Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

All development of pixel art, maps and other graphics.


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i
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by i »

Balthazaar wrote:
i wrote:
Btw Balthazaar: not nice.
:?:
First of all your version of ancient gate seems to be too much pixelated - even for pixelart. Lines are bold, they should be thin. I see no texture and no depth. You simply cut out a part of right column - so tell me, is this column made of very thin material?

See example:
Ugly hole.png
Ugly hole.png (4.62 KiB) Viewed 2668 times
Finally I accepted arikel's version. I also managed to redraw floral/celtic pattern to show how it IMO should be done. Any questions?
Anicient Stone Gate2.png
Anicient Stone Gate2.png (16.64 KiB) Viewed 2667 times
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Balthazaar
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by Balthazaar »

Oh sorry I was under the impression this was not a requested item but a challenge open to all who were interested in learning something about pixel art. (and I didn't see a FND tag so I figured it was an open ended thing). Open to new and old alike, this is prob only the third item I have attempted. Everyone has to start somewhere. Anyways no worries sorry to step on your toes or thread I will just move to pixel joint or another forum for more input.
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by i »

Balthazaar: Yes. You are right. It's open for everyone. Sorry. Forgive me, "Small Task" it's still fresh and immature idea. I really do not know yet how that kind of challenge should look like. And I am open for any ideas (Except WinneR3's!).

I've noticed that your gate doesn't have alpha channel. Could you tell me then what editor do you use?
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enchilado
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by enchilado »

I pointed out to you that the cracks go right through it (Irukard put it better with "is it made of very thin material?"), but you ignored me.


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Balthazaar
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by Balthazaar »

@I

Using GIMP just didn't add the alpha channel on the last post, previous versions have it. I will make sure to add it in the future. No worries I will still keep working on my version as a learning tool in order to improve and learn.

@Poison Ivy

Your post was not ignored I haven't gotten to it yet as my 6 month old takes precedence I was working on suggestions in order, adding some color to my grey's as suggested by Crush. Keep your shirt on. :wink:
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by Rotonen »

Competitions are nasty for art contribution since there is always only one winner.

Individual tutoring topics per new person aspiring to be a pixel artist should prove to be far more productful.

If people want to have the shelter of the read only section, the requests for that go through me.
This message used to be meaningful.
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by i »

Balthazaar: Try not using pure black for outline. I marked some pleases which makes whole gate to look clumsy/crude.

Maybe this little example will illustrate better:
Image

EDIT: forgot the file ;/
outline.png
outline.png (8.71 KiB) Viewed 2607 times
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AxlTrozz
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by AxlTrozz »

The light of the cracks are in the wrong place, they look like vain not crack, move the light (clear color) to the other side of the crack so the right border reflects light on the left side.

My suggestion is do it complete, with no cracks or missing parts, later with layers you can create the eefect of missing of cracks,
As an example, first is the complete fountain ::
fountain3.png
fountain3.png (9.02 KiB) Viewed 2569 times
Second the fountain with water added (just a new layer) >>>
fountain4.png
fountain4.png (9.38 KiB) Viewed 2569 times
Third the fountain with missing pieces shattered and cracks (just another layer) >>>
fountainbroken4.png
fountainbroken4.png (17.45 KiB) Viewed 2573 times
I hope this helps
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by arikel »

Thanks for completing it, irukard. I tried many different patterns these days, spent hours on it, but couldn't really get to anything nicer than the last one... Thin lines for it were hard to make, and i guess it was the hardest part of the task...

To answer IvanMorve's question, i used desaturated plasmas overlayed (in GIMP : Filters, Render, Clouds, Plasma, then Colors, Desaturate, and then the layer is in overlay mode). I guess this is not good pixel art practice, though...

Ending with a bit of off topic : I don't think Len killed anyone, in fact, it's admiring Len's and irukard's tilesets that made me want to learn pixeling. Looking at how the pros do it, "wow, i'd really like to be able to do that", it's encouraging... To me at least.
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by i »

arikel wrote:To answer IvanMorve's question, i used desaturated plasmas overlayed (in GIMP : Filters, Render, Clouds, Plasma, then Colors, Desaturate, and then the layer is in overlay mode). I guess this is not good pixel art practice, though...
Very nice method. Arikel - we don't need to draw every pixel by hand, especially when dealing with the architecture. A decent texture is usually very good base for further actions.

Hardware TIP:
And about the lines: I am sure that Wacom tablet would help a lot. I use Wacom digitalizer on screen of my Lenovo X61 Tablet. And pressure sensitive features helps me a lot. However there are still certain situations when I use ordinary mouse (Razer Pro 1.6).

Shortcut TIP:
Sometimes I draw objects larger on tablet and then scale it down to achieve more pixel-look.
Example:
Forest-Stone-001.png
Forest-Stone-001.png (11.76 KiB) Viewed 2526 times
->
Forest-Stone-001-66percent.png
Forest-Stone-001-66percent.png (7.59 KiB) Viewed 2525 times
96x96px -> 64x64px

Also this stone stairs was drawn larger:
Ancient Stone Stairs.png
Ancient Stone Stairs.png (8.54 KiB) Viewed 2534 times
Resuming - Every trick which saves our time and brings us closer to our goal is GOOD ;) This is game artwork, not pixelart masterpiece for contest. Also it's GPL, everyone may improve it later.
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by meway »

I threw together a version with an appropriate auto-aliasing also I took out the grass hope you didn't mind cause to re-add it is just a copy past job. Let me know if you like it.

Also if you do keep the original the cracks could use a little work its like there is no hole/crack there cause at the edge its flat surface throws it off.
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doorway2.png
doorway2.png (5.37 KiB) Viewed 2507 times
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by i »

One more hint - this time about tileset usability.
See example:
Anicient Stone Gate-module.png
Anicient Stone Gate-module.png (23.35 KiB) Viewed 2484 times
Sometimes we could create more usable tileset with relatively small effort. As you can see, we can now make long never-ending construction of arcs and pillars. It's a bit similar to aqueduct. This tileset may be expanded if needed. For now- there is no need, but in future it became for sure a good base for forest ancient temple (scheduled as CR2 content)
meway wrote:I threw together a version with an appropriate auto-aliasing also I took out the grass hope you didn't mind cause to re-add it is just a copy past job. Let me know if you like it.
It seem to be a decent piece of pixelart, but it's too sharp IMO. Contrast is also too high. Right bottom side of arc is too blurry. I can't tell you where is the golden point between sharpness and softness. I just draw, when it's too soft, I draw larger objects and try to scale it down. In case of very sharp pictures I add some AA manually or use brush tool to soften edges.
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by zick »

When I read this topic's title I was thinking of something completely different. Where I live, there's a set of arched railroad trusses made of giant boulders. It got me thinking, so let me ask if there is somewhere in TMW where this might fit. On the Argaes map, I was thinking the Zartam area or the mining site nearby could accommodate.

Basically, the stone gate is part of a set of arches located in a river valley that supported a bridge between two highlands at one time in the distant past. Since that time monsters now roam the valley, the bridge went into disrepair, the arches fell and the boulders that made the arches were scattered on the valley floor. You can move between the two highlands nowadays but you've got to go all the way around a mountainous region. As a possible money sink you could make a quest to rebuild the fabled bridge. This event could also create quests to keep the valley floor free of monsters during construction.
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by meway »

Some small tweaks nothing major a little heavier contrast.

Just for the record I made this with ms paint.
Attachments
another update better or worse idk
another update better or worse idk
doorway3.PNG (5.54 KiB) Viewed 2580 times
some of my indent marks where not correct.
some of my indent marks where not correct.
doorway3.PNG (5.53 KiB) Viewed 2383 times
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Balthazaar
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Re: Small Task No 3 (Pixelart Challenge) - Ancient stone gate

Post by Balthazaar »

To i, Crush, Axl, and PI and anyone i missed, much appreciated to you all for your time and help. I will continue to practice I have a lot to do right now so won't be on here much till after the new year. However I will continue to work on my skills I am also new to gimp and am learning the use of layers as the last time I drew any pixels it was in Deluxe Paint (which I don't think used layers) many years ago and I didn't have the patience for it. :wink: I will post some updates or other work for your C&C if you don't mind lending your insight later on.

Rotonen no need to be sheltered from comments etc I wasn't trying to win the contest only trying to learn but thanks for the thought of the read only section.
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