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 ForsythNov 23
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!
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 threadJari Komppa 🇫🇮
@TomF You probably need some "half'n'half" upscaler, where you go halfway point sampling and rest bilinear..
Nov 24 at 8:14amWeb
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.