[WIP] JMBCreative Art's Pixel Progress

[jmbcreativeart]

Hi,
being a traditional/concept artist I have recently been more and more fascinated by pixel art.

Today I drew my first draft for a sprite that may eventually be used in a game. After drawing this I've spent some time reading some pixel art tutorials online and have realized that there's much work left. Have one specific question but would be happy for any C&C on the sprite

- I'm aware that I need to add an outline and that I should make it smoother using AA. Have I got it right that AA is something you do manually, on a pixel-by-pixel level and not some tool/filter you find in the program? (I've used PS for this one)

Here's the first draft of my man-eating flower (16x16 as requested by the game designers):

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

First off, try to post your art at a not zoomed in level so we can easily see how it would look in the game. Now, if the sprite is going to be in a game you will not want to anti-aliase the edge of the sprite because it will look like this if you change the color of the background. You don't need to add an outline either , if you do outline you could add color to the outline (I think that's what sellout is). For your sprite though I would recommend hue shifts between highlights and shadows. It seems like you tried this for the flower part but on the leafs and roots you should make the highlights shift to a yellower color and the shadows to a purple-y color. Other then that the sprite has a good shape to it I'd say.

[ErekT]

Hello and welcome

The general understanding in pixel art communities is that for a piece to classify as (pure) pixel art you'll need to do it all manually. Fill and line tools are okay tho. For a contracted gig you can of course use whatever gets you there and makes your client happy.

In my opinion AA for sprites this size is a pretty bad idea, especially outline AA. One of pixel art's main strengths is clarity. You have a limited amount of pixels to describe your form so it's important that you squeeze maximum efficiency out of every one of em. Too much AA can work against all that because it muddies everything up, and the smaller the piece the more conservative you need to be with AA.

[Grimsane]

welcome, and to be honest I struggled to identify what it is, it took me awhile of staring to see something, but it could be entirely and crazily different.

anyway i had fun doing it it's not polished, I can finish it up and post a progression gif if anyones interested.

also some crits you have quite a few similar colours, that have minimal differences from each other, which should be avoided, build a colour palette that has a noticeable gradation between light and dark,
it can be attained through colour or value or a combination of the 2, for such a small graphic you should make it readable, at the moment its not conveying what it should instantly. and what context is this used in?

[jmbcreativeart]

Thanks a lot for warm welcome and feedback. I will try to apply it to my future work. Beautiful version of the flower, Grimsane. But I've been told only to work in 16x16 (18x18 is allowed for the main characters).

Here it its in its original size. Must admit that it feels strange posting a 16x16 sprite - it's so tiny you can barely see it!  . That's why I felt that I needed to post a zoomed in version. Have also drawn a draft for a goblin (know that the knife looks like a stick and will try to do something about it). Will post them both in their original size. As they are supposed to be in a retro MMO I am not quite sure about the context.

[Charlieton]

I did a colour count on the goblin: 84 colours! That's quite a lot for such a small sprite. I went on and reduced it to 16 colours to start, and then to only 8 (which for example Final Fantasy IV on the SNES uses for its 16x16 sprites).

The sprite to the left is the original one, middle is 16, right is 8.



See how little visual difference there is between the three? One of the benefits of having only very few colours, though, is that if you work with indexed colours you'll have perfect control over them. It's quick and easy to change the values and try out which colours work together to produce the best clarity.

Best of luck with your project!

[jmbcreativeart]

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll do some searching for color index and how to use it before returning to the sprite.

[Reo]

  Hi and welcome to pixelation!
I did an edit of your goblin

The biggest misstake you're doing at the moment is relying to heavily on outlines. When working on such a small and limited scale as this it is better to scrap outlines alltogether as the sprite tends to look cluttered and they take up valuable pixels. Instead you should try to convey shapes. At this size you need to simplify and you might be forced to sacrifice details for readability. Clusters of light and dark colors gives an illusion of depth even at this small size.

[Carnivac]

The biggest misstake you're doing at the moment is relying to heavily on outlines. When working on such a small and limited scale as this it is better to scrap outlines alltogether as the sprite tends to look cluttered and they take up valuable pixels. Instead you should try to convey shapes. At this size you need to simplify and you might be forced to sacrifice details for readability.  

I don't know if I'd fully agree with 'scrapping outlines altogether' as I find sprites of this size sometimes need some outlining in places to make them stand out more and detailing of small sprites is one of the few things I find really interesting about pixel art and why I quite enjoy doing 16x16 sprites (my main game project uses a lot of them) more than any other size.  I suppose it depends on the sprite in question and the artist's ability to use the space well.

edit:  I did a quick goblin sprite to have a go.   I say goblin but it looks more like the idiot lovechild of Yoda and any of the Ninja Turtles and came out far too cute and cartoony...  But anyways it's just to show that outlines can be used with various degress of moderation on a 16x16 sprite to help shape it and stand out from various types of background tiles.  In my opinion anyway.   

[Grimsane]

well I know you have a restriction, mine was more to convey what I saw, but here's a quick attempt at 16x16


nice work carnivac, your version is by far the most readable and appealing, looks plenty goblin-like to me

also.. A knight has cometh to slay thy goblin!!1!


and JMB you should study other small sprites including some of the edits, NES sprites in particular and take note of how to depict/convey form with such a low pixel space, because it is far from easy to do well. quite an extreme leap from traditional art to not so much pixel art but low restriction pixel art goodluck  

Edit:
turned out it was more of a goblin horde than a single goblin, so he kitted up and came back with a posse

hehehe fun
<Edit II: didn't look knightly enough, and did an animation lol got carried away, I'll stop now.

[Reo]

I don't know if I'd fully agree with 'scrapping outlines altogether' as I find sprites of this size sometimes need some outlining in places to make them stand out more and detailing of small sprites is one of the few things I find really interesting about pixel art and why I quite enjoy doing 16x16 sprites (my main game project uses a lot of them) more than any other size.  I suppose it depends on the sprite in question and the artist's ability to use the space well.

You're right of course and it was a poor choice of words from my point, Lineart would've been a better term to use perhaps . Clearly outlines can still be useful in seperating things, even my edit still has outlines to a degree. What I meant was that sticking to lineart (especially inside the sprite) can clutter it. Also nice edit!

[Carnivac]

You're right of course and it was a poor choice of words from my point, Lineart would've been a better term to use perhaps . Clearly outlines can still be useful in seperating things, even my edit still has outlines to a degree. What I meant was that sticking to lineart (especially inside the sprite) can clutter it. Also nice edit!

Ah fair enough.  I liked your edit too by the way even though I had to brighten up the two darkest shades of green and brown because they looked almost black on my computer.

<Edit II: didn't look knightly enough, and did an animation lol got carried away, I'll stop now.

Very cool knights and no you can't stop. 16x16 sprites are addictive.  

[Grimsane]

Very cool knights and no you can't stop. 16x16 sprites are addictive.  

thanks  
and yes, yes it is they are

..... Midget Riding a labrador hahaha sorry OP
EGA palette too btw.
want to start a challenge/activity thread for 16x sprites if there isn't one already? that'd be hella fun if there are any links?

[jmbcreativeart]

Thanks a lot for all the amazing edits.

Here's the start of my spritesheet for the goblin as well as a 4-frame walk cycle. C&C always appreciated