Pixel Art Project - Creation From Scratch Humanoid forms

[Vyoma 0]

OK. I am putting it here so I can have a record of the gradual process I am going to follow to create a handful of Pixel Art works. I am strating a particular Pixel Art project for which I need to first create a base. I will be using this to create other bases - and thus it is a bit with lesser details. The next set of bases I would be doing would be of more detail.

So, just for record, here is the deviant art link to the image:
http://vyoma.deviantart.com/art/Nara-Base-39169461

Reference photos used from stock photos and other artists to get the proportion and some amount of style right.
Created using MS Paint. Tools used: Line Tool, Pencil, Eraser
Colours: 2 (Black and White)
Resolution: 194x555

Those who are unaware of the technique and form of Pixel Art, can refer to the following good article on Wikipedia at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_art
A good amount of quality Pixel Art works can be found at:
http://pixeljoint.com/

[cyborgxxi 0]

That's cool, bro. I've seen other pixel art before but ehhh... I think drawing is better. I mean, I do drawing better, to be exact.:)Yeah, I saw that wikipedia article about it and I was like, "this must be pretty popular now!" Hope you have lots of fun :)BTW, for these projects, do you need lots of time and dedication?

[Vyoma 0]

Well, Pixel Art is just a medium. I do other forms like sketching, oils and such - but it was about recently I go involved in some of Pixelling.

Yes, it does take a lot of time and patience. Depending on the size and complexity of the work it can take as less as 1 hr and can take any more amount for complex ones.

Here is a previous work of mine:
http://vyoma.deviantart.com/art/Vyoma-Avatar-24810299
It took about one hour for me to do it from scratch.

[austiniskoge 0]

Looks pretty cool. I would never have the patience to do that kind of stuff.I think they use that sort of drawing in old RPGs, no? That's what the characters look like, at least.

[Vyoma 0]

Yes. They were used in old RPG, fighting and platform (or side-scroller) games. It required the artist and the programmer to work in a team to create such resources for the games. But these days, it has surpassed the field of games and become a medium of art.

 

To show few of the best works in this medium, I would like to quote two works of a Pixel Artist who goes by the name Jaeden:

A Sojorn of Sages

Traveling the lands of sillis

And also Bahamut perched by St0ven.

 

To do those kind of work though, patience is required, and more than that, skills with pixeling is also required.

[yordan 10]

* A Sojorn of Sages * Traveling the lands of sillis

I was really impressed, very nice work.

[Vyoma 0]

I was really impressed, very nice work.

Yes, great pieces of work indeed. But it is a pity that I have a long way to go to come to the league of Jaeden. As said earlier, to create works in those level requires a lot of patience and work. I have a day job and it takes a lot of energy out of me by the end of the day. I get home and all I want to do is snuggle into bed. Edited September 5, 2006 by Vyoma (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

I have a day job and it takes a lot of energy out of me by the end of the day.

Yes, but, in fact you are a lucky man because this day job gives you a salary. People having no day job have plenty of time but they can't enjoy their lot of free time because they have no salary.

[KDEWolf 0]

Yes, but, in fact you are a lucky man because this day job gives you a salary. People having no day job have plenty of time but they can't enjoy their lot of free time because they have no salary.

Hahahaha that's something to think of.
"Traveling the lands of sillis" is simply beautiful. Not that the other ones aren't nice, but they're not as great as this one...

About your current work, it's quite early to say anything, in my opinion. But the old one is very well designed =) Just wished it had more colors, maybe.

[Vyoma 0]

About your current work, it's quite early to say anything, in my opinion. But the old one is very well designed =) Just wished it had more colors, maybe.

 

I am not sure if I mentioned it at the DeviantArt display, but I had created it using MSPaint, and I wantent it to be kept true towards Pixel Art - hence I used as less colours as I could. I do not remember, but I think it has less than 10 distinct colours in it.

 

Now, coming back to the project at hand, I have a bit of progress. (Again, I am using MS Paint only to do the Pixelling).

The basic base I had earlier, I take it and put it in a new page, and make 3 more copies. I scale them differently, owing to the different features the end-bases of different races would be having.

 

As you can see, scaling produces unwanted anti-aliasing pixels that have shades of intemediate colours. In this case, it has some gray pixels for the left three figures. So, with what I have at disposal (MS Paint) what do I do? Well, I use

Image -> Attributes

And in the colours panel, I choose the 'Black and White' radio button.

I again use:

Image -> Attributes

And switch back to 'Colour' mode because later I would be using some colours. After a few clean ups, it looks something like this:

 

DeviantArt Gallery Link

I know, there was no reason to put the two shades of gray for the background in there, but it is just my personal preference and I like to work on a canvas with some features. (That means, those who are going through these pictures from the project can ignore that particular detail).

 

Anyway, the next step is the actual pixelling. Here is draw the bases of the four different races so that I can get a good set of base for them. I use the earlier picture as a reference, and I draw the line art over it, erasing and modifying (mostly erasing) whatever was there earlier. The earlier picture is just for the sake of getting the proportions right, because when you are working in CG using a mouse, it would happen quite a number of times that the proportions go wrong. Atleast, they do for me, and this is the technique I found to counter it.

 

The end result is as follows:

DeviantArt Gallery Link

Total effort till now: 4.5 hrs.

[Vyoma 0]

OK. After that, I then start one one form at a time. I arbitrarily choose the elf form. I copy it out of the previous image (in the previous post), and then I put it in a new image file.

Deviant Art Link

Next I go ahead and choose a pallete. I place it on the image itself so that I can easily pick it up whenever I want. I use the lightest colour to fill up the base. I like to start from the hightone, and then work down to the shadows and detail the object.

Deviant Art Link

I then choose the second darker shade, block out the cell and then begin filling it up, to create the medium tone are on the form. I assume that the light is some where roughly on the upper right of the object, and with that assuption, do the blocking out.

Deviant Art Link

Next what? Well you guessed it right, I go to the darker shade, and repeat the process. I keep in mind how the light creates bright areas on the top and right had side of the object, and at the same time creates shadows to left and bottom.

Deviant Art Link

More darker, and repeat. As you can see, as we do the process, it creates the shapes that were not earlier detailed out in the line art. All the subtler features that requires to be detailed should come out by now.

Deviant Art Link

Next step is simple, but time consuming. There is no necessacity for the outline to be black in colour. I choose the darkest hue of the skin tone itself, and replace the black pixels with it. As you can see, the result is a smooth base:

Deviant Art Link

I pick up two gray tones for the eyeball, and two blue tones for the iris, and tweak it into the little space I have for eyes there.

Deviant Art Link

That nearly seems to be done. But in the next step, I would try to do some Anti-Aliasing and 'Selout'ing (Selective Outlining). That would nearly double the colour count but I am not actually that much worried about such constraints now.

 

Effort Spent on Basic Bases: 4.5 hr

Effort Spent on Elf Base: 2.5 hr

Total Effort: 7 hr

Edited September 8, 2006 by Vyoma (see edit history)

[east-drip 0]

Wow man, pixel art is something that I wish I could do.You shold check out, http://www.pixellife.com/ and pixelcar.com (I think it's pixelcar). Both really cool, a lot of work in the cars on both of those sites.CSS ZenGarden also has a style that is made with pixel art, I believe it's called, Leggo My Eggo.+1 to you man, that takes some serious skill and patience.

[KDEWolf 0]

No more updates either here or on DA. Did you take a break from this one?Soon I'll post the update of one of my drawings (gonna have some boring classes). =p

[Vyoma 0]

Oh! I do have updates on this one. I actaully finished the finer shading and antialiasing. Hold on... I had uploaded it to ImageShack, just need to get those links. I will upload them at deviant art too.

 

Here goes:

I start of by taking a mid tone between the two adjacent tones, and applying it to the work I have already completed:

Deviant Art Link

Finally, here is my finished image. Just cleaned up all the pallette, and put another plain background just for the kicks of it. The base is ready, and now, I think, I can use it for creating different elf male characters.

Deviant Art Link

Effort:

Naras Basic Line Art: 4.5 hrs

Elf Coloured Base: 5.25 hrs

Software used: MS Paint, Graphics Gale FreeEdition