Was really enjoyable to read through this topic and see your progress as a new pixel artist there were alot of tips i picked up on. Nice job^_^

so I am working on this easy title / mainly font (Arvesia) :

in motion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToVnEzL9aQY

here's current version ( older version of font is in vid only) :


Game is freeware one but I d like to make it a "better" looking freeware anyway. So how to make this font to look more pro-like. I say this because I know title screen is very important one. Tho I am nearly still novice I d like to make it somehow better. It does not look right/good. But I can't figure it out... How to improve the font?

I plan to separate mountains and tree in the future, so those will be 3 differently moving patterns. Each of its own speed pace to add more depth.(like those clouds behind). I am still not sure about sky gradient, but there might be some.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 15 January 2015 at 1:39pm

Thanks for tip! I will definietly revamp the font completely when I will get back to work on title. I am jumping from one thing to another but... eventually I ll return to title again.

Here are some lushes for another part of forest where there will be more flowers. I think its ok, i post it as it might help to some novice-pixelartist, who's just starting with pixels. It's really simple.

I made red flower first, all I did to get new colors for yellow flowers was that I toned selected red flower (adjust RGB colors with slide bars to change red flower to yellow value quickly, no need to mix manually or to use different palette).



Edited by RebeaLeion - 17 January 2015 at 12:31pm

Looking very solid, compared with the starting stuff.

One issue I had was that you have spiky foreground plants that look dangerous but are actually not in the play area. It's a cool effect to have them on both sides of you, foreground and background side, but as a new player I'd be afraid of hurting myself on them thinking they were a hazard. I'd also wonder if having them in game could hide enemies you need to avoid.

Thank you! Here on PJ are very talented artists and I m trying to follow their tips/threads too. It helps in general. I kinda agree, this thread is quite good for starters as it covers some basics there in previous posts. When I look at forum - there're similiar threads like this one and those threads help as well.

I suggest you to get rid of MS Paint asap. That's the worst thing which limits you to all degrees. (some might argue, but thats my opinion). MS Paint is the worst thing you can use for pixelart (limited undo, no layers, etc.). I cant recommend any free as I am not using one. I use graphicsgale which is commercial (but not expensive!).

GraphicsGale is superb to MS paint and very friendly. It costs not much (10-20usd? cant remember) + any next new update (new version) is free.
This is my tree for starters tutorial using graphicsgale (lighting is a bit messed there i know, but it covers basic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97O1ELnOKxk

that aside.
I gave up on pixel font for Title screen (Yes ) I tried something I think I understood what Pixelsnader meant but it didnt work x_x (I decided to shorten deadline/amount of time on the Title Screen). Therefore I used combined digital (photoshop) + pixel graphic. It's not entirely pixelart now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYNhy7bIhrc

Edited by RebeaLeion - 21 January 2015 at 9:56am

I never did pixelart in MS Paint. I mostly did edits of things such as drawing new stuff over snesrip tilest (RPG maker tilesets used a lot of snes rips, i often edited them for custom-need). The very limited undo 4-5 steps caused me a lot of troubles when I decided I need to go 15+ steps back to redraw/edit things differently. Pherhaps that's why I am not using MS paint futher. In my opinion MS paint ( windows7 version ) is user-interface unfriendly so I am not working with it.

Those usable MS paints were in 98/XP. I do not know those shortcuts you mentioned as I never used them in MS paints. I am still using zoom out/in or click to select tool.

Your tree in 7-8 minutes is stunning me. I would do such attempt 20+ if not close to an half hour (in Gale). You're right that tool does not make an artist but experience and knowledge do. Your pixelart is nice.

That aside I still prefer graphics gale over Ms paint. For me it's just a need. I often take bad steps and draw things completely off then I realize that I messed the basics and I need more than 5 undos and layer helps me a lot too.


1) I use blobs because I m used to them from MS Paint ( I used MS paint for years, I am using gale for 8 months); even GG has built in palette manager, I will still go for blobs. Force of habit.
2) Yes, it happens. Then I have go to ctrl+z.

This is (heck) don't judge it please. My first hume sprite I ever created (in MS paint) before I got Gale.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3W6QRm3gEc8/VMALcoJN_iI/AAAAAAAABzo/fjRD7BvYaLU/s1600/__Quick_EDO.png I did game in 800x400 back then and I didnt know pixelart has some things to follow(pixel size,shadows,lights... etc.) I was lost without PJ and I looked at a lot of pixel sites. Sprite was based on based on http://www.raywenderlich.com/14865/introduction-to-pixel-art-for-games

Then I got graphics Gale and I could do this animation on frames. not to MS sheet it like before (viz. pic). That's why I started to like it more than MS paint.


For starters I would recommend something more flexible over Ms paint. I am still using paint XP for quick selection (from old times when I edited stuff) as I find this the fastest tool for "Select" tool. I would not recommend MS paint windows7 tho.

But it's anyone's choice. If you're good with it and you can do crazy stuff (in a good way - nicepixelart) in it, why not. If I would be used to MS paint I would not trade either.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 21 January 2015 at 12:37pm

Your explaination of MSP was fair enough.

I never examined MS paint 7 onward. For some reason I thought win7 ms paint had the same number of undoes as its ancestors XP, if it has more undoes than 5 then it's ok I guess. Layer is just an addition and undo lock after 5 undoes was my main knot with MS paint.

Everyone prefers something else. GraphicsGale sure can be more flexible, but of course you can make same results in both MS Paint and GG.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 22 January 2015 at 5:44am

I recommend Piskel for doing your pixel art and animation frames. They even have layers! I just joined them! But I wish they had like an undo button... (maybe they have one and I haven't found it yet...)

I decided to cancel this pixel-based game I was working on. I have more reasons for it.

I might still draw some pixelart just for fun in the future. :) Thank you for the feedback you gave me in this thread, I learnt something.

EDIT2016:
This project's status is hiatus. I think in the next year or two there wont be any work on this, but in the further future there might be.

That is a pity! Your video shows that there was a lot of content finished, it looks fun!

nothing will change about game develop. I stopped and that's it.

However I am doing some pixelart for fun as I mentioned above !

New trees are based on pixelsnader's tree (simple, yet awesome). So I tried something in similiar style, also I finally cleared the grass and it's better too! :)




Edited by RebeaLeion - 31 January 2015 at 11:21pm

Iscalio, i might try to experiment more with a colours in the future, it's note excatly the thing, but I toned trees in wider colour range here:



I did this assets update lately for fun as I tried to reach more readable pixelart. folks told me my work was noisy, messy, etc. and that I should avoid it. it still is here and there but I m trying to improve in this direction.

I m Still practicing pixelart and I will for some time because it's quite fun to be creative. :-))

Edited by RebeaLeion - 31 January 2015 at 5:31pm

There are extensions you can get for Chrome that'll get rid of the blur. I don't know why Chrome doesn't listen to the CSS, it's the only major browser that doesn't support for image-interpolation: nearest-neighbour in some form.

I think the old grass was better. The new grass is repetitive and the walkable area is so cleanly delineated, it looks like a green table-cloth rather than grass. If you want the walkable area to be clean, you should focus on defining the general walkable plane, not just a line that separates the walkable from the vertical. The actual boundaries between walkable and vertical can be irregular/organic, as long as it's clear which plane is which. Because of that sharp boundary, your new grass looks more like bright green rocks or pavement rather than grass. The blades being so huge also look weird compared to how tiny the character is.

I think #5 is a nice compromise, but it still has what looks like a nearly-solid bright line running across it that ruins the organic shape. The leaves being so large is still odd to me. If it's meant to be a bunch of leafy plants rather than grass, I think it might help to emphasise the clumpiness a little (might be easier if you introduce a couple of extra tiles instead of having one repeating tile).

Try to work more with contrasts on her dress and head as you did with your little goblins.
The dress is so bright on the left and suddenly the right side is cut off by the shadow. However the light would still hit the right side, would not it?

I prefer the third version. The first one is too small in comparison to the little goblins while the second one has no real volume on her body.
Specially the second one has a strong shadow right below her chest but nearly any dark shadows on her right side. I still wonder where light comes from, haha.

The teeth are not that easy to read as well. Though in my point of view the teeth from the second version are the best right now. Maybe go for something similar to the little goblins and try to stress the teeth with a well placed outline and maybe 1px shade.

Hopefully my feedback was not too rough... It was not meant to be :)



Edited by Lakelezz - 06 February 2015 at 6:22am

another attempt :



2nd EDIT, I put more pixels into face but not sure if its better than 1st



3rd EDIT, i know i m not so good at this, but I am also never happy. This is final (?). I think 3rd is the best.



here I just changed design:


Edited by RebeaLeion - 09 February 2015 at 11:45am

Man, I'm jealous! You're really god at this and very determined... I hope I can learn as well as you did! :3

I am an amateur, lol. Try to browse gallery a bit more, you will find some really awesome pixelart there and if you will find something simple, try to study it :) how are the lights, cracks, etc. It helps me sometimes to catch a glimpse. Thanks adamgoldfav anyway, I am sure he meant good not god!

i m wiping on my sprite:

indeed, thanks. Added new lighting.




I think the next goblin try will be that mama.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 14 February 2015 at 3:23pm

So I was working on rubbish now, actually. I had it like practice, I did all animations less than in 10 hours as I didn't want to spend days on this test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVysSUEz2QQ#t=37

Walk I did however very carefully. I tried walking to be best as possible.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 16 February 2015 at 10:29am

Thanks you guys for giving time to post these. I got inspired looking at this thread. I started learning pixel art again.

Edited by nohEal - 23 February 2015 at 4:55pm

oh thank you for reviving this thread. That reminded me, I am working on this map picture, however my pixels arent the best I hope you might give me some feedback on this project before I do more bad than good. How you like terrain, mountains, if something is out of place etc. I will continue in this style as it is as I do things :-) i plan to post this one in gallery when its done.

I m working on this slowly, 1 month + now, when i have mood. and i have no pre-made picture how it will look at final shape, I just draw what comes to mind.


edit : very small update,

I decided smaller mountains will be better



Edited by RebeaLeion - 11 April 2015 at 3:10am

You're improving so fast since you first began.

I finished practice map for gallery, yay.

Arvesia is still in WIP, but I do not think of that I will release it somehow. It's just fun to put and mash all tileset that i create together.

Here's dungeon mockup :

EDIT2016: sorry link is missing. but can be see below anyway§

What is wrong with curtains - i tried to make them without noisy things. Are those any better ? the first looked more lively to me.

1 - orig.


2


3


fixed lights of 3


4


5 - same as 4, but without that crazy lighting, um...


so what curtains do you think are better ? I still think 1 is the best as it fits the best into the place. I appreciate feedbacks tho, i m not sure how to improve it here, so 1st works for me.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 25 April 2015 at 2:00am

new skeleton animation, tho it looks like some kind of mudman or something like that. I think new skelet is much better, so i consider it finished for idle


Edited by RebeaLeion - 22 April 2015 at 8:01am