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Sorry for harping on about it then, I just had that problem in the past and with different browsers and was getting paranoid. Can I delete comments somehow, since my last one is redunant?
Art and illustration is always a process of learning, and while I may be too proud to dismiss this pictures worth entirely, I'll still stand by what I said about proving myself and keeping at it. Being used to 9000x12000px photoshop canvases, it's sometimes hard to wrap around what can be considered big or small. I'm just a hobbyist with this, since the precision at place when working on a pixel piece feels like a sharp contrast to pencil and ink, which I'm used to professionally. In the end I could either never upload anything I do again or try keeping at it till I get it, and the latter really sounds like the better move. I'm willing to learn- just can't guarantee I'll always keep my hands off the big canvases just because I enjoy them so much.
Thanks for explaining yourself and this going along civilly. I have no idea how this really works here, should I delete this myself now or can I just wait and see how it fares? If I'm open to just wait and see, I'm fine with either outcome.
try viewing it on firefox.
We can actually see your piece sharply. It is probably your browser that does not support zoomed in pixels.
Even when the pixels of this piece are viewed sharply (which is showing up fine in my browser), my last comment still stands.
Chromium still won't let me edit, sorry. I made a screenshot to show what I mean with this coming up blurry.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/42xe5bmz9txjizf/Mybigproblem.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n42y9q6xo5qze5l/400zoom1.png?dl=0
These are screenshots of the the picture open in graphics gale and in my browser next to each other, each at 800% and 400% zoom respectively.. No matter which format I save it, it keeps coming up blurry when I upload it while I have a crisp and clear picture on the screen. I tried googling it and honestly couldn't find any answers, and with this coming up as the blurry mess you see it as, I really understand what you're all saying by this looking like a cheap retouche. I just can't for the life of me figure out how to fix this.
there's often a point of contention of process vs. outcome. Sometimes, when a bunch of dirty tools like blur and what have you are used, even when a piece is a great work of pixel art, attention is brought to the process; pixel art stresses drawing pixel by pixel without these tools.
Other times, attention is called to the outcome, and this is one of those times. In this case, it can be believed that you really drew this, and it also can be believed that you placed each pixel deliberately....But the end result does not align with what pixel art is: pixels in a degree of harmony. Why does this piece not align with pixel art then? Why aren't the pixels in harmony?
1- that you could move thousands of pixels around in your image and the result of your image would barely be affected means that the pixels have little deliberate purpose or impact as a whole. That this is stems from two other reasons:
2- you currently lack understanding of pixel technique, and how to organize pixels in ways so that they are harmonious and not chaotic to the point of the singe pixel having very little significance...You have to think of pixel art like making a mosaic or cross stitching. This leads to the last point:
3- canvas is way too big. The pixel grid has been completely ignored, and you have just drawn on top of a canvas as if you arent using pixels.
Pixel art is kind of like this: You have to fall in love with the pixel grid, embrace it, then you must learn proper technique on how to overcome the confinements of that grid. Look, this tiny piece is considered a wonderful piece of pixel art. Why? Because every pixel matters, every pixel is well placed, and shows what can be accomplished by placing pixels smartly on a square grid.
I think the smartest thing to do for me to convince anyone of anything would just be saving proper progress pictures in the future. First I'll just finish what I'm working on now, since the motive is purely from imagination and I conciously tried to keep the color count under 50. That's the hardest part for me to do since it goes against everything I do with any other medium, which is a general vice of mine that I should work on anyway.
I disagree on this being an oekaki, going by the definition your links have given, because I spent 90% of the time I spent on this zoomed and with the navigator window right at hand to keep everything in check, but that's the thing again: Really, the only valid thing I could do to proof it is by replicating the technique and actually saving wips. I think I know what you mean by messy, and I think it has to do with the file format somehow. I saved it once as a gif and once as a png, but I just have no idea what difference file save will make here on image quality. I'll try to remedy that, and it'd be lovely if you could tell me after I've done that if that was the problem all along or if the impression stays the same.
Sorry again, this is an awkward situation for me, since if this wasn't about something I did I'd be right on your boat and agree with you 100%. Sure it's also pretty suspicious when this debate comes up with a new member's first upload. I'd just rather prove myself than disappear in shame. As for proving myself, I've also got the suggestion to link to something I did in other media (a study or something based off reference for context) to basically prove my basic abilities, but I honestly am not to keen to since other media isn't what this website is about.
no problem. I understand. At some point if youre serious about pixels, you should give this tutorial a read:
www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp
There are also bunches of other resources for learning the technical aspects. But the best way to get an initial grasp is to take your piece to the WIP (work in prgress) section of the forums:
www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_topics.asp
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Personally, I'm not convinced with your links you posted below. It looks more like you just color reduced the reference, the simply took away parts of the detail, pretending you had progress steps. Not saying it's true, but that is how it seems.
Anyway, what you have here is oakaki (sketchy pixels) instead of pixel art (highly organized and refined pixels)
Here's a visual difference:
Oakaki: i.imgur.com/RRuxVHI.png (there is no attention to individual pixels. It is sketch like. It is often too big, as pixel art generally uses quite small canvases, so that individual pixels can be controlled.
Pixel art: www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/93256.htm note that the canvas is very small (not all pixel art is small, but in general, the canvases literally have to be small or else it becomes impractical to controll the pixels.) Also note that if you zoom in, every single pixel is placed with intention and is very organized. Note the very low amount of colors (15). Every pixel exists in harmony, hence pixel art.
Thanks for the comment. Just, could you tell me what you mean by the pixels being a mess? I have very little information about the technical dos, don'ts and shoulds of pixel art, as I haven't really uploaded my work anywhere wherein people really knew about the technical skills involved before and so had little chance to learn if not through guesswork. Or, I really have no idea what you mean, but would like to fix it if I can, or take something away for future pictures. If you mean the picture quality and how blurry it is, I have no idea why this is the case and how to fix it.
I think by retouch you're also alluding to me having used a filter on a photo or traced or something similar, but if I'm just not getting it, please correct me. I feel pretty bad about writing as many comments as it is, since you get points for them I don't feel I deserve for asking questions and keeping on inquiring like this. Can I circumvent that somehow?
If you're alluding to that, me having traced or used filters or something, I'm willing to present proof of that not being the case or changing significant elements of the pose. I could try cutting down on the palette but I'm worrying that this'll ruin the color composition (and be a truckload of additional work). Sorry I'm jumping to defend myself so much here, but I'm just trying to see whether I understand the problem correctly. I think you can understand that, whether you believe I've actually really drawn this or not, that's quite something to get levied against a picture you've sunk quite some hours into. If I'm getting this wrong and the problem isn't the legitimacy, but instead the similarity to the reference as it, I'll just know to upload constructed/improvised works in the future and steer clear off heavy ref and studies. If this gets voted out, no hard feelings, I just want to learn and improve so that I can avoid asking so much in the future and cause less of a hassle for everyone, basically.
The retouch if there's any, just isn't good or significant enough to be considered pixel art. Grafx2 could probably create this image immediately by zapping the palette.... I don't see any art here. Not to mention the pixels are a mess
Well, I'm not accusing you of anything. Just saying the impression it gives. It's just that it has a lot of suspicious elements:
1. Very high color count.
2. Picture is identical to reference.
Those two elements come across as a bit shady. Anyhow, we'll see what the mod decide, it's definitely on the fence.
Sorry for the double-post, but chromium won't let me edit my comments. Of course outside linking is allowed, you just did that yourself. I just uploaded some steps of the thing, maybe that makes my process a bit clearer. I know the step between sketch and colors is radical, but I took quite some time for that layer, if that's a valid excuse.
http://s26.postimg.org/dfzzt3r49/Videodromeadditionalhueshelmet.gif
http://s26.postimg.org/ygumrrk09/Videodromebackground2.gif
http://s26.postimg.org/yuvyrd43t/Videodromebackgroundoutline.gif
http://s26.postimg.org/la56s8oax/Videodromecolorswoblending.gif
http://s26.postimg.org/d5x2ni1vt/Videodromedither.gif
http://s26.postimg.org/fr2nb0r9l/Videodromeroughsketch.gif
Okay, I see how that'd work. I personally know that I did it by hand and could show my wips to prove it, since I really have little to no respect to people who cheat with this stuff or just use filters and the like, but at the same time knowing I did it by hand and hearing that it doesn't look as if could be regarded as a big compliment, so thanks, somewhat!
I am more used to traditional media and have no idea how to properly set out a palette for pixel art, so I just went like I would when I used photoshop for painting in the past and created the palette on the fly by decreasing brightness and saturation whenever I thought something looked off and working from there. I could and should probably just have reused some colors, like the "whites", but I just created a new hue most of the time.
If it makes any difference, I can upload my wips (I have the rough sketch and the figure without any blending or dithering as gifs) somewhere else and link them here, if outside linking is allowed.
Well, I'm not going to bullshit you, I don't think it's going to make it. 101 colors is a bad sign to begin with. There's no reason there should be that many. It looks like you pixelated a picture and then did some parts by hand. I can't see any other reason for 101 colors. In the past such kinds of submissions were refused. I might be wrong though, just sharing my impression.
Zizka- Yes, pretty much! I have the bluray here and made a bunch of screenshots to use as reference. The red room is pretty important in the film, too, and you can see it just two or three minutes after the scene with the helmet. I changed pretty much nothing about the pose, but I thought that'd be ok for something like a movie poster. I hope my use of reference isn't against the rules here? Just so I know for the future.
It looks almost identical to this photograph:
Am I correct?
Two days working on and off on it, so realistically I think between five and ten hours probably.
Yes, definitely keep at it if it inspires you :) You just gotta ask yourself if you really want to delve into the world of pixel art or not. You gotta remember, this is a pixel art gallery. Pieces aren't rejected because the art itself is good or bad, but whether or not it is deemed as pixel art. This piece won't be accepted, but that just means pixeljoint does not see it as pixel art. You can edit it and delete it, or it will just become inactive. But if you really want to get your feet wet in pixels, head to the WIP section, and people will help you out and show you the ropes.
I'm as hobbyist as they come here. You dont have to be pro to understand or even make wonderful pixel art.
We always recommend noobies start on very small canvases. 64 x 64 is a good size to understand the basics.