Some topics you'll find here include:

• Anti Allias
  
• Dithering
• Isometric projection
• Clean lines
• Shading
• Palettes
• Color ramps
• ...

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Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 9:21am

Original and Updated

 

Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 9:04am

How to submit to the PJ gallery



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:57am

Maybe it is of use to someone:

Best regards from
M.E.


Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:56am

learning to pixel is the same as learning to draw. It's just a different medium/style. Not having the ambition to be an artist of any level isn't going to allow you to become a better pixel artist at all. That's like saying "I command you, pencil! Draw me a magnificent beast!" and expecting it to do it for you. Practice makes perfect and only time can improve your work

I am adding this to the list:




Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:51am

Just a little something for everyone to know, to look, and to reflect upon.

Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:46am

all an animation really is, is a bunch of pictures put together. so you need to figure out how the picture will look in each frame in order to get to the end outcome of your animation.

there isn't alot of tutorials because it isn't something you can really teach. there are some tutorials on how it should look such as walk cycles ect... but thats about as far as they go tutorial wise.

hmm...ah yes programs, well i use paint when i do animations i just draw each frame. but it often leaves you wondering as to how different the picture you are drawing is from the previous one. which is why alot of people use graphics gale instead of paint it has alot of useful features like that. see i think its called onion skinning or something but in graphics gale you can see what the previous frame looks like on the canvas or something and it allows you to make a more efficent anaimation.

as for were you should start, i recommmend starting out with simple animations like a lift door closing, or something like that, this way you can understand some of the basics before you move in to a harder level of animation.

Just adding these here. Made for a WIP section thread but could be useful to others.






Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:42am

I made this little tuto about vanishing point perspective, for a wip thread. Thought it might be useful here with a few explanations. Feel free to edit!


It is important to understand how perspective works in order to obtain satisfying realistic scenes.
Perspective is not arbitrary, it is based on how our eyes actually see.

It's explained in great detail here.

Please note: isometric, oblique and similar so-called perspectives are not discussed here, as they are non-realistic parallel projections and cannot use vanishing points.

To sum up the important points:
All real world parallel lines either appear parallel to the observer when viewed exactly frontally, or appear to converge towards a virtual vanishing point.
This point may be within or without the image frame; when within it can be apparent or hidden behind foreground objects.
Every group of real world parallel lines has its own vanishing point.
In many cases, a scene (a house, a room, a city) will have 3 main groups of parallel lines, derived from a cube: there should be 3 main vanishing points.
However, according to the observer's position and drawing options, it is acceptable to show only one or two of them, the other groups of lines being drawn parallel. Buildings vertical lines will often be drawn parallel, even though this is actually a non-realistic convention.
Looking around you will convince you that the only real perspective is 3-point perspective.

Practical steps:
- Decide horizon height. Even if it is hidden in the image, the vanishing points for all real world horizontal lines must be on the horizon, so it is important to know where it is. The horizon line crosses any object at the observer's height. For instance, in a city view from street level, the horizon line crosses buildings at about 1/3 the height of the first floor (height of a standing observer).
- Decide angle of view: wide, medium, narrow ('telephoto'). This means to decide the observer's distance to the subject: close, medium, distant. Vanishing points will be closer to the image or within it in a wide-angle view. Having 2 or 3 of them within the image means extreme wide-angle, not usually realistic nor very nice (Because the retina is a curved surface, we do not perceive the distortions visible in photographs taken at the same extreme angle of view as our eyes have).
A wide-angle view sharply divides subject planes: the distant background is seen smaller/further than it is, compared to the foreground. Conversely, a 'telephoto' view draws planes nearer, the background is seen larger and nearer than it is.
- Decide number and position of vanishing points. Are objects seen frontally or sideways? Is the view level, from above, from below? Do you want to emphasize depth?
- Remember foreshortening: the closer a vanishing point is to the image center, the shorter the corresponding lines should be; the wider the angle of view, the (reasonably) longer they should be! A common mistake is to make sides lines too long, irrespective of the actual angle of view.
- Draw!


Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:38am

Someone didn't know what blocking was. I made a quick picture with step 5 and step 4 visible.
Revised to include a full explanation and intermediate steps.



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:40am

This starting image is actually from a noob I'm trying to help.  The last 3 images were done by me.  I'm probably not the best teacher, but I thought this might be helpful to others.



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:35am

Q: What are standard pixels per inch for pixel art these days?
A: 72 dpi

Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:27am

This is extremely basic but, its something that often comes up.


@All, if you ever have anything helpful to the new folk, please post :)
Reposting image lost in Pixelastropy2010



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:24am

Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:20am

Too essential to let it die in another thread.

Aureeo - Not pixel art (I don't think), but my question about it pertains to pixel art. The white and gray pixels around the edge of it, Is that anti aliasing? And if so, isn't AA supposed to make an image look good? Why does this look so bad? Cause I've seen images like this with that stuff around the edge a lot. o.0

NOTE: This image is a screencap of original image)

Jeremy  - ...First and most importantly, Pixel Art must be saved in .png or .gif formats (Don't save as .gif in MS Paint though, it does odd things), as jpeg screws up colours and everything irreversibly and other formats aren't very web-friendly.

Pixel Art, at least in Pixel Joint's definition, is where control over every colour and single pixel placement (This doesn't mean you can't use floodfill or line tools though) is achieved. Any tools or filters which use automatic anti-aliasing, partial transparency/opacity and automatic gradients are Non-Pixel Art (NPA) according to PJ.

External Anti-Aliasing (like on that piece) are no-nos when it comes to a transparent background, i.e. when one can change theme like on here. It was probably originally tailored for a white background. AA is used for smoothing lines and the difference between colours, basically. The piece you posted has either been resized or jpegged at some point, so where it may have been PA once it isn't anymore.

Here's something I made for someone showing a .png, .jpg and weird paint .gif:



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:19am

From THIS thread

by r1k



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:13am

by Jeremy
... banding often occurs from bad/non-existent AA. With more obvious colours:




Edited by jalonso - 27 July 2014 at 2:49pm

My first tutorial, actually my first post also.
This technique is called a Swiss Repeat.

I have used Photoshop but it should work ok with any app that can handle layers.
Great if you have a complicated or random pattern that needs to be seamlessly repeated as in a background for instance.
I have chosen to do a tile of rocks to be used as a background. They are not the best rocks in the world I know.

WARNING: This technique uses Photoshop's transform controls to move pixels around. Because of this the result is not true pixel art. You can however use techniques like these to use as a base/ref.


tut by ..MABB.., on Flickr

Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:08am

Ptoing's AA tutorial picture.




Edited by jalonso - 27 July 2014 at 10:04am

by snader



Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:03am

Here's a good pixel art tutorial:
http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/index.html


Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 8:00am

Some useful color link tutorials:

Edited by jalonso - 08 February 2013 at 6:13am

How to batch save PNG'S in a single PSD document

http://gotohelldave.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/how-to-save-multiple-layers-in-a-single-psd/

This is great for sprite sheets and general animation that involves multiple frames.

Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 7:57am

By PixelSnader:
Very gentle slopes are not a friend of pixel art. In most cases you'll not want to use AA because then you can't put the sprite on a background as easily.


I made the bright white edge as straight as possible because here we would have to smooth out the silhouette against the background AND the contrast between white/black.I figured the saw-edge would make for a much more sensible thing to have 'jaggies' too.

Then I went and fixed the shape of the hilt and the tip of the blade, going by this reference. You might have a slightly different model, I don't know, maybe that's why it looks round at the tip. I also added in some shading instead of just flat colors. I'm not sure whether I like it better or worse; it makes the materials look a bit coarse.

Also added some AA between the black and white of the blade, since this isn't part of the silhouette and thus we won't have any problems with 'floating pixels' like in this image which is AAed towards black and thus looks bad on the PJ forums:

I ended up fiddling a fair bit with the saw teeth, to get them looking nice and jagged while at an angle.
 
When using the regular pattern at a stairstep, you're still noticing the stairsteps a lot. So how about we use the jagged dither pattern as a sort of AA? If we do a 50-50 spread of lines and jaggies, it works somewhat okay as AA, but it looks like the saw blade is interrupted a lot. As is often the case, compromise works well. Have only a few of the jagged holes filled, and you get a nice smoothing effect while still looking like one large continuous saw edge.


Edited by jalonso - 24 July 2014 at 7:55am