Final Projects

 So I decided to do pixel art for two of my favorite things. The Simpsons (before the 14th season) and Calvin and Hobbes. For the Simpsons, I went over the couch gag scene, but the resolution is low for pixel art so many thing proved to be problematic. Fingers were hard to replicate accurately, often times I would have to alter the look so they did not appear pointy or fat. Marge's hands in particular, but the gist of it is successfully portrayed. Maggie's head and eye came out smushed, and her hair is not very convincing, but overall I'd satisfied.

The Calvin and Hobbes scene was challenging because the lines were not particularly linear. The brush stroke is unpredictable, fat in some spots and thin in others. There were subtle colors in what seemed that a solely black and white color scheme. I found blues and red in there, but for the sake of ease and stuck with blue and grey. Some parts I did not cover like very soft shades under the snow mounds, as they looked strange when pixelated. Still, I am satisfied.

Upgrade 2

Here's the upgraded Proto logo. I decided to add some vines and leaves at the beginning of the process to fill up some space. I changed the colors of the evolving man and the logo to be a little darker. Although, now that I see it after a day, the whole thing seems a bit dark. I had to look up online for how to do a rock texture, and the process was a bit strange but it worked well. The cave painting hand was the final touch; I took a big brush lightly over a hand and cut out the hand part.

Upgrade 2 Research Phase

I've decided to upgrade my Proto logo. First I will unstretch the evolution of man graphic, then I'll add some vines hanging from the letters. If I can clean up a real cave painting of an animal like a tiger or other animal, I'll slap that on the side or inside the Os. I like the chalky color I made previously, but I could try and make it more chalky and rough.

This is a lot like what I'm going for. I might take the vines from here.

I might like to chop out some of the bottom in the shape of leaves like this.

Upgrade 1

The updated stupa. I decided to made the white left side of the stupa into a light blue to make it visible. I adding darker blue for the creases in the shaded area, and tossed in some bounce light under the overhang. There's really only one cast shadow that tell you where the sun is and thats above the first tier from the ground. Getting the top piece to look appealing was challenging, as gold makes funny shades, reflections, and shadows. Overall, I'm satisfied.

Upgrade 1 Research Phase

 I am going to finish/upgrade my Buddhist stupa pixel art by giving a slight offwhite on the left side so you can actually tell there is a left side this time. Also I'll do the top piece and upgrade the shadows, perhaps create a drop shadow on the ground. Of course, I'll get rid of the outline.

I found this for some inspiration, although my building will have very little in common as far as an upgrade. Its a really cool piece of work.

 I'll be using this as a reference for some basic building shadows, its well done and simple.

Upgraded Maze

 Updated maze! Looks a bit different. I changed the flooring to tile, although I could not figure out how to have blood seeping through, or splash blood on the wall substances. Made a lot of old worn out columns along the walls for added feel.

 I did not want the lights to illuminate so much, but without any lights there was still a default illumination that made it look ugly as hell. It was ugly probably due to the fact that I modified the colors via the illumination color option.

I think the neater stone walls are a bit better than the sloppy ones before. You can understand that its an old tomb, rather than some crappy rocky tunnel. I took out the door because that made no sense with the new textures.

Week11 Maze Texture Concept Phase

 

 This screenshot is from Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. I was aiming for the blood soaked floor look in my original maze, but could not clearly portray it. The blood overlay I used added a lumpy red texture to the rough stone floor, but from a distance one could not notice it. So I'd like to have rough tile with blood in-between, seemingly seeping up. Hopefully I'll be able to change the color of the area between the tiles. I also like the central light source from above and the cast shadows from the pillars. My easy maze doesn't have a room for pillars, but perhaps I'll put some protrusions from the walls, or make my hard maze.

This is from Path of Exile. The walls are exactly the rouchness and stone style I was looking for. With a little mold and grime, along with the occasional blood splatter, it would look well with the blood soaked tile floors. These protrusions are what I had in mind, along with some simple rubble on the floors.

Maze Final Rendering

 My maze had no empty space between walls, so a ceiling texture was not necessary. It is much uglier than I anticipated, I shouldn't have made the textures dark in Photoshop as it seemed to take some of the color out of the final rendering. I learned that the walls should have large features like brick or wood paneling. Of course, the same double wall of spattered blood is a little goofy, and the brightness of the door texture is off from the rest of the piece.

 The lighting could have been colored yellow, but in the final picture it seemed yellow already.

This is the best picture I'd say, walls aren't blanched and the front door is centered, only one blood splotch visible.

Maze Textures

These are the textures for my maze. This one is the double wall with enlarged mold on the bottom left section and a large blood smear across both tiles. I could fiddle with the blood color's vibrance and make older looking blood.

 Standard blank wall with a little mold on bottom. I upped the contrast a bit to show the rockiness while under dim light.

 This is the floor tile, which I overlay with a close up shot of coagulating blood. It looks rocky, sandy, and blood soaked.

The door doesnt fit terribly well seeing as its frame is wood, but I couldnt find a simple door with a rough stone frame so I think it will do.

Maze Hallway

For Grimgrin's crypt of doom, I put a blood overlay on the walls, and one over the floor to make it seem blood-soaked. Now that I look at it, I suppose I did too much burning for dark areas, as the lower parts are the untouched blueish color of the original walls.

Maze Research Phase

 Grimgrin, Corpse-born, a zombie juggernaut, hides in his underground lair waiting for victims to get lost in the labyrinth. He east their brains and uses their body parts to get stronger. So, for a crypt, I decided on stone walls and ceilings with a dirt floor.

My hard maze, on the bottom, is going to have a crypt like feel with lots of multiple choice corridors, and at the end will be Grimgrin's throne room, where the only exit to the maze lies hiding behind it.

Advanced Pixel Art

 

 I did not do the top piece or the outline coloring, and I couldn't figure how to show the left side since its pure white marble being illuminated heavily. I think the right side says enough. The spots where the outline is filled in should not be there, when I saved as a jpeg it did that for some reason.

 

Heres the included outline picture. Again the jpeg format messed up the lines.

Game Building Pixel Art Research Phase

 So i decided to something simpler, like a Buddhist stupa.

Either one will do nicely to hone my pixel art skills.

Proto Tree Pixel Art Colored

 So I began to color the trunk, using the beige as the base color, but no pixel was colored the same as the one next to it. I managed to capture some of the complexity of the left streak down the trunk. The hole looks nothing like the actual picture, I tested out the beveling color technique instead.

Looks awful, I know. And so I decide to abandon this tree to the depths of hell.

Yup, I nearly got the splotchy coloring on the left, but I seriously did not have the time.

Pixel Line Art Research Phase

 The original image is a blue quandong tree from some rainforest. I thought the roots would be fun to do. It's base colors are a brownish green for the bark and a vibrant green for the moss. I also added the beige trunk and grey/black shadows in and around the tree.

The line art was challenging to do and hardly looks like a tree, so I added where the creases are with less refined lines. With color it will look more like a gnarly root system.

Proto Logo

My final logo for Proto. I could not use the font I wanted, Chalkduster, because it had far too many holes, so transforming the "T" was frustrating and looked bad. I thought this new font looked appropriate because the top of the "T" looked like a timeline. I stretched the "T" and rearranged the others letter to fit under it. I cleaned up the evolving man image quite a bit, then turned it into a silhouette. Then I applied a pattern overlay and lightened both images to look a bit chalky.

This is the logo applied to the title screen. It's a little large, but looks decent in the background light.

Proto game logo research phase

I decided to look up jungle logos, and tried to select darker ones without the typical foliage and bamboo letters. I wanted to have creature incorporated into the logo, and some cat's eyes.

The font should be natural but also atypical, like a caveman chalked it up on his wall, so I think chalkduster is my font of choice.

I played around with the monkeys hanging on the font or within it, then some eyes in the "o"s and above it. Theres also the letters turning into teeth, but I dont think these accurately represents the game. I made the "T" a tree then a platform for the evolving man, which I think is the best.

I want the entire graphic to look like chalk on a cave wall, with the "PROTO" as black chalk and the evolving man as grey chalk. Perhaps I'll add a tiger somewhere with red chalk.

Title Screen Final

Finished product. Tried to animate monkey, background light, and a bird but wasn't successful, so I added another panther coming in.

Proto Title Concept Phase

Should probably make it bigger for final phase, but modified gorilla's shadow, satin, and inner glow to try and match light source. Also added panther head with yellow eyes between upper left trees, and of course press start to begin. The jaguar will fade in and out, and the light behind PROTO will get brighter and dimmer slowly. The "press start to begin" could glow, but I'm not sure how that would look with the background light. I might try and animate the gorilla to walk off screen, but that may be a bit over my head.

Mood Board Final

The final mood boards with updated graphics and new main screen/general mood board. Added jungle backgrounds and shrunken reference graphics, and changed the colors to "flow" as best I could.

Mood Boards

Original Ocarina of Time Poster, hanging on my wall. Primary colors, complimentary and bold.

Proto game settings mood board. Dull and earthy colors with brown, red and green.

Proto game character mood board. Many tints of grey, dull red and blue.

Proto game gameplay mood board. Very earthy greens, greys, reds. Similar to settings scheme.