Alien ISO: Colored Background posted 10/20/03. (C&C)

[Penguinx]

I already posted a few pics of the alien-based game I am working on in limited color. I've decided to give high color a go, and was wondering what you thought of that.

The image below shows the high color versions on the left and the limited color versions on the right.

What's the verdict? Stick to limited color, or jump to 16-bit?

[TheDude]

I'd prefer the High-color version but with the black outlines of the limited version.

[BOYD1981]

i prefer the low colour one, it looks more real, the high colour one seems a little blurry, as if it's been smudged rather than making use of more colours...

[Penguinx]

The low color one is definitely more my 'style.'

I decided to go ahead and try out Dude's preference:



The high color images first posted (far left) do look very faded in comparison to the high color w/black outlines (far right).

Do you think the black outlines make the drawings too busy? (This is the reason that I originally decided to give high color a go.)

[big brother]

I don't know about the black outlines, but I definitely like the increased color depth on the sprites. The green shading on the yellow dude (with a mohawk, top left) is AMAZING. Mi gusto mucho.

[Penguinx]

I think that I'll use the third option; high color with more black outlines. It'll be hard to pull me away from limited color, as I've always done my pixelart with the standard web-safe palette (The same default palette of colors that most Macromedia products display.).

[Miez]

Go for high color with the black outlines. High colour gives you the option to use some really subtle shading, while you can still use a limited palette if you so desire.
Your art is simply amazing - I love it, and would very much like to see a game in this style

[Darth Mandarb (in Ohio)]

I like the outlines in black.  It gives it a definate look/style.  Very nice.

I think it would look cool to use the hi-color but not blend them so much.  Maybe just 1 more level of shading to do the blending.

Do you know what I mean?  Like the base yellow color for his skin, then the darker shaded color (like in the lower color versions) then blend the two with 1 'in-between' color.

That could look very cool.

darthMANDARB

[Flippy_D]

Love the style, very Habbo Hotel. I'd go for black outlines.

[loominous]

I m not sure about the black outlines. Why I prefer the second one is because the black outlines gives it a much needed contrastboost. So I d experiment with the hicolorversion without the blackoutlines but with stronger contrasts.

[Penguinx]

I've been working on redrawing the characters in high color most the weekend and plan to post completed animations for all their movements. Eight directions of walking, standing idle, blinking, talking, etc.

Probably be doing that sometime later today for at least one of the characters.

Darth M., I also question the number of colors used in the blending. I usually just work in limited color, so I might be going a little over the top with the colors here.

I'm going to slap it all together and see how it looks once all these little weeble-wobble, habbo hotel, jelly bean aliens are animated.

[Penguinx]

This is the first background I have started to work on for the game, the other background previously shown was done close to a year ago and was not intended as a game screen.

Here it is minus the coloring.

[La Lore]

I prefer limited colours version.

[Flippy_D]

I gotta start trying out isometric pixellating... it continually produces magnificant and stylish results. Very nice room, keep with the colour style you have at the minute. It really doesn't need gradients or the like.

[Miez]

Even without colours - that is SO yummy! Very nice BG.

[Penguinx]

I really think Pixelart has a strong future in AGS or any other 2-D development platform.

You can produce pretty stylized results with a minimum effort (it's more about patience than skill). As long you can make boxes, you can make Pixelart.

Here is the (tentatively) colored hideout background:


Here is the Holovision doing it's boot-up sequence (will repeat after a three second pause for our purposes here):


Here is the Holovision on:


Whattya think?

I do think that the gradients on the characters are a bit much, especially when the characters are put against these mostly gradient free backgrounds. I'm rethinking my strategy on the characters.

Thanks for all the input!

[Darth Mandarb]

Off to a great start!

I too think Pixelart has a strong future!  It's my preferred choice now-a-days.  Especially in isometric style!

The game I'm working on is all isometrically designed and it's lookin' good!

The Holovision is awesome!

About the only thing I would do differently is the black outlines.  But since you're working in a limited pallette they're great.  I usually use a darker color of the main color rather than black ... but that's just my style.

This rocks!

darthMANDARB

[remixor]

Awesome!  I actually like the black outlines; I think that with simple block colors like this they help to add a lot of definition.  The only thing for me is that the doors seem a bit short, even given the size of your character sprites.  Either than or the rooms are really tall.  This is not a big deal though; I'm sure you have it figured out.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Great work!

The style and the art is very well. Go on!

[Igor]

This is fantastic! I love black outlines and agree that characters work better without gradients.
Also Holovision is absolutely sweet!