EDIT: I finished my pixel art portrait of Rainbow Dash

[Pix3M 607]

Funny to see people praise me when I showed them something that was not complete at all.

 

Here's the finished version:

 

 

Comparison with the old:

 

Edited July 26, 2012 by Pix3M

[Lacey Shadows 164]

Remind me of those old CPS1 or MS-DOS character select screens, really cool. Was this just for fun or is there more than meets the eye?

[Killian Jones 2,653]

It looks really good, and it is not immediatly obvious it is pixel art, but, on closer inspection, it actually is!

[Pix3M 607]

Remind me of those old CPS1 or MS-DOS character select screens, really cool. Was this just for fun or is there more than meets the eye?

 

I found myself a niche where I can offer commissions to make stuff like these as forum avatars for people who want a nice pic to represent themselves as a pony, and I'm doing the mane six to practice my technique.

[Lacey Shadows 164]

I found myself a niche where I can offer commissions to make stuff like these as forum avatars for people who want a nice pic to represent themselves as a pony, and I'm doing the mane six to practice my technique.

 

Nice, well it's coming along pretty well. Practice makes perfect as they always say...

[Pix3M 607]

It looks really good, and it is not immediatly obvious it is pixel art, but, on closer inspection, it actually is!

 

And here's a fun thought. There are pixel artists who have a goal of refining their works so make their work appear as high-resolution as they can.

 

An interesting read that sounds like a must-read for anyone interested in getting anywhere with pixel art: http://www.pixel.schlet.net/

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

This looks pretty darn neat, but it doesn't feel as finished as your other pixelated works. Not sure. Oh, the eyelashes aren't there. Maybe that's it. And what's with the weird colors on the bottom left? Did you really just leave your color pallete there?

[Pix3M 607]

This looks pretty darn neat, but it doesn't feel as finished as your other pixelated works. Not sure. Oh, the eyelashes aren't there. Maybe that's it. And what's with the weird colors on the bottom left? Did you really just leave your color pallete there?

 

If you took the time to find out what the small, crossed out text says, it clearly says that it's not finished. I was just seeing how nice people would be when they look at an unfinished work. As if leaving my color palette wasn't obvious enough, haha

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

If you took the time to find out what the small, crossed out text says, it clearly says that it's not finished. I was just seeing how nice people would be when they look at an unfinished work. As if leaving my color palette wasn't obvious enough, haha

 

HA! So I was right! But yeah, eyelashes I feel could help here. Doesn't have the same amount of cool/adorable ratio that the usual Rainbow Dash has in the picture without it.

 

Edit - I thought that weird gibberish at the bottom was a language. Will do to highlight and read that stuff from now on out.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Hazardus_Havard

[Pix3M 607]

HA! So I was right! But yeah, eyelashes I feel could help here. Doesn't have the same amount of cool/adorable ratio that the usual Rainbow Dash has in the picture without it.

 

Edit - I thought that weird gibberish at the bottom was a language. Will do to highlight and read that stuff from now on out.

 

I finished it and updated the OP

I wonder how much better people think of the finished version compared to the version which was just a WIP though. Opinions?

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

I finished it and updated the OP

I wonder how much better people think of the finished version compared to the version which was just a WIP though. Opinions?

 

The eyes look so much better with the extra shine, and of course the lashes.

 

The hair appears fairly active now; not as muddled down like before.

 

I can't find anything wrong with it compared to the last. It makes a really nice avatar for people to use or just to look at.

[Gikkleslick 41]

This is furking AWESOME! I love pixel art, and the fact that it's rainbow dash makes it 20% cooler.

[Ashbad 969]

I find a few areas inconsistent: you anti-alias the lightest and mid-shade of the skin, but then you don't AA the darkest and mid-shade together. Lots of banding in the eye. Despite also having lots of banding in the hair as well, I think it still looks rather nice and stylistic.

[Ghastchip 33]

How can you make this one with "pixel art" I don't get it at all, no sir I don't, but I like it!

[Pix3M 607]

I find a few areas inconsistent: you anti-alias the lightest and mid-shade of the skin, but then you don't AA the darkest and mid-shade together. Lots of banding in the eye. Despite also having lots of banding in the hair as well, I think it still looks rather nice and stylistic.

 

Lol I am not even sure if banding is an issue if you can't really discern the banding pixels very well. Makes me wonder if I would see any improvement at all if I try to fix what seems like a non-issue for me right now. If it doesn't, then what you brought up would be a non-issue.

 

And where am I not AAing the darkest and mid-shade?

Edited July 26, 2012 by Pix3M

[Ashbad 969]

 

 

Lol I am not even sure if banding is an issue if you can't really discern the banding pixels very well. Makes me wonder if I would see any improvement at all if I try to fix what seems like a non-issue for me right now. If it doesn't, then what you brought up would be a non-issue.

 

And where am I not AAing the darkest and mid-shade?

 

RE: Banding, it's not hard to ignore in the hair, but it really really jumps out in the eye.

 

As for the AA, it just doesn't seem like you really define good curves with your AA -- hence why some areas with 45 degree slopes look like they're missing AA, because they are -- they jump out as straight segments when other segments are curved. Also, transitions between 45 degree angles and the 22.5/67.5 degree slopes are a bit jagged and could benefit from intermediary slopes, which is possible with or without AA, but with AA you can exaggerate the curves even better.

[Pix3M 607]

RE: Banding, it's not hard to ignore in the hair, but it really really jumps out in the eye.

 

As for the AA, it just doesn't seem like you really define good curves with your AA -- hence why some areas with 45 degree slopes look like they're missing AA, because they are -- they jump out as straight segments when other segments are curved. Also, transitions between 45 degree angles and the 22.5/67.5 degree slopes are a bit jagged and could benefit from intermediary slopes, which is possible with or without AA, but with AA you can exaggerate the curves even better.

 

This is making it sound like you can see a lot more 'issues' than I can. How about this? Go take this portrait, make appropriate edits, and see what happens.

[Ashbad 969]

 

 

This is making it sound like you can see a lot more 'issues' than I can. How about this? Go take this portrait, make appropriate edits, and see what happens.

 

I'm not doing any editing if you're just going to get snark with me when I'm trying to purely be helpful and give good C+C. Was working on an edit, not sure if I'm going to continue with it. Not even sure why I started an edit, past time or two I made you one you threw it out the window anyways. I have a lot of better things to do than make a wasted edit for someone. Like, doing my own pixel art.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Ashgood

[Pix3M 607]

I'm not doing any editing if you're just going to get snark with me when I'm trying to purely be helpful and give good C+C. Was working on an edit, not sure if I'm going to continue with it. Not even sure why I started an edit, past time or two I made you one you threw it out the window anyways.

 

It's very possible for somebody to give advice that turns out to be bad. Some things sound great on paper but does not work out in practice. Makes me think back to my first attempts at moving eye glares to give life to an otherwise static picture. Sounds great on paper, but since I didn't know jack about subpixel animation, the glares moved crazy far for moving only a distance of one pixel. That's one of my concerns with trying to change the curvature of 45 degree lines as I can either imagine using some 45-degree banding (oh the horror!) to shift an area less than a distance of one pixel, or risk exaggerating it too much by not using a buffer color to achieve this.

 

I've started on an edit trying to figure out exact what areas were problematic, but I figured that I'll probably miss areas that I can't catch.

 

I'm not doing any editing if you're just going to get snark with me when I'm trying to purely be helpful and give good C+C. Was working on an edit, not sure if I'm going to continue with it. Not even sure why I started an edit, past time or two I made you one you threw it out the window anyways.

 

It's very possible for somebody to give advice that turns out to be bad. Some things sound great on paper but does not work out in practice. Makes me think back to my first attempts at moving eye glares to give life to an otherwise static picture. Sounds great on paper, but since I didn't know jack about subpixel animation, the glares moved crazy far for moving only a distance of one pixel. That's one of my concerns with trying to change the curvature of 45 degree lines as I can either imagine using some 45-degree banding (oh the horror!) to shift an area less than a distance of one pixel, or risk exaggerating it too much by not using a buffer color to achieve this.

 

I've started on an edit trying to figure out exact what areas were problematic, but I figured that I'll probably miss areas that I can't catch. I cannot say that I know every possible bad way to arrange pixels. Some tutorials that try to cover banding may mention different types of banding, some types are not even mentioned on some. You hang around at forums populated by other pixel artists. I don't. I mainly do what I want, improving at my own pace. You probably know different kinds of banding that I am not even aware of. I don't even know if I can spot all the unecessary banding errors (if they are unecessary to start with).

[Ashbad 969]

I've started on an edit trying to figure out exact what areas were problematic, but I figured that I'll probably miss areas that I can't catch. I cannot say that I know every possible bad way to arrange pixels. Some tutorials that try to cover banding may mention different types of banding, some types are not even mentioned on some. You hang around at forums populated by other pixel artists. I don't. I mainly do what I want, improving at my own pace. You probably know different kinds of banding that I am not even aware of. I don't even know if I can spot all the unecessary banding errors (if they are unecessary to start with).

I may not be the best artist, but when it comes to banding in this portrait I do spot quite a bit of it. While the angles may not be "banding" per se, they are another issue that more has to do with using AA effectively.

 

It might come across this way, but I'm not out to belittle what you make, I'm not here to try and sound smart by using pixel art jargon only me and you probably understand here, I'm not here for any of that. I simply see some problems with what you've got there and I thought I'd point them out. I don't make edits often for other people's stuff because I'm already working long days and have little time to even do any of my own pixeling, hence one of the reasons why even that Twily pixel I've been working on, which normally I should've been able to get done in less than a week has taken well over three weeks already, and it's (maybe...) only 50% done. I can try and put some time aside and fix what I notice, but I really don't want to do that if what I do isn't going to be looked at seriously. If I have the assurance that it will be, then I can try and cram it into my short allocation of free time tonight if I can.

[Pix3M 607]

I may not be the best artist, but when it comes to banding in this portrait I do spot quite a bit of it. While the angles may not be "banding" per se, they are another issue that more has to do with using AA effectively.

 

It might come across this way, but I'm not out to belittle what you make, I'm not here to try and sound smart by using pixel art jargon only me and you probably understand here, I'm not here for any of that. I simply see some problems with what you've got there and I thought I'd point them out. I don't make edits often for other people's stuff because I'm already working long days and have little time to even do any of my own pixeling, hence one of the reasons why even that Twily pixel I've been working on, which normally I should've been able to get done in less than a week has taken well over three weeks already, and it's (maybe...) only 50% done. I can try and put some time aside and fix what I notice, but I really don't want to do that if what I do isn't going to be looked at seriously. If I have the assurance that it will be, then I can try and cram it into my short allocation of free time tonight if I can.

 

Last time I remember you making an edit to my own works, I did not even ask for it. Here, I am asking if you can make edits yourself because it's difficult to describe the exact location of whatever errors there are, and I can't help but wonder how useful your constructive criticism is because it does not point out where the errors are, or if the errors are even worth the time to fix so the only thing I can do is go with what I think I know about banding, and pay more attention to my works.

 

Not to mention, there was one instance of skip-one banding that I intentionally left there because trying to avoid it would create jaggies.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Pix3M

[Ashbad 969]

Last time I remember you making an edit to my own works, I did not even ask for it. Here, I am asking if you can make edits yourself because it's difficult to describe the exact location of whatever errors there are, and I can't help but wonder how useful your constructive criticism is because it does not point out where the errors are, or if the errors are even worth the time to fix so the only thing I can do is go with what I think I know about banding, and pay more attention to my works.

 

Not to mention, there was one instance of skip-one banding that I intentionally left there because trying to avoid it would create jaggies.

 

The only time(s?) I did do an edit and post it was when you specifically asked for it publically

 

Also, for obvious reasons, it's hard to point out where the problems are with text. I could do it better with an "edit" that circled all the areas in question but I was only going to do that once (or if) you showed interest.

 

I think I'll just pass the opportunity, honestly.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Ashgood

[Pix3M 607]

The only time(s?) I did do an edit and post it was when you specifically asked for it publically

Then one of us didn't remember right. The only edit I recall was the one with the horrible AA banding. I shrugged that one off because I had an ego back then, so I took it as an insult.

 

Also, for obvious reasons, it's hard to point out where the problems are with text. I could do it better with an "edit" that circled all the areas in question but I was only going to do that once (or if) you showed interest.

That could work, though I'm not that interested in making changes on a work that I already spent a good amount of time with. I wanna move on, you know?

[Felix 1,363]

Amazing! I have to say, there's a ton of really great artists on here lately, you're definately one of them.

[KakeiTheWolf 652]

There is little to say beyond the fact that is just crappin' awesome. Was that made in Paint, or what?