Pixel Joint Forum: (preview) Your thoughts on my first attempt

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Mozart
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 08 July 2020
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6

Topic: (preview) Your thoughts on my first attempt
Posted: 09 July 2020 at 2:41am

Hello,

I am new here and same goes for pixel art itself. I got really interested so I tried to make something. My "rule" was to do most with less (I thought it is sort of a definition... pictures I saw here proved me wrong, well done!).

I want to know you critique on this picture. I wanted to do it realistically.
Here is my template. I started without it and find it later, so angle is off.
I found it interested trying to figure out where to put pixels and what color to represent this object. So I would like to know what I could done differently or what I did totally wrong.

I had hard time choosing what color should be groove on the top (picture bellow) because is can be open (so it is not just edge) and on real picture it is much darker color. But I choose simplified version above because it is softer look in comparision with colors in the picture (at the expense of realism).

Position of the pixels, color, color edge-color surface, quitting smoking.. I take anything. Thanks! (I am not a smoker)

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SeDiceBisonte
Midshipman

Joined: 18 May 2025
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 74

Posted: 10 July 2020 at 2:49am

I've done a little edit, but this already looks really good. I can imagine it as an inventory item in an adventure game (possibly about a detective in a cyberpunk setting).

You had some anti-aliasing between your two lightest shades of cream which wasn't really doing anything as they're very close in value anyway. Additionally, there isn't any anti-aliasing anywhere else in the piece, so I stripped it out. I don't think it's noticeable, and it removes a colour which wasn't really doing any work for the piece.

I also removed the dark grey line on the bottom of the device (above the port and below the logo). I can see why you put it there because there is a visible join on the reference image, but it's so tiny that it's not worth capturing at this size. The line is so much smaller than the resolution of the image will effectively allow that it's not worth adding.

There was also a shade of grey that was only being used to round off the near corner. I'm not particularly pro-dithering (but I'm also inexperienced in pixel art so take this with a pinch of salt), but the shades on either side are so close that I think dithering them works very well and also cuts out a colour that's not used anywhere else. This version has ten colours compared with thirteen in your original.

Your mileage may vary, but I also lightened the side of the groove at the top. This isn't intended to be definitive because I agree that it reads better darker in some ways. As a sprite, I'd go with the way you did it but, if we're thinking of it as a realistic rendering of the object, this is how it looks if you try to replicate the exact way it looks in the reference image.

As a final point, it's best to upload images at their original size. The forum has a built-in zoom function. By default, clicking zooms in and ctrl-clicking zooms out.

I hope this helps!

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Mozart
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 08 July 2020
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6

Posted: 10 July 2020 at 11:52am

Ou ye that helped

It is really great to have a view of other person. You showed me few things I didn't even considered and that's great, especially considering how much simple this picture is. I am definitely going to balance my reasons between simplicity and realism because of you.

For example, the one light grey pixel on "the groove at the top" should be also darker, since it is still belongs to the "dark side", but you have it like this for connection between top groove and side groove right?

I pretty much agree with you in terms of overall simplicity and other changes. I just disagree with dithering. Take that with great amount of salt, since I am for sure more inexperienced I did not meant this to be small picture, so as I zoomed in, it looks really odd, which is of course different approach you took. (I guess) you meant it as a small picture, and dithering looks fine for that, but not my choice. Most importantly it is good lesson for me to think about during my painting/pixeling (how do you call that?) and I can see using it next time.

So thanks for everything, especially for your time!!

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SeDiceBisonte
Midshipman

Joined: 18 May 2025
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 74

Posted: 10 July 2020 at 12:58pm

Actually, I'm embarrassed to say that I got distracted before lightening that line and didn't realise when I came back to it! My edit should've looked like this:

Yeah, dithering becomes very noticeable once you go beyond 1x zoom, even with such a subtle colour difference as this. Out of interest, is there a reason why you're going for 3x zoom as the artwork's native size? You could increase the resolution of your image quite a bit by keeping it the same size as your original but using 1x1 pixels.

I'm glad this has helped, anyway

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NancyGold
Commander

Joined: 27 October 2021
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 526

Posted: 12 July 2020 at 2:52am

Maybe a bit higher contrast, with less black outline, with some antialiasing on the the line art?

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Mozart
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 08 July 2020
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6

Posted: 12 July 2020 at 6:20am

Aah, now I get it :D ok.

For 3x zoom I had absolutely no reason at all. I just wanted to be bigger then original size. However, I dont understand what you mean by 1x1 pixel... increasing the resolution of image and still keeping the same size of image.

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SeDiceBisonte
Midshipman

Joined: 18 May 2025
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 74

Posted: 12 July 2020 at 7:16am

What I mean is that you can keep the dimensions of the image the same but cram a lot more detail in if you're after a larger image. The smallest blocks in your original can fit nine pixels in them, so you could use that space to add more information.

A quick edit (complete with useless red box) to demonstrate:

The spacing of the buttons isn't correct, but hopefully it's illustrative. It might be a useful route to go down, particularly if you wanted to make the iQOS logo clearer.

If you particularly like the blocky look then that's also fine in my book, although for gallery submissions, they prefer that images are uploaded at the original size without any prescaling. A way around that would be to specify in the description the intended zoom level for the effect you wanted (something Fleja2003 does, for example: http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/121910.htm).

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Mozart
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 08 July 2020
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6

Posted: 14 July 2020 at 1:32am

Well again thanks fot your time :D I thought you mean it like this, but I understood that by SIZE of the image you mean the small size (0x zoom). Sure, that was also option, but I enjoyed figure out what pixel where with resolution restrictions - for example that IQOS logo, I enjoyed the process make it as recognizable as possible. So yes, it was intentional - blocky look.

And thanks for info about gallery submissions.

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Mozart
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 08 July 2020
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6

Posted: 14 July 2020 at 1:39am

For 0x zoom it looks really better - antialiasing. And less black outline looks great with white color in contrast I think.

I just dont understand why red color (/higher contrast). Readability is the same in such scale and brown against white is apart enough (as colors - value,..) -- meaning Readability is the same as with red (if that was even attention).

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WIP (Work In Progress)
Pixel Joint Forum : Pixel Art : WIP (Work In Progress)

Author	Message
Mozart Seaman Joined: 08 July 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Topic: (preview) Your thoughts on my first attempt Posted: 09 July 2020 at 2:41am
	Hello, I am new here and same goes for pixel art itself. I got really interested so I tried to make something. My "rule" was to do most with less (I thought it is sort of a definition... pictures I saw here proved me wrong, well done!). I want to know you critique on this picture. I wanted to do it realistically. Here is my template. I started without it and find it later, so angle is off. I found it interested trying to figure out where to put pixels and what color to represent this object. So I would like to know what I could done differently or what I did totally wrong. I had hard time choosing what color should be groove on the top (picture bellow) because is can be open (so it is not just edge) and on real picture it is much darker color. But I choose simplified version above because it is softer look in comparision with colors in the picture (at the expense of realism). Position of the pixels, color, color edge-color surface, quitting smoking.. I take anything. Thanks! (I am not a smoker)
	IP Logged

SeDiceBisonte Midshipman Joined: 18 May 2025 Online Status: Offline Posts: 74	Posted: 10 July 2020 at 2:49am
	I've done a little edit, but this already looks really good. I can imagine it as an inventory item in an adventure game (possibly about a detective in a cyberpunk setting). You had some anti-aliasing between your two lightest shades of cream which wasn't really doing anything as they're very close in value anyway. Additionally, there isn't any anti-aliasing anywhere else in the piece, so I stripped it out. I don't think it's noticeable, and it removes a colour which wasn't really doing any work for the piece. I also removed the dark grey line on the bottom of the device (above the port and below the logo). I can see why you put it there because there is a visible join on the reference image, but it's so tiny that it's not worth capturing at this size. The line is so much smaller than the resolution of the image will effectively allow that it's not worth adding. There was also a shade of grey that was only being used to round off the near corner. I'm not particularly pro-dithering (but I'm also inexperienced in pixel art so take this with a pinch of salt), but the shades on either side are so close that I think dithering them works very well and also cuts out a colour that's not used anywhere else. This version has ten colours compared with thirteen in your original. Your mileage may vary, but I also lightened the side of the groove at the top. This isn't intended to be definitive because I agree that it reads better darker in some ways. As a sprite, I'd go with the way you did it but, if we're thinking of it as a realistic rendering of the object, this is how it looks if you try to replicate the exact way it looks in the reference image. As a final point, it's best to upload images at their original size. The forum has a built-in zoom function. By default, clicking zooms in and ctrl-clicking zooms out. I hope this helps!
	IP Logged

Mozart Seaman Joined: 08 July 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Posted: 10 July 2020 at 11:52am
	Ou ye that helped It is really great to have a view of other person. You showed me few things I didn't even considered and that's great, especially considering how much simple this picture is. I am definitely going to balance my reasons between simplicity and realism because of you. For example, the one light grey pixel on "the groove at the top" should be also darker, since it is still belongs to the "dark side", but you have it like this for connection between top groove and side groove right? I pretty much agree with you in terms of overall simplicity and other changes. I just disagree with dithering. Take that with great amount of salt, since I am for sure more inexperienced I did not meant this to be small picture, so as I zoomed in, it looks really odd, which is of course different approach you took. (I guess) you meant it as a small picture, and dithering looks fine for that, but not my choice. Most importantly it is good lesson for me to think about during my painting/pixeling (how do you call that?) and I can see using it next time. So thanks for everything, especially for your time!!
	IP Logged

SeDiceBisonte Midshipman Joined: 18 May 2025 Online Status: Offline Posts: 74	Posted: 10 July 2020 at 12:58pm
	Actually, I'm embarrassed to say that I got distracted before lightening that line and didn't realise when I came back to it! My edit should've looked like this: Yeah, dithering becomes very noticeable once you go beyond 1x zoom, even with such a subtle colour difference as this. Out of interest, is there a reason why you're going for 3x zoom as the artwork's native size? You could increase the resolution of your image quite a bit by keeping it the same size as your original but using 1x1 pixels. I'm glad this has helped, anyway
	IP Logged

NancyGold Commander Joined: 27 October 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 526	Posted: 12 July 2020 at 2:52am
	Maybe a bit higher contrast, with less black outline, with some antialiasing on the the line art? or
	IP Logged

Mozart Seaman Joined: 08 July 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Posted: 12 July 2020 at 6:20am
	Aah, now I get it :D ok. For 3x zoom I had absolutely no reason at all. I just wanted to be bigger then original size. However, I dont understand what you mean by 1x1 pixel... increasing the resolution of image and still keeping the same size of image.
	IP Logged

SeDiceBisonte Midshipman Joined: 18 May 2025 Online Status: Offline Posts: 74	Posted: 12 July 2020 at 7:16am
	What I mean is that you can keep the dimensions of the image the same but cram a lot more detail in if you're after a larger image. The smallest blocks in your original can fit nine pixels in them, so you could use that space to add more information. A quick edit (complete with useless red box) to demonstrate: The spacing of the buttons isn't correct, but hopefully it's illustrative. It might be a useful route to go down, particularly if you wanted to make the iQOS logo clearer. If you particularly like the blocky look then that's also fine in my book, although for gallery submissions, they prefer that images are uploaded at the original size without any prescaling. A way around that would be to specify in the description the intended zoom level for the effect you wanted (something Fleja2003 does, for example: http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/121910.htm).
	IP Logged

Mozart Seaman Joined: 08 July 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Posted: 14 July 2020 at 1:32am
	Well again thanks fot your time :D I thought you mean it like this, but I understood that by SIZE of the image you mean the small size (0x zoom). Sure, that was also option, but I enjoyed figure out what pixel where with resolution restrictions - for example that IQOS logo, I enjoyed the process make it as recognizable as possible. So yes, it was intentional - blocky look. And thanks for info about gallery submissions.
	IP Logged

Mozart Seaman Joined: 08 July 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Posted: 14 July 2020 at 1:39am
	For 0x zoom it looks really better - antialiasing. And less black outline looks great with white color in contrast I think. I just dont understand why red color (/higher contrast). Readability is the same in such scale and brown against white is apart enough (as colors - value,..) -- meaning Readability is the same as with red (if that was even attention).
	IP Logged