Nth Showcase

[Nina]

Lornami!
+All pixel arts here are not for public use unless I specifically say so. Don't ask.
+I do not take requests. Says so in the rules, but do not contact me by any other means.
+I'm pretty sure all the hacks I worked on are not using my sprites anymore, so yeah, some are getting shown here without links.
+
+
+
Image above is part of a pixel over that I never finished.

Hey!
I hope you guys don't mind the CSS. I tried to keep it simple, I just wanted to use it to make a better space saving layout with good divisions.
I tend to disappear for large amounts of time, and I like to start with a clean slate.
Sure, I've actually be around (although lowly) but I've been focusing on a lot of other things and decided not to mess with spriting. Well, summer is here and I'm feeling particularly creative. (One would hope, going to an art college this fall and all.)

I'm just a bit sad about the small activity of the pixel art section right now, but that's okay. If I can push myself further independently it's a good trait. BUT, if you find something you like in here and thought "Oh, that's cool! I want to try it..." don't worry about me rwaring at you for taking my idea. Granted, you are not to take my sprites or use the idea in a way that you would gain profit, but if I inspire you to do a little more that will make me happy.

Taking a quick look around you can see that I'm not exactly 100% Pokemon oriented in my works, mostly because I am an artist first. I don't see everything in game sprites but as pieces of art. If you don't like all that frou-frou in your tilesets I don't really think that you want to be around here. That being said, it's part of my JOB as an art student and future career in illustration to accept criticism. Though, I'm not going to nod "Yes, sir."; I always ask questions. With that, ask any question you wish to me as well. :)

What? Shut up and get to the sprites? 'k.

Current Work in Progress:
A large crystal from scratch. I may eventually scale it down and/or add more to it. It's embedded into a tree that serves as my 'soul space', which I have an illustration of.
If you can already tell I quite enjoy crystals. This will be my first try to scratch one myself.
The colors are not set right now, but it's close.
It is a Sapphire. My birthstone. I really want a REAL crystal now. xD;
I'm also trying a different method of starting out, with very thick and undefined base colors and working from there. What do you think?

Versus Sprites!
These are not scratch.
From left to right is Newest to Oldest:
Myself, Gavin+, Ramie

Artistic
These are all scratch.

OLD Favorites!
Oldest to Newest: Not Scratch

OLD Artistic Favorites!
No particular order. ALL Scratch.

 

[= GPR =]

Well, let me first welcome you back! It is awesome to have you posting your stuff again! ^^

The old favorites bring back a total sense of nostalgia lol...

Anyhow, the crystal:

The base color blue is perhaps too blue? The crystal does not seem to have that transparency that one would assume to find in a crystal... although it is obviously a jagged non processed cut crystal, it is a bit strange shape... there seems be an unnatural uniformity that runs along the left side from the top edgeto the bottom edge... with that top edge seeming a bit too jagged... when a crystal comes to mind, all edges are flat... they may be many edges that create a seperate plane, but crystals are not round, if i'm making any sense? ^_^

Back to the colors though, they are dramatically different in tone. They give the shading a strange look and contrast each too much from lightest tone to darkest. The blue just seems too dark in general, but the difference in tone makes the blue almost appear to be a difference hue... as if you are using different blues, because of the dramatic difference between the lighter blues and the darker blues.

As for the shading, i'm not really sure about it... i'm not all that sure how the shading of a crystal would work actually ^^ but you would have to figure out how to represent shading while still giving the crystal that transparent look...

I'm sorry i've ripped apart your crystal :( Not the greatest welcome back i suppose... but i know you love C+C so i figured i'd share some ^^ Don't get me wrong by the way; it is a bit off in many aspects, but in the same regard it is also very nicely done. It has a distinct non-outlined style that seems to be hard to do. You definitely made it look natural. The lack of black lines is a plus!

You know I absolutely love your work Lornami! So i'm waiting to see you keep at this one!

Keep Spriting!

* and let me add that you are still one of THE BEST spriters of our age group!

 

[Nina]

I thank you for your critique, but notice that I said it is a work in progress, and the colors are not final, only general placeholders. I ain't done. xD; Not 1/2 either, I'm just getting the general shape down, and editing it as I go. I am debating on even having outlines then, but I'm not sure.

But though, you do have points in regards to shape. It also makes me rethink the hue that I am going to eventually put on there. I amplified the hue a lot make it more vibrant and have some kind of depth, and it looks great in the illustration! But it might not translate well, I see.
(I really need to take a picture of it, I think.)

You see, like I said, I'm using the crystal that I did in watercolors from another project. I did look at a picture of a crystal, but I think there might be some general decay in adaptation. It's very difficult to put real life down on to a drawing, so I thought by using my own illustration for reference it might be better to translate in simple sprites, but I might be losing some of the real touches of a crystal.
I think I'll look over the shape again with the original source.

Which is this. v

Oh man, I haven't looked at this in awhile. Yeah, something things changed over time, crap. xD;

 

[= GPR =]

lol! ^_^

So, when i look at this crystal, i see only flat planes... there may be a bunch lined up varying in angle, but there are no "round" points at all on the crystal... for example, looking down in the bottom left edges of the crystal, it looks rounded, but really, it is four or five flat planes angled like 0' then 10' then 30' then 45' then back the other way to create that turn in shape... if that makes any sense... lol

as for the colors, i didn't catch that ^^ sorry... but either way, i think you'll need more than five tones to make it work... like i said, you're gonna have to figure out how to represent that transparency... and that'll probably work best by having slight variance in tone/hue in portions where there is more crystal on the other side... because you have to take into account the sharp edges on the other side of the crystal:

Dk. Red = visible planes/ Lt. Red = planes on opposite side

but compared to the picture, you have the general shape down and the coloration is getting there... really, it's gonna be all in the shading... this just may be the hardest thing you've ever shaded ^^

Either way,

Keep Spriting!

 

[Nina]

I'm not going over five colors. >:) If you look at that top crystal that I pixeled over I think it looks lovely with 5 colors, and it's more challenging.
Hmm. When I look at the rough version of my crystal I don't quite read it as "round" just not super straight. It may just because I find round things more pleasing, so I need to work on getting the crystal have the correct angles before I do anything else. Thank you~

I also have something new!
I'm still on the crystal/shiny rocks, but I wanted to do something smaller, and not pay as much attention to reality. xD;

I used the colors from the game sprite thunderstone (exception of the darkest color, because I felt I needed it and the black was TOO dark, considering I chose not to use the white.) I eyeballed this pretty hard, but I didn't do the angels 100% exactly. After a certain point I ignored it and just did what I thought looked nice. Please don't overlay it with the image, it's not going to be right. xD;;

I think the roughest parts are on the bottom right, as in the image they lacked any division besides an outline, which at first I tried to not to do. It makes it hard to exactly understand it's shape...

 

[Nina]

Alrighty then guys. Here's an update. :/

Some artful stuff.

And these I'm not putting in my showcase, but here are some cute animations I made.

 

[Chibi Robo]

I see what your trying to go for in this piece lornami, but there seems a lot of uneeded colors and some other errors. Lets start off with the marble, I was actually talking to scarf about this when it comes to pixel art, the bigger it is the more detail you have to show. That big marble ball over to the left would look good as a smaller marble ball, but its a bit bigger so it needs more detail in order to get a crisp realistic look. Here's an example of a marble ball.

1

See the dirt and the lighting on the ball and how the ball is clear. You should be doing that to the big marble ball, because right now it is looking really flat. Now the backround honestly makes the piece less appealing, I honestly think you should scrap it for a white backround and make it look something like this piece.

2

I also recommend some excessive dithering just so you dont have to use some many colors, just try to make it blend nicely.
Its a good idea, just needs a bit more refining.

 

[Nina]

I see what your trying to go for in this piece lornami, but there seems a lot of uneeded colors and some other errors. Lets start off with the marble, I was actually talking to scarf about this when it comes to pixel art, the bigger it is the more detail you have to show. That big marble ball over to the left would look good as a smaller marble ball, but its a bit bigger so it needs more detail in order to get a crisp realistic look. Here's an example of a marble ball.

1

See the dirt and the lighting on the ball and how the ball is clear. You should be doing that to the big marble ball, because right now it is looking really flat. Now the backround honestly makes the piece less appealing, I honestly think you should scrap it for a white backround and make it look something like this piece.

2

I also recommend some excessive dithering just so you dont have to use some many colors, just try to make it blend nicely.
Its a good idea, just needs a bit more refining.

I actually wasn't intending them to be marbles, but just shiny bal- spheres. Well, actually, at first I was going to do "let's do marbles!" but those are a PAIN and this was more of an exercise so I decided against it.
Though I do agree the biggest one needs work, and a study of a marble would help it.

Background. My experiment in interesting backgrounds failed then. ;; Crap, okay.

For my art peices I find 5 shades per color to be fine and what I need to display most items, and all but the shadowed one only has 4. Unless you count white. I'm not making a sprite for a game, so I don't feel the need to use the smallest amount of colors possible and I think that pallet-wise they are far enough away to warrant use. This also may be because I really don't like to use a lot of dithering. It looks great sometimes, the second picture you showed me makes me feel the blue has more depth that it does, which is what dithering is supposed to do. But on the belly I feel like the dithering has lost it's point. It's such a difference in shade it looks intrusive on what I would find to be a smooth belly. Also, in my person tastes, I don't like the 'look' (i.e, style) of this pixel art, and my art is about finding a look that I find appealing.

I do need to work on that bigger ball, and dithering may (and probably is) be the answer, and I could probably figure out how to do it with less colors. I just don't find it to be an error. (Am I being too nit-picky about words?)

That said, I do think I will do a study in limited color pallets and try again with more dithering, and it would be beneficial.

Am I doing this wrong? Am I just supposed to say "Yeah, thanks." and shut up? I do that for teachers, but that's because I've been taught by mine to do that and then if you don't agree what they said ignore their input. (Though, she's taught us to keep an open mind, so don't worry.)
For here I think that for people that continually look at progress of one of another, it would be a slap in the face to progress on and just ignore what has been said. At the same time there are things in my artistic style or thoughts that don't agree with that suggestion and I'm not going to do it just because it's been suggested. If I didn't tell why, that would be the same as the slap in the face and ignoring, right?