WIP (Work In Progress)
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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Topic: [WIP]: Blue Ghost
    Posted: 02 April 2008 at 3:04pm
Hello everybody from PixelJoint. Im posting my first thread in the forums to show you my work in progress, called the "Blue Ghost".
C+C would be great, but what I really want to know is if it is somehow related to pixel art, since it got rejected when I submitted it (I made it long time ago, re-did some shading before submitting). I think I kinda "ruined" it by using a brush from mspaint to make the thick outline (I made this long time ago).
 
Ok, so here it is:
 
 
Thanks!
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Hatch
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Quote Hatch Replybullet Posted: 02 April 2008 at 6:12pm
Looking good! The angle of his head demands that his left (our right) arm be partially obscured by his body. This helps create clear levels of depth. The way you have it now instantly flattens him to a single plane.

Also, I think this could really benefit from a healthy dose of antialiasing, or AA. You have a thick outline, which is fine, but then you have a narrow line of bright pixels surrounding it. This accentuates the jaggedness of the line, the opposite of what you'd generally want. Manual antialiasing is pretty advanced and can be tricky, but you gotta learn sometime eh?

I also would tone down the saturation of your colors, and try to move toward purples for your darks. Shifting hue (color; red, green, blue, etc.) in addition to value (lightness) is a common and sensible approach to coloring. It just generally makes things look more interesting, and parallels real life, for the most part.
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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Posted: 03 April 2008 at 9:52am
Hello Hatch! Thanks a lot for the tips, I think it really helped me improve the piece. This is how it looks now:
 
 
I toned down the saturation, used dithering for shading and removed some unnecessary collors from the background. I also removed the bright outline and added some AA based on a tutorial I saw, but I couldn't manage to put it inside as well without screwing the shading on his left side (our right).
Oh yeah, I also fixed his arm so it wouldn't look weird having both arms in front of him while he's turning around a little.


Edited by Taikon - 03 April 2008 at 9:52am
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Metaru
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Quote Metaru Replybullet Posted: 03 April 2008 at 10:00am
ain't this based on these Pon and Zi comics too? because it does resemble it A LOT.
I ate leel's babies
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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Posted: 03 April 2008 at 10:35am
Hmm not really, I made this out of the blue a couple years ago. I just googled it here and yeah, it does look like it. But then, both the characters and the thing I drew are just little bodys with big roundy heads :P
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Quote 0xDB Replybullet Posted: 03 April 2008 at 1:12pm
Nice progress, the new version already looks a lot better than the first version, but I think if you aa the outline on the outside(outline|background) you should also aa it on the inside(bodyparts|outline).


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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Posted: 03 April 2008 at 6:26pm

I tried doing the AA inside again, I guess it worked this time. Thanks alot guys, I think it looks great now! I'll submit it again and see if it's accepted this time.

 
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Hatch
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Quote Hatch Replybullet Posted: 03 April 2008 at 7:58pm
You really should brighten it up! It's gotten darker with each revision and I can barely see it now. Also, the lightest external aa colors is actually lighter than the background, so it has the opposite effect of smoothing.
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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Posted: 04 April 2008 at 9:00am
Hmm you're right, it didn't look so dark when I was editing it. Maybe it's due to the bright background. Well, I didn't want to mess with the collors so I have brightened only the background. I guess that also fixed the AA issue a little.
 
Edit: Nevermind, brightened the ghost a little.
 


Edited by Taikon - 04 April 2008 at 9:09am
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0xDB
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Quote 0xDB Replybullet Posted: 04 April 2008 at 2:40pm
There is still some AA missing between his right arm and the outline. I also think that the dark arm should get some light on the right side.
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Quote M.E. Replybullet Posted: 04 April 2008 at 10:01pm
Hi Taikon,

Really liking the background. The color of the ghost was best
in your first post. Like Hatch said it is a bit dark. The more
lighter blue used in the first pictures gives a nice glow to it!
Try to keep the light outline you had in the first picture but
use a little AA to lose the rough line of the ghost itself.

Hope this helps.

Best regards from

M.E.
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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Posted: 05 April 2008 at 7:09am
Hello M.E., I tried adding the outline back, but had to make it thicker so I could AA it. Doing AA was a bit frustrating though..
 
Also did the missing AA on his right arm and the light on the dark arm as Dennis suggested. Looks better now.
 
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Quote 0xDB Replybullet Posted: 05 April 2008 at 8:25am
Yup, really looks better now. If you don't have any other plans for the background, I'd say it looks finished. :)
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Taikon
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Quote Taikon Replybullet Posted: 05 April 2008 at 2:39pm
Indeed! And it's been accepted already! Thanks everyone!
 
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