you really need to get along with the basics of desing and or drawing. you'll better take some paper and pencil and practice there first, get some EXP and then move into pixel art, as this lack of defined shapes and shadowing is a constant in both works.

yes, but there are still many things you have to learn about light and drawing in general and its not very easy to learn this all on a digital medium..

Edited by jalonso - 29 December 2007 at 8:29pm

thanks man, i do have the patience. Yesterday no one would help me or comment after i had what i have now. Thanks for the C&C, i think i will make a body sorta stick out with a blue outline and not colored in...sorta of like you would just see as a reference and like on a high-tech computor.

Edited by jalonso - 29 December 2007 at 8:29pm

You seem to not understand what we are referring to. I'll make a tiny, rough edit to visually show you what we mean by shape definition and contrast.

After dinner and Pixiedust gets a walk, check later today or tomorrow morning :)

1- My pony pixiedust says your original has a huge assed amount of colors which is a total waste.
2- Pixiedust and I came up with a far more limited color palette that retains your colors just as well using just 13 colors. The very darkest green may be used in the red areas too.
3- This shows your skull's general lighting and where things should go as you color.
4- The whole helmet is a rather big area. I suggest to you that you break things up into small areas.
The size of these areas is determined by the size you feel confident pixelling.
The less sure you are of coloring the smaller the areas should be.
If you do this with this and any future pixel then the goal is to always try for slightly bigger areas until you are comfortable not breaking anything up.
Trust me here its the best way to gain confidence and learn to detail small things which is always useful later on.
Color these areas as single items using #3 for general color ranges. Also shown below in #5
5- You can also take these smaller areas and further divide them into yet smaller areas to pixel.
Here you may add all sorts of things to your skull. Rivets, nails, wires, scratches. Anything you wish.
These tiny add-ons are also perfect to hide little jagged parts of the lineart.
They also add character and texture. Notice I took the mouth and divided that into two areas plus the hinges that connect the two.
These are very small areas that I know you can handle with no problems.

I think #3 is all I really wanted to mention your skull required but truly think that you should give the breaking things up into small areas a try.
It has helped many in the past. Its also less overwhelming and with each little section you feel like an accomplishment was made and you self-encourage(?) and motivate into at first completing, then into try to get bigger and bigger section getting the same level of accomplishment.

Its like I keep telling Pixiedust as it waits for its sparkly magical wings to grow. "Patience and practice Pixie or you'll end up as glue."




Edited by jalonso - 27 December 2007 at 6:23pm

The palette I made for your use so yes.
Try to remake it all on your own as you see fit.
Just concentrate on contrast and definition which is the difference between my #3 and your pixel.
Note that I didn't do the greatest job so that you had room to make your own without much copying.
go!

Don't be lazy ya bum, try googlin'


You need to make your revision more your own. Yours is very similar to mine. Dither the helmet or something.
When making the visor try to make it part of the helmet rather than ON the helmet as you have it. Maybe connected to the circle or something. See the samples here for ways to do so.

Well its not that you HAVE TO dither. The small area you did looks good. Smaller areas don't always have the room to dither and this is fine too. Just keep at it and keep posting updates as you go along.

Remember your concern when you first postied this:
"don't know if you think so, but shouldn't this be accepted? It's best pice i've done and i think it's worthy"

Isn't it better now? All pieces can always be better :p

Why the green AA?
Where's the dithering and cleaning up of the lines?
Where's the tiny highlights and detailing?
You can still do so much more. I don't want to edit anymore on this because I don't want to take over it. You must find these things yourself.

OK, but I'm currently busy with 'action' on another thread.

Work on cleaning the outside edges and removing the BG.

BG = Background

So those are not helmets but they show how you can highlight even further than you already have. This is what I meant by breaking up the areas into smaller areas and then detailing and defining these smaller areas.
Zoom in and study, patience pays. Please be patient.



Edited by jalonso - 29 December 2007 at 8:35pm

Well, you could by:
• introducing a new (second) lightsource.
• You could add graphics
• You could have rivets, vents, or other
• Add more things that bump out like the ear/head thing.

Experiment


Edited by jalonso - 28 December 2007 at 6:22pm

ok, i'll probably add some vents and or dents. Leel, i will do this... i made my visor similar to jalonso's and havn't edited since as you can see on top.

Edited by jalonso - 29 December 2007 at 8:35pm

Looking awesome!
I agree you should refine the dithering a little bit.
The vent and the added bumps and ridges are fantastic.
Do you find the mouthpiece odd looking?
I hadn't noticed it before but is seem oddly shaped :/

btw, that imageshack you are using is behaving some.
I use www.tinypic.com and its really good.

I have tried removing and editing your images and it doesn't work.
Try deleting your images in imageshack, especially the older versions.

it's ok, thanks ill be back tomarrow morning

Thanks man, for my first real pixel i think its real nice. My brother (he's 11) sometimes watches me and says i stink...when he saw the helmet he couldn't believe i had done it lol.

Edited by volcom - 30 December 2007 at 11:24am