CLOSED. Pixel Art Thread: Quests

[StanLindsey]

THIS THREAD IS CURRENTLY CLOSED. THE PIXEL BOARD IS UP!!! https://trello.com/b/vwuE9fbO/habitrpg-pixel-art

This Github Thread is now permanently closed. Feel free to unsubscribe.... and head on over to the new Trello :D

[lefnire]

Aw, but I love the rock monster! (haha, man it really is all preference isn't it...)

[lemoness]

Fandekasp, it's actually not anything against the style, it was simply a pixel-art preference.If you decide to fiddle with the redesign, maybe consider the following: [WARNING! GIANT POST! You absolutely do not need to do this if you don't want to. These are all just general tips.]

• I love the head and think it's very cool! However, the back of the skull is extremely rectangular. You might want to consider smoothing it out.

-The pose is a little confusing. Try taking a look at some actual pictures of gorillas to reference.

https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2010/western-lowland-gorilla.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Male_gorilla_in_SF_zoo.jpg http://www.straightblastgym.com/news/uploaded_images/Silverback_gorilla-722124.jpg

I understand that you were going for a punch, but the perspective is a bit wonky, and having the second arm above the head makes it trickier to read. Look at these photos of fighting gorillas for inspiration:

http://zombiejoe.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/gorillafight.jpg http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/previews/916125-gorilla-fight.jpeg

So, yeah. But as I said before, Tyler likes it... so think about my comments, but then make your own judgement call!

[AdrienLemaire]

@lemoness I see. Just a fyi, I just tried to copy that image:

If I feel motivated, I'll have a look into it again :)

[RosemonkeyCT]

Ohhh, see I never even got what that was supposed to look like. Now I do facepalm

For me... make the chest a tin bit bigger so you can see where the front of the thing is. I didn't get that perspective-wise. And a smidge more detail on the hands so they look like hands. I thought it was some kind of bizarre tripod rock thing, that's how dumb I am XD

[RosemonkeyCT]

ps. looks a lot better when I know what it is. I feel like such a muppet now XD

[crystalphoenix]

since we're giving feedback on mr. gorilla in case @Fandekasp is gonna give it another try, i would like to suggest that you try cel-shading. your first draft up there looks like you tried to shade the body by trying to soft shade it with pixels. it unfortunately makes the body look messy and not very well defined. i realize you may have been trying to give him some texture, but sacrificing that for more crisp lines may help :)

[AdrienLemaire]

@crystalphoenix cool, thanks :D btw, if you want to take a stab at a follow-up video for this one, go ahead :+1: Otherwise, I'll see what I can do about it :)

[crystalphoenix]

@Fandekasp that actually explains a lot of why your gorilla looks the way it does o.o (i don't know why i've never watched that vid all the times i've been by that page...)

first off, i would like to caution you about plagiarism ^^;; no artist likes their work to be stolen, so please make sure you have the permission to use the base image in that way.

if everything checks out with permissions, and you put it through the process you did in the video, i would only use it as a guideline, not the finished product. i would suggest making a layer above that image, and bucket-fill the silhouette of that picture with a base color. you could flip between this and the modified image to check if you're going in the right direction in the next few parts. add an outline and manually draw the inside lines with the pencil tool. and then you can work on the shading from there.

i don't have the means to record a video tutorial... so i don't think i will be making one ^^;;;

[AdrienLemaire]

well, I think I explained in the video how to chose images that can be used and edited.

Anyways, thanks for the tips :)

[lemoness]

Yikes, yes, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT USE OTHER PEOPLE'S ART, EVEN IF IT IS JUST A "TRACE".

Going down that path can get Habit into HUGE legal trouble. I totally understand that was not at all your intent - but as crystalphoenix says, you should only be referencing other people's art as a very loose guideline. This is a big reason why I suggest referencing several different photos - you want to build something original.

It might seem like it's okay, because many of Habit's designs are based around the original BrowserQuest set, but those are licensed under CC, so we have permission to use them and modify them. You should never just base pixel art directly off of another artist's art, especially if it is something you just found in a Google search... ESPECIALLY not as submitted art for a for-profit company like Habit!!

Furthermore, this also explains why the pixel monster was difficult to understand. When you are basing a drawing off of another drawing, you are further stylizing something that has already been stylized. This is why artists, even cartoonists, advocate life drawing. For your purposes, just referencing a couple of different photos of the animal and then creating your own unique pose based on the information you learned is far more valuable, even if you do have the permission to use the art.

That being said, I think we should take down that video from the wiki/youtube. We really don't want to encourage this sort of thing, especially linked with HabitRPG's name.

This is not to say that the technique of starting out with a large drawing and then scaling it down to pixelart is worthless; I will usually start by drawing something big and then scaling it down and doing pixel art from there. It should just be your own art.

Sorry Fandekasp, I'm not jumping on you directly - you had no idea. But this could potentially get us into lots of trouble, and we are a fledgling company, so we need to be careful about how we do things.

[AdrienLemaire]

Again, the first thing I did in the video was explaining how to search for reusable images on Google.

If you want to remove it, go ahead :)

[Pandoro]

I think the point lemoness is trying to make, is that these things are just really tricky to deal with. I just checked the start of your video again and you use a google filter to search for free images. I wasn't aware of this option and I'm not sure how good this works. (also be cautious that you selected "use share and modify", while it is crucial that you select the option where you can also use it commercially as HabitRPG is commercial.)

The image you used was under the creative commons license, which in this case also includes attribution. So what this exactly means is uncertain to me. It could in theory mean that whenever we now would use your resulting pixel art, we would have to state who the original drawer was. That is what probably will get us into trouble at some point, which is why I think lemoness's legal sense started tingling.

I don't think we need to remove the video, however it is very important that people are aware of the situation to avoid us getting into trouble.

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 3:15 AM, Adrien Lemaire notifications@github.comwrote:

Again, the first thing I did in the video was explaining how to search for reusable images on Google. But if you want to remove it, go ahead.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30288330 .

[AdrienLemaire]

Thanks for the details Pandoro. I'm not a license expert, and you're right that I should have search for commercially reusable images :) Otherwise, you can trust the the google images search tools, it works pretty well.

I updated the wiki with that warning:

 Warning: Please avoid using existing images, and be creative (or at least be 100% sure that the image can be modified and commercially reused, which is not the case in the following video !)

[longhorse]

I really want to contribute to monster creation, but there aren't enough guidelines. I do have some ideas- evil unicorn, rabid dog, rabid two-headed dog, mad cow/bull etc. I just don't have a clue how to go about it :(

[longhorse]

wait wait wait I just found the canvas size limit on the wiki. that's for bosses, so if I want to make a smaller regular monster, would the mount-size do?

[crystalphoenix]

that should be fine :) from my understanding, the canvas size listed there is more of an upper limit guideline. if you're trying to figure out the size of what your creature should be, i think the best way would be to compare it to the size of the player character. so if your evil unicorn is supposed to be larger than a person, make it larger than the character sprite ^_^

[lemoness]

crystalphoenix is right on the money - it's an upper limit, so mount size is 100% okay :)

Fandekasp - That helps, thanks! The issue for us is indeed related to attribution - even when you can use an image, you almost always have to attribute it. While you were aware of this, it's totally possible that a hopeful contributor would stumble across your video via youtube, or not understand why they'd have to do the filter, or not know they need to tell us so that we can correctly attribute the original artist... and then we release the art, not knowing that it was based on something preexisting, and get in trouble.

Plus, even when the artist does tell us it was based on a pre-existing picture, that means we have to hunt down the art, figure out what exactly its licensing agreement says, figure out exactly how to correctly attribute it... it makes for a lot more work for us.

I'm going to talk to our lawyer to try to figure out what we should do about this. Hopefully the warning will be enough. It makes sense for us to have a coherent policy on it, so I will keep you guys posted! :)

Also Fandekasp, I'm so sorry you got singled out for this... It's 100% not your fault, it's all nitpicky legal stuff that all companies have to deal with. You're an awesome contrib - don't let this discourage you the slightest bit <3

Just be glad that we're not in law school ;p

[longhorse]

thanks @crystalphoenix and @lemoness.

[longhorse]

Woooo here's a unicorn :3

[RosemonkeyCT]

Ohhhhh wow! That's stunning!!

[Pandoro]

While I like the unicorn, the bright outlines don't really fit the style we currently use. Could you try with a darker outline as well?

Apart from that I would like to make the request that whenever someone posts pixel art for bosses/monster from now on. Please put them next to some dummy character so we can see how the sizes compare. That would really be awesome!

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 12:56 PM, RosemonkeyCT notifications@github.comwrote:

Ohhhhh wow! That's stunning!!

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30504412 .

[longhorse]

Is this dark enough? I find the brighter outline more pleasing on the unicorn, but this does look better next to a character.

[Pandoro]

The outline looks very nice now, I just find the top of the head and the horn area a bit confusing. What is the red? Maybe also a bit darker horn might be good ?

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 2:07 PM, longhorse notifications@github.com wrote:

[image: person]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1742268/37456e0c-63f7-11e3-913a-73ea6328bb09.PNG[image: unicorndark]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1742272/455bf98e-63f7-11e3-8f61-cc175670bf93.png

Is this dark enough? I find the brighter outline more pleasing on the unicorn, but this does look better next to a character.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30507844 .

[longhorse]

I made that whole area a lot clearer. The red was supposed to be blood but that didn't really work for me.

[Pandoro]

Aah sweet! I like it :)

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 2:31 PM, longhorse notifications@github.com wrote:

[image: unicorndark]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1742375/7d43b44c-63fa-11e3-9810-7955e6d177e2.png I made that whole area a lot clearer. The red was supposed to be blood but that didn't really work for me.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30509107 .

[longhorse]

[longhorse]

[longhorse]

the hippocampus looks pretty weird, but i think i'll fix it up tomorrow.

[crystalphoenix]

your creatures are awesome :D you may wish to close the outline on the bull's horn. it may not seemed as curved, but as it is now, it looks incomplete ^^;

i kind of like your interpretation of cappricorn XD as i understand, a hippocampus has a horse's front.

oh, i was also wondering, do you have the ability to export your images with a transparent background?

[lemoness]

Some amazing creatures!!! Awesome job :) I second crystal's comments about the bull horns, but you're really on fire with these! Are you doing zodiac symbols?

On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 8:25 AM, crystalphoenix notifications@github.comwrote:

your creatures are awesome :D you may wish to close the outline on the bull's horn. it may not seemed as curved, but as it is now, it looks incomplete ^^;

i kind of like your interpretation of cappricorn XD as i understand, a hippocampus has a horse's front.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30579084 .

[longhorse]

thanks for the feedback! I changed the horns on the bull so they still had the curve.

@crystalphoenix ah yes, it is capricorn. I can upload PNGs at 1x resolution with a transparent background, but i can't seem to blow it up in sai :/

@lemoness I totally didn't mean to be doing the zodiac, but these are all from zodiac. What if I did tiger as a manticore, tiger style? that would be cool.

[longhorse]

wait a minute i'm mixing up my zodiac i was thinking chinese zodiac because of the unicorn (horse), but that one doesn't have a mer-goat.

[longhorse]

I have a friend with photoshop who blew these up with a transparent background for me :3

[Pandoro]

They look pretty cool :D

The scaling still went wrong though :x At least I see interpolation, just upload the raw form and we can scale them, don't worry about it. ^^

On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 3:27 AM, longhorse notifications@github.com wrote:

[image: capricornsm]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1751681/6f81861c-65f9-11e3-9348-eca4e42576fe.png[image: taurossm]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1751682/6f86c6ae-65f9-11e3-94ba-53c782e27c89.png[image: unicorn]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1751683/6f8baed0-65f9-11e3-8776-3c37d096a8ef.png I have a friend with photoshop who blew these up with a transparent background for me :3

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30629256 .

[longhorse]

haha dang it. if there are any specific monsters for quests that need doing, I'd love some prompts.

[RosemonkeyCT]

I always struggle with the scaling, I select the whole canvas and it still decided to go wrong! that's why i stick to smaller items -it's easier for me to find the bits that have gone wrong. But your monsters are amazing!!! I'd love to see you do the rest of the zodiac, or even the Chinese one you mentioned before ^^

[longhorse]

Leo this time! Thanks Rosemonkey :3

[aurakami]

These are all looking awesome!

[RosemonkeyCT]

Brilliant!!!!!!

[longhorse]

some kind of scorpion thing? I wasn't sure what to do with it

[AdrienLemaire]

Amazing :O

[Pandoro]

I think the white highlights are a bit too sharp, maybe a bit more in the pink orangy direction? Otherwise it looks really cool!

On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:26 AM, Adrien Lemaire notifications@github.comwrote:

Amazing :O

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30830879 .

[longhorse]

Like so? My weakness is definitely colour theory so I have trouble with things that aren't straightforward.

[Pandoro]

Awesome! Yes a lot better :) Now it is clearer where there is an actual white space and where there are some highlights. Sweet thing :D

On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:34 AM, longhorse notifications@github.comwrote:

[image: scorpiobg2]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1772364/c69124d0-67cf-11e3-8442-88c709dabe59.PNG[image: scorpio2]https://f.cloud.github.com/assets/6171467/1772368/d33c4d36-67cf-11e3-8720-ed1401cb7bb0.png

Like so? My weakness is definitely colour theory so I have trouble with things that aren't straightforward.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/HabitRPG/habitrpg/issues/945#issuecomment-30831412 .

[longhorse]

I thought it might look better more yellow than pink

[longhorse]

also, is there confirmation my pixels will be used?

[RosemonkeyCT]

@longhorse That's amazing! As for your work, I don't know when the boss system is due to be implemented. They wont use anything without your written consent, at least. It's just which things get completed and introduced first - that's why there's such a delay with new pets, there's already plenty done as well as a few second generation ones ready. Best bet is to keep an eye on the Trello pages for the conversations about which features you're working on - my computer sulks too much for me to do that, it doesn't like Trello for some reason (or Habit sometimes!) but that's the best place to keep updated with progress on newer features.

[longhorse]

thanks for the tip. I mostly ask because I'm itching for that contributor achievement. I'll gladly email my consent as soon as I'm finished the "zodiac" set.

[longhorse]

Tropical peacock colours felt right for cancer.

[RosemonkeyCT]

Stunning! ^^