[Tutorial] How to flesh out a fleshy concept!
S
SurgeMedic
Hey, thanks for checking out my tutorial.
Alright, to start we need to have a reference piece (I was going to put the image into the thread but it's pretty large).
Next Part: http://i.imgur.com/kBFysjF.jpg
At this point I was just trying to capture the shading/highlights properly, while maintaining that transparency the tissue has, as well as the sections inside the tissue. I had to use a different method for getting all the right highlights and whatnot, though. I used the advanced section of the color picker.
I'm not sure if that was in-depth enough, but this is the end result:
Alright, to start we need to have a reference piece (I was going to put the image into the thread but it's pretty large).
http://i.imgur.com/lEbWRxI.png
Okay, so we have our reference piece, so lets fire up Pyxel Edit, and go from there. Every project is different, but for this case I chose to go with 32x64 (x,y) pixels, as it matches the scale of my project's assets. So just determine what amount of detail your project needs before you start this!
I'll spare you images of me opening up Pyxel Edit, so lets move on to the basic idea behind this. It's very organic, and organic things tend to be very circular. Of course skeletons and bone-y creatures are the exception to this, this is mostly in relation to muscles and tissue. The best way to create form accurate organic creatures is to quite literally make a few circles. Where they go depends on your project.
For example (Warning: Large Image): http://i.imgur.com/3Y9eMoL.jpg
In this case, I started out with the circular brush, and laid down a few in the shape I wanted. You will notice later on that I adjust the top half of the image to fix mistakes made during this part. You can see the general idea below, where I clean out the interior with a smaller brush. This gives a variance in thickness, and might be the style you care to achieve. Otherwise you can just make your edges 1 line thick if that's what you're into.
Next Part: http://i.imgur.com/WNaNBud.jpg
This is a pretty large jump, but for the most part all I did was shortened the top half of the organic ball thing with the selection tool, added some tentacles with the straight line tool, and filled in the colors using the Gameboy color preset. When working in pixel art it's very wise to imagine a 3D figure being shrunken down, to avoid it looking flat. Unless of course, that's the look you're going for.
A lot of the work is eye-balling the proportions. Once again, if you're trying to achieve form accurate work you need to be very careful to maintain the proportions of your concept.
In this case, I started out with the circular brush, and laid down a few in the shape I wanted. You will notice later on that I adjust the top half of the image to fix mistakes made during this part. You can see the general idea below, where I clean out the interior with a smaller brush. This gives a variance in thickness, and might be the style you care to achieve. Otherwise you can just make your edges 1 line thick if that's what you're into.
Next Part: http://i.imgur.com/WNaNBud.jpg
This is a pretty large jump, but for the most part all I did was shortened the top half of the organic ball thing with the selection tool, added some tentacles with the straight line tool, and filled in the colors using the Gameboy color preset. When working in pixel art it's very wise to imagine a 3D figure being shrunken down, to avoid it looking flat. Unless of course, that's the look you're going for.
A lot of the work is eye-balling the proportions. Once again, if you're trying to achieve form accurate work you need to be very careful to maintain the proportions of your concept.
Next Part: http://i.imgur.com/VqgGy0M.jpg
This part is, for the most part, just me shading in the legs/tentacle bits of the creature. It serves as a base for the end result. Once again the colors were chosen from the Gameboy preset at this stage.
This part is, for the most part, just me shading in the legs/tentacle bits of the creature. It serves as a base for the end result. Once again the colors were chosen from the Gameboy preset at this stage.
Next Part: http://i.imgur.com/kBFysjF.jpg
At this point I was just trying to capture the shading/highlights properly, while maintaining that transparency the tissue has, as well as the sections inside the tissue. I had to use a different method for getting all the right highlights and whatnot, though. I used the advanced section of the color picker.
Next Part: http://i.imgur.com/5L5G9nK.jpg
As you can see, if you click the arrow you will open up a collapsible menu that gives you examples. For the most part, you will be able to pick your "medium" color, the base color or whatever, and then shift the tones in the shading/lighting section. As you obtain more knowledge on color theory you will learn how to make your image cooler/warmer, but for now that's all I'll be focusing on. Just remember that as you get darker your colors usually increase in saturation. Of course, this is not always the case and I highly recommend working with a color palette obtained from another image above all else.
I'm not sure if that was in-depth enough, but this is the end result:
As you can see, we created a base organic form, added the accessories (Tentacles), filled them in with base colors, shaded everything, and then applied the highlights.
Good luck, and comment below if you have any suggestions or if you need advice.
Link to my showcase
Good luck, and comment below if you have any suggestions or if you need advice.
Link to my showcase