Help The Great Terror Master Pixelling!

[So fist]

So I've begun the long process of learning to make decent pixel art.  I've looked at a few tutorials on line work, anti-aliasing, and a tiny bit on shading.  So I've started my practice with making a lit moon with stars around it.

http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon1.png[/imgzoom]

I think I have a good handle on the curves of the circle and the anti-aliasing work into the dark background, but I don't like my shading work.  In the beginning my problems laid in too much contrast in my color selection so I tried to lessen the contrast between them.  Even with the work on contrast the moon still seems very flat, so I could use some feedback for improving the shading.

Also any style tips on how you tackle shading and coloring an object would be really helpful.

Hold on a sec while I mess around with where I uploaded this file.  It doesn't seem to be blowing up properly.

Okay fixed.  Lesson learned, don't save pixel art in .jpg format.

 

[Grathea]

Well, I told you over IRC, but here it is again...

[23] <gratheo> well... not bad for a low color count and a beginner
[23] <gratheo> I like the antialiasing
[23] <gratheo> The texturing is fine but I'd put in a small anomaly or two.
[23] <gratheo> maybe a crater or something
[23] <gratheo> just to give it a bit more.

Basically, though, it's quite well done, especially since you're just starting. The light source isn't too well established though.

 

[So fist]

Using Gratheo's IRC advice I made a quick six minute fix and took a new shot at fixing my lighting problem.

http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon2.png[/imgzoom]

Thoughts?

 

[Despain]

How many colors are in here? I think you have one or two colors that you totally don't need.

Also your texture doesn't make sense. It seems like you made a circle, shaded it, and then just made some random pixels here and there to imulate texture. Think about what the surface of the planet would really be like rather than just tossing pixels in there.

 

[Despain]

Your update looks too noisy/busy and it confirms that you have some extra colors that you totally don't need.

 

[So fist]

Should I toss out the lightest midtone?

 

[Venetia]

Yeah since you're going only greytones I'd say there're a few too many colors.

http://pixeljoint.com/files/icons/full/ ... lenge4.gif[/imgzoom]

That's something similar by Mirre at PixelJoint. It's only 10 colors and it has a full range of blues and oranges.

Your palette, although it's grey tones, needs more contrast, to make it "pop". Right now it looks like all midtones.

Don't be scared to outline. The light side is good with the semi anti aliasing thing, but the dark side should carry some sort of selout-ed outline to make the focus (the moon) stand out more.

 

[So fist]

Okay so taking Despain's advice I tried to fix my palette which was figured out on the fly, and started cleaning up my regions.  I attempted to make some more defined regions, craters trenches ect.  And after cleaning that all up I have this so far:

http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon4.png[/imgzoom]

I only care about the palette whether it needs further fixing ect.  I think the two darkest shades may be too close together but I'm not sure.

Not very dynamic, but I obviously need to settle on the palette, Before jumping into figuring out my shading and such.

Ven thanks.  I'll try out that reference next time I try to tackle this new hobby of mine.

 

[Despain]

i like it. fantastic improvement.

now let's see you try and apply actual colors to this piece.

 

[So fist]

Now I'm working on dithering it and blending features.  So far I have this:

http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon5.png[/imgzoom]

Right now the shadows seem a little jagged so when I get back to it I'll try to make it into smooth curves.

 

[Venetia]

The dither is too precise. Do more of an imprecise dither like you were doing before.

 

[So fist]

Okay an update on it with Venetia's advice

Before
http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon5.png[/imgzoom]

After
http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon6.png[/imgzoom]

I think that may have fixed both my blending of the features and my two sharp shadow lines.  Or at least made the problem less obvious.  This has been a fun little experiment.  It's pretty cool how much difference a few pixels make.  Anyway the first revision to my dithering.

 

[Shadow_Strike]

much better, but improve the contrast between white and black a little more, it'll give it more pop. Remember, the only reason we call it white and black is because they don't look anything like each other.

Right now you have a lightish grey on a darkish but not really darkish gray.

 

[So fist]

Okay so here's my first foray into real color.

Before
http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon6.png[/imgzoom]

After
http://www.rmxpedia.org/moon7.png[/imgzoom]

It seems to me that the color choice has helped me round the moon and make it look more planetlike.  The stars seem a little too shiny perhaps I need to dull them??  Perhaps less of the primary in them?

 

[Shadow_Strike]

Yeah, don't make the stars so red or yellow, but more of a greyer color. You want people to focus on the moon.