Tom ForsythNov 23

I'm teaching myself how to do pixel art, and I got Aseprite, which is fantastic. So I have the game already - and it's fun - but it's using art I "borrowed". But that gives the right idea on size - I can go a few pixels over or under.

Anyway, I was sketching away in Aseprite and I got a reasonable looking outline (no shading yet), and I thought "how far off am I on size?"

My sketch: 96x40 pixels.
Game needs: 24x12

Derp. You have no pixels. None. It's all in the shading. Make every one count.

Show threadTom ForsythNov 23
Before vs after. I actually find it so much easier at this smaller size. You just don't have that many choices!
Show threadTom ForsythNov 23
And yes - the only thing cooler than a swing-wing aircraft is one where BOTH wings swing. The Tomtomcatcat F28!
Show threadTom Forsyth
Watching a modern bunch of pixel art tutorials, and they spend a lot of time talking about outlines, and then shading inside. Which works fine at the big size. But at the small size you simply don't have space for both outlines and shading - pick one or the other!
Nov 23 at 8:35amWeb
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24

Revised size, did shading and reorg, and exported it to the game! Note - all assets APART from the main ship are *ahem* borrowed from other games. Placeholders only!

The shading is too subtle in the game context, and I want a nicer exhaust.

For ~15 hours from "total art newb" - it's acceptable :-)

#Mega68k

Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
Wow that got very mangled by Masto. Looks like I'll need to tweak my GIF writer to output bigger.
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
Did a quick upscaling exporter, but now I'm really limited on time because I smack into the Mastodon 16MB upload limit. And then it MPEGs the shit out of it anyway. Sigh.
Show threadTom ForsythNov 27

Slowly developing the skill of what one of the artists I worked with in the 90s called "pixel-wanking" - tweaking individual pixel positions and colours to make the most out of the tiny possibility space.

It's a slightly mindless "zen" task - excellent at 1am when you don't want to sleep, but you're too tired to code.

Show threadjosefNov 27
@TomF when I was too tired to write code, I used to go through mindlessly indenting and tidying the existing code. but ever since the IDE has got good at doing that for me, when it hits 1 AM now I feel lost and confused, and might even do something crazy, like go to bed
Show threadTom ForsythNov 27
@jk I sometimes keep a second TODO list of stuff that is simple but slightly tedious - just for times like that.
Show threadjosefNov 27
@TomF I suppose it's like managing a team of people who are me at different times of the day. for example, me-who-has-finally-had-lunch has quite a different skillset and overall outlook to the unknowable and perplexing me-who-hasn't-had-lunch-yet
Show threadJari Komppa 🇫🇮Nov 24
@TomF You probably need some "half'n'half" upscaler, where you go halfway point sampling and rest bilinear..
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
@sol_hsa I mean this is @aras 's server - I bet he knows how important it is to do the right thing for GIFs. Hint hint! 🙂
Show threadAras PranckeviÄŤiusNov 24
@TomF I’ve no idea TBH. Mastodon does whatever it does for GIFs, which might mean “I’ll destroy your nice pixel art” too, I guess
Show threadJari Komppa 🇫🇮Nov 24
@aras @TomF yeah, I mean, if it's going to be MPEG'd to hell, the soft-edge-big-pixels should survive better..
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
@sol_hsa @aras Yeah but then I'd have to write a soft-edged upscaler and... ugh.
Show threadRaptor Nov 24

@aras @TomF it converts to h264/mp4 with no audio stream as it takes up a lot less drive space for the same quality, unfortunately for <420p resolutions and pixel art the default settings of fastest compression and interpolated scaling cause issues.

For pixel art just convert the gif to a h264 stream before uploading using high quality preset and nearest neighbor scaling if needed. As long as there's no audio stream mastodon treats it the same as a GIF but removes the 16MB limit.

Show threadMontyOnTheRunNov 24
@TomF looks like something out of a Lynx game (and I mean this as a compliment)
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
@montyontherun Yeah it's roughly a MegaDrive, but upgraded to 8 bits per pixel, but in return it has half as many pixels.
Show threadNicolasNov 24
@TomF the moving wings are really cute
Show threadJohn KaniarzNov 24
@TomF FFMPEG.exe can accept raw frames on stdin. Popen it and make your own video file directly.
Show threadCheesenessNov 24
@TomF Might we worth doing an unfiltered upscale before uploading - a lot of what's there is getting lost. Digging the vibrancy, though!
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
@Cheeseness Sigh. What a mess. It's odd - previous uploads (~6 months ago?) worked great.
Show threadCheesenessNov 24
@TomF I find that stuff often changes without warning (had to upload a video 4 times today to try and find what the new default size limit is since it doesn't seem to be documented anywhere). It's a bummer
Show threadferunandoNov 24
@TomF nice ^_^ is it running on that fantasy 68k you were talking about with Eniko, or is the resolution 'only' aesthetically motivated?
Show threadTom ForsythNov 24
@gureito Yes, same #Mega68k console. I have tweaked the sprite hardware in the meantime, but yeah, this is all "real" 68000.
Show threadEniko FoxNov 23

@TomF in that case you can use outlines to draft out the shape and then shade over them

no outlines is kind of an advanced technique though

Show threadTom ForsythNov 23
@eniko I settled on giving the different parts different colours before shading over them.
Show threadNikita LisitsaNov 23
@TomF Imo you still can have both, but you'll have to use dulled outlines (i.e. blended into the object colour, not pitch black)