[WIP] Just a character then a background
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=25896
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 4:46pm
Topic: [WIP] Just a character then a background
Posted By: Xenon02
Subject: [WIP] Just a character then a background
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 2:28am
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Hello I've want to create character similar to some science fiction films like you know Future Punk objects, places and greate dark climate !
I want to first start with character. Then in the same topic try to arrange it to a scene place (like future city or street markets)  
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Replies:
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 5:27am
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The arm appears to be dislocated or broken. The arms don't hang down from the shoulders- they stick out of the torso, and that upper part of the arm is actually part of the arm. In other words, it's impossible for the arm to be hanging down and sticking outward like that at the same time. Here's a high-res drawing of a torso in a similar pose to explain it:  The round shapes are where the arms and legs grow out of. Even when the shoulders are broader than this, the general shape/idea is the same, that part of the body is just wider as a whole. You should probably study anatomy a bit more in-depth (in particular, where the different joints are and how they can move) if you want to be able to draw humans larger than 16x16, but hopefully this simplified drawing will help you with this particular piece. The colours on the jacket all blend into each other, it's hard to tell there even is any shading or highlighting. Ditto for the scarf, shirt, and skin. The head also has a lot of colours for how little value range it has, but that might be fine if it's meant to be a very dull material. |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 6:38am
How about now ? I've changed the helmet color and jacket to more visible. About the scarf i don't know exactly how to make it look better I have the image in my head but I can't make it.
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Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 9:15am
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Better, but the shading on the arm/shoulder still gives the impression that the arm snakes out of the body and bends partway through the upper arm. You also seem to have made the arms much longer? If you're aiming for more realistic proportions, you should keep the arms as they were, and raise the crotch instead. There is still very little internal contrast in the jacket and scarf. Compare to the trousers - much more contrast there, so they read much more clearly. Here's an edit using your original one as a base, mostly focusing on colours:  I also fixed the shoulder. On the right is additional anatomy tweaks, in case you want more realistic proportions on the body. I increased the contrast in the shirt, jacket, and scarf. I got rid of the highlights on the jacket, because there just isn't really any need or room for them. I re-shaded the jacket a little closer to your newer version, so that the light source is consistent with the trousers. I also changed the scarf to give it more form. Notice that I avoided making a bunch of little highlights and instead focused on the overall form of the scarf. I also dithered the bottom, but this was just to make it a bit more visually interesting, it doesn't correspond to light/shadow. I also hue-shifted all the shadows towards purple a bit. This just makes the colours look a bit less dull. Shadows are only ever a darker version of the base colour if the lighting is completely neutral, which is almost never the case. Shadows tend to take on a bit of the hue of the ambient light, and highlights tend to take on some of the hue of the light source. |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 10:08am
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But i want to know 1 thing about it. How you get those greate colors.I've tried to get some ok colors but I see in your edited sprite that Helmet got 3 different colors (dark purple, red, grey on red contrast finally on yellow) + thanks for those advice and i see that body must be reduced and it looks now much more better. Scarf, jacket and Helmet are greate but I want to know something. Are you using some pallete or you just got some kind of experience ?
I'm doing it on Adobe Photoshop CS6 |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 10:26am
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It's experience. I explained the thoughts behind all this in the last paragraph of my last post. I shifted the shadows towards purple and the highlights towards yellow. I chose these shifts because light is often warm and yellowish (sunlight, lamps, fire), and I chose purple both because it's the opposite of yellow. I'm applying basic colour theory - colours opposite each other on the colour wheel make a pleasant contrast. There's a bit more to it that has to do with shadows outside IRL often being cool (due to the sky) but I don't consciously think about it. If you want to learn more about light and how it affects colour, http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm - this is a good tutorial . |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 11:00am
| Hmm then a next thing I want to know is a Highlights of course i know you send me a link but you use often yellow colors because it's warm color. So why you used the yellow contrast only in 1 place and this place is helmet that in Dark purple comes to Gray Yellow . Why only this spot ? why you didn't used it on jacket ( left arm ) like in physics of light ? |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 05 August 2017 at 11:27am
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I used yellow only on the helmet because it's the only area that had a distinct highlight. Elsewhere, there are no highlights, and no room to put them, and no need for them. I didn't shift the base colours in my edit because it felt unnecessary, and because it's usually important to maintain colour identity in sprites. |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 06 August 2017 at 3:47am
| Back to the topic I wrote that I want to give a place for this character some kind of a scenerio what kind of size you can prefer ? Main concept is Future,city,small alley |
Posted By: Yuran
Date Posted: 06 August 2017 at 9:13am
| Less talk, more work! |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 09 August 2017 at 12:27pm
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Ty for this motivation ;D
The processing of this background is for me really challenging !!! 1st try was really funny because (1. I was disappointed when i saw the final work 2. Many hours editing and picking right colors 3. showing it to my friends for some response about what they want to see) 
But as I said. I was disappointed at the final work so I've started again with flat view. 
Worked like 1 or 2 days thinking what can I add ( i know it can be really long for a 1 building and you can think "really ?" but yea 1 or 2 days and I've done only 1 building) 
Oh sorry not one building but one wall ... So tell me how to you think about it ? |
Posted By: Zubb
Date Posted: 09 August 2017 at 2:03pm
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At least to me, the perspective on the buildings is off. The buildings looks like the camera is pointed upwards, but the character suggests a more straight-on view. Furthermore, you're using far too many colors, especially on the lights. Instead of doing what you're currently doing, try using one or two colors for lighting. |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 09 August 2017 at 2:11pm
| Actually in lighting I'm using a glow tool and 2 colors in every neon stuffs. |
Posted By: Zubb
Date Posted: 09 August 2017 at 2:25pm
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That is a very bad idea. Pixel art is all about precision and a limited color set, something that using things like the brush, smudge, or, in your case, glow tool does not do. Notice how using these tools have added at least 10 extra colors to your art? This is not a good way to go at all. |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 09 August 2017 at 2:42pm
| In this case I don't really know how to give a "glow effect" without it .... |
Posted By: Zubb
Date Posted: 09 August 2017 at 4:02pm
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If I were doing this piece, I would add glow using a flat color from the glowing object combined with dithering at the edges. It won't be quite as smooth as what you're doing, but it will look much nicer. |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 10 August 2017 at 3:34am
This is what you meant about dithering ?
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Posted By: Yuran
Date Posted: 10 August 2017 at 4:50am
 Rough gradient is not suitable for neon effect |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 10 August 2017 at 6:58am
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This is the process how to make this glowing effect ?
I see that in the middle it's like 1st state of it but I'm thinking about the other colors and their random postion in the final work with 4 colors |
Posted By: Xenon02
Date Posted: 10 August 2017 at 12:43pm
Here is a little edit about a background (leaving the lights now)
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