Please help me with my basics :)
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=26204
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 1:37am
Topic: Please help me with my basics :)
Posted By: Kana
Subject: Please help me with my basics :)
Date Posted: 31 March 2018 at 4:32am
Hey everybody!  I just recently (like two days ago) started to do pixel art after years of admiring (and privately using) other people's stuff. Unfortunately I have no real backround in drawing or painting so I really seem to lack basics, not only concerning pixel art but also general art stuff. I read through this http:///pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299 - tutorial and tried to take all information in but it just is too much for me at the moment to consider all at once. Also there are many examples in there where I simply fail to see differences or to get the point at all. AA for example. How do I know which pixel gets another colour and which colour to choose? For now I got aseprite and played around with the program, its functions and different pre-installed colour palettes. What I wished you could help me with: 1) The first image is just random forms I tried to understand AA with. It looks like some drop of drool over a chunk of lipstick out of the 90s, but just ignore that and tell me, how to get better at AA and with shadows and highlights.  2) In a youtube video tutorial I was told to start with only four colours to learn the basics so I started to draw with the gameboy colour palette. I wanted to start simple and drew a bucket and failed miserably. To me it looks like some shard of radioactive junk. Maybe it was not the best idea to draw the outlines with this bright colour? Also the shadow looks kinda off. Also I did not make use off the whole 32x32 pixels but did not now, how to get this bucket bigger without f**king up my whole work.   3) Aseprite has a frame function, how cool is that? So yeah, I also toyed around with this and what came out may not be a masterpiece but I'm proud of it nevertheless. I mean: Hooray, it walks!  But also here: I tried to do it, but I have no clue about AA and to you that may seem obvious as I just randomly made some of the outline pixels brighter. Also the man moves his arms kinda awkward because I was not able to get him to do this smoother Generally I really have to remember to make use of different layers. I figure animating the arms of this figure should have been much more easy if I just made an extra layer for the moving parts instead of drawing around on the body. Your comments and critique would be much appreciated! (Please halp!) |
Replies:
Posted By: NancyGold
Date Posted: 31 March 2018 at 5:12am
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The walking character has obvious problems. I suggest copying existing walk cycle. Look at http://spriters-resource.com it has a lot of good animation examples, just draw a stick-man over them, then transfer to your own character design. That is okay, because you can't copyright mocap or any other movement, like dance (at least in US). |
Posted By: Kana
Date Posted: 31 March 2018 at 8:11am
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Thanks for the link, I will dig into it and try learning. Maybe you could describe to me, what exactly the obvious problems are? I realize he moves a bit awkward, but I cannot say why this is. As soon as I have produced a better cycle I am going to update my post. :) |
Posted By: NancyGold
Date Posted: 31 March 2018 at 11:16am
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Originally posted by Kana Maybe you could describe to me, what exactly the obvious problems are? 1. The leg appears to prolongate and "grabbing" the earth underneath, instead of falling on it (remember, that walking movement physically is always falling, and crawling is entirely different mode of transportation). 2. The animation would be more readable, if you paint the leg behind using less contrast (desaturated) and darker color. 3. Too many animation frames for such a small sprite. 4 frames would be enough. Other frames can be added during polishing stage of development, when everything is ready. 4. Despite so many frames, hands movement is too jerky. |
Posted By: Kana
Date Posted: 01 April 2018 at 3:38pm
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Thank you again very much! :) I did as you told me and watched for examples of walking animations on the site you linked. How interesting - I never realized, how many different ways of walking animations the different games used. Just something, I never payed attention to. So basically walking should be something like: Raising one knee a little while slowly bringing your body weight forward to tip forward, which causes the leg at the ground to get a little bit behind you, then stop your "fall" by setting the free foot in front of you (which causes the legs to be "crossed" from a side view) and after that raising the other knee and so on. Also I think the body gets a bit up and down while doing the step. Maybe thats also part of the reason why my animation looks strange - I kept animating the body downwards. So in four frames the movement would more correctly be like this? 1) Person standing, body on a basic level 2) Person with crossed legs, front leg in front, body up 3) Person standing, body on a basic level 4) Person with crossed legs, back leg in front, body up Or something like that... I'm trying to do that, but at the moment I am having some kind of barfight with the pixels to get them in places they don't look weird. The start of the new animation looks like some kind of hunchback stomping the ground... *sigh* Will update my post as soon as the barfight is over... |
Posted By: NancyGold
Date Posted: 02 April 2018 at 2:08am
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Originally posted by Kana So in four frames the movement would more correctly be like this? 1) Person standing, body on a basic level 2) Person with crossed legs, front leg in front, body up 3) Person standing, body on a basic level 4) Person with crossed legs, back leg in front, body up Nope. Here is an example of stereotypic 4-frame walk cycle http://finalbossblues.com/walk-cycles-p1/ although their character is large enough to justify more frames and more stylized animation. |
Posted By: Iancul1981
Date Posted: 03 April 2018 at 1:17am
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Hi,
I can't really give you specific advice since I am also a beginner, however here's a few links that I think might help: 1)for AA, this was advised to me by another member from here, and I found it useful (you will need to save the images on your hdd and zoom in with some software that will allow you to view the pixel details to make any sense of them) - http://neota.castleparadox.com/aa_tutorial.html - Neota's tutorial You can also check out the 1) - meteorite from this thread I made last week - how it evolved from no AA with some AA on it and be sure to check out Hapiel's example as well - http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26197 - example AA 2)for a walk cycle animation, here is a tutorial from Pedro Medeiros: https://www.patreon.com/posts/simple-walk-14234033 - Simple walk cycle |
Posted By: Kana
Date Posted: 04 April 2018 at 11:41am
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Originally posted by Iancul1981 2)for a walk cycle animation, here is a tutorial from Pedro Medeiros: https://www.patreon.com/posts/simple-walk-14234033 - Simple walk cycle Hey cool, this really helps! But this again is a walking cycle, that constists of 7+ frames. Still wondering, how to cut this down to the recommended four, though. Actually I'm getting the impression, that walking animations aren't really stuff, one should start their journey into pixel art with.  Can't just put it down though... I feel sorry for my poor walking guy, with his broken tentacle-legs... I have to help him... O__O |