Pixel artsy stuff thread

Avering

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So, due to few people wanting to learn pixel art stuff (me kinda included), some of the backer threads were getting filled with questions.
So this thread was created for sharing art, tutorials, tips and tricks, random criticism ("You suck Ave!") and just generaly pixely stuff.
I hope we can have those who are just starting out appear here.

For a tutorials, a few pages:
30 Excellent Pixel Art Tutorials For Pixel Lovers
Pixel Joint Forum: The Pixel Art Tutorial (Leedin showed us this one)
 
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Bboy9451

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As far as pixel art, that's actually the only kind of art I consider myself to be decently good at. So I'm quite happy that this thread is now a thing. :p

So I'll share some art. (All the art shown here is from a game I'm developing unless stated otherwise in the spoiler's title)




"You suck Ave!"
 

NeoTensai

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I am wrecking my brain trying to fix my color palette for my sprite and I still can't figure out the tutorials.
 

NeoTensai

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Well the problem is I want to make 2 color paletts for my sprite. First I was making a black and white character but I soon realised that those colors are horrible to work with. So after Leedin showed us those tutorials I descided to instead go for a yellowish/purplish color for my sprite, but the problem is I don't know or more likely I can't comprehend what to do with this tutorial https://web.archive.org/web/20130215213022im_/http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/306/0/7/pixel_art_tutorial___colors_by_kiwinuptuo-d320ykn.png
 
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Avering

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In a very condensed explanation:
If wanting a darker shade of a color, don't just darken it, push it in a blue-ish direction as well. Or yellowish for lighter.
Though if you want to use two different colors, then that tutorial is not that important, it's mostly for different shades.
I'll chew through it a bit more tomorrow, just in case I said something wrong.
 

NeoTensai

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Well yeah that is what I got. And I have been experimenting using this HSL Color Picker - by Brandon Mathis. But I have been trying to wrap my head around the good color palette part of the tutorial. If you constantly shift hue and brightness(lumenesence) the way the tutorial shows you can only get so much different shades. Also the tutorial says nothing about when or how you use saturation when creating a palette. Not saying its a bad tutorial, I am just a "dumb" mechatronic's enginer that can't really grasp what it wants to teach me.
 

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I'll just leave this here: https://github.com/lendrick/Gradientifier

It's a neat little thing that generates a pallet for you based on your input with the sliders and things. Just download it as a zip file from github and open the index file in your browser :)



What will really help, though, is doing your work in greyscale first- say, 4 or 5 different shades from almost white to almost black- and then replacing the values with colors afterwards. This way your sprite will be easier to read and not as frustrating to work with.

And most of all, start small! 50x50 pixels is actually quite a bit of space.
 

NeoTensai

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Tnx Lindsay. This really helped. I had to experiment for a bit and while I am still a bit sceptical about some colors the program chose, I am willing to give them a try and see how much better I can do on my 2nd attempt.
 

$Bison

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PaprikaXD.gif
One has to wonder, what thoughts lurk in a smile surrounded by utter devastation.

On topic, these were made by tweaking Leedin's stuff and animated with GIMP. If it wasn't for Avering's post, I wouldn't have known who on the team made these amazing icons. I just wished I had the old ones on file as reference...

Trying to animate objects that have a one pixel width is surprisingly hard to do, as seen in the tail.
 

$Bison

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Which of the following does not belong?
A.:Velvet: B.:oleander: C. :Pom: D.
Fred.gif
myah

If you picked, C, you're correct! Pom doesn't have horns.
On a serious note, is Fred really colored like those red skeletons in Castlevania? My only lead was one of Anukan's ava's at the time, so I took colors from Oleander and Paprika sprites to get a palette going, but the color combo is searing my eyes right now. He also only uses 3 colors as opposed to the other sprites' fur of 4.
 

Avering

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I was also looking for Fredcolors, it would be useful to have some official "Something like this" color. Even if not exact, just a baseline would be useful.
Anyways, my first reaction to your question was C.
 

NeoTensai

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So I got stuck on my original project and I couldn't descide on the colors for my design so I made a rough grayscale pixelated mess for you to enjoy
Grayscale OC (128).png

this is how far I have gotten and I constantly feel that something is off.
So what you are looking at is a unicorn that has a braided tail that is held together with 2 "hairbands". Hopefully I can get over my block with this project if I show somebody
Edit: made it a bit too big, oh well
 

$Bison

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So I got stuck on my original project and I couldn't descide on the colors for my design so I made a rough grayscale pixelated mess for you to enjoy
View attachment 973
this is how far I have gotten and I constantly feel that something is off.
So what you are looking at is a unicorn that has a braided tail that is held together with 2 "hairbands". Hopefully I can get over my block with this project if I show somebody
Edit: made it a bit too big, oh well
Sometimes, it usually helps looking at official game sprites that might have the idea you're looking for. In this instance, braids. When I saw it, I immediately thought, "Oh, Cammy, from Super Street Fighter II!" Notice how they're just a bunch of square connected together despite her official art having braids?
Same could be applied here.

NeoTensaiSpriteEdit.png

I uh... wanted to go for a small edit with a tail, but I couldn't stop myself, my bad. Rather than going for realistic braids, they could be simplified into 3 big clumps. Though, it does look like a scorpion tail. I also pulled the head forward and thickened the neck a bit to give it a more natural form of how the head and neck are attached.

I also reshaded the horn to give it a more 3d look with the unbroken shade of white. The mouth was also moved in favor of giving the snout a more definite shape. The "eyeshadow" the sprite has gives off a feminine look, you could probably omit that. Hope these edits inspire you to keep going, NeoTensai.

This could also go into a general discussion of what makes a TFH lobby sprite? Eyes are large, limbs are generally skinny, about 1 pixel thick. The legs that are behind the body are one pixel higher to give a sense of perspective and most of the back legs are one shade darker to give off a sense of depth.
 
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OCisbestungulate

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Sometimes, it usually helps looking at official game sprites that might have the idea you're looking for. In this instance, braids. When I saw it, I immediately thought, "Oh, Cammy, from Super Street Fighter II!" Notice how they're just a bunch of square connected together despite her official art having braids?
Same could be applied here.


I uh... wanted to go for a small edit with a tail, but I couldn't stop myself, my bad. Rather than going for realistic braids, they could be simplified into 3 big clumps. Though, it does look like a scorpion tail. I also pulled the head forward and thickened the neck a bit to give it a more natural form of how the head and neck are attached.

I also reshaded the horn to give it a more 3d look with the unbroken shade of white. The mouth was also moved in favor of giving the snout a more definite shape. The "eyeshadow" the sprite has gives off a feminine look, you could probably omit that. Hope these edits inspire you to keep going, NeoTensai.

This could also go into a general discussion of what makes a TFH lobby sprite? Eyes are large, limbs are generally skinny, about 1 pixel thick. The legs that are behind the body are one pixel higher to give a sense of perspective and most of the back legs are one shade darker to give off a sense of depth.
I also noticed some differences in the legs as well. You gave the one a curve, and removed the hooves from the back legs.
 
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NeoTensai

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Sometimes, it usually helps looking at official game sprites that might have the idea you're looking for. In this instance, braids. When I saw it, I immediately thought, "Oh, Cammy, from Super Street Fighter II!" Notice how they're just a bunch of square connected together despite her official art having braids?
Same could be applied here.


I uh... wanted to go for a small edit with a tail, but I couldn't stop myself, my bad. Rather than going for realistic braids, they could be simplified into 3 big clumps. Though, it does look like a scorpion tail. I also pulled the head forward and thickened the neck a bit to give it a more natural form of how the head and neck are attached.

I also reshaded the horn to give it a more 3d look with the unbroken shade of white. The mouth was also moved in favor of giving the snout a more definite shape. The "eyeshadow" the sprite has gives off a feminine look, you could probably omit that. Hope these edits inspire you to keep going, NeoTensai.

This could also go into a general discussion of what makes a TFH lobby sprite? Eyes are large, limbs are generally skinny, about 1 pixel thick. The legs that are behind the body are one pixel higher to give a sense of perspective and most of the back legs are one shade darker to give off a sense of depth.
Nice, althougt I am kind of envious :p. You make it look so easy, just like watching jay last stream. "Lets make a blob, oh look its a sheep for your head now". I am really trying to understand the basics but they kind of seem complicated. Really love the tail though
 
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$Bison

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I also noticed some differences in the legs as well. You gave the one a curve, and removed the hooves from the back legs.
Ah, good eye, OC. I wanted to thin out the limbs and get a good curve for line of action and the back-hoof was removed for thinning purposes too.

Nice, althougt I am kind of envious :p. You make it look so easy, just like watching jay last stream. "Lets make a blob, oh look its a sheep for your head now". I am really trying to understand the basics but they kind of seem complicated. Really love the tail though
I'd like to think it gets easier with practice. It's only took 1.25 hours of editing this time instead of 4 if it was the me of years ago. ;)
 
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Avering

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Your OC is going to need some hair as well, like this it's just a big blob of colour. But for a first try it's good (my pictures are about the same level).
 
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NeoTensai

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Your OC is going to need some hair as well, like this it's just a big blob of colour. But for a first try it's good (my pictures are about the same level).
I know. But i really haven't descided on a hair style. But tnx to Bison I might have an idea for both the tail and mane. The color is still something that is giving me the most trouble, that and figuring out leedins gradient tutorial. Also I thought I would make the legs and hooves a bit bigger to try and distinguish the character as male(or i might leave it and keep it gender neutral xD)
 

NeoTensai

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So I have been working on my design in grayscale again and I am quite happy with my progress. Hit a wall with grayscale so I made two more layers for the mane and tail. Sadly I have nothing to show since the grayscale throws off the design with all three parts (main body, mane and tail) being gray and all. So all that remains is to perfect the mane and tail(those few elusive pixels that seem a bit off) and the hard part of coloring the design(still trying to wrap my head around the color pallet)
 

NeoTensai

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So I descided to disect my character into 4 parts so I can actualy show them here

Yay for references.
Grayscale OC (Revision 1).png
Grayscale OC (Body).png
Grayscale OC (Mane).png
Grayscale OC (Tail).png
First I wonder how many people will get the reference :p.

Ok I dissected the character so that the parts are better visble. This is still WIP hence the mostly black tail and top of the mane.
The way I am heading with the mane and tail: Braids with a dagger/kunai at the end. Kind of like a ninja/magic user with hand to hand(or in this case hoof to hoof) combat.
Also I will probably seperate the mane a bit from the head.

Oh and the reason why there is a bit of difference between that first and the last 3 pics is because I made the drawing field a bit bigger so that the horn and hoves are not touching the top and bottom.

Of course I still have no idea how I will color/shade/gradient the design.
 

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View attachment 930Hiccups or picnic attack? You decide.
View attachment 932One has to wonder, what thoughts lurk in a smile surrounded by utter devastation.

On topic, these were made by tweaking Leedin's stuff and animated with GIMP. If it wasn't for Avering's post, I wouldn't have known who on the team made these amazing icons. I just wished I had the old ones on file as reference...

Trying to animate objects that have a one pixel width is surprisingly hard to do, as seen in the tail.

These two are adorable! I wish we could use them as emotes.
 
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Avering

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I totally didn't forget about this thread at all. And since I didn't forget about it, time to upload the tabletop sprites I edited from the originals, with some comments on them because why not. A note however, is that I am nowhere near a good artist, so a lot of my stuff revolve around just moving the pixels around and see what sticks, instead of anything planned.

This one is IO Lonfy, quite obviously the easiest. Actually I think he was the first one I made, when 0Zero asked me to put a journalist hat on a Paprika sprite. And make the rug into some bags for papers and stuff. And thus it began....
IO.png


This one is Ophelia, she was an absolute nightmare to make, due to her colour. I tried to stay as close to KYMSnowman's original drawing, which meant the outline colour as well. Took me a while to realise that such light outline makes the whole pic blurry, but I still haven't corrected it. Eh. The cloak was relatively easy to make though, ad I only needed to just draw an extra outline around Oli's sprite. Other modifications included chopping off the mane behind Oli's face and having a lock of hair obscure some of here eye. Not like you can see it with how white the whole character is. I really should fix that
Ophelia.png


Benson Baaah (or Baah? Heck if I know) quite obviously a sheep. Pom's Pompadour got cut a lot, got some crly bits and some horns were added. And while not entirely sure, I think I messed around a little bit with the face to remove some floof. His cape was just a bit of a trial and error around the chest. Outline colour still too close to the whole palette, so he looks blurry as well, but not as bad as the white blob that is Ophelia.
Benson.png



Corvine Winterblood. I really am proud of how she ended up. I had to butcher poor Velvet, and remove her floof along with the horns. Luckily the cape and hood obscures just around every bit that had to be cut, so I didn't have to make those parts presentable. The folds on the cape came out really well, but jeez those horns took a while to get right. She's happy though. You can see her 1 pixel smile.
Corvine.png


Next one is Broxnar ..Ethridge? Erthridge? Something with E. Whatever. This one took freaking days to actually get right. He is a Delgeth, some kind of demon-bull thingie, and I based his sprite on Arizona. The only parts that were done quickly are the nose ring, and the little heart necklace, both of wich you probably didn't even notice. I managed to make the sprite itself look more muscular, by moving the head a bit farther from the legs and pretend there is more bull there. The eyes also gave me a lot of headache, as I constantly tried to make a full outline but that made it look like he has some glasses. The horns ad hair were pretty easy compared to those.
brox.png


Colorado Blue. This was actually pretty easy. The armor was just barely some extra width on Arizona's chest, then it was just some recoloring and reshuffling of the splothces on the fur. The only slightly tricky thing was the hammer on his back, as I wanted to make it recognisable, while still looking like it's actually holstered. On this dark backround it's really not visible though. Or anywhere really.
Blue.png


Vesper Iris. Those who watched Lindsay's art stream probably saw him. This sprite actually had a lotmessing around, as I shortened Oleander's muzzle to make it look less copy-paste recolor character. The mane was alright, as luckly there weren't any curls in it. The scarf that was pointed out by Lindsay and Oreo on the stream was also relatively easy. Thought this guy has some extra stories about him....
vesper.png

It might come as a suprise, but everyone's beloved OC sometimes forgets his english. I don't remember exactly what was the conversation, but OC typed segway instead of segue for something about Vesper. Which promptly got a response of dictionary articles and jokes. One of that joke was actually Vesper having a segway now, summoned by some kind of spell.
animsegway.gif

Originally this was a still image, but I liked this situation too much to just leave it like that. Interestingly enough, this went really easily, as most of the body is rather boxy, so a 90° turn didn't mess up anything.

I also made a character later for a Pathfinder game, specifically a goat inquisitor. No one really expected him. And since I had no idea how a goat will look like in the game, I just used a shorter unicorn muzzle, made some creepy goat eyes (which are not noticeable due to the hat obscuring the upper part of them), and shortened the tail to be more goat-tail. He then became my avatar on Discord. Also his name is Waffle. Because all my characters are named after foodstuffs.
Waffle.png

But as we all know, they will all die, like tabletop characters should.
trippingrock.png

trippingrock2.png

If curious this is just random roleplaying stuff when everyone missed, so the players flavoured it as tripping on the same rock constantly. And thus THE TRIPPING ROCK became te symbol of nat 1s

And to round it out, let me just say that I'm sad there are so few images here, I want to see stuff you guys made.
 
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