Room artwork for Afro Jones - In Color

[TheQisSilent]

Hey, since this whole room artwork thing is still relatively new to me, I just thought i'd post up my latest screenshot from Afro Jones to get some constructive criticism on it.  So what do you guys think?  

This is the chief's office, and as such, should portray his power in the force.  Some things I've noticed- the windows need reflections.  How would I do that exactly?  Any pointers/touchups would be greatly appreciated as I don't really know what I'm doing.

[LordHart]

Okay, lets get to critiquing (is that a word?)

-- To have reflections for the windows, I suggest to just make the windows a blue, which is a bit lighter than the sky, and then just add a white or lighter blue streak diagonally across the windows. I'm kinda tired now, so I can't really explain much more than that.

-- The plant seems to be a bit flat, and quite dull. Add a bit more dimension to it with shading, make it look like actual leaves instead of some funky looking cactus without it's little spike thingys.

-- The buildings on the left should have some more detail, as they aren't that interesting, and don't match with the buildings on the right which have more detail.

-- The small bit at the bottom which I am assuming is the little entranceway for the door? You should make it a bit wider, because it seems that only a child would be able to fit through it, or maybe a dog when compared to the size and width of the chair.

-- Shading on a few things. Flags, desk, curtains, chair...

Apart from that, I am liking it all. Your style reminds me of Pleurghburg slightly, and that is always a good thing. good work.

[TheQisSilent]

Ah yes, shading.  Is ther, perchance, a shading tutorial?  Because this is the one concept of art that's always alluded me.  The other suggetsoins I'm working on right now, and I full-heartedly agree with all of them.  Thanks

[Rpgmstr]

For some shading tutorials check out this site http://www.thanian-nation.com The site is run by a friend of mine, and hes very talented check out the gallery if you have time, the portraits are amazing.

[Minimi]

Nice background, but are you going to use a walking character in this room, or invisible character, because it's not a very handy position from wich you drawed it. i.m.o.

rpgmstr, that site just rocks!! Thanks alot for the link! LINK! Got it? ZELDA!!! I'm going to take that tutorial!

[TheQisSilent]

OK, adding detail to the buildings is coming along pretty well (neon signs and what have you)  and changing the plant is do-able, but the refections are coming out all wrong and I'm still having some trouble shading.  Thanks for the link, but my problem isn't the shading part itself, but rather where I'm supposed to put the shading.  Can someone link an example of what a reflection is supposed to look like or give me some points on what to shade?  Thanks a bunch

Minimi:  I don't see how it isn't walkable.  I've tested the room and it works just fine I thought.  There's not much to do there, just talk to the chief and solve one puzzle in there later on.  It's not like the entire game's supposed to be played in there or anything.

[Hollister Man]

For the windows, usually a couple simple blue "lightning bolt" style zig-zags will work.  

I think what they meant for a walkable room, is that it might look a little silly, the perspective is such that the character should be filling the whole screen as he walks out the door.  Usually you want to draw your room with the "camera" a bit higher up on the wall, rather than at eye level.

My recommendation: Cut a bit of the "floor" off, and make the character walk in from the side.  That way you can fake the proper perspective.

[Rpgmstr]

Those tutorials explain where to put shading, it talks about light sources and shadows. Also another thing to try is Googling it, keyword "Pixel Art Tutorials" or "Pixel Art Shading". Theres a fairly large community of pixel artists out there and they seem to enjoy teaching their own creative proccesses.

Most of all though shading requires practice and alot of patients no way around it. Also in most cases less is more, even alittle slightly missplaced shading (so long as it's not an eye sore of course) makes a huge diffrence.

Shading aside though, you have awesome talent IMO. You just need to refine it with some detail work. I look forward to viewing your work in the future too because you can only get better Think in terms of quality rather then time, because detail work in any aspect is time consuming but makes all the diffrence.

Glad you like the site Minimi, the artist who runs that site is also making a GM game called Galbrex with a friend of his I forget his name. I'm very much looking forward to seeing his work in a game, hes amazing.

[TheQisSilent]

All right, I made all the modifications you guys suggested.  How's it looking now?



And please don't laugh at the shading and reflections, it's my first try  

[MrColossal]

hey there sucka!

it looks good and i loved the demo very nice

the only suggestion i have is adding some glass into that window and when doing reflections maybe try having them all go in the same direction, here's a little edit:



i dunno, if this is the best solution but just offering it up

oh yea, also try saving it in GIF since you have so few colours it'll look nicer for all us to see

good luck!

eric

[Rpgmstr]

I like, big diffrence in the curtains and flag. Lighting is a major part of shading also, can't really have shadows with out light, but your doing great.

Also try not think of shading as just blacks and greys, use darker shades of the same color of the object. You can use shading to give an object detail, say for instance on the plant. You want one edge of a leaf to have slightly lighter shades of green to prepresent a shine, and then do the opposite edge of a the leaf with a darker shade of green. Unless your wanting a specific sort of artist look of course. Also keep in mind the concept of consitancy, you want to try to do shading the same way in all your backgrounds. Which you'll want to be thinking about early.

[sergiocornaga]

Whoa! Those last two pics kick ass.

[TheQisSilent]

OK, here it is - what will hopefully be the last draft of this picture  Thanks for all the help, guys!  Colossal, I think you just un(?)wittingly helped me learn how to make glass and helped me a great deal with what reflections are supposed to be.  RPGmaster, thanks for all your tips on shading.  I tweaked the flag and the plant a little in these last pictures, hopefully you'll like it.  Anyways, here it is.  Anything else I should consider?

[Rpgmstr]

Yeah, looks great, the plant seems to have alittle more life to it now Was kind of fun to watch this image evolve and progress too

[LordHart]

Yes, nice... everything has turned out great, especially the buildings outside. They have more life to them now.

The only thing I have to say about changing it, would to be just to add some more shading to the desk, and perhaps the chair.