Blues are far too dark to make things look nice...even if its a night scene.
True greys on the clouds are so boring. Consider desaturated blues instead.


Edited by jalonso - 05 October 2009 at 7:36pm

I really like the main character

The clouds seem way too dark now. The majority of a cloud is a light colour (unless it is about to rain). As for the backdrop, the river is kind of an eye catcher. you want people to focus on whats happening in the foreground.

This means the forground should be detailed and vibrant while the background is less detailed and a bit more desaturated.


As things move back in space they start to gain a lot of sky colour and less of their own. Notice how the back mountains are basically one colour with no inner details.

I think if you lighten up the mountains in the background to be lighter than the grass (but not lighter than the sky) in the back ground it might look better. As for the river in the back ground, maybe make it a bit more green and less saturated.

Your grass kind of looks like slime in the foreground.

Hopefully this helps lol, I look forward to your next update!
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You have a main perspective issue.
The foreground is shown exactly from ground level, so the horizon must be at the same level too, and you can't see any plain or river. Only distant things higher than the horizon such as mountains can be seen.
Alternatively, you can choose a higher point of view, and have the plain and river, but in this case the trees and chars can't be seen on edge, they must move somewhat back. This second option is more difficult.

See this gallery, there are examples of both; and search more platform games on PJ.

Whichever you choose, try to take better care of your composition: the horizon in the middle is not the best choice (1/3 or 2/3 of the height is a good rule of thumb, although other choices can be great too), and the top of the trees are at just that level: looks flat. Try to fix these general issues before going into detail such as grass.

The main char looks quite good!

Thanks for the critique on perspective manupix I took your advice and lowered the horizon. Thanks Hatch for the help on the flying squishy cube.

Here's results and thanks again guys for your input its appreciated.




Edited by SuperPanda - 06 October 2009 at 5:16pm

thanks jalonso i tried the red in the rocks and the yellow a little for the grass.

I love the edit on the clouds. it keeps the original style and still looks nice. Do you think i should work on the grass more? or is there anything else that needs work? Once i get the piece done i want to try and add it to the gallery. 

In case you don't know:

When edits are made to your pixels they are to show you ways to illustrate only and you can't use them. You need to make it all yourself.

Focus on 'cleaning' your piece which is what Hatch and DiOxygen have basically done. The mountains have sloppy areas, clean those up.

The snake could use the lightest blue from the pants where you had orange before.

You have been trying hard enough that I don't see why this won't end up in your gallery. You are doing good, Keep going.

Better, but not there yet! ;)
The former squid was much, much better... and both have a problem: the left and center tentacles are shifted on the same line, which is now also a line in the mountain: looks terrible! (hope that was clear)

The snake has improved but still looks strange, head is too flat, and it's thick around the tree. Lost his tongue too...

Trees are better, but the trunks could improve.

And the dark green ground/horizon line is very distracting, try to break it.

You are truly doing a great job of taking other's opinions to make your piece better and better with each update.

I think there is more you can still and will not say anything specific to let you be self-critical and perhaps find things to improve...

...keep going.

Starts to look real great. Maybe a slight hint (you don't have to do this) But to create some more depth you can lower your saturation (if I'm correct) of the tree.

Personally I'd love to see some colored outlines on the boy and the snake. Black is fine for the hair and all, but compared to the ground, background, tree, cubesquidthing, and flower I think they'd both fit in more and look overall better with colored outlines, especially on the boys shorts, to break up all the black in that area.

Also maybe put the trees either behind the grass that comes up? I assume at least the left one is in the background and not directly in his walking path, so putting it behind that would make that easier to see.

@zeratanus I tried fixing the outlines and made the tree fit more into the background

@ hatch I removed the flower it was kind of an eye sore and replaced it with flowers that fit into the background better i think. I'm still having trouble adding depth to the snake but its better than when i first started so i'm happy with that. Thanks again guys for your help =)

heres the edit.

yea it is kinda random but so am i :P. Maybe i'll make a different enemy if anyone has any good ideas for one. the block squid was inspired by these cute enemies i saw ilke made(spelled his name wrong)

I am taking your art to show something and will post later.

*hours later...*

The image below shows a process that takes time and patience and I worked quickly because I simply wanted to illustrate what words alone simply can't.

You can and SHOULD take your time and be patient with your pixels.

I will return later with another similar 'quickie' dealing with layout and composition :)

WOW ! that tutorial is awesome jalonso. How did you find those stray pixel in your grey picture? I would love to know how to do that. I used the techniques in that tutorial to try and slim down the colors i'm using. So far i got down to 32. And the reason it's 32 is because i can't find those stray pixels. I just cant seem to find them by eye balling it.

 Well here's the edit, and let me just say i never thought i would be able to make my piece this much better in such a short period of time. Thanks to everyone here it's turned out good and i learned allot more. I still need to work on anti aliasing because i'm not that good at it. Here's the edit.


I booked mark this page for the awesome tutorial. I never knew about how to create a palette.

@Hatch, thx for pointing that out :) I am just quickly throwing things in to illustrate points. I have a gazillion errors that I don't think are critical since Panda has to pixel everything himself and I hope he catches these things own his own.

@Panda, So... Here is another image showing some things for you to think about. All my images have flaws so take these things only as advice and general idea type of thing and not as an illustration of perfection or the only way/solution. This is just my help for you because every so often someone posts a WIP and is willing to put the effort into it.
Its important that you know that I would have added your art several edits ago but because you seem willing to improve I'm trying to help you whip this baby to the ground.

While its very nice to remove colors whenever possible its cool to add too. In the last edit I think adding colors just for the snake would be nice.



E:
To your previous question about finding stray pixels and colors. I use Photoshop and therefore I just use the 'wand' tool. I don't know PC programs (I'm starting to learn). Maybe someone else knows how. DeProgrammer made his own app, something about colors...dunno really on this question.

+1E:
The reason I think sometimes starting over is best is because at a certain point things become clear and its far easier, for me at least, to just think of all the previous work as a ref., and not a waste of time in any way.

+2E:
I've hated the very pointy Hershey kisses mountains you had going and just couldn't bring myself to placing those in the very last remake. I would add new colors for the snake and the flowers here... Don't take what I or anyone else says as as law. Its just help for you to figure things out yourself. Take what you need ignore what you don't. Its just art discussions, k.


Edited by jalonso - 09 October 2009 at 9:37pm

You've gone a great job. So long as you've learned and carry it forward my time was not wasted :)
I like working in layers because I can always move stuff around with ease. Its a personal choice. Working back to front or front to back is also a personal choice. I like front to back so that I only pixel what is seen and shows and nothing else.

ps: when you submit to your gallery you should consider linking to this thread so others can freeload info and so that viewers can see how hard you worked on your piece.
>>

Edited by jalonso - 10 October 2009 at 2:09pm

I keep trying to submit it as a detailed image because its over 100X100 and i get this error.