Dear pixeljoint-community

Right now I am working at this piece:


It got upscaled quite a lot, that is why most parts are having a low resolution.
However that is not my current problem since I am working on the bigger woman right now.
There were several attempts by me to add folds on her dress but they all failed.
The source of light is the lantern behind her. Next to the woman is a little "thing" being a doll. Can also be a little girl - this is totally up to the imagination of the viewer.
Neither the doll nor the background are even close to be done.

I am really struggling by doing the folds of the woman's dress and would be glad to get maybe an edit. Resources on the internet could not really help me. I feel like the way the light is falling onto the dress is not right.
However I would be really thankful for any help you can give me!

with best regards
Lakelezz

agreed with @MasterSky

welp~ but you could just say that is a bad wig or she is wearing a mask( if only that's a mask)

the rest to do is fixing the BG with some more details... dithering in a high-contrast palete would surely fit the taste : )

I suppose what you're going for is a chiffon dress?
For the form, something like this, this, or this might work.

For the lighting, perhaps looking at something noir would help you work it out.
images
close to your lighting
this seems close too

Hope that helps.

Edited by noriah - 23 August 2014 at 4:54am

I think the hair adds a lot of personality. I would keep that shape.
The whole scene is charming visually but not so much technically.
Technical > all.

You are pixelling very, very dirty. I'm hesitant to even call it pixelart atm.
The grass bushes especially almost look like its a brush pattern :/
If you made a section and c/p then make that bit nice and clean.

The mixed res on the light post is just ugly. This is very dirty too.

Yeah, I suspected that's what you did.
Imo, that never looks good because it ends up as a lot of noise with an overall uncontrolled look. Since actual pixelling is a small area then controlling that is important because you just never know what you are actually pixellling...
For example, look at the top edge of the bushes and see the 3 repeats that look like a wolf?

...don't even try that its a scary scene and you meant to make wolves :P

The cobbles are maybe the best part of all, but cleaning up everywhere is needed, k.

I wanted to share my latest version of this piece:


There will be probably an animation in the end.
The flies will fly around the lantern while the whole image will flicker after some longer intervals.

This piece is using 9 indexed colours, no transparent stuff :)

I am really trying to make it less dirty but that is kinda really difficult for me somehow. Therefore I am curious if you have got some tips for me!

Thanks for your fast reply!

Kinda like this:


I think that dark blue could be lightened a little bit and the fake black darkened a little bit so the show up better and help you define too.

Most of what I did was to make sure you don't have ugly bits and that areas do not line up in the way banding does even tho there is no banding here. Just the principle.


Edited by jalonso - 20 September 2014 at 6:50pm

That's it. Whenever you are doing anything just look at the area and clean as you go. If a shape/area/cluster looks ugly on its own, clean/fix it.

Edited by jalonso - 21 September 2014 at 4:42pm

Okay, I did some more edits.

This is my current piece:



The next thing is done some days ago. It simply means that the footage of the character is older.
In the upcoming two examples fog can be seen. Furthermore it will move from left to the right - that is it, no more animation of the fog itself.
Inspired by Probo who shared this link containing some Castlevania IV fog-style: http://youtu.be/t0myhqezd-s?t=1m10s
However I am aware that this is alpha-based.



This one got changed colours, does not work though:


The fog is not cleaned up. I kinda disliked the fog and so I continued working on the characters and pavement.



Edited by Lakelezz - 04 October 2014 at 4:21am

Thank you, Jalonso :)

Anything bothering you - something critical?
Do you have any suggestions about the fog?

With very dimmed lighting, fog might be hard to add--it helps to have a background and/or foreground to express things like this in my opinion. Search "fog at night" or "foggy lamp post at night" for impressions on what atmospheric fog looks like. That creeping cinema-smoke type of fog is translucent. You could curl it around the figures to show this, letting features show through the mist.
The hair could use a little cleaning, my tip is to light it like big, wide silk ribbons and then add smaller ribbons+stray hairs. That way it's not so overwhelming!
Other than that, this looks good. Keep up the good work.

You might want to look at Superturnip's hair edit in this thread. Hope that helps... I think they mostly just mean that you should draw bigger pieces of hair.


Edited by showtime - 04 October 2014 at 1:35pm

Thanks for sharing the link, showtime!
Ozcr, now I understand (visually) what you mean! Thanks for your idea and example.

Back then I worked on bushes (you can see the two-colour-version when scrolling up).
There was one more version, which I have never posted here. However this version is more fitting to the scenery but was extremely dirty, too.
Now I wanted to try it again! I really like the atmosphere being created supported by the bushes.
Additionally another idea (which came up in my mind had in the last days) was to add a border to the left (a tree).



On the one hand the tree is just sketched but on the other I tried to add some texture to it.
The lines on it (the brightest colour) should be more curved maybe due the tree being roundish :P
Nonetheless the tree is targeted to be not that fancy to reduce attraction. That is why I do not want to use highlights on it.

However I really want to tackle them again!
This is my first rough attempt to bring some real volume into these bushes:


This was another attempt make more out of the texture while respecting the volume idea:


I really want to go for those bushes. If somebody could give me some help and share his or her mind about those posted images that would be great!
If there would be someone who could do an edit onto certain area of the bushes to show me how to clean them that would be even greater :D
Overall I am thankful for every idea and help concerning this piece!  :)

Thank you a lot, H|F!
Your critique means a lot to me and pushes me even more to improve on this and in general :)

Some new updates (specially on the tree):



Edited by Lakelezz - 11 October 2014 at 4:21pm

Keep your light source in mind. Currently you only have a single light source shown (and no additional light sources implied, other than the glowing eyes)

So my question is, where is the back glow coming from? On the back of the tree, or other side of the hair, you have a back glow. This isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't read well with your light source.

Your bushes do need to be refined, but don't go overboard, I really like the style you have going on.

Having the bugs so close to the lamp makes them hard to read, at first I thought they were sparks or something.

I think your tree should be slightly more highlighted as well.

Here is a quick edit showing a few of the things I mentioned:


I highlighted the tree, removed the backglow on the tree, Moved the bugs further from the lamp, darkened the face a bit (does a flashlight light itself?), and added trails to the bugs to help show motion (it makes them read better when placed further from the lamp)

For the flashing, make it more random if you can rather than strobe-like.

Also maybe one of the "flash" frames be more dim to create a more frightening feel.

This is amazing

Wow! Awsome work, but maybe slow down the GIF? That'll look good. But I love it!

YES! I love where you're taking this. The attention to the light source definately improves the overall feel of the piece. Don't think of any changes as 'work lost', everything you've done up until this point has brought you to this point.

I do have a few ideas as to how you can take this another step further. First, while you were removing light from the far side of the dress, you ended up with apparent banding around the front. Let some of your colors mingle a bit and you'll notice it start to feel more fluid.

second, you've darkened the dress, but the bricks on the ground on the far side of the character are still lit. The shadow should extend further.


Side Note: I think the change also highlights the hand holding, which should be a focal point of the piece anyways. It makes you wonder. What? and Why? The more symbolic, the better.

I would also recommend blocking in shapes using your darkest color for the backgrounds. Give it a 'bit' more context. The full back isn't bad, but it feels wasted when you have such a subtle color available to you. Perhaps, some just barely visible clouds, or other (non working) lamps in the background, more bushes, or more path.

Whatever you go with, I know it'll be awesome. I'm happy you decided to try out my idea.

P.S. If you do the cloud idea, you could probably sneak in the moon peeking from behind one of them, giving you a second (but not as bright) light source to work with. Multiple light sources are harder to work with, but if you're really trying to challenge yourself, it may be worth a shot.

Edited by StepDragon - 13 October 2014 at 11:27pm

Thanks for your feedback! I am currently working on an update.

StepDragon, I am not sure if I really want to add much more to this. It will just take more time and someday I need to get to an end.
The shadow might get removed, I am not sure about. I made an edit to show how the new shadow probably would fall.

PixelSnader, thanks for your interesting ideas and precise description! Though your image is not visible. You need to share the file and use that link. Linking directly onto your PC hard drive wont work :P

Here is the main edit:


This the edit with how I personally think the shadows could fall (if extended):



Lastly this is an idea about how the left bush could be more impressive. Still struggling with dirty pixels. It is a suffering:


I am looking forward for your feedback and replies!
Thanks all :)

I think something that may make your work a little easier is cutting down on your composition a little. The central elements, the lamp and ghosts, are just really well placed. They are well composed and don't need crazy editing. Consider how you can work your ideas into this central looping path of "face-face-lamp", so that the viewer has an easier time navigating your image.


It also is a big plus to make the most important parts of your image off-center. It's somehow more dynamic and exciting!

If you crop your composition a little bit, you may find that things fall into place easier. I have no idea why this happens, but it does, so consider a tighter composition whilst you work!

By the way, I somehow missed the flashing animation... That is simply the scariest thing ever. Good job, you get a ten out of ten for sheer creepiness!

Wow, the improvement is great!

For crits, I think that the cobble is far too busy with all those highlights going on. Maybe if you took out the two lightest blues on the ground it would draw more attention to the ghosts? Also, the way the pavement fades into a sort of scratchy texture, looks a tad bit awkward imo.

Edited by ADrawingMan - 16 October 2014 at 3:30am

Its not a realistic scene so realism should not be a concern.
You are going well cept, I'm still calling for you to be clean with your pixels, k.

I also feel that the previous bushes looked more natural. Though you did have a lot of single speckles on it. I think just cleaning it up a bit would be fine though.

Don't forget the drop shadow of the bushes on the road.
I think the tree is very... cartoony in a sense. Just a cyinder with a stick. A general rule of thumb for trees is that the thicker a branch is, the smoother it flows into the trunk or a main branch.

Compare these:
http://lonsdalemedia.net/wp-content/gallery/day-4-perth-city-night/071-kings-park-night.jpg
http://pix.purplecow.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/park_at_night1_sm.jpg
http://static.squarespace.com/static/515aaa6be4b063d29d1c71ea/t/527b81f1e4b05821d4d1f01a/1383825909209/Mikko-Lagerstedt-Night-at-the-Park.jpg

Your branch juts out without any kind of transition. Also, I think the tree would catch significantly less light as well as have a darker bark color than the leaves are.

While we're on light, I think the kind of fish eye effect you get from the tiles and the lamp would work nicely with a bit of a circular cloud clearing, nothing too bright but just to break up the flatness a bit. Perhaps clouds at the top of the image, then a bit of clearing, and then a skyline or a treeline to get back into the darkness. It could also give you a light to put main tree's leave silhouettes in front of. That way you can steer the eye a bit more.

Oh and if you're going to redo the tree... I suggest curving the trunk a bit to also match the fish eye effect.