Latest thing:



Better self portrait.
C&C?


Edited by Shrub - 28 January 2008 at 5:29am

Okay, thanks. I'll use the Insert Image feature next time.
Anyone got some criticism for me?

What do you mean by choosing the colours by hand?
And I am going to start working on an isometric grass tile once I've mastered the 2d grass tile.

I'll post more updates and stuff tomorrow, k.
Yay, now I'm cool like you! XD

It is unlikely to see someone choosing all the colours in this palette individually and on purpose, and so Jalonso is wondering whether you really did pick them all yourself, or whether the image was altered in some way that would create these very similar colours.

I personally don't understand the outline of the actual image, which i usually see when someone has sharpened a photograph and the edges are lightened through the sharpening. (It probs isn't that though).

One thing you've gotta look at is the way your tiles actually tile together. At the moment it's too easy to notice the edges of each tile. Tiling is a tricky business because you need (usually) to give the illusion of a general texture on a large area using a small repeated pattern.

So the first thing you should do is to sort out that palette, then to try and get a tile that repeats well.

Good luck!

Ah man, I can't shade for my life.
I've read tutorials and whatever, but I just don't know how to shade stuff.
I know about light sources and stuff, oh yeah, I can shade pretty well in real life, but I can't do it the Pixel Art way.

For example, this is the side of a rocky cliff.




Could someone please show me how you would go about shading it?
I know it's badly drawn, but it's just for shading purposes.

Well, I've read books and stuff on shading, so it's just practice that will help me on that,
but what I mean is if you look at this image of the side of the toast that you pixeled:


then you see it has lots of shades and parts of the edge line has different dots of colour in it.
I find this to be very complicated.
How am I supposed to know where to put all the different shades?

I know that you put darker shades where the light can't reach and all that, but good pixel art like the above has lots of dots of shades everywhere and on the lines and stuff.


Oh, and about the MS paint thing - I just think that it can't zoom enough unless you go into View or something, and I know that lots of great pixel artists use it, but I'm bad enough at pixel art without being limited by Paint.
The great pixel artists are so good they could make fantastic pixel art with anything, but I like to have easier to access tools, easy zooming, and all that.

I'm not saying Paint is crap, but it's not like it has any qualities that are better than Graphics Gale or any other software, so really I would just be limiting myself if I chose Paint over Graphics Gale.



Edited by Shrub - 25 January 2008 at 7:37am

I thought that might be the case.
I guess it's just a case of trying and trying again, until I can make it look like holes in bread, or rocks on a cliff, or whatever.

And the best way to do that is study other pixel art and how they dot the pixels around to make a certain effect. I'd better get studying then

Yes, I think I'll just have to practice pixel art and try and learn how to do those things, either by studying other work or reading tutorials.

But just studying won't get me anywhere, so I had better just get on with it and pixel. Practice must be the only way.
I was just worried about how the results would turn out, but now I do realise that I won't get anywhere unless I at least try and pixel something bigger than 30 x 30.

Thanks for the help/advice guys, I'm going to post some stuff soon.

#1 - Import into the stage (not the library)
#2 - make symbol (even if used once)
#3 - double click 'img' and uncheck 'lossy'
# 4 - get clean pixelart


ps: when preparing image for Flash leave 1 pix transparent border around the art.
When making symbol XY is x0 y0 and when using in movie place symbol -1 x and -1y.
mhmmm :D

But each symbol has its own registration point. Centered by default. This will always override and 'smooth' everything. By 00pixelart and placing on whole coordinates you bypass Flash's overwhelming need to smooth stuff.

Mind you I am not a Flash expert, I do however  use it for pixelart and even create pixelart with my brush extension that is isometric. If you doubt this you can visit my 100% flash & pixelart webby all created as I mentioned before...

anyhoo...good luck ;)

You cant get limited by paint. You can only get too much expanded by more functions.

The dots everywhere are on some places a form of dithering and on some others a bad texture

Before you continue with the grass tile, first remove the grassy things.. there are 3 side, the lightest side gets lightest color only, the right side the middle and the left side the darkest. Than you continue with placing verticall stripes of the middle color just as you did but without making it darker in the left.
come back as soon as you did that :)

Hmm shrub, I'd reccomend sticking to one piece at a time, instead of making five small things and getting crits on them all. Can be very confuserating.

Hmm my hair is curly in real life, so I was going for a curly look but didn't quite get it right.
I'll redo it anyway.

Awesome, thanks!
And my hair is as curly as the guy in blue.
I'll definitely try and do it like yours, so thanks again!

Keep at it! ^^ I'd add some more lighter strands, even if they don't have highlights later on, in the middle. Remember where your head curves and where the light would hit it. :]

And here we have it...
It's not that great compared to other pixel art, but someone (jalonso...?) told me to compare my new pixels with my other ones, not other peoples' pixels.

So in comparison to my other pixels, it's bloody amazing.

Dan... Dan... DAAAAAN!

Yay! It could use a tweeny bit of work, because it looks too flat, so I'll work on it some more.


Edited by Shrub - 28 January 2008 at 5:50am

Lol omg I totally forgot about ears and eyebrows!
Here's an update:

Old:

added lighter hair colour, ears, eyebrows.
Looks worse in my opinion, but at least I still have the old version.

^^;;

I'm trying out different head shapes and proportions to try and get it right.
This is my first try:


Still looks pretty bad, but I've got to keep trying...

Hehe. :D You amuse me... (That's not a bad thing, I swear!)