trying a new scenery style

[neota]

'obvious-shift-clicking'?

this has a few interesting properties:
+ scaling down is very clean (i intended it to be scaled down. but it also works at base resolution). so far i've tried scaling to 25% and scaling to 50%, using linear interpolation.
+ abstract
+ clearly defined lighting
+ crisp
+ quick to colorize

i used a predefined 16color greyscale palette, though i only used a few shades of it.
the scaled-down images indexize to that palette well; i will use that method to color them (scale down -> indexize -> rgb -> colorize)

[Ultim]

I like it. And that says a peanut and a half. Or not.

[neota]

updated.

me fiddling with color swatches (pasted directly from my notes)



initial; normalized; color-enhanced then auto-leveled; auto-leveled then color enhanced;
equalized then color-enhanced; contrast auto-stretched; hsv auto-stretched then auto-leveled; low-end darkened (using 'curves');
normalized and colormap rotated; gradient-mapped sub-areas multiple times with same gradient; gradient-mapped sub areas multiple times with different gradient and partial selection opacity; ditto
normalized and color-adjusted using 'color balance' tool (balance between cyan/red, magenta/green, yellow/blue for each of (shadows, midtones, highlights); colorized (layers->colors->colorize); ditto; normalized and multi color adjusted

top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right images are color-manipulations of the entire set
shown in the top-left corner.

top-right C1 is my favorite: the chocolatey orange-brown-blue one.

roughly 1062 colors per block, 72 per heart

base image is generally 'initial'; some images are based off other ones.

notes: next time, draw pixels using different colorramps on different layers to easily facilitate
color changing.
the 'sample object' is important, it must be interesting or the palette will
look boring. it's the usage of it that makes it interesting, so test swatches
using your bestest sprites. example (tinting of blue parts of old wuff_x.gif):

here i used the 'greyscale-selection' trick described below so light areas are effected the most.
then used 'gradient-map' with a fiery gradient.

tricks:

copy something, hit shift-Q to enter qmask mode, paste it and anchor it. now you have a selection that effects bright pixels the most, dark pixels the least. you can invert it to have the reverse effect.
after exiting qmask mode, this procedure is mostly useful for tinting lighting.

[Matt]

Killer style you have there. That is a really systematic approach to coloring. Hmm, I may actually start trying to do this. I usually check all my images in grayscale anyways, to see if the contrast/color/shading is balanced well, but I never actually STARTED from grayscale. Anyways, do you have anymore images?

Matthew Overstreet

[neota]

starting from greyscale: depends on what kind of shading you're doing; if you zoom in on all those heart-shaped rocks, you'll see i used two differently colored lightsources in conjunction with lowered opacity drawing to blend the colors together.
so far i have found the more complex your lightsources the less helpful it is to use greyscale.

here's one more image:



for this one i shaded the curtain in greyscale. then i duplicated it,
gradient-mapped* the copy, and blended the alpha channel so the lights transition smoothly. then i colorized the original layer. first time i've used alpha-channel for lighting, it worked well.

another image:


one on left is original one.
zoom in on it to do it justice (it was designed in 320x240 resolution)
no special technique there; standard 'outline->progressively adding shades-> touchup' procedure.i used gradients i'd previously created for the colors. later, just before i tweaked the colors i antialiased everything so it looks amiga-ish.
color modifications mainly via 'colormap rotation' (which rotates your image's hues around the hues wheel) and 'curves' for ambient lighting changes.

* i realize i haven't explained this; it's probably a gimp-specific facility.
it maps the intensity of pixel values [0..255] to a point on the currently selected gradient (which ranges [0.0..1.0]); so intensity == 0 will map to the far left color[0.0] of the gradient, intensity == 255 will map to the far right color of the gradient[1.0].

i'll see what else i can dig up. what kind of images are you thinking of (are you interested in particular subjects, techniques, or what?)

[Ultim]

That wolf chick... is frickin' awesome. The flowers look good too. You should try to show them in one still-life picture, all together.

Tell me how it is, Matt. XD

[bo]

you are my hero

[neota]

the rocks are just arranged in formations that look like flowers.
the original sprite was intended to mimic a sprite from an old amstrad cpc game called 'sorcery plus'.

this is a drawing i'm still working on; crits appreciated. especially for the hair.


matt: i don't know what of my stuff you've seen, i've not seen you on the main pixelation board. here, i'll give you links to all the stuff i currently have uploaded:

gazler.com/users/neo/anubis.gif
gazler.com/users/neo/naga.gif
gazler.com/users/neo/sickle_bluered.png
gazler.com/users/neo/sickle_bluered_solid.gif
gazler.com/users/neo/brushexamples.gif
gazler.com/users/neo/raft.gif

'brushexamples' is an example of how to quickly +detailedly texture a surface using custom brushes. brushes shown next to drawings.

[Matt]

Wow, you interested in joining any projects at the moment? I'll give you more info if you're interested in Land of Relics at all.

Matthew Overstreet

[Nemesis42]

Wow, neota, that vixen was great before, but using that color method you just amazified it. I will have to try that, thank you very much. n__n

[neota]

ha. i just realized: some of the stuff i mentioned DOES look pro. i'm getting there! yay! it crept up on me. heh.

i forgot to mention that the chandeliers(third image from top of thread) are chandeliers

matt:ah, so you are someone from the main board, i remember a land of relics banner in someone's signature, i assume yours. anyhow, i may be interested depending on the theme/main idea of the game. email is: neota AT softhome DOT net

nemesis42: also, i mentioned this technique, which you may find useful:
multi-gradient-mapping. where you select a subset of colors in a gradient
and gradient map each, overlapping them so 'border' colors get gradient-mapped twice. mainly useful for a 'radiosity' effect (color alteration based on color of nearby objects). and useful for creating new gradients.
(heh.. complete color-alteration doesn't usually produce new interesting gradients,
but using lowered opacity selections does)
i assume that gimp is the only program with 'gradient map' facility and so you'll be using gimp? i can send you some of my gradients if you're interested.

[BlackTerror]

Wow, I use the gimp, but I have no idea what gradient map is. How do you use it?

[BlckHwkSphere]

Wow. I've never thought of your style as perfect, that's just my taste, but your techniques are more advanced than anyone elses on this board. Dare I say you pay more attention to detail than stOven? Some of your techniques are so simple that they're complex. I mainly mean this part:

here i used the 'greyscale-selection' trick described below so light areas are effected the most.
then used 'gradient-map' with a fiery gradient.

I'm assuming that means it's done in grayscale then you used a gradient to color it, that's an easy way to do things, but I rarely see someone think of something that genius. Just now my art teacher is telling us for our prismacolor drawing to make a grayscale layer then color over the top, most creative thing I've ever heard of.

[neota]

for comparison, here is the original "wuff_x.gif" without tinting,
and the tinted version; note that the darkest shades of blue are almost unchanged.



i made an error before; the tinted version was made from an old version of that picture. corrected.

gradient map calculates the intensity of each pixel based on its rgb value.
and maps it onto the currently selected gradient. you can access it through filters->color->map->gradient map. i have a shortcut assigned to it so i can just press ctrl+shift+m.
a visual aid is in order:
step 1: select gradient. the selected gradient i've outlined with black.

step 2: select the regions you want to gradient-map.
(i've just selected everything, to make things easier to follow)

step 3: use 'gradient map' filter.

that should give you an idea of how the intensities translate to colors.

blckhawksphere
"
I'm assuming that means it's done in grayscale then you used a gradient to color it,"
nope -- i have done that before. but read my description above- it works for greyscale or color. the original was dark blue->blueish white gradient.
the 'drawing over the top' thing is ok, though i don't do it any more cause it's fiddly. if you try it on computer, put the 'greyscales' in a separate layer set to 'multiply' mode and give the 'greyscales' some color tinting, otherwise it looks bland (no variation in saturation levels)

other things about greyscale: if you copy something, enter QMask mode, and paste it, it will become greyscale (to suit the fact that the selection mask is greyscale).
so, to do that recolorization of wuff_x.gif, i selected all the colors in the blue->blueish white gradient, copied that, entered qmask mode, pasted it.
then i exited qmask mode, selected the gradient i wanted, and used 'gradient map'.
it's neither complex nor simple -- it's simple for me because i know it well, and complex for you because you don't yet know it well.

that 'greyscale-selection' trick is (i quote): "copy something, hit shift-Q to enter qmask mode, paste it and anchor it. now you have a selection that effects bright pixels the most, dark pixels the least. you can invert it to have the reverse effect.
after exiting qmask mode, this procedure is mostly useful for tinting lighting."

yep, i need more style. i need to buy a tablet, i don't get to experiment much stylistically, that would make it much quicker to try stuff out.