A newbie and his cactus
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11022
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 11:45am
Topic: A newbie and his cactus
Posted By: ptr
Subject: A newbie and his cactus
Date Posted: 21 September 2010 at 3:51am
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Hey folks!
I'm a programmer trying to learn how to do pixel art so I can do my own graphics, it's a lot of fun! Anyway, my first attempt at shading: 
My untrained eye says it looks too flat, at least the upper part of the trunk, and it's too smooth. It needs some texture. Dunno how, though. I don't know how it goes, but I'm thankful for any input :) |
Replies:
Posted By: onek
Date Posted: 21 September 2010 at 5:38am
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looks alright for a beginner.... but there are some things to improve...
if zoomed in, u have quite obvious banding issues, most recognizable on the right branch...... there are some (quite over the top discussions ;) in some pixelation threads about banding which i can seem to find atm, maybe u can... ur color ramp is to linear (dark green - green - light green). try hue shifting. for example add a yellow tint to ur highlights and a blue tint t ur shadows, that looks more natural... also u could try selective outlining.... which means that, instead of just having a black outline, u somewhat try to shade ur outline... like outline facing towards the light beeing lighter and opposed... also since its a cactus u shpuld add some spikes, even if it looks a bit exagerated on this scale, but in pixelart its often good to exaggerate to help readabilty... heres an edit to illustrate the things said 
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Posted By: ptr
Date Posted: 21 September 2010 at 7:51am
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Originally posted by onek
looks alright for a beginner.... but there are some things to improve... if zoomed in, u have quite obvious banding issues</a>, most recognizable on the right branch...... there are some (quite over the top discussions ;) in some pixelation threads about banding which i can seem to find atm, maybe u can... ur color ramp is to linear (dark green - green - light green). try hue shifting. for example add a yellow tint to ur highlights and a blue tint t ur shadows, that looks more natural... also u could try selective outlining.... which means that, instead of just having a black outline, u somewhat try to shade ur outline... like outline facing towards the light beeing lighter and opposed... also since its a cactus u shpuld add some spikes, even if it looks a bit exagerated on this scale, but in pixelart its often good to exaggerate to help readabilty... heres an edit to illustrate the things said Thanks for your quick reply! :) Yeah, I've been reading a bit about banding but still fail to identify it. Maybe right where the branch merges with the trunk? I will try to make the color ramp less linear but I'm having a hard time with colors. The colors I used in my initial palette were sampled from a picture, maybe this is a bad approach? Anyway, I'll keep it in mind. I tried selective outlining and spikes, but it turned out like total crap. Your version was great, though. |