Castle Paradox

[NeoTA]

all pixeled stuff here.
i am interested in crits on almost any of these.

**Go to the end of the thread to see new stuff. **

some images are linked not inlined, to unfrighten the bandwidth.



somewhat famous pic, due to excellent lighting and ultra-detail.
depicts anubis, though he is miscolored (brown instead of black)
37 colors, illustrates dithering , color balance, and aa techniques.



Naga. lineart by someone else(?), coloring,texturing,and all else by me.
40 colors.


examples of the results quickly achievable with custom brushes.
also nice colors.
76 colors total, individual colorcounts given in the pic, along with brushes.


previous version of the below, non-fiery.
26 colors. someone else's lineart.

http://www.gazler.com/users/neo/wuff_x_fire.gif
fiery colored wolf.a lot of detail, but still less than
anubis. a few accuracy errors (the tail has wrong markings)
26 colors. someone else's lineart.


dark chandelier lit by candles. multiple versions -- different colorations.
696 colors for the entire pic, was originally ~30 per chandelier, until i ultra-antialiased it.


trying for a similar look as the tunnels in 'the escape' level of
the Aladdin game.
24 colors. used the paintbrush tool in places to get auto-aa, then converted back to original 24color palette



a covenant tribute. 5 colors including background.


this is what happens when i get annoyed at a icky pic and use the Interactive Warp
filter to turn it into something else entirely, then see it actually
looks good and pixelate it. 15 colors.


Guy with sawblade weapon. 24 colors/ 40 colors (animated, swaps between them.)
lineart by ZGravity, all else by me.


fighter girl holding huge polearms. 24 colors as it says.


jormungand. 32 colors.
test of new shading methods.

<img src="http://www.gazler.com/users/_neo/chest.gif[/img]
succeeded in reproducing amiga demoscene style shading using additive/subtractive
drawing then gradient-map.
a detailed treasure chest.
22 colors.


suppertime 16 colors.


'awesome scrawlings' depicting a female demonic entity.
27 colors.

[Eggie]

Dude, I don't think you are allowed to show porn on CP. Oh well, I don't think anyone will care. Anyway, it's really good, show I am going to copy some ideas.

Sit on that.

[Friend]

Hello,

Haven't seen you for a while. I think I remember seeing that anubis on your post in pixelation once... overall, I think that's your finest piece. Great color choice and I really like the texture on the stairs, good job.

I like your use of color for arrogantgirl6.png, but I think the anatomy and body proportion could be better.

The other one that I find really notable is that small cave tile demo. Great color selection and use of highlight. Very atmospheric.

In all, these are solid pixelations... which begs the question, why hasn't anyone else commented?

ps: how is the pixeling program coming along?

Friend,
_________________
"I am Collins. From my position in the moon's orbit, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land and walk on the surface. I was so close to the ground of the moon, and yet I returned without having trod upon it... I am Collins." -Friend

[Shadowiii]

Ah! So YOU are the dood who drew that anubis on the pixelation boards (which reminds me, I haven't gone there forever...). I liked it so much I printed it out to study...he he.
_________________
But enough talk, have at you!

[Fenrir-Lunaris]

[NeoTA]

fenrir: actually, the linearts were already pixelated. however i tend to hack linearts around quite a lot in the process of coloring. i think i made the tail longer and modified the feet.
EDIT: and i made the breasts smaller, now that i recall it.

have some more (done today with a new quick! shading technique,time == 2:30, 24 colors):

again, someone else's lineart, my coloring.

friend:
thanks. i like my latest piece best, of course (the one above)
i have abandoned the pixeling program and decided instead to contribute to the Gimp, as it covers does most of what i want already; i don't want to reimplement all that stuff.
at the moment i am considering how to implement color-output limiting (ie. limiting output colors to a certain color range or to a certain palette when drawing. should make indexed work much easier.)

[Chaos Nyte]

Eggie, stop being such an idiot. A bare breast on a snake woman doesn't mean it's "porn". There's simply no sexual conotation to the picture to justify a porn label.

[NeoTA]

suppertime
16 colors including transparency. i wonder how it'll look on this bg?

[Bob the Hamster]

Neo, that bear is eleven kinds of awesome, including five previously undescribed by science.

[Mr B]

Er, it may not be objective porn -- that is, it may not have been made with the intention of sexual arousal, but it is quite possibly subjective porn.

That is, if it is viewed as porn, it's porn. I'd view it as porn. Er, that is, I would consider it porn.

And if there is no sexual connotation to the exposure of breasts, why are all the 2-bit sluts at my school trying to show theirs off to the wide, wide world?

Now to the topic at hand...

You have a masterful use of color. I would be interested in seeing the size of the palette you used for these? You seem to have made great deal of effect with relatively few colors.

Those candles are especially amazing. Instead of making the candles illuminated, like most people would, you correctly percieved that the candles would be mostly in shadow. It's...amazing.

The bikinied gal must have muscular enhancements. I don't see how anyone could withstand that kind of torque pressure.

[NeoTA]

mr b: the problem with considering something porn cause it subjectively is.. is that almost anything could be considered porn by that manner of judging it. for example there are people with foot fetishes. i fail to see how feet have any real relation to sex. are pics including feet pornographical ?

there is no overall palette. i've had enough experience with palettes to understand that i can get any pixeled pic to fit into any palette and look good, just by remapping the colors carefully. most of the pics have colorcount < 50; a few have more (like the omniscience_card has ~160, and arrogant_girl6 has ~600)

thanks for reminding me to check the colorcount, i'm working on adding that for each pic. some of the pics have the colorcount drawn into the picture. (eg sawblade, fighter1_2)

[djfenix]

This most definately is not porn--more like artistic nudity. Porn is explicitly arousing while artistic nudity is depicting the human body in a manner to show beauty.

Anyways...

I have a question. How do you do pixelated art? Is there another way besides zooming up really close and dotting it one by one with the mouse? The drawing programs I use has nothing I know of that can pixelate

[NeoTA]

i happened to have this previous version available:


my steps are :
1. draw silhouette (this includes color regions, so i assign each region a flat color. the bear only had three different colors : eyes+teeth (yellow), fur(brown), gums (red).)
2. draw basic lighting. one light shade whereever light lands.
done with a large brush -- diamond-shaped 5*5 pixels.

the pic is taken just after step 2 is completed, although i've raced ahead with the head

3. pick intermediate shades and smooth shading out. done with a 3x3 diamond-shaped brush.

4. cleanup: here is all the slow pixel-by-pixel work. make sure light regions are the right shape and flow well (especially important for fur!). antialias ( == smooth out) jagged edges (examine the shoulder area or head). add detailed texture (examine the basket, for example)

so, obviously you don't need to draw each individual pixel -- but you need to examine each pixel and make sure it's in the right place and is the right color. it's a lot like conventional drawing, but more precise.

your paintprogram probably does have pixel drawing capabilities. i know these programs do:

+ deluxepaint IIe (download here)
+ grafx2 (http://www.eclipse-game.com/?dat=7)
+ gimp (http://www.gimp.org)
+ photoshop ( i haven't used this)
+ paint shop pro ( i haven't used this)
+ graphics gale (http://www.tempest-j.com/gale/e/) ( i haven't used this)
+ mspaint ( i haven't used this -- thankfully)

in order of preference for 256-color pixeling.
i use GIMP so that i can do 24-bit pixeling and have the use of things such as additive/subtractive drawing, layer masks, and other funky stuff. however, deluxepaint is basically the god of 256color drawing, with grafx2 close behind. check it out.

oh, and a tablet is better for all things artistic, if you can get one -- i have one but currently can't use it , but my previous experience shows it makes a mouse look rather silly.

[NeoTA]

'awesome scrawlings' of a demonic entity:


the stages of progress are here:
http://www.gazler.com/users/neo/histindigo.gif

25minutes using additive/subtractive drawing in conjunction with layer masks. 27 colors.

[LeRoy_Leo]

I see a graphics tutorial in a thread. Most useful. Thanks a bunch, NeoTa.
The demonic female entity is my fav. I wouldn't want to meet up with one in a dark ally though, that is for sure. Would have a hard time seeing it.

Also, there really isn't that much wrong with any of these fine pixelations that can be seen as of now. They are more like the epidamy of perfection (just about). However, I was once told by an elder that one who can go over a picture several times and find something to fix about it is a true artist. Just wonderring if that is what you do.
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "