schrumpfkopf (Level 4 Team Leader) @ 10/2/2008 05:39
lol die Dinkys sehen aus wie Pokeballs =)
ansonsten finde ich das du den Shape sehr schoen angemalt hast. (Farben sind mir zu harsch aber das ist ja bekanntlich Geschmackssache. Auch die Animation ist nett.
A real timeline isn't aviable anymore, since these are long lost, on old PCs, but I wasn't gifted in any way. at least to my knowledge. Maybe it's because I've been atracted to anime and giant robots since childhood, with their defined volumes and shapes.
my first Pixelships where for a Click and Play topscroller, I did when I was like 12 or so. I used premade baddies, but pixeled my very first ship. It looked very basic, but I was happy at that time. I occasionaly did little Shmups with Click and Play and The games Factory, although my art was still pretty lacking. I then lost interrest in Shmups for some time, and pixeled other things. I ultimately came back to it when I was requested to do the a graphic set for a shoot em up for a mobilephone company. eventually the company went to dust, without releasing the game. So I constantly worked further on more enemies, new ships, and what not. The results can be seen in my gallery, from the very first Balmung to now. So you can atleast see how the Havoc Zone Sprites evolved over time.
generally, if I don't have a concept in mind ( as in this case) I normaly take a big brush, and globb out one half of the ships sillouett. after adding some "welding-seams" and other detail, that you want on both sides, with a darker color. After mirroring it, add details that are not mirrored. after that I add basic values, always thinking about how a particular part would look in 3D. ( sometimes it's trial and error there.) then it's just a matter of adding more colors, to flesh it out more.
Oh, and I pretty much always think first: "which ships have I done before? - what features do they have? - okay let's try to avoid those." although, like you mentioned the eye, is pretty much my trademark, heh.
I've always wondered, were you always naturally good at complex, creative, and intelligent ship design? or do you have a sort of timeline of pixels that shows how you started with the most basic ideas and worked up to your level of mastery? With such an incredible repertoire of ships you have in your gallery one would expect the designs to begin to repeat an archetype that lends itself to saturated and uninspired creations. I don't mean to ignore the fact that each of your ships feature the traditional "eyeball gooiness," but that isn't necessarily a repeated design so much as a signature design element. In fact, your mastery over shmup ship design is even more accentuated by the fact that you are able to maintain a high level of creativity in your ships while still retaining the elements that define you as an artist.
Long story short (why do these tend to come at the end? It's like a big slap in the face of 'oh, yeah, you didn't have to read that-prolly shoulda mentioned that...') ...long story short, you're amazing at ship designs and I would love to know the processes and studies you undertook to become so proficient.
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Haha, I had forgotten how many ships you have made for pax! That was such a long time ago, but I could totally run these challenges again ;)
See you later!