Pixel Art

[lunexor]

Alright, I've got computer drawn art down. . but for the life of me, pixel art evades me. Is it that I use Photoshop? Should I look for a better tutorial? Any suggestions?

[Tieru]

I'm not very good at digital art, but I use MSPaint. I've heard photoshop is better though, even for pixels.

[heyy13]

*cough* Bullshit *cough* (refering to Tieru's comment)

Pixelart it doesn't really matter what you use. But photoshop is worse then most other programs for the reason that it's designed for cg, and not pixelart and so the few tools it has that are useful for pixelart are hidden between the vast number of useless tools and make everything slower. I user ms paint. Which is irritating for the lack of layers, transperancy (other then with copying and pasteing), and ability to animate. But it's functional and good to learn on.

The "pinical of pixelart programs" so to speak for professional use is ProMotion. It has options for widepixel, tall pixel, mirrored drawing (so you place a pixel on the left of the screen and it auto places it in the mirror place on the right), grid snapping, flexible and easily imported/exported pallets, animation, tileing features (which allow you to allocate tiles so that if you edit one tile all other tiles of the same kind are edited. AWSOME for mockups) and a number of other things.

However for a beginer it's probably best to stick with paint as it will help stamp out your instincts to use the unnecessary tools found in photoshop.

But be aware, pixelart is nothing if not for the finicky pedantic perfectionist. If you can't stand starting at a small area for hours on end fiddling with one or two pixels trying to get it right then this is not the medium for you.

If you need any help or want advice please feel free to pm me about it asking. : ) I'm happy to help. <3




Oh and there is allways something to learn in a medium! Don't give up on cg, you can allways improve! :3

[lunexor]

Oh, awesome, lots of words!

Alright, unfortunatily all I have is Photoshop CS2, but I may have Illustrator, someplace. But it shouldn't hinder things toooo much, since its better than having a program that I'm completely unfarmiliar with.
Atleast thats my excuse, the truth is that I'm too broke for any other program, and I'm too busy to learn. But if thats what it takes, I'll look into it further.

Stamp out the instinct to use neccesary tools for photoshop?
Aww, I'm madly in love with that program though! I can't image making digital art without anything other than layers.

Alright, so with pixels, do you find it easier to have an outline (like lineart) or just colouring and cell shading as you go along. A friend told me this was effective, but I found that a little bizzare.

Oh, and if anyone has any more tips, love to hear em. xD

[Angel]

Definitely start with your lines! It really helps make sure the shape turns out just how you like. :3

Pixels are much more difficult to edit, as changing one usually means you need to change a lot. If you have a nice, solid lineart, you shouldn't have to rearrange stuff nearly as much as if you didn't. :3

[heyy13]

I dissagree with angel!

Lineart can be good for some things but for alot of stuff you can't beat a sketch and volumetrics!

Lineart is constraining and influences you psycologically to stick to it pretty closely! (years and years of COLOUR BETWEEN THE LINES training in schools) But don't be afraid to redraw something if it sucks or could use improvement!

I'm going to link to an awsome example of extactly that.

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=7798.0

This is a wip thread from pixelation (really awsome pixeling forum, go lurk there now and you'll learn ALOT) and shows really clearly how scrapping again and again can make the result so much better!

Pixelation is an awsome resource, they even have an archive thread with videos of some fucking awsome (and some not so awsome) people pixeling. Go watch the helm and ptoing videos, so helm is just... guh... *spontainous fangirlasm*

He is everything i wish i could do. Colour conservation, creative pallets, working within restrictions, amazing anatomy knowledge, contruction and fast! *goes on fangirl spree*

Another place i can reccomend for help, resources and it's unmitigatedly awsome gallery is pixeljoint. Go look up my favourite pixelists Helm, Fool, Arachne and The B.O.B. (add ndChristie, or whatever hte fuck adarias is calling himself now days, since he's one of the best spritists and animators of people i've seen), it will give you a really good idea of differant styles of pixeling as all of them go about it in completely differant ways. :3

But yeah, don't be afraid to try the same thing over and over! It's how you get better, and fiddling with pixels is a really great way to learn the minute of the visual world. : )

[Hiroku]

*starts scribbling down note* >_>

[heyy13]

*pokes hiro*

Whatcha doing?

[Hiroku]

not nothing >_>

I would like to pixel. . . at this point all I really do is touch up. . . remaking pixels. . . and general editing of them. . .

[heyy13]

Well then you need to start by makeing something from scratch. I reccomend a sphere. Grab some refs of them in light and try pixeling one. : )

If you post your results in here angel and i can critique you and make edits to help you along the way.

[Hiroku]

There are some crappy pixels that i edited ( not created ) in the staff thread.

[heyy13]

[s]I can't get in there. I don't have clearance past the over forum where nothing interesting goes on. xD;;[/s] Forget that you posted it in the main forum. But that's NOT pixeling. You didn't individually place any of those pixels. You enlarged it and went over it with blur brushes in photoshop. Tool shading is NOT PIXELART.

Also i don't want to look at your edits, i want you to make something from scratch.

[Hiroku]

I never claimed to have pixeled it. . . However I did go over it and do more then you claimed. I did edit the colors through actual pixeling however the main image was already there.

You think I would tell you that I pixeled that? I am not stupid. . . I have seen what you have done. . . and I can not measure up to that.

[heyy13]

And i can't measure up to helm. It's all a big cycle of people being better then other people! xD

But however you expressed an interest in pixeling, so i expected to see pixeling.

Go open paint now and draw a circle from scratch without useing the circle tool! (which draws dodgy circles most of the time anyways which you ahve to go over and fix) It's harder then it looks the first time you try, and it's a really good excersice to learn line smoothing. :3

*pokes hiro*

I'll have you pixeling yet.

EDIT: Everyone starts somewhere, i started by editing drag and drop doll maker dolls. So don't worry about it. xD <33

[Hiroku]

well I will work on it. However i dont know if I will tonight. . . I will practice on the circle though. . . haha. . .