blixeydrawstoo

[blixeydrawstoo]

[blixeydrawstoo]

historically, pixel art was rendered on limited hardware, there were strict limits on how many colours could be displayed on screen at once and in a single sprite.

These limits no longer exist, so you are no longer beholden to any of them. Despite what you might hear in certain pixel art spaces, there aren’t really any rules anymore, beceause there’s no technical limitations forcing you to work a specific way. You can make your pixel art have as many colours as you want, be whatever size you like, and have as many frames as you want it to.

However! the smaller you make a sprite, the harder things will become to read unless you shrink down the number of colours in equal measure.

In a photo you might have. i dunno. 1,000,000 pixels in it or something like that. Thats like a really small photo but that’s still so many pixels that you don’t really notice any of them individually. They all blend together into one big mass to tell you what you’re looking at in groups of hundreds!

On the other hand, in a 16x16 sprite you’ll only have 256 of them. Every single individual pixel can have something to say!

But if every pixel is trying to say something at once, it muddies the sprite and makes it hard to read. However, if a group of pixels are all the same colour, they’re all saying the same thing, and it becomes a lot easier to understand what you’re looking at.

like, for example, take a look at this 16x16 crop of a random photo.

does that look like a whole lot of nothing? yeah . theres 256 pixels, and theres 256 colours. the pixels aren’t really working together to tell you anything, so instead it just becomes one big vague mass. if i reduce the colour count to just 6 colours and increase the contrast, though,

it starts to look less like visual noise, and more like water at sunset!

The contrast is important - part of why you want to keep your colour count low is to make groups of pixels distinct from each other.

But, how exactly do you keep your colour count low, anyway?

a colour ramp refers to the gradient of colours in your palette that are used to shade one particular colour, such as tempests hair or her skin

instinctively you’re probably going to want to make individual gradients of colour for each of these things.

however, if you connect these ramps together, you can greatly reduce the number of colours you’re using in your piece. This also helps create a cohesive palette!

when it comes to connecting ramps, value matters much more than individual hues. you want to have a good range of values to have a readable sprite!

I think actually a really good example of value mattering more than hue in sprites, is this guide to anti aliasing by pixeljoint user ptoing

also just generally good advice, but take a look at this bit in particular

despite the wildly varying hues, they work together just fine. by focusing on the value when you combine your ramps, you can create some really interesting colour palettes!

anyway. now for some vaguer notes on how i do lighting

anyway thems just some thoughts for you all

[blixeydrawstoo]

from last year - a piece for an Organization XIII fashion zine!  some fancy travelers, a train robbery, a betrayal! and who lost their hat!?

[blixeydrawstoo]

Regrets of Master Tethras - slightly coloured version. Sigh.

[blixeydrawstoo]

Ever wonder how DA characters looked younger?  

[blixeydrawstoo]

Oh no, new villagers have arrived. Hope they don’t destroy your town...

[blixeydrawstoo]

passing my time with some background practice

[blixeydrawstoo]

“happy endings” this “sad endings” that– you can debate the relative merits of each till your mouth goes dry and it’s still not a meaningful binary. Is the ending coherent and emotionally appropriate for the story? Cool.

[blixeydrawstoo]

Draw myself and my online friend as animal crossing animal villagers.

[blixeydrawstoo]

Youtube user ureshiiiiii recreated the corruption of the pillars cutscene from Soul Reaver 2 using MMD and it’s everything

[blixeydrawstoo]

“I am, as before…”

hi guys! i know it’s been a hot minute, i am sorry for that, i’ve just really not been feeling it with everything that’s going on, in addition to having issues with tumblr logins, but

hey! i got into a new fandom and i’m inspired right now so take this

[blixeydrawstoo]

old request is old

[blixeydrawstoo]

guys help i’m LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND over these fat tiger art scrolls

(source)

[blixeydrawstoo]

Ok can I just say how happy I am that I sent you that original ask asking you to draw a frog like kirby!! Your drawings make me and so many other people happy, thank you!!!

i’m glad you helped me make a new character !!!! i love froggi!!

[blixeydrawstoo]

As I’ve grown as a writer, one unexpected change in the way I view and critique other stories is that I no longer see stories on a scale of good to bad, but from finished to unfinished.

There are rarely ‘bad’ stories, only stories that needed more work to reach their true potential: stories that needed faster pacing, stronger characters, fewer plot holes, a more developed settings, better narration, more editing.

There’s a good story in (almost*) every concept.

What might this mean to us as analytic readers? 

If we look at stories on a scale from unfinished to finished instead of bad to good, the natural response then becomes not “what made this story bad” but “what would I edit to make this story better” which both focuses on positive, growth-oriented thoughts and forces us to dig deeper in our understanding of stories.

Even more important: What should this mean to us as writers? 

It means that we shouldn’t doubt our own concepts and stories so much. 

Even on the days when your story feels like it’s unoriginal and undesirable and not progressing, remember that there aren’t any bad stories, just ones that aren’t done being edited yet. Keep working, keeping writing, keep editing. You have a brilliant story in there somewhere, you’re just pulling it out of the woodwork still.

* Concepts that don’t make good stories are concepts which would actively harms real life oppressed groups even when done well. Viewing stories as finished or unfinished should not include ignoring or dismissing aspects that are harmful to readers.

[blixeydrawstoo]

Sorry if you have answered this a thousand time : But what kind of advice do you have for stilted scenes? You know the ones, where it feels like dry cardboard and tastes like wood chips.

Rescuing a Dull Scene

When a scene feels stiff and dull, it’s usually because it doesn’t serve a purpose. Remember that every scene in your story needs to matter. If you could remove a scene and not affect the plot or the reader’s understanding of a character or the setting, the scene needs to go.

So, the first step in rescuing a cardboard scene is to figure out whether or not the scene has a purpose. If not, you can just ditch it, but make sure to save anything you might be able to incorporate into another scene, such as a nice bit of dialogue, a cute moment, or a particularly nice description or bit of wordplay. 

If the scene does serve a purpose, ask yourself whether there might not be a better way to accomplish this purpose. Could you move the scene to a different place or situation? For example, a conversation between two characters about a recent breakup might be more interesting in a cute coffee shop than in the living room of one of the characters. Would adding or subtracting characters make things more interesting? And finally, is there something unexpected–some emergency or bit of drama–you can insert into the scene to jazz it up a bit? For example, the two friends sitting at a cafe talking about the bad breakup one of them just went through… what if the ex walks in? What if the ex walks in with a new girlfriend? Not only might that energize the scene a bit, but it provides an opportunity to further explore the situation, how your character’s coping with everything, and potentially plant some seeds for what happens next. This is the “what’s the worst thing that could happen right now” method of spicing up a scene. :)

[blixeydrawstoo]

Your characters have problems.

I don’t mean flaws in character design, even though they possibly do. I mean the problems your characters SHOULD have. The problems they face in your story ie. villains, conflict, war, homophobic parents, not having a date to the big dance. Y’know…like a plot.

Here are 3 ways to improve your plot

1. Your Characters Need to Make Decisions

This may sound obvious, but it isn’t always. The Problem™ isn’t just something your character has to go through that sucks—they should be faced with options, and have to make Active Decisions™ that affect the outcome of the story. This gives your characters agency—if they don’t have agency, if they don’t make decisions, your characters will be read as passive. Passive characters aren’t interesting.

2. These Choices Need To Be Hard

Give your characters inner conflict.

Hard, tough decisions to make. How to face their big problem. In figuring out what options your characters will choose, remember their

Motivations

Background

They way they were raised

Moral/Ethical/Spiritual beliefs

Fears

Loyalties

3. Figure Out The Stakes

Based on what kind of story you have, the stakes for your protagonist are going to be different.

SciFi novel about how the world is going to get obliterated by an evil force in 2 days? High stakes.

Romance novella about 29-year old Tequila Sheila who can’t seem to find a date to her brother’s wedding? Lower stakes.

And there’s nothing wrong with having higher or lower stakes—but do think about where your stakes should be for your particular story. Many stories don’t have high enough stakes for readers to be captivated; these stories need to be reconfigured, after realizing what exactly is at stake and to what degree. Understanding what your stakes are can help you figure out what kind of reading experience your book will be.