CHALLENGE 2/3/2014: Binary Stars
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: Collaborations/Challenges
Forum Discription: Submit pixel art project ideas/templates or contribute to an existing pixel art collaboration.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18116
Printed Date: 07 September 2025 at 5:09am
Topic: CHALLENGE 2/3/2014: Binary Stars
Posted By: administrator
Subject: CHALLENGE 2/3/2014: Binary Stars
Date Posted: 03 February 2014 at 12:00am
Replies:
Posted By: Grasshopper
Date Posted: 03 February 2014 at 2:45pm
| Cool! |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 04 February 2014 at 12:31am
Reference here: http://imageshack.com/a/img833/3550/lq4s.png This is a bit too ambitious for my skill level. I just hope I can do some justice to the idea and finish on time. For those poor souls out there who don't know, this is a reference to LBA (Relentless), a fantastic game from 1994. |
Posted By: vrine
Date Posted: 04 February 2014 at 3:08am
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@CELS Looks fantastic so far, I really can't wait to see it finished!  Just exploring ideas, this will change a lot I'm sure. EDIT - Quick draft for part of my animation  EDIT 2 - Now to get this done in time!  |
Posted By: binderbear
Date Posted: 04 February 2014 at 10:43am
Here's my work in progress:
Trying to do something more complicated than my earlier pieces. I'm not totally sure how I'm going to do the orb with the stars in it yet. |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 3:13am
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@ vrine: Thanks! Now, if you can finish yours in time, that thing is going to be extremely cool. Are you even animating the tiny planets and moons orbiting the stars? Seems like it's going to be hard to make those circle smoothly with so few frames. Unless you use some kind of motion distortion.
@ binderbear: Interesting idea. Be sure to google for "glass ball drawing" to get a sense of the lighting and warping from the orb. |
Posted By: vrine
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 4:02am
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@CELS Awwwwwwwh thank you! And nah, I'll be leaving the background static because I'd never be able to animate everything in time! D': And yeah that's one of my biggest concerns, if it doesn't look smooth once finished I'll add in an extra few frames. Here's coloured draft frame, got a fair bit to go including AA etc -  |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 4:11am
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That's way more detailed than I expected so soon. Perhaps you should stop adding more detail and focus on getting continuity between the frames. I.e. work on all the frames in parallell, instead of working on them individually, finishing one by one.
I would be surprised if you have time for much AA :) Right now, the left wing of the dragon seems to move up and down as it rotates. When you're only using 8 frames for a 360 rotation on such a big image, I think you should make the dragons static. There's also a problem with the tail of the winged dragon moving with uneven speed. Sometimes barely changing between frames, and sometimes making huge leaps in movement. |
Posted By: thebombsauce
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 7:02am
Here's my wip, not exactly up to the standard of the other work here but I'd like to post it anyway
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Posted By: Zadaben
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 12:47pm
| Vrine, I feel as though the winged dragon's wings should be folded against its body, since it's clinging to the sun and not in flight. Also, they are kind of distracting in my opinion. |
Posted By: vrine
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 2:27pm
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@CELS Oh the draft is extremely jumpy because of what it is, so don't worry, everything will be smoothed out and not jumpy in the final version. And that's a fantastic idea to work on them parallel, I never thought of that! Thank you for your advice! Speaking of the wings being jumpy, I'll probably take Zadaben's advice and have the wings folded instead because like they said, they're pretty distracting! EDIT - Some folded wings, just gotta fix up the stars and I'll start the other frames.  |
Posted By: skittle
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 5:45pm
| Looks sweet! The animated version is going is going to be crazy! |
Posted By: Peyton
Date Posted: 05 February 2014 at 8:05pm
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@vrine I have a feeling that that is going to look awesome once it is complete :) Well, here is my garbage WIP.  |
Posted By: Gecimen
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 3:01am
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@vrine; not sure if it's possible to animate this within a few days but good job so far. maybe you like to submit a finished static version for the challenge and animate it later. @peyton; not garbage at all. |
Posted By: Mrmo Tarius
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 3:14am
I have this as rough WIP
dunno if I'll manage to finish it in time. Some update (this was before I read the following comment!) 
I'll take the advice/thinking out loud thing into consideration :) |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 5:58am
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@Mrmo Tarius: I'm liking that a lot! Quite unusual to see you do this sort of landscape with perspective. I'm having a bit of a hard time making sense of the scene. On the one hand, the sword being embedded in the ground behind the rocky hills and sticking high into the air, makes it look like we're seeing this from a ground level. And the hanging vegetation on the giant arm and the sword, is reminiscent of seaweed, as if they've just risen from the depths of the ocean. Especially since there's no vegetation on the valley in the foreground.
On the other hand, there's no visible ocean and the perspective of the giant arm makes it look like we're very high up, on some mountain settlement / base. A city in the clouds. Maybe weirdness is what you were going for, making the whole scene look alien and incomprehensible. At any rate, it's very pretty. I personally think a slightly less standard sword hilt design would be interesting. Maybe do something else with the pommel and guard, unless you specifically want it to look like a standard medieval European sword. http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_oakeshott3.html None of this is criticism, I'm just thinking out loud. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this. @ Peyton: Great start. I'm sure you could do something interesting with the reflection of the two stars. Especially if there was some flat, shiny surface somewhere, like ice or metal. Just a thought. @ vrine: Good call on folding the wings. Just a question though: where do you imagine the light source? It might be cool to have the two stars as the only light source, so the dragons are lit up from underneath, and from the opposite stars. Right now, the stars aren't casting any light what so ever, so they look more like balls / crystal orbs. Terribly fast and ugly edit to illustrate. 
@Bombsauce: Very nice start. You may want to make it slightly bigger to make it easier to understand the little HUD / UI on the bottom. Either that, or simplify what you already have. |
Posted By: thebombsauce
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 3:33pm
| Is there a way to scale the sprites without quality loss or do I have to redraw the whole thing? |
Posted By: Gecimen
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 4:07pm
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Originally posted by thebombsauce Is there a way to scale the sprites without quality loss or do I have to redraw the whole thing? Scaling pixel art is usually the wrong way to create a usable image. Doing the whole thing is the way to go, and it's not that hard unless you're talking about a huge landscape image or something. |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 4:19pm
Tiny update:
Great update, Mrmo. The subtle dark fields where the monster and sword block out the sunrays are awesometastic. |
Posted By: Muxaun
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 8:54pm
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@CELS I hope you will get rid of that dithering on the planet. (Or at least use a softer version of dithering. Stylized one maybe?)
@Mrmo: very interesting and unusual style for you. But the background silhouette looks too flat. Maybe add some volume to it or make it a little blurry? |
Posted By: vrine
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 10:37pm
 This is it, pretty much 95% done. I feel it goes too fast, but I won't have enough time to do extra frames. I'll try and add some AA though! @CELS I really wish I'd thought about the lighting like that beforehand, it would've made much more sense than having it to the right! D: But thank you in any case, I really appreciate your feedback! @Gecimen Thanks for your advice! @ADrawingMan Thanks, I hope so! |
Posted By: failureboy
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 10:51pm
| vrine, that is a cool idea but it's awfully fast. I think you need to slow it down, which may mean more frames. I think you have time to do it. |
Posted By: vrine
Date Posted: 06 February 2014 at 11:11pm
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@failureboy I don't actually have the time because I have uni stuff due, all of which I kind of put off to make it. I should've thought about it in advance, but I'm just kinda glad it's finished anyway. Thanks for your advice! |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 09 February 2014 at 12:43am
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Originally posted by Muxaun
@CELS I hope you will get rid of that dithering on the planet. (Or at least use a softer version of dithering. Stylized one maybe?) Thanks, that's what I needed to hear. How's this? 
I want to use stylized dithering, but I'm not sure if I have enough colours to play with. If I have too much contrast, the dithering is too obvious. Too little contrast, and the planet looks flat. EDIT: For great justice! 
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Posted By: vrine
Date Posted: 09 February 2014 at 3:13pm
| Looking fantastic CELS, I love the rocks! |
Posted By: Voltali obscur
Date Posted: 09 February 2014 at 5:34pm
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Wow! very very nice tribute, CELS :D Gotta love the mecha-penguin and the tiny life clover - not sure about the english names since I played the french version of the game as a child. Sendell would be proud! About your post on the WC news ("But encountering other LBA fans is always like finding lost relatives"), well... the feeling is mutual, haha! |
Posted By: binderbear
Date Posted: 09 February 2014 at 9:13pm
I finally finished my piece! After taking a break in the later half of the week, too. Here it is:
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Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 10 February 2014 at 5:24am
| @ Vrine & Voltali obscur: Thanks, guys. It was definitely too ambitious of me to start on such a large piece, but... the important thing is to keep pixelling, I hope :) |