Pixel art that needed revision.
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20412
Printed Date: 14 September 2025 at 3:43am
Topic: Pixel art that needed revision.
Posted By: Nirel
Subject: Pixel art that needed revision.
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 10:55am
Hi,I posted this image in the gallery and I was told I need revision, but no comment on what's actually wrong.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me what it is that needs revision exactly. |
Replies:
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 11:00am
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I'm not a mod, but I suspect it might be the lighter colours mixed into your AA'd areas (such as under the left eyebrow and under the chin), which make it look like you used a sharpening resizing algorithm to create your AA. You also have a few colours that only occur in only a few pixels and could easily be replaced by other colours in your palette, which looks suspicious. |
Posted By: Nirel
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 11:06am
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Originally posted by eishiya
I'm not a mod, but I suspect it might be the lighter colours mixed into your AA'd areas (such as under the left eyebrow and under the chin), which make it look like you used a sharpening resizing algorithm to create your AA. You also have a few colours that only occur in only a few pixels and could easily be replaced by other colours in your palette, which looks suspicious. :( Well I try not to be angry, I might not be a good pixel artist, but everything was done by hand! there were a few green pixels that I added an extra color for, because I couldn't make them look right. I was actually quite proud of this... I could send the PSD if it helps. I can't help but feel a bit offended when something I put a lot of hours into gets rejected, and I'm not even told what needs to be fixed. |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 11:18am
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One "trick" that could help get rid of noise (the principal thing that makes your pixel art look less hand-crafted, on top of simply not being good in most cases) is to find pixels that aren't part of any cluster, and see if changing them to be the same as the surrounding colour would make a noticeable difference. If it doesn't make a difference, then do it. If it does make a difference, then that pixel is probably detail that you should keep. For example, that light green dot by the eyebrow doesn't add anything of value to the piece, but the nostrils obviously do and should be kept. I also think you could safely lose the shading(?) on the clothing, as it's barely readable as shading (it's noticeable only upon zooming in several times, at which point it still doesn't quite sell the form). The fabric is dark enough to not need shading. As for colours - I don't know what problems specifically you felt you had with the colours that you had to add single-pixel bits of other colours, but to me it looks like the main issue is your green colour ramp is boring because there's no hue shift. That's not something that would contribute to your work not being accepted, but it is something to keep in mind when dealing with colour problems. Often, the solution is more interesting colours rather than more colours. |
Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 11:19am
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It was me that sent it back for revision while I was sending back many other pixels by other artists and maybe...maybe I made a mistake with yours.
I did zoom in and ran an image check and actually inspected closely. I think its cute and was wanting to add it but something about the coat threw me off. Mostly the larger darker green area where the color variations is so small and itself contains 5 colors. Just seemed like maybe you had done something wrong like maybe a tool/dodge/blur. I tried to be as fair as possible because you do say this was an AA exercise. I totally believe you if you say you hand pixelled purely and apologize for sending back. You can go back to that art page and hit the 'edit it' under the art and then hit submit again. --- Added to the gallery. Sorry about that :) ------------- |
Posted By: Nirel
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 12:10pm
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Originally posted by eishiya
One "trick" that could help get rid of noise is to find pixels that aren't part of any cluster, and see if changing them to be the same as the surrounding colour would make a noticeable difference. If it doesn't make a difference, then do it. If it does make a difference, then that pixel is probably detail that you should keep. For example, that light green dot by the eyebrow doesn't add anything of value to the piece, but the nostrils obviously do and should be kept.I also think you could safely lose the shading(?) on the clothing, as it's barely readable as shading (it's noticeable only upon zooming in several times, at which point it still doesn't quite sell the form). The fabric is dark enough to not need shading.As for colours - I don't know what problems specifically you felt you had with the colours that you had to add single-pixel bits of other colours, but to me it looks like the main issue is your green colour ramp is boring because there's no hue shift. That's not something that would contribute to your work not being accepted, but it is something to keep in mind when dealing with colour problems. Often, the solution is more interesting colours rather than more colours. I thank your feedback, I might have added colors carelessly when trying to make it look smoother, but I actually don't know how to find out how many times I used a certain color in an efficient way, It takes me a lot of time. when I made the gif and saw I used 28 colors, it seemed reasonable to me so I didn't think much of it. Now that you mentioned it I noticed the 'light green dot' It's the only part under the eyebrow that I didn't color so it stands out. I made this for a computer game I'm making so I wasn't that worried about efficiency, I thought the shade on the clothing helped form the hands, and add texture to it, I admit I didn't spend much time on it. I made the ramp from green to grey to gold to green to white, and whenever it didn't look smooth I just added a color in between. I started making a running animation, but now I'm not sure, maybe I should rework this, it would probably take a lot of time but it could be worth it. What hues would you have added and where?(by the way PSD saved it a bit desaturated than how I made it) |
Posted By: Nirel
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 12:13pm
|
Originally posted by jalonso
It was me that sent it back for revision while I was sending back many other pixels by other artists and maybe...maybe I made a mistake with yours. I did zoom in and ran an image check and actually inspected closely. I think its cute and was wanting to add it but something about the coat threw me off. Mostly the larger darker green area where the color variations is so small and itself contains 5 colors. Just seemed like maybe you had done something wrong like maybe a tool/dodge/blur. I tried to be as fair as possible because you do say this was an AA exercise. I totally believe you if you say you hand pixelled purely and apologize for sending back. You can go back to that art page and hit the 'edit it' under the art and then hit submit again. --- Added to the gallery. Sorry about that :) Thanks I guess, it seems I have much to learn. |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 12:22pm
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Originally posted by Nirel I made the ramp from green to grey to gold to green to white, and whenever it didn't look smooth I just added a color in between. I started making a running animation, but now I'm not sure, maybe I should rework this, it would probably take a lot of time but it could be worth it. What hues would you have added and where?(by the way PSD saved it a bit desaturated than how I made it) Since the golds/olives are all used separately from the greens, it leaves the greens lacking in hue shifting, it's a fairly straight, dull black-green-white ramp. The hues you introduce into your palette should depend on the look you want, so my preference is irrelevant. It's also not a matter of "adding" a hue (sounds like you're expecting to add more colours?), but rather shifting some of your existing colours towards another hue. One of the strengths of pixel art is you can replace colours easily, which facilitates experimentation. Since you're using some gold colours and already have some red in the lineart, perhaps shifting the darker greens towards orange/red might help? Might be challenging though, since those are complementary colours. |
Posted By: Nirel
Date Posted: 20 December 2014 at 1:18pm
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A bad choice of words on my end, I didn't mean adding additional colors. It seemed like you might have a specific palette criticism so I thought I should ask.
I will rework the palette and see if I can come up with something more interesting. I appreciate you feedback. |