this is just a thread for chatting with dust about pixelart, if you're not dust you can read but it probably wont make sense to you 🫡
so anyways you asked about "reflective effect". i never heard it being called that, but i guess its just another name for "reflected light", right? 🦧 when i learned art way back ppl usually talked about 4 kinds of light you can use to create forms:
so for the gems i used 1, 3 and 4. i usually dont use atmospheric light for pixel assets cause i feel that would make them less versatile, basically they would not match some levels
also in natural settings direct, reflected and atmospheric light usually have some hue. so on a sunny day direct light from the sun will be yellow, atmospheric light will be blue, and reflected light will be e.g. green if youre standing on grass. but for pixel assets i usually make all of these pretty neutral and just base hues on local color
Did you like this post? Tell us
Leave a comment
Log in with your itch.io account to leave a comment.
Hello! Will you be able to participate in the 8 pixel asset pack jam?
yeah i think i will try to submit something
i had a specific idea i wanted to do for the last one with an isometric character sprite, but i wouldnt be able to make it on time
but i should have more time during next one!
by the way i need to try doing some isometric art sooner or later. the tileset that tiopalada did for the jam was fking crazy! i follow him on mastodon but i was surprised when he joined the jam
You have three unfinished packs. I just have one special theme. So I don't want to use it if you won't be able to submit...
oh nooo emotional blackmail xDDD but “maybe ill submit” is the best i can say… if the theme is really a banger i probably will, right?
OK. I just have an option to use theme in this 8 or in the next 9 jam...
yeah you gotta choose wisely!
I've decided to start the jam earlier because I will need to water trees tomorrow. And the banner of this jam is the best masterpiece I've ever made
The additional challenges are exactly/especially for you
the logo truly is a masterpiece ;D
i said i will do something for the jam, so i posted my “submission” here https://itch.io/post/9925831
i really do think the theme of the jam is great and i think it might get some really cool submissions
that being said i cant really make a submission to the jam, which is because of something you wrote
i know you didnt mean it that way, but that kind of sounds like the theme of the jam is made in such a way that the results would be skewed in my favor. i know thats not actually what would happen, i dont expect i would win or anything, but the way you put it sounds like that, and so i decided not to submit
you started these jams around the time that i started to learn pixel art, and ive taken part i think in most of them. they were big part of my motivation to continue learning pixel art. so i dont want to do something that could in some way (even if its just in my brain) damage the integrity of those jams.
i know the jams might seem “small” right now, but there is already some amazing art that was created as result of them, and i think they have a potential to grow, or maybe pixel art jams even as a trend will grow on itch, and more ppl will start doing them. so i think what youre doing is really cool and worth protecting in this way :)
sorry if this sounds weird, but thats the way i feel and thats my decision 🦧
They are very quality so it you can just not to submit the pack to the jam buy upload it as an asset pack on itch.
I understand your concerns. Your thinking is very correct but there some "but's":
So I just decided to kill two rabits with one shot. The elementals part is what I wanted to draw and just decided to add it because it is something like theme while the main "theme" of the jam is restriction
The vibrant colors is really a challenge concretely for you. I noticed that you usually avoid them but it is a jam and as I noticed you usually like drawing challenges so I added it as another point
yup, its a cool theme. and yeah i dont often draw with vibrant colors, i prefer palettes that are low saturation in general (DawnBringer’s 22 and 32, or Poisson or the like). AND i usually use a lot of gray and brown even in those palettes, so really low saturation
yo, I hope you submit your work anyways. Would be a shame to have one submission less, because of some miscommunication.
I wouldn't worry too much over the competitive aspect in jams in general, it's an easy way to turn sour on them.
just finished one of the packs though, and i dont know where to go with the other two yet, so maybe ill wait for the jam before starting a new one
i got an idea the other day for something kind of like a jam but not really, i thought you might like it.
i thought it would be cool to make a collaboration with other people, to make a big eclectic tileset that would be licensed cc0. we would choose a topic, palette and size, eg.
“sci-fi top down rpg, endesga32, 24x24px”
and within that everyone contribute h some tiles for the tileset, whatever they like as long as they keep with the limitations
the goal would be to make a big ecclectic quantity-over-quality tileset thats 100% free to use and expand. what do you think?
I've been thinking last days about creation of new project/series of jams based on this idea. it is also partially reminds Fuck Capitalism Jam. So I wanted to give it a name by twisting two words: insane and world/land. As you could understand from the name the idea is to uncover insanity and stupidity of our world. There are many insane things people see every day and can't understand it is insane or stupid... Just a veil which doesn't let you to see through it... The idea was is to collect explanations. In different forms: game, art, book, essay, literally almost any medium... I even drew one drawing about proprietary software
It is a very wise idea. You have a potential to reach those wizards (if you haven't become one of them yet) ...
Read about LPC. Liberated Pixel Cup is a project of OGA you could see there assets with [LPC] part in the start of the
I don't think that itch isn't good for CC0 and collaboration at least when combined together. I saw many times when people set in metadata "it is CC0" but in description they write something like "no redistribution". And it is sad because I am one of the reasons that it happens... Most people on itch is about honor of an artist. Such people usually can't get along too long. At least if there will be one donation to the collaborative pack there will be some fights... And itch is more about centralization. Do you think it will live enough long with centralization? I like the way of lpc on OGA. There just a bunch of assets of different artist. with a [LPC] part in the name and it fits other tiles of this incredibly world.
It is good to accommodate as many people as possible but I don't really think it is a good idea to sacrifice one style. It will more likely look like several packs merged into one and it would have sense if someone continues it but... It is again often against honor of creator.
I won't say anything specific about that except this emoji ≽^•⩊•^≼
That's why I use only CC licenses for art and only open-source licenses for code
P.S In general I thought about it and want to do something like it. I really like this idea but I think we need something like in-between of follow style and do whatever you want while follow some very wide restrictions
And as you proposed it I want to ask. Would you like to participate in such a big project? It is one of my concerns I didn't want to be alone in a project that aims to give people framework which they can expand...
for sure, i would love to contribute some tiles for something like this
the reason i think it would be cool for it to not be too restrictive in terms of quality and style is i think part of collective effort like this is that it can go beyond the mainstream notion of “quality” and “how good something is” and be more about the freedom of creating something and performing things together
so if you are too restrictive and say “this is ok, this is not ok” people might loose the enjoyment of it. but by using the same tile size and palette the tiles will in some ways match, and i think that would make a really interesting tileset
with that people could make games that are focused more on having diverse content, and not just pretty tiles
i also thought it would be good to first select the restrictions, and then create e.g. the first 10-20 tiles of the tileset
we could then tag other people, show whats already created and ask if they would like to contribute to it. i think there is a bigger chance someome might want go do it if its done this way
also we can then ask the people who join if they want to tag other artists they know to make something
Yeah the seed is definitely required
i think maybe ill start noting down some general ideas for themes and then post them here. you can also post some, and then we can decide on an interesting theme. it would be nice for it to not be too generic. something that will allow for a broad range of tiles, but at the same time wont just be another dungeon tileset with orcs and elves (haha)
also maybe if we want to make this a thing, its a good moment to take this off of the publicly available thread… my email is pebonius at gmail dot com, you can hit me up there, i started working on some logic and rules for this already so we can exchange some ideas
maybe to give people inspiration and a better theme to follow, we could make a short “backstory” behind the tileset, and they could then expand on that theme
that would be more specific than just “sci-fi” or “steampunk”
I remembered that you are using mostly phone (at least for pixel art). So if you use it for code editing or at least sometimes look at your code on phone because for example you got an idea and want to look at code one more time to think about it you need code editor... I know good one which is also open source (although it is almost impossible that I will recommend something proprietary :)
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.foxdebug.acode/
yup thats right. i sometimes do some coding on the phone when i really need to, but i mostly wait until i have access to pc. when i need to look at the code from my phone i use github codespaces, this way i dont need an editor, i just work in the browser. but its super annoying and i hate it :D looking at code on a small screen makes my brain hurt
i usually wait until i have a clear design for what i want to code, and then when i can access the pc i just go in and code it
right now i’m on and off coding this game that uses surt’s town tiles, but i still dont have a script for it just some loose ideas. once i have a script ill know what features i need to add to my engine and then ill start coding
as a side note do you think this is a good emoji for a pink slime? 🐽 it makes me want to make an asset pack with cute pink slime
Just formally github workspaces is an editor but just in browser... About emoji. I see here a pig nose which it is supposed to be. Do you see here pink smile? Great, it seems that you have a great imagination and very easy to inspire (which can lead to many unfinished packs but it is still great ;)
And about emojis... It is text object which is rendered by application just like different fonts. So it isn't "cross platform"
Slime... Hmmm... I hope slime as platformer character?
thats true emojis are not cross platform, on my screen that is definitely a cute slime
i think at some point i will try doing platformer type assets. i have never made a platformer so feel like i need to get to know this type of game better to make assets for it
maybe i would be able to edit my game engine to create a platformer and then id have some place to test the assets?
because im so new to pixel art i still have a lot of different things to try out, every week i feel like starting a new project!!!
see cute slime
It looks more like an intermediate frame of idle/jump animation because usually slimes are less rounded at bottom because their jelly nature and physics press them down more.
But it really cuteness potential!
you are right, makes no sense to make a hard slime 🦧 it should be flattened at the bottom
some people even make them goopy at the bottom: https://www.spriters-resource.com/ds_dsi/negimachoumahorachuu/sheet/53901/
i like the slimes that look like that too
hey will you be looking at the lospec jam thats coming up? i think theyre going to announce restrictions today, and submitting art is possible. i think i’ll see what the resrtictions are and decide whether i want to submit something.
though i still have 3 asset packs that im working on at the same time so maybe starting another is a bad idea? 🐵
I've just known about this jam from you. I read rules and it seems that I won't do anything. Why? Just art must be submitted to discord. I also don't understand difference between "animation" and "standalone artwork" but to ask I need to use discord... I think I can try to do another parallax background for specified resolution, hope it will be better than the mountains
Game making (and it seems that assets creation too) isn't really for me. I enjoy it but can't imagine what to do or just dont want to do something... Jams page say that I joined 37 jams. And submitted to 8 but half of them my own pixel art asset pack jam so.... Most likely it will be one more joined and forgotten jam
3 packs? I don't know. I usually have 0 and I've never worked on 2 packs at the same time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ah i didnt notice art needs to be put on discord… i think i will pass too then. its weird, why not just submit art as assets on itch? maybe they want to keep submissions on itch exclusive to games
hmm i wonder about what you wrote. it seems to me that you are quite interested in pixel art and game dev. if its a hobby you dont always have to work on a project. i take long break from making pixel art as well sometimes, its not work, i can take a break whenever i want.
i used to be really passionate about art and then i took a break from drawing for a few years. now i do pixel art and draw only sometimes to design something for an asset pack. i still enjoy art but i dont have to always to it. its a hobby
Pallete is good and controls are enough good. I think I should try to do something. At least dumb platform without idea... Maybe I will cam up with something in process
hey its cool you made something for the lospec jam even though you didnt submit it. i didnt take part for the same reasons that you brought up earlier, but i do think the palette wasnt bad. i saw some of the games submitted to the jam. i think with a palette like this it would be nice if someone made a retro style rpg, though it might not be enough time
also cool you made a platformer pack, im still thinking of making one. i have some ideas but i havent started it yet. maybe im kind of anxious of starting it.
Yeah pallete wasn't bad but 16 colors is too restrictive for me and there was 8 pairs of colors without intermediate so it was a bit of a challenge for me
Honestly, as I said earlier I also didn't plan to make art but I decided to try to create a game. But game needs assets so I started drawing. I usually don't finish everything I start so I ended up with unfinished asset pack instead of a game prototype... I've just thought, I've finished only 3 packs: rocks, bushes and jewelries 🤔 And none finished games
Anyway it seems to me that I spent all the passion that I had at that moment for drawing banner for pixel asset pack jam so I stopped drawing this pack and even didn't start drawing any portraits even though I had two weeks. So it seems to me I see a pattern if jam has a great banner, I more likely won't participate in it by itself.
As I see you have a very solid knowledge in real drawing and it really helps you in pixel art. I didn't thought it can help so much with pixel art
I didn't know how it is called. I just said "reflective effect" because it is reflection and because isn't it effect (some parody to real life that reminds you something real)?
This thread was a good idea. I used something similar but I created a restricted game page invisible for all who doesn't have invite link. Although I didn't understand how the link works so I just added that person to collaborators of the invisible "game" page and talked inside comments :)
But I also want to let you know about dms in OGA (although you disabled it in the settings)
You are not alone who doesn't use discord (and I personally prefer Jami) ≽^•⩊•^≼
oh i never heard about Jami, ill check it out
and yea i'm not super knowledgeable about art, i only learned it on my own so i only know what i know from books. but yeah the stuff that i know does for sure help, basic drawing skills, color theory, anatomy
pixel art mostly sticks to the same principles. you have added stuff like dithering or antialiasing, but really they are techniques to express the same things you would in painting or drawing. they hust help you do that on a tiny canvas and with very limited colors
hmm maybe i am mixing one thing up, i think maybe its more accurate to say "diffused light" than "atmospheric light"... i think what people refer to as atmospheric light is just a kind of diffused light that has a strong hue (so again like blue sky on a sunny day). i wish i had a link to some graphic that nicely breaks it down