Some pixel art and first attempt gif.. ing. gifing.

[Weston_Kaunk]

I'm making myself an avatar for the forums here and general internet use(never made my own before)

It's not finished yet, but I'm new to the dithering(I've learned it's called)type of shading and I wanted to know if anyone had any personal tips that they've learned when using dithering kind of shading. This is kind of a test run, for my game I'd like to have a kind of crosshatch comicbook approach to dithering. If anyone knows of some examples of pixel art that look comic book, that'd be really awesome.

I always wanted to make one of those start-to-finish things so I found a free gif making site and started.. and I really don't like the site if anyone knows a freeware program it'd be really appreciated.








Mostly I'm skeptic about my palette use.
I'm worried the color use on the glasses frame isn't right, I think maybe when I include the glare on the lens it might look better because the light source would make sense with the shine on the frame. and I'm really not sure about the dark shades on the forehead and under the eyes. I can't upload the picture of me I'm basing this off right now but the colors on the forhead should be much more grey and the stuff under the eyes more grey pink because of the lighting in my room, but I just can't figure out how to get the that color.
What do you guys think?

[bicilotti]

I am not an artist so I can't give pointers, but I like it, looks very nice and "believable" to me!
The only thing I would change is the color of the outline of the eye: something dark but less dark would do imho.

[Ghost]

Mostly I'm skeptic about my palette use.

I think the palette is okay. But if I were to be really literal here, this is NOT pixel art. You are using merging gradients and soft brushes, both of which are not used in traditional pixel art. See also here: http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

Still, your result is nice indeed, so well done! That "look over top of glasses" expression is neat

[Weston_Kaunk]

@bicilotti, that's a really good point. I'm gonna do a recoloring see if I can get the hang of this

@ghoast, thanks a ton for that link. Really cleared up a bunch of that for me. I'm very new to this(the actual making of projects). You mentioned soft brushes, I tried to look it up. What exactly is a soft brush? Is that like if you change the transparency or something?

[Ghost]

I bet soft brush isn't even the correct word

What I mean is, for pixel art you usually go with the pen tool, which draws single pixels (or clusters of pixels) that do not blend into each other.
A soft brush would be any brush that has a soft edge and blends colours together.
Personally I think using transparency is useful when you go for shading on a pixel level, but many people I know prefer picking colours by hand.

While we're at it with handing out links, here's another great one! http://art-eater.com/2010/07/test-1-darkstalkers/

[Weston_Kaunk]

Ahhh, I gotcha. Yeah, I really need to learn how these programs work. I just use pen tool.

OH MY GOD

Somedays I just want to spend the week working on background. Then I remember I can't script for crap and it's pointless until I learn that.

[Ghost]

Just to make that clear, personally I think as long as you yourself are comfortable with your style, that counts for a lot. Yes, there are all sorts of basics, and one should always try to learn and improve, but the beauty of the system is that even "incorrect" art can look pretty sweet.

[Weston_Kaunk]

Update


(think I actually like the still over the animated one.)

I changed to bi-chromatic and cut down the number of shades I used so I could focus on learning my dithering and not worry about hue. Also started the animation bit, just need to detail the plane, do a vapor trail, and delete my palette . I'm a little if-y on the dark spots, not 100% if my dithering just turned into noise or if those spots are just still too dark. Any thoughts?

[bicilotti]

Now, that's dithering!
I am not sure about the dark shade on the forehead (where is the light source coming)? I would make it lighter.
Work on hair/glasses/eyes/orbits is very nice!
(dithering technique reminds me of this, which is good!)

[Ghost]

Thumbs up, great work! If anything, the large dark section of the forehead would reach all the way up to the hair; maybe the starnd of hair would even darken the hue some more. But man, you're one quick learner!

[Andail]

I have some readibility problems with your picture, because the lighting seems inverted, almost. I took the liberty of adding highlights and shadows in a more traditional manner:


I also adjusted the proportions - and placement - of the eyes, as well as made sure his face doesn't suddenly end beside the right (his left) eye. Due to the angle, we should see more of his head there.

Furthermore, while your dithering is complex and for the most part well executed, it seems at times a bit over done, resulting in a grainy texture. Dithering is mostly done to let one shade fade into another - for large areas, you can probably just use another shade.

PS:
I'm not saying all faces are lit from above/in front like that, but if you're going for some kind of dramatic dual-lighting á la GTA or most marvel comics covers, that has to be done much more distinctly, with more punch.

[Khris]

Also had a shot at this:

[IMGZOOM]http://i.imgur.com/qzADqBN.gif[/IMGZOOM]
I don't think the dithering adds anything to this; it's either used to convey texture or deal with an extremely limited palette, and it just feels forced and off to use it here.

(Just noticed how badly off the color profile of my new monitor is, corrected version should follow shortly.)

[Weston_Kaunk]

Sorry about not replying guys, figured I needed to focus on learning the coding. I just wanted to say you guys have been super helpful and I hope to have something more to show soon. Andail, you're absolutely right. Realized what I was doing wrong, I started treating the shadows as though they were light sources. That new artist moment where you stop looking at the source material and start winging it without thinking about how proportions or lighting work.. in reality. For now I'm just going to ground myself from doing any pixel art on projects until I have the engine working. Catch you all later.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I don't think the dithering adds anything to this;

+1