Pixel Joint Forum: my pixel food

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Topic: my pixel food
Posted: 18 July 2014 at 3:28pm

Hi people! Since my pixel art is not good enough yet for the main gallery, it was suggested that I make a topic to share my pixels.

And perhaps I can get comments and feedback here.

Okay! For my pixel food!

Here is a pizza calzone inspired by
this picture:

Here is another version:

Here is a bleeding heart cake inspired by Lily Vanilli:

And here is a sakura mochi:

I hope I am allowed to post lots of my pixels here! ^o^

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 18 July 2014 at 5:57pm

From left to right: mapo tofu, tako sausage, mummy hot dog, severed finger dog (http://s4.hubimg.com/u/8380163_f520.jpg).

*last edited by Jei_M - 18 July 2014 at 9:06pm*
*saw severed finger dog was not listed at last minute*

Edited by Jei_M - 28 September 2014 at 7:28am

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 18 July 2014 at 6:19pm

From left to right: natural mystic dragon fruit, petit four, opera cake, tiramisu.

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 18 July 2014 at 8:10pm

From left to right: lasagna, chocolate peanut butter fudge bar, sandwich, tiny Easy Bake Oven cupcake.

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JustinGameDesign
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Posted: 18 July 2014 at 10:01pm

I'll go for the obvious crit and tell you not to post all of your sprites on blank white backgrounds. If you're not going to do a background, just make a transparency. That and your color counts are way out of control. Reign it in a bit.

Edited by JustinGameDesign - 18 July 2014 at 10:02pm

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 18 July 2014 at 10:39pm

No problem about the backgrounds. I will make another copy of them with transparent background for this site.

The thing I do not understand is the color count. Is there a limit to how many colors I should use?

When I started making pixels, I started using MS Paint. Then getting better with GIMP, I started using their pixel feature and use burn and overlay for certain lighting and shadow in my pixel food.

I will show a pixel food that I just thought about. What do you think of this?

It is a bowl of Japanese sweet red bean soup called *zenzai*.

Edited by Jei_M - 18 July 2014 at 10:40pm

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Limes
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Posted: 19 July 2014 at 12:04am

It is typically better to use less colours, you could probably make all of the foods you have with under 32 colours.

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 19 July 2014 at 12:36am

I could try to use less than 32 colors for pixel food.
I will see what I can do with that.

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skittle
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Posts: 350

Posted: 19 July 2014 at 4:13am

Hello fellow Gimp user :D

I think one of the main problems actually stems from the burn tool. Pixelart is (or is on this site) about the control with every individual pixel. When using a burn tool for a small piece like this, it's like trying to use a high-res tool for a low-res piece (I could be wrong on that :l, but that's how I view it). Another thing is your colour, it's too low saturated!

Here's a really quick edit I did that uses 9 colours, it doesn't have any patterns on it though.

I think a black outline is good if you don't really have a background in your piece, if it's more of an icon like this it really helps to make it "pop".

And why people have mentioned colour count is because when you have a palette, it really helps to organize everything. Sometimes, having tons of colour for a small piece can be inefficient -even for big pieces a lot of colour isn't needed, for example, this piece

http://wouterpleizier.nl/pj/index.php?input=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pixeljoint.com%2Ffiles%2Ficons%2Ffull%2Fthebalance1.gif uses 26 colours, but looks like a lot more. That comes mostly with an organized palette, that way you are able to selectively pick every colour, making your piece more "accurate", so to speak...

... or I could be totally wrong and my life is a lie :P.

Another example from the God of Pixeljoint that uses 19 colours.

And another with 15 colours

I hope this helps!

edit: I also think colour count is directly linked to your style, so finding what your "style" is will help a lot probably.

Edited by ADrawingMan - 19 July 2014 at 4:40am

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Jei_M
Seaman
Seaman

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Posted: 19 July 2014 at 5:14pm

WOW!! ^o^ Great post!!

Firstly, my zenzai was made with MS Paint during one of the times I started pixelling. And your zenzai looks great!

I wish I could pixel scenery like those. Making sceneries is what I have problems with drawing. And I cannot even pixel them (yet). I am afraid that I need to step-by-step learn how.

That link you shared is interesting. However, the way it counts the colors is weird. Some colors look identical to each other. And the weirder part is the color count listing a number of colors I did not know I had! I did not know I used that many colors! Perhaps is the burnt tool and overlay tool I use on GIMP while making pixels there.

They listed 22 colors here, 480 colors here, 20 colors here, 485 colors here, 239 colors here 44 colors here, 44 colors here, and 168 colors here.

One of those foods I pixelled is a veggie calzone from Cafe World.
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121107102946/cafeworld/images/1/10/Veggiecalzonewhitebg.png

Edited by Jei_M - 19 July 2014 at 6:36pm

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boogieman
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Posted: 20 July 2014 at 12:33am

I believe it is the burnt tool overlay. I noticed in some of your pieces there appears to be dithering of almost identical colors. I think this is an artifact from a tool used. Some tools do not work well when used on images this small. We are working with very small artwork, so it is even more important that we choose the pixels. On a larger image the tools can work wonderfully, but on such a small scale, we need to make the choices deliberately. On a small scale, humans are better at making the right choices than the tools we use in our programs.

I read this earlier on a tutorial and it really helped me picture what we are trying to do:

"Pixel art is like a Go game. Every pixel placed contributes towards a struggle between intentions that will eventually end in an state of variable equilibrium between the opposing forces. Anyone that has played Go knows of the feeling of immense mental strain when they place one piece down on the board and they ponder on the eventual ramifications of that single move towards all the clusters of pieces across the board. A piece feeds on the vital space around it, you see. Not all pixel clusters can live, some will have to die for the purposes of other, more important - towards the whole of the game - clusters. Go is a holistic game, a game about sacrifice and a game about grace. Likewise, drawing with pixels results to similar concerns of balance between clusters of pixels and their optimal positions are again about sacrifice and grace."
source: https://web.archive.org/web/20140626040135/http://pixel.schlet.net/

Your subject matter is quite interesting, I enjoy it a lot, I hope to see more in the future!

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 20 July 2014 at 3:23am

Okay, when I have been pixelling lately, I have been using GIMP. I use it for my pixelling because I believe it helps me pick out darker and lighter versions of colors I pick out automatically easier than just using MS Paint alone. Sometimes I would even use both MS Paint and GIMP. First I would pick a color from either a picture of a food I am about to pixel, or a color that looks similar to the picture I find with the color tool. Then I would use either the burn feature or multiply feature to darken that same color, and I would use the overlay tool to lighten that same color I already chose on my own.

My bleeding heart cake pixel has a weird color count because I used MS Paint when pixelling the entire pixel. And on my severed finger dog I saw 1301 colors listed. And again, on the site where you get to find the color count on pixels, most of the colors listed look identical to each other. They say I use MUCH more colors than I really used. However, on one of my latest pixels I checked out the color count, using the same techniques that I have been using lately (burn and/or multiply feature for darkening colors, and overlay feature for lightening colors), and it listed MUCH less colors than my severed finger sausage pixel.

I will see what I can do with picking out an exact color palette even with the same features I use, but before pixelling and see where that goes. If you notice, I use different techniques for my pixel food depending on what it is and how I want to pixel it. And some can be more detailed than others. But I would love to try new pixelling techniques as well to add to my already list of techniques.

And Boogieman, I am so glad you enjoy my pixel food so far. That means a lot!!

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Jei_M
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Posted: 27 July 2014 at 10:46pm

I made more pixel food!! Actually I have been making A LOT since making my pixel food blog.

The backgrounds are not transparent but white because that is how I wanted it and I posted it on my Tumblr. But if I were to post any of these to the gallery, I would make the background transparent.

bananas foster

tang yuan dessert

mooncake

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Posted: 27 July 2014 at 10:47pm

Oh! Which one of my pixels would you think could make it to the gallery?

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Jei_M
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Posted: 12 August 2014 at 2:11pm

As a response to what was said here about how coloring modes such as burn, overlay, and multiply on Gimp should not be used (although I always use the pencil tool when using those color modes), I made this picture as an example so I can completely understand what people are talking about.

The calzone on the left was colored with pencil in normal mode. The calzone on the right was also colored with pencil in normal mode plus multiply for darker shading and overlay for lighter shading. For the multiply I used the main color, and for the overlay I used white; both with low opacity. Both calzones were made with Gimp.

I am trying to understand the difference between the two techniques as far as with control of pixelling. It takes me a while to understand things sometimes.

For example, while using those modes mentioned with pencil, I felt that I had control with my pixelling and just looked at it as lightening or darkening an existing color. So when it was said to me that using those modes causes lack of control in pixels (even with using pencil), I had a hard time understanding that.

So I hope my example I made will help me to understand.

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Limes
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Posts: 683

Posted: 12 August 2014 at 2:44pm

Here are a list of the tools you CAN use:

Pen/pencil the single pixel one.

Fill

Eyedropper

Line tools.

Eraser.

any other tools and effects are not allowed in all/most aspects of pixel art. Even opacity is not allowed.

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Jei_M
Seaman
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Joined: 27 September 2014
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Posted: 12 August 2014 at 3:05pm

Okay, I see. I understand and will remember that while making pixels for this site. But questions:

1) Any suggestions of how I can get a lighter or darker version of an existing color?
2) Do I have to change my techniques for my Tumblr, where all of my pixel food is posted?

I do use different techniques for my pixel food posted on my Tumblr, but do I have to change any for there?

Edited by Jei_M - 12 August 2014 at 3:10pm

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rhlstudios
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Posted: 12 August 2014 at 6:28pm

I was derping around on Deviant Art today and found this excellent tutorial on color picking and simplified color theory that you find find helpful as well :D I found it was very easy to follow and clarified a few questions i was pondering whilst browsing

http://starshipsorceress.deviantart.com/art/Color-Tutorial-370018373

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WIP (Work In Progress)
Pixel Joint Forum : Pixel Art : WIP (Work In Progress)

Author	Message
Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Topic: my pixel food Posted: 18 July 2014 at 3:28pm
	Hi people! Since my pixel art is not good enough yet for the main gallery, it was suggested that I make a topic to share my pixels. And perhaps I can get comments and feedback here. Okay! For my pixel food! Here is a pizza calzone inspired by this picture: Here is another version: Here is a bleeding heart cake inspired by Lily Vanilli: And here is a sakura mochi: I hope I am allowed to post lots of my pixels here! ^o^
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 18 July 2014 at 5:57pm
	From left to right: mapo tofu, tako sausage, mummy hot dog, severed finger dog (http://s4.hubimg.com/u/8380163_f520.jpg). last edited by Jei_M - 18 July 2014 at 9:06pm saw severed finger dog was not listed at last minute Edited by Jei_M - 28 September 2014 at 7:28am
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 18 July 2014 at 6:19pm
	From left to right: natural mystic dragon fruit, petit four, opera cake, tiramisu.
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 18 July 2014 at 8:10pm
	From left to right: lasagna, chocolate peanut butter fudge bar, sandwich, tiny Easy Bake Oven cupcake.
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JustinGameDesign Commander Joined: 26 July 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 74	Posted: 18 July 2014 at 10:01pm
	I'll go for the obvious crit and tell you not to post all of your sprites on blank white backgrounds. If you're not going to do a background, just make a transparency. That and your color counts are way out of control. Reign it in a bit. Edited by JustinGameDesign - 18 July 2014 at 10:02pm
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 18 July 2014 at 10:39pm
	No problem about the backgrounds. I will make another copy of them with transparent background for this site. The thing I do not understand is the color count. Is there a limit to how many colors I should use? When I started making pixels, I started using MS Paint. Then getting better with GIMP, I started using their pixel feature and use burn and overlay for certain lighting and shadow in my pixel food. I will show a pixel food that I just thought about. What do you think of this? It is a bowl of Japanese sweet red bean soup called zenzai. Edited by Jei_M - 18 July 2014 at 10:40pm
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Limes Commander Joined: 15 September 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 683	Posted: 19 July 2014 at 12:04am
	It is typically better to use less colours, you could probably make all of the foods you have with under 32 colours.
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 19 July 2014 at 12:36am
	I could try to use less than 32 colors for pixel food. I will see what I can do with that.
	IP Logged

skittle Commander Joined: 20 July 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 350	Posted: 19 July 2014 at 4:13am
	Hello fellow Gimp user :D I think one of the main problems actually stems from the burn tool. Pixelart is (or is on this site) about the control with every individual pixel. When using a burn tool for a small piece like this, it's like trying to use a high-res tool for a low-res piece (I could be wrong on that :l, but that's how I view it). Another thing is your colour, it's too low saturated! Here's a really quick edit I did that uses 9 colours, it doesn't have any patterns on it though. I think a black outline is good if you don't really have a background in your piece, if it's more of an icon like this it really helps to make it "pop". And why people have mentioned colour count is because when you have a palette, it really helps to organize everything. Sometimes, having tons of colour for a small piece can be inefficient -even for big pieces a lot of colour isn't needed, for example, this piece http://wouterpleizier.nl/pj/index.php?input=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pixeljoint.com%2Ffiles%2Ficons%2Ffull%2Fthebalance1.gif uses 26 colours, but looks like a lot more. That comes mostly with an organized palette, that way you are able to selectively pick every colour, making your piece more "accurate", so to speak... ... or I could be totally wrong and my life is a lie :P. Another example from the God of Pixeljoint that uses 19 colours. And another with 15 colours I hope this helps! edit: I also think colour count is directly linked to your style, so finding what your "style" is will help a lot probably. Edited by ADrawingMan - 19 July 2014 at 4:40am
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 19 July 2014 at 5:14pm
	WOW!! ^o^ Great post!! Firstly, my zenzai was made with MS Paint during one of the times I started pixelling. And your zenzai looks great! I wish I could pixel scenery like those. Making sceneries is what I have problems with drawing. And I cannot even pixel them (yet). I am afraid that I need to step-by-step learn how. That link you shared is interesting. However, the way it counts the colors is weird. Some colors look identical to each other. And the weirder part is the color count listing a number of colors I did not know I had! I did not know I used that many colors! Perhaps is the burnt tool and overlay tool I use on GIMP while making pixels there. They listed 22 colors here, 480 colors here, 20 colors here, 485 colors here, 239 colors here 44 colors here, 44 colors here, and 168 colors here. One of those foods I pixelled is a veggie calzone from Cafe World. http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121107102946/cafeworld/images/1/10/Veggiecalzonewhitebg.png Edited by Jei_M - 19 July 2014 at 6:36pm
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boogieman Midshipman Joined: 02 November 2024 Online Status: Offline Posts: 26	Posted: 20 July 2014 at 12:33am
	I believe it is the burnt tool overlay. I noticed in some of your pieces there appears to be dithering of almost identical colors. I think this is an artifact from a tool used. Some tools do not work well when used on images this small. We are working with very small artwork, so it is even more important that we choose the pixels. On a larger image the tools can work wonderfully, but on such a small scale, we need to make the choices deliberately. On a small scale, humans are better at making the right choices than the tools we use in our programs. I read this earlier on a tutorial and it really helped me picture what we are trying to do: "Pixel art is like a Go game. Every pixel placed contributes towards a struggle between intentions that will eventually end in an state of variable equilibrium between the opposing forces. Anyone that has played Go knows of the feeling of immense mental strain when they place one piece down on the board and they ponder on the eventual ramifications of that single move towards all the clusters of pieces across the board. A piece feeds on the vital space around it, you see. Not all pixel clusters can live, some will have to die for the purposes of other, more important - towards the whole of the game - clusters. Go is a holistic game, a game about sacrifice and a game about grace. Likewise, drawing with pixels results to similar concerns of balance between clusters of pixels and their optimal positions are again about sacrifice and grace." source: https://web.archive.org/web/20140626040135/http://pixel.schlet.net/ Your subject matter is quite interesting, I enjoy it a lot, I hope to see more in the future!
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 20 July 2014 at 3:23am
	Okay, when I have been pixelling lately, I have been using GIMP. I use it for my pixelling because I believe it helps me pick out darker and lighter versions of colors I pick out automatically easier than just using MS Paint alone. Sometimes I would even use both MS Paint and GIMP. First I would pick a color from either a picture of a food I am about to pixel, or a color that looks similar to the picture I find with the color tool. Then I would use either the burn feature or multiply feature to darken that same color, and I would use the overlay tool to lighten that same color I already chose on my own. My bleeding heart cake pixel has a weird color count because I used MS Paint when pixelling the entire pixel. And on my severed finger dog I saw 1301 colors listed. And again, on the site where you get to find the color count on pixels, most of the colors listed look identical to each other. They say I use MUCH more colors than I really used. However, on one of my latest pixels I checked out the color count, using the same techniques that I have been using lately (burn and/or multiply feature for darkening colors, and overlay feature for lightening colors), and it listed MUCH less colors than my severed finger sausage pixel. I will see what I can do with picking out an exact color palette even with the same features I use, but before pixelling and see where that goes. If you notice, I use different techniques for my pixel food depending on what it is and how I want to pixel it. And some can be more detailed than others. But I would love to try new pixelling techniques as well to add to my already list of techniques. And Boogieman, I am so glad you enjoy my pixel food so far. That means a lot!!
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 27 July 2014 at 10:46pm
	I made more pixel food!! Actually I have been making A LOT since making my pixel food blog. The backgrounds are not transparent but white because that is how I wanted it and I posted it on my Tumblr. But if I were to post any of these to the gallery, I would make the background transparent. bananas foster tang yuan dessert mooncake
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 27 July 2014 at 10:47pm
	Oh! Which one of my pixels would you think could make it to the gallery?
	IP Logged

Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 12 August 2014 at 2:11pm
	As a response to what was said here about how coloring modes such as burn, overlay, and multiply on Gimp should not be used (although I always use the pencil tool when using those color modes), I made this picture as an example so I can completely understand what people are talking about. The calzone on the left was colored with pencil in normal mode. The calzone on the right was also colored with pencil in normal mode plus multiply for darker shading and overlay for lighter shading. For the multiply I used the main color, and for the overlay I used white; both with low opacity. Both calzones were made with Gimp. I am trying to understand the difference between the two techniques as far as with control of pixelling. It takes me a while to understand things sometimes. For example, while using those modes mentioned with pencil, I felt that I had control with my pixelling and just looked at it as lightening or darkening an existing color. So when it was said to me that using those modes causes lack of control in pixels (even with using pencil), I had a hard time understanding that. So I hope my example I made will help me to understand.
	IP Logged

Limes Commander Joined: 15 September 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 683	Posted: 12 August 2014 at 2:44pm
	Here are a list of the tools you CAN use: Pen/pencil the single pixel one. Fill Eyedropper Line tools. Eraser. any other tools and effects are not allowed in all/most aspects of pixel art. Even opacity is not allowed.
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Jei_M Seaman Joined: 27 September 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 31	Posted: 12 August 2014 at 3:05pm
	Okay, I see. I understand and will remember that while making pixels for this site. But questions: 1) Any suggestions of how I can get a lighter or darker version of an existing color? 2) Do I have to change my techniques for my Tumblr, where all of my pixel food is posted? I do use different techniques for my pixel food posted on my Tumblr, but do I have to change any for there? Edited by Jei_M - 12 August 2014 at 3:10pm
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rhlstudios Commander Joined: 17 September 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 106	Posted: 12 August 2014 at 6:28pm
	I was derping around on Deviant Art today and found this excellent tutorial on color picking and simplified color theory that you find find helpful as well :D I found it was very easy to follow and clarified a few questions i was pondering whilst browsing http://starshipsorceress.deviantart.com/art/Color-Tutorial-370018373
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