Cloud Pixel Art - UPDATE: Aeris art available

[Shaun]

So I think I have vastly improved in this area. Do keep in mind that this isn't a final version but it took many hours to complete. It's based off the ending of Advent Children where you see Cloud in the church after he's seen Aeris. You've probably noticed I've made it my sig/avatar now too as 24 is getting old.

What do you think?

[Clone 01]

how did u make it?

[Sylvie]

Its really good, you did well on his clothing. Only problem I have is his hair looks lazy, and his nose isn't realistic looking. Its VERY good for pixel art, though.

[Clone 01]

whats pixel art?

[Rengori]

whats pixel art?

Art made with pixels. Duh.

And they make it by going into paint and excruciatlingly make it with the pencil, paint bucket, etc.

Anyway, that's really bitchin'.

[Clone 01]

oh with paint!then yeh thats excellent!well done!

[Freya]

I agree the clothes are good but the nose and hair look a bit sloppy. great for pixal art though, i tried it and couldn't do it.

[Shaun]

Thanks for the feedback people.

I used GraphicsGale for this. I use it for all pixel art.

As for the comments, I guess I partially agree that the nose could be improved. However, if you look at the AC screenshot I based it off I think you'd see some similarity. And the hair - I think you're underestimating the difficulty of hair using pixel art. It's VERY hard to make hair look thin in places, so it's very hard to make it NOT look lazy. The best thing I could do to create this effect is use an alpha channel on his hair.

With alpha channels you can use varying transparency on the hair. For example, you could make it 60% transparent where the hair thins. However, an alpha channel isn't really worth the effort unless the character is moving over a background. But hey - if anyone knows how to make the hair more realistic, let me know.

Here's the AC screenshot it was mainly based off:



I think I did a pretty accurate job when you compare it with that!

[Sylvie]

For the hair, is it possible to have lighter lines in it? So it looks sort of like strands of hair? That would look really cool.

[Shaun]

Possible, yes. Challenging? That's an understatement. Insanely, mind-numbingly hard? Yes.

Sure, I'll give it a go, but I don't think it's easily possible. At its current state, it's clearly a 2D cartoon-like image. I'll really need to consider adding some 3D depth if I do this and that isn't easy.

[Sylvie]

I mean, you don't have to, its just a suggestion, I think It will look pretty cool. His clothes already look 3D. Its an amazing peice of art, really.

[Shaun]

Thanks, but it's not that great in comparison to other work I've seen. I need to do some more characters and create some backgrounds before I have something truly admirable. I'll give it a go though. Thanks for the suggestion.

[lovehurts]

Excellent clothing. The head needs to be more egg shaped. Compare with the original the hair should lay more thin to the skull and should fit more tightly to it. Compare to the originall.skull as in head.

Great job though, I still suggest the tips to you though.

[rubah]

It's not all that 2-d, when you consider the amount of shading around his nose. Hair wouldn't be very difficult at all, really xD you just have to have the wrist flow jive action going.

[Shaun]

Thanks again. I'm going to work on the hair tonight and I might start work on Aeris. I can't stress enough that this is an incomplete version. I still need to soften the outline and yes, I need to fix the hair, and maybe make his nose a little less dodgy at the bottom. That said, I think I did a good job with the transition from the upper nose to the skin colour.

I'll give the hair a go like I said, but I think it will take a couple of hours to get it right. For the hair that has no head behind it, I can add alpha channels. lovehurts, it seems that you want me to thin the hair out near to the head/skull. I can try this, but like I said it's very difficult. You said it should 'fit more tightly'. Are you suggesting making the hair's colour 'morph' to the skin colour?

Anyway, if I'm going to continue this FFVII art I may as well make something decent out of it. I should be spending any spare time working on the pixel art for my side-scrolling shooter, but I really can't animate legs... =/