to set colors up.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 05:59
|
|
|
ToxicSlurpee is absolutely right. Everyone starts terrible and grows better only with practice. Me 12 years ago:  Me a few weeks ago:  Still room to improve, and I'm looking forward to it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 06:07
|
|
|
Zaphod42 posted:Yeah that's a good point. Is there an easy way to re-map pallete colors in GIMP or some other free software? I guess I should google around...  do this  then you can goof with these
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 06:11
|
|
 I've been working on a new thing! A client of mine is releasing his visual novel demo soon and he's a sweetheart, so I drew his favourite character and now I am making it PC-98 like I did for some of the OST. EDIT: Done! 
Noyemi K fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Feb 18, 2016 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 08:04
|
|
|
EntranceJew posted:
Brilliant, thanks a ton.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 17:22
|
|
|
For those looking for pixel art tutorials, here's another good one. Cuuuuuute!
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 18:21
|
|
|
Thanks all. I think I'll keep insisting on drawing low res stuff, hopefully I'll get better with time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 22:45
|
|
Japanese Phone Box posted:Thanks all. I think I'll keep insisting on drawing low res stuff, hopefully I'll get better with time. Gonna have to 99th all the suggestions people normally make to get a "traditional" foothold first, in some form. My past trad art experience? Inks and technical designs!
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 23:10
|
|
|
Noyemi K posted:Gonna have to 99th all the suggestions people normally make to get a "traditional" foothold first, in some form. Yep. Even if you're doing extremely simple forms (e.g. your main character is two boxes stacked on top of eachother), you need to have an understanding of how to translate three-dimensional forms to a two-dimensional surface, color/light theory, etc. Start here and work your way forwards from there. I'd argue that it's actually far more difficult to do pixel art than traditional drawing, as pixel art depends on you knowing exactly what details are important to convey something about a character/object/whatever and what details can be safely left out. This isn't to discourage either you or Zaphod, by any means, but just to realistically say that any sort of art requires a lot of serious, dedicated effort to get good results. I've been plugging away at drawing for 2+ years at varying intensities, and I'm just getting to the point now where I'm starting to feel comfortable in designing more complex volumes in space (re: the human body).
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2016 05:44
|
|
|
Vermain posted:This isn't to discourage either you or Zaphod, by any means, but just to realistically say that any sort of art requires a lot of serious, dedicated effort to get good results. That said, you can get good oil painting results in a matter of days or weeks provided you're willing to cut a lot of corners and spend an hour or so a day working on it. Of course those "good results" will come from copying a master's painting or a cool photo you took rather than doing a life study or something original. There's a reason master studies are traditional, and that's because it's easy mode to getting something you can hang on a wall - the medium is super forgiving, so when you inevitably screw up you can recover pretty easily, and you know exactly what it should look like, so you never get stuck. Go monochrome at first if you want to be artsier, and more importantly, if you don't want to pay for a bunch of different tubes of paint. Once you're familiar with the medium you can and should branch out from that, but painting something pretty early on is a big confidence booster. And the copying process itself forces you to pay attention to lighting, perspective, and fine detail, and get a feel for them so when you start messing around with boxes or figures or whatever, you've already painted the whole thing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2016 06:24
|
|
|
I maintain that learning traditional art / life drawing / whatever is great if you want to learn those things but you can become a p ok pixel artist just by studying and practicing pixel art. I mean I can't draw and I don't give a poo poo about learning how to draw, but I think I can say I'm a good pixel artist. With that said: This is just my 2c as someone who makes games! I have to produce assets, I never really draw pixel art for the sake of drawing pixel art. As this is the Pixel Art Megathread and not the Video Game Assets Megathread, it's totally great advice to tell people who are interested in pixel art to learn the foundations of art in general and proportions and poo poo. Just wanted to throw another perspective out there 
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 00:38
|
|
|
I think the risk of just learning pixel art on its own is you can end up like Chipp Zanuff who was making the same sprite sheet for 3 years with almost no improvement to the underlying issues with his art. He started doing basic lifedrawing after three years of stubbornness and suddenly his pixel art was improving
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 00:50
|
|
|
angel opportunity posted:I think the risk of just learning pixel art on its own is you can end up like Chipp Zanuff who was making the same sprite sheet for 3 years with almost no improvement to the underlying issues with his art. He started doing basic lifedrawing after three years of stubbornness and suddenly his pixel art was improving The Guilty Gear character? 
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 00:59
|
|
|
Not everyone ends up a........ Chipp off the old block.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 01:00
|
|
|
Serenade posted:The Guilty Gear character? Forum poster.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 01:29
|
|
|
Dude's persistent, if nothing else. And persistence will get you places eventually.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 02:15
|
|
|
Yeah OK, I guess I'll follow your advices and start with traditional art to at least try to get some basic notions and skills... wish me luck.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 21:04
|
|
|
angel opportunity posted:I think the risk of just learning pixel art on its own is you can end up like Chipp Zanuff who was making the same sprite sheet for 3 years with almost no improvement to the underlying issues with his art. He started doing basic lifedrawing after three years of stubbornness and suddenly his pixel art was improving Sorry about ignoring the advice for so long :/ If it's of any worth, i really do recommend trying traditional art, even if you fear you'll be absolute rubbish at it. I mean, im still rubbish at it, but im getting better... slowly. I'm still working on units and assets, mainly because that's what i enjoy doing (even if i may never ever get to actually use it) and i haven't posted any thing mainly because it's all still very much WIP (and will probably remain so). I'll post stuff when it's actually good or of any substance.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2016 21:15
|
|
|
angel opportunity posted:I think the risk of just learning pixel art on its own is you can end up like Chipp Zanuff who was making the same sprite sheet for 3 years with almost no improvement to the underlying issues with his art. He started doing basic lifedrawing after three years of stubbornness and suddenly his pixel art was improving The problem with learning a digital medium without learning any traditional skills is that traditional skills emphasize looking at the world around you like...a lot. There's massive differences between looking at something in the real world and trying to replicate it on paper and not looking at real things and creating them with pixels from your imagination. Granted I think that has less to do with pixel art in general and more to do with never leaving your computer to do art versus actually going outside. The single biggest mistake people make is creating everything entirely out of their imaginations. Actually seeing how real things work will make your imaginary things better and give you a better idea about shape, color, and what have you. Traditional art classes have very, very good reasons for the ways they are taught. Another issue just has to do with people not learning fundamentals. Every art major is required to learn to draw for a reason. I was pretty awful at 3D modelling until I studied ceramics for a few years; treating digital and traditional as totally separate is a bad idea. Of course in the case of pixel art a better understanding of color from trad classes is a huge deal. Pixel art is all about color.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2016 13:46
|
|
|
My colour theory classes from first year design school really *clicked* when I got into pixel art. I'd actually like to take some traditional fundamentals classes now because I feel like I could learn more now. When the whole notion of creating art was a new challenge for me I was just trying to get my poo poo together on paper, let alone maximize all the visual tricks. If I could offer another tip for beginners; I'd recommend you do simple exercises of fundamental skills and for each type of exercise assign simple criteria for what is to be the measure of success. If you are drawing in perspective, ignore wobbly lines and judge yourself based on if the vanishing points work. If you are oil painting, it's probably best to just make sure the values are accurate and not worry about much beyond the broad strokes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2016 19:19
|
|
|
It kinda hurts my soul a little that I jump into the middle of this wonderful discussion about color theory with something that does not at all care about any kind of color theory... But here's an attempt at some kind of pixel art. I used the Tomb Raider 2013 cover art for inspiration and reference (with modification I guess) and shat out: Pretty sure I spent more time redrawing the bow over and over than I spent doing anything else. And I still couldn't figure out how to make it work. But oh well. Baby steps and all that. I still don't get outlines. Anytime I try to do anything with outlines it turns out even worse than when I try without outlines. Crayonskies fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Feb 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2016 21:25
|
|
|
Japanese Phone Box posted:Yeah OK, I guess I'll follow your advices and start with traditional art to at least try to get some basic notions and skills... wish me luck. Feel free to PM me or ask in the Self-Taught Thread if you need any pointers/advice or good educational links. It can be a bit confusing as to what's good/not good to learn, how to practice effectively, etc. when you're first starting out.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2016 23:01
|
|
|
Crayonskies posted:It kinda hurts my soul a little that I jump into the middle of this wonderful discussion about color theory with something that does not at all care about any kind of color theory... But here's an attempt at some kind of pixel art. I used the Tomb Raider 2013 cover art for inspiration and reference (with modification I guess) and shat out: This one is too small for outlining. You could do some darker lighting on certain edges based on the light source. Still looks good though, nice proportions. I would make the eye 1x2 instead. Polio Vax Scene fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Feb 22, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2016 00:07
|
|
|
Trying to get back into working after a few weeks of quitting caffeine and getting sick, blegh. As for some of the other stuff in the thread recently I don't really feel like any of my art background really helped in a practical way. Switching from a pencil to a mouse was a huge step for me and I basically had to relearn to physically draw, it took forever as well. Where it did come in handy though was after that was having a large theory base to help me once I actually became competent with pixels. Even a lot of the animation stuff I picked up in College is only starting to come through in my work and I feel like it's basically down to me knowing how to put shapes where I want them to be now! Defo do life drawing if you can though, there's no classes in my area and I'm really missing out. It'll never NOT be handy.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2016 00:51
|
|
|
Hey folks, I'm been making pixel portraits for my friends lately and its been a pretty fun exercise. I tried to get a decent likeness of each of them, which is pretty tough to do in pixel art, believe it or not! About 2 hours or so on each.   Also, I found this in an old facebook message from a while ago. I up-scaled a few NES sprites and painted a version of the sprite at double resolution on top of it while keeping the same proportions. Unfortunately I lost the original file so all I have is this copy with facebook's horrible compression applied, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2016 23:35
|
|
|
Christo posted:all I have is this copy with facebook's horrible compression applied That's an easy fix in this case, just save it as a gif with the original 5 color palette:  
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 01:33
|
|
|
That gif trick is smart, I'm gonna remember that. Also that is an excellent take on Samus.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 02:05
|
|
|
westborn posted:That's an easy fix in this case, just save it as a gif with the original 5 color palette: Oh thanks! I never thought of that. Now I'm glad I didn't go ahead with my original plan of copying down the sprite again pixel-by-pixel. Scut posted:That gif trick is smart, I'm gonna remember that. Also that is an excellent take on Samus. Thanks! I did a few enemies that happened to be in the screenshot I used too, but those are lost in a hard drive crash. Maybe I'll give it a shot with a different game sometime.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 16:19
|
|
|
So I've not done any drawing since I left art school back in 2013 to go into computer science, and the only art I've done have been a handful of vector pieces. I was hoping to get back into art through pixel art, as it's always fascinated me and it would be incredibly helpful as somebody interested in game development to be able to make my own art. Since the best approach is tons of practice, I'm hoping to do at least one, preferably many, sprites a day, and maybe the occasional animation, for at least the next year starting March 1st. Would it be okay to post those every week or so in this thread, or would that get too spammy?
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 21:17
|
|
|
everythingWasBees posted:So I've not done any drawing since I left art school back in 2013 to go into computer science, and the only art I've done have been a handful of vector pieces. I was hoping to get back into art through pixel art, as it's always fascinated me and it would be incredibly helpful as somebody interested in game development to be able to make my own art. Since the best approach is tons of practice, I'm hoping to do at least one, preferably many, sprites a day, and maybe the occasional animation, for at least the next year starting March 1st. Would it be okay to post those every week or so in this thread, or would that get too spammy? 
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 21:29
|
|
|
I love seeing new posts in the thread, so yeah. Please post. I went into an old mockup to try out some ideas about GUI. I'll post some stuff on that later. Dipping back in got me generally excited again about the concept as a whole so I decided to revamp the way I was presenting my characters.   I took some inspiration on technique from Castpixel on twitter who does excellent pixel clustering, even at small scale.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 22:16
|
|
|
  Still getting over quitting Caffeine. It's really hard to concentrate... Edit: Oh yeah Aseprite is up on Steam now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/431730/ Shoehead fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Feb 24, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 22:41
|
|
|
Shoehead posted:Edit: Oh yeah Aseprite is up on Steam now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/431730/ It is, but note that if you buy it through the Aseprite website instead of Steam you'll still get a Steam key, in addition to the cross platform installers, for those who want to have both for whatever reason.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2016 23:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 20:25 |
|
|
I know this is a thread about pixel art, but it's still retro graphics-related so I'll fire. Are there any good guides on making lo-fi 3D stuff? I'm talking like, Sega Model 2 or 3 era stuff (think a little lower-poly than a Dreamcast game).
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2016 20:10
|
|
