First try in pixel art - something more this time :)

[rbaleksandar]

Well, I finally decided to start drawing pixel art  : My first attempt isn't something magnificent (no AA (at least something like that, since I made it all by myself ), shadow curves are ribbed and inaccurate) but I do really want to spent the little free time I have doing this and trying to make a stupid project of mine (the one with the stone and lever  ). I want to ask you, guys (dear dear DEAR critics  :) which of the two images below you like better? I will of course try to correct the shadows later (I draw it for about 10 min in a pause between some nasty work I have to do), but can't say whether the whole ball has to be with a lack outline (like the first one) or with a little bit outline that melts so to say in the other colors? I do think the second one looks much better.

1.With black outline:


2.Without outline:



EDIT:
3.With dark gray outline:


Or should I entirely remove the black outline?


Thank you very much. If you redraw something, pls don't make it too complicated. I'm stupid 


PS: I left the white space, because I'll add more objects later.

[Jakerpot]

pretty good for first attempt!  remove the black outline on 2 image and use the same color of the top outline. Try it on different angles, so you can train more.

[rbaleksandar]

Thanks Will edit only the second (since the first is the same but with outlines). Ready.Removed the outline.But somehow the bottom of the ball looks empty without an outline...Dunno.

[Jakerpot]

add a dark gray outline, and try some other things, like a brick wall, a house...

[rbaleksandar]

Ok I've made the correction. How's that? Next gray level is too dark and it looks almost like black.
I do think I have to work more on the basic objects and light, and then try something more complicated. Coloring isn't one of my strengths and I usually draw (with pencil) in black and white (not that I hate colors, but I seem never to pick up the right ones).

[Khris]

The shading is pretty good, but it doesn't look much like a rock, more like a dull metal sphere.
You might also try something called hue shifting, i.e. don't use shades of grey only but put a little purple in the dark areas and a little yellow in the light ones.


x2

[rbaleksandar]

I didn't say it was supposed to be a rock It's just a sphere A rock is not a basic object Oh, thanks for the idea. I'll make my ball throw some shadow on the floor.

btw What's that trick with the purple and yellow? I can't see yellow in your rock and the purple...Well, I can see it and kind of doesn't fit with the rock Why purple and not very dark gray or even black?

...And thanks for the critic

PS: Nice rock

[Khris]

I didn't put any yellow in there, true, but the light blue background isn't exactly suitable for the "palette" I used.
The thing is that in nature, you won't find true black or white, and every natural light is always at least subtly colored.
Take a random photo of rocks off of google and turn it greyscaled and you'll notice that the majority of pixels will lose color information.

Here's a great tutorial on lighting:
http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/tutorials/light01.htm

[rbaleksandar]

Thanks! ^^

As for the colors in nature - yes, it's true. But it looks black from distance. And since it's pixel art (small detailes and such), you look it from a distance (you agree, that if you watch a small pixel art image from so close (600% zoom or something like that), it doesn't look nice). So doesn't this change things a bit? I need to know, because it changes a lot of things in light and shadows presenting in pixel art images.

[ThreeOhFour]

The point is, you can make more interesting palettes by using coloured lighting.

Yellow lighting with a purple shadow is the most common example of this - but it won't always be yellow and purple. Generally I believe the shadow and highlights should be pushed to opposite sides of the colour wheel, but exception do certainly exist.

Check out this sloppy and quick example:



8 simple 3 colour gradients, each with a highlight, mid tone and shadow. The top row of balls have the highlight and shadow colours at the same hue as the midtone, just with more white and black (luminance, I think) mixed in. The bottom row of balls have the same midtones as the top row, but the highlights have the hues pushed towards yellow and the shadows have the hues pushed towards purple, as well as some luminance and saturation mixing.

Notice how they appear differently? In fact, the highlights on the bottom row appear brighter and shinier than those on the top row, but if you compare the two, the highlights on the bottom row have less luminance (brightness, basically) than those on the top row. Why do they appear brighter? Because brightness and darkness can be depicted with contrast, not just white and black.

I find doing this also helps you create a palette that can be used more diversely, thus meaning you don't have to use so many colours .

I hope this makes sense and is a little help!

[Khris]

I don't think this changes anything, choosing a suitable palette is a key prerequisite for creating good pixel art.
Zooming out makes nearby pixels blend into each other, so changing a color will even effect those around it, one reason more not to choose colors sloppily.
You don't have to use purple; just don't use 0,0,0 black.

[rbaleksandar]

Okay, I understand. But as I was reading the tutorial Khirs posted, I found something that I forgot to ask in my previous post and that is - we have this coloring (purple or whatever). What happens if the surface reflects light (as we don't have complete black that will absorbe all the light and won't reflect it to the back if the object)? How do we decide how much light reflects the surface our object stands on? Yes, it's possible to determine that if we look some complicated tables with values for reflection factor of the material we want to use, but I don't think most pixel (and any) artists do that



Here we have our bounced light, right...So how did the author know how much light does the white surface reflect and so determine what palette he'll use (below this so called terminator zone where no light (bounced or direct) reaches)?

Thanks in advance

[ThreeOhFour]

I never bother "calculating" any light values at all.

If you're really going to try and put things like this in your art, you're probably not going to using simple pixel drawn graphics and if you are you probably won't be working any sums or tables out, you'll just be using the colours in your palette that seem about right.

It's not a test where people are going to check your sums - if it looks about right then it should be fine . When it comes to stuff like this I think most people just guess and judge by eye whether it looks any good or not.

[rbaleksandar]

Ok, I'm totally setisfied I'll judge by eye

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Shading is very much a subjective thing with pixel art, though it is every bit as important to the composition as your choice of colors.  Even on Pixeljoint I regularly see people bandy about terms like 'banding' and 'pillow shading' without a clear knowledge of what they are talking about, simply because they hear other people use and misuse the terms and feel cool by doing so themselves. 

You can't go wrong observing objects in actual light, so my advice would be to try sticking a ball under a lamp and just draw what you see.

[rbaleksandar]

Not a bad idea. Thanks

[rbaleksandar]

I have another small question. I've tried to make a shadow thrown by my sphere...But somehow it never looks good Out of proportion. And I've read the tutorials. But still...Since I can't make a live figure of everything that I want to draw and light it up with a lamp (as ProgZmax suggested, and it surely works for some objects), I would like to ask you how to determine the position of the shadow (without a lamp ). Even as I look now at KhrisMUC's rock, the shadow doesn't look right to me.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

As light passes over something, a shadow moves underneath the object until it diminishes, so for a directly overhead light source you'll have a very small shadow beneath the object where any spaces between them and the ground exist (in the case of a cube there will be no shadow, for instance).  The image you posted illustrates how light hitting a sphere on its upper right diagonal creates a shadow roughly the diameter of the ball.  Now if that light source is brought further down the shadow will stretch to the left, and if it is raised it will decline to the right.  Hopefully that makes sense.

[rbaleksandar]

Yes, it makes sense But how can I determine how oval the shadow has to be? Direction is clear.
btw thanks for the answer

  Hi It's me again.
This time there's something big here It's is very very basic (not bricks, no cracks, not even coloring finished!), so have in mind that there'll be more. As for now, I want to ask at the very start, if I've started good and fix things at their very beginning so that later I won't have to redraw the whole thing



  I've started a wall of a castle as I hope you can recognize from this image Up there is the color palette I've made (using Paint to draw this ), so that I can pick up the colors without the need to define them every time I want to change something. All R, G and B are the same with a period of value 4, that is - if you look at the 155 up there, that means that:

R=155
G=155
B=155

  The color right next to it on the left has values:

R=155-4=151
G=155-4=151
B=155-4=151

I've started of course from left to right when I created the palette. Soo...Let's get straight to what's bothering me. It's the choice of first and darkest color and the way the coloring is going to end If I keep using such small lines to advance through my palette (left -->right), I'll soon face something very painful - the wall will become white And it's supposed to be gray (not too light!). So how can I avoid this? If I start making bigger regions with different coloring, it'll be noticeable from a great distance and it'll look awful. If I choose darker gray I'll be able to avoid this, BUT the darkest shadow will look almost black and it will confront the thing's you've wrote above.

  What do I do? Thank you.

Edit:  Please don't double post.

-ProgZ