Teaching the ways of Pixel Art [Lesson 3: Tips and tricks]

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DarkAuron
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Teaching the ways of Pixel Art [Lesson 3: Tips and tricks]

Post by DarkAuron »

Lesson 3 - Tips, tricks, and suggestions for pixel art.

Some obvious, some not..

-Use extra space to work on. Just because the final image will be 24x32, doesn't mean you can't work on it in a larger environment.

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-Don't be afraid to copy different parts of the sprite, modify them uniquely, and decide which is best

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-Flipping and rotating sprite parts can shape parts in other directions. Be sure to change shading to appropriate the changes, as seen from picture 2 to 3:

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-Make a pallete and know how to manage it. Update colors as you bring in new ones. Sometimes you might need to make multiple pallete sets for different colorings of a sprite until you like a specific set.
-Go crazy with colors!! You'll learn a good way to mix and match by experimenting.

-Don't be afraid to use the box, circle, and line tools. Shapes like the body and head can be made using the circle tool. Longer things that need more precision you can use the line and rectangle tools.

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-Using the resize tool can sometimes help.
-Save frequently. If you're not sure you want to save your changes, make copies in the same image or have multiple images.
-Saving as a monochrome image can sometimes convert to b&w instantly with decent results, or at least give a scrambled but usable outline. Saving as a monochrome image for b&w images also cuts down in filesize dramatically.

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-Ctrl+Z is your friend. So is Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V :)
-MSPaint can only undo 3 times, after that it'll just be confused.

-Don't spend 20 minutes on 3 pixels and get a migraine; take a break, it'll be there next time you look at it (unless a lightning bolt strikes your harddrive): Image

-EVERYTHING involved in pixel art is experimentation. Play around with your images as if they were CLAY (or silly puddy, whichever you prefer :P)

-Try to imitate directions with a few pixels. Curved lines are good examples of this

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-Pretend theres a shape behind your pixels that you're drawing on, and shape the pixels in the same way.
-Patterns can easily be recreated with just a few pixels

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-Fill in an area of a sprite with floodfill (or however you feel) before giving the details

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-When shading, go from darkest to lightest. For some reason it's easier..

-Secret: If you have trouble seeing even at 8x scale, mspaint can also do 10x scale if you click the white line that's below the 8x selection. Bet you didn't know that :D
Last edited by DarkAuron on Mon 26 Feb, 2007 11:23 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Jim e
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Post by Jim e »

Very nice, I did not know that 10x thing.

I off to draw my own character. :D
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Drak Dragon
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Re: Teaching the ways of Pixel Art [Lesson 3: Tips and trick

Post by Drak Dragon »

DarkAuron wrote:I'm thinking about posting tips and answering questions about pixel art, if anyone's interested..

I tried to rotate a picture in paint, but i cant get it to do things like 30 degree and 45s. it only does 90, 180, and 270... is there no way to get MSPAINT to rotate :S
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DJ_O
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Post by DJ_O »

Actually you can, but it's hard. You need to mess around with the stretch stuff and the angle stuff.

On a side note, I like MS paint a lot for pixel art, but I like photophiltre better because it's free, and there is a feature that allow you to replace a color with another. For example if I make a grayscale title screen with Omnicalc, I follow those steps (which are not explaqined in my GPP yet):

1) COnvert the 3 level grayscale (black, gray, white) picture to black and white with a checkered pattern enabled (you need to do so or your grayscale will cause you a seizure), then save this pic as another bmp picture
2) Press ctrl+Z then go in the color replacement tool. First replace the black with white, then replace the gray with black, then save it as another bmp picture
3) Once youre done you just convert both to 8xi files using Image Studio then send them to your calc. Assuming the first pic you created is pic1 and the second one is pic2, on your calc just do Clrdraw:Disp:Dispgraph:Recallpic 1:Repeat Z=21:Getkey->Z:Real(20,2,0,0,96,62,0,0:End to display your title screen with grayscale enabled
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tr1p1ea
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Post by tr1p1ea »

Nice tips Dark :), i bet a LOT of people dont know about the 10x trick! :).
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Post by DarkAuron »

Yeah, I figured as much; I found out on accident, tee-hee.

Anyhow, I think I might do a little bit of redesigning on my site, maybe get a little more active on it *cough* :roll: and add my pixel art lessons to it. I'm thinking on what to do for lesson 4, so it might be awhile before it's out and about.
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Post by Spooner »

How do i make those in paint. I mean like what tools what do i set my screen to and what not?
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Post by Andy_J »

What do you mean, exactly? That didn't make any sense.
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Post by Spooner »

I have ms paint where do i go from there?
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Post by Timendus »

You start drawing, dude... Dûh :P
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Post by DJ_O »

then you post your work and we can worship you
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Post by lloydkirk1989 »

So for calc graphics do most people make their spites with MS paint and then convert them to GS?
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Post by tr1p1ea »

I just do them in CalcGS ... but i do titlescreens in PaintShop Pro then import it to CalcGS.
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Post by DJ_O »

I use photophiltre
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Post by dysfunction »

I use MS Paint, and Macromedia Fireworks for more complicated graphics work.
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