Starting from scratch after so long.








Oh hi pixel-artists.

I have been playing some old games such as Dungeon Keeper, or Rogue and some other Dungeon-themed games, if you understand what I am trying to say.
So, I got some "inspiration" from these games and made a quick sketch of a dungeon with Paint.Net tool.


Yes, I did actually use some automatic tools for the lightning effect, but I swear to Pixel God I will remove it later and add my own lightning, "drawn by hand".

And oh yea, don't forget to give your opinion and critics!    

Edited by Pookaball - 30 November 2012 at 5:27am

Thanks for the advice, LachieD!
I am already working on the details and I will post an edit some time later.

Edited by Pookaball - 15 July 2012 at 10:07am

Normal bricks, left to add a little picturesque - a different tone of bricks, bugs, water (remake), under the shadow of the character, the light from the torch - only handmade!
Otherwise, it looks awful. All location looks empty (remember DiabloII, or the Lion heart ... How are designed sewage .. Not just all lined with brick tiles, and curbs, holes, shaded corners, pillars, heap of stones and heaps of anything else)
"little picturesque" - ha! not little, and thet more work, then better.
Try to do the individual parts and to operate them, rather than trying to work as if it were a painting.

Нормальные кирпичики, осталось добавить немного живописности - разный тон кирпичей, дефекты, вода(переделать) тень под персонажем, свет от факела - только ручная работа!
Иначе всё выглядит ужасно. Вся локация выглядит пустовато (вспомни диабло или Львиное сердце... Как там оформлены канализация?.. Не просто всё выложено кирпичной плиткой, а   бордюры, пробоины, затенённые закоулки, колонны, груды камней и кучи чего-нибудь ещё)
"немного живописности" - на оборот много, и чем больше этой работы тем лучше.
Попробуй делать отдельные детали и оперировать ими, а не пытаться работать как будто это картина.

Nice work, man.

No problem. I'm also learning.

Just be aware that until you improve your drawing skills, you will highly dependable on good references for lineart, and it will be a slow and often discouraging process. But it's the only way for those who are learning pixel art and drawing in the same time to produce non-discouraging looking work. Some will say you shouldn't pixel until you can draw, but I know people who got good in drawing by starting with pixeling. Just don't ignore the fact that some progress in drawing skill must happen or you will accomplish very little in pixel art.

Until then the following is mandatory, but is also always recommended: find a good reference (or more of them), copy (not trace!) the shapes you need into lineart (black lines on white background), repeat until you get it more or less right, cleanup the leanart (no connecting pixels!), fill regions with base colors, experiment to get the best result, start shading/AAing.

Of course, different when doing tiles and stuff like that. But in general, the above applies.

Edited by LachieD - 31 July 2012 at 2:22pm

Here's a small update editing water and adding moss to bricks.
This also finally replaces lightning made with automatic tools with my, the hand drawn one (I think all this lightning idea is a bad one. Maybe I should remove it?). I also tweaked the walls a bit.

Here are the two versions.
With light :


Without Light :


Even if the lightning is a good idea itself, I need to redraw it again.
The whole thing looks awful, any way. This needs a lot of time to get better.
I am also planning on adding more stuff to the dungeon itself such as the stones, bricks, some "Cave Interior" things and some more water enhancement. Maybe a bridge or fish inside the water. And more actual detail for the bricks and character's robe (and the character himself), moss, which does not look any well now, and, of course, THE CEILING.

Edited by Pookaball - 01 August 2012 at 5:55am

Staring over is smart in this case :)
•Try softening the lineart using existing greys.
•Clean up the water to the pixel clusters are clean and precise.
•Perhaps shift the grey ramp just enough to the blues so you can use it for reflections and highlights but remain distinct enough to remain in the greys.

I've been told that making the water dirty will be a good idea, but I don't know how to do it.
I can't do it with dithering, and I am disallowed to make it with blurring tools.


Maybe the dirt isn't really necessary?


Edited by Pookaball - 29 November 2012 at 10:34pm

Oh, Thanks, that's exactly what I needed!