This is my entry for the Pixel Art Weekly contest by @jonny-clearwater. Here I will show you the the drawing and animation process from start to finish.
Voting starts tomorrow night! :D
Setting the Mood
The overall mood is crucial for a color challenge. I used hue/saturation adjustment to find the distinct mood.
I was going to do 9 unique frames, but decided to work with the middle frame (the 3rd try). I loved it as soon I finished the sketch. Generally when filling the frames I don't worry about the order or layers.
The Steps
I decided to work with very simple and limited details, and let the animation be the main focus of the work.
Tips: pixel art looks sharper when working with png files instead of jpg. Aslo when scaling up pixel art use nearest-neighbor scaling for sharp edges.
Expanding the Scene
I decided to make a short parallax animation. So I expanded from 150 pixels wide to 178 pixels. All of the colors are on separate layers; however, in the first step I do everything on 1 layer and separate it after picking a scene.
Animation
I decided to try out a pixel art program I bought a few days ago- Aseprite ( because of a Steam sale). I decided to import the 178 pixels (expanded) layers and to crop the scene into 150 pixels, at the end to get the final result.
I achieved the parallax movement by moving the closest,( darkest layer) by 2 pixels and the further trees (middle layer) by only 1 pixel in the same direction. After 3 frames I copy pasted the frames in reverse order and did the same thing in the other direction. I didn't move fireflies to simplify the task.
Animating the Fireflies
This step was more trial and error for me. I moved each firefly at around 1 to 2 pixel increments and started moving them back into the beginning position at the 6th frame (middle frame of the animation)
If you enjoyed this post, please:
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Tomorrow starts voting! ^-^
Let me know if you would like to see more posts about pixel art and animation!
Edit: For those interested in learning and want more tutorials, check this guy out!
Thank you for reading!
That remind about my Nintendo.
Awesome :D
Awesome Animation :) really looks like an old game background
Thank you! Glad you think so ^ ^
Sweet! Thank you for sharing :D
Is that a bong?
yep, back went I was a stoner drawing random stuff in a shitty pixel art app on my phone
So neat! Amazing! Thanks for sharing your process.
Thank you :D Now get to drawing!
I like
Ty ^-^
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If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Awesome! Well done! I love the theme :D I would like you to win hehe
Thank you, and for voting! :D
You're welcome! Feel free to check out my profile maybe you'll find something that interest you :D
You have an awesome entry for "learn to Draw with Friends" :D (Upvoted)
I wanted to try, but saw it rather later. Maybe next time ^^
Thanks! Soon it'll be another contest so follow the host to be sure you don't miss it :D
Awesome! Thank you :D
Wawwww that's amazing, Thanks for sharing this good quality post
Thank you, tried my best :D
Please don't forget to vote here if you'd like to help me win ^-^
Love your pixel art animation. Excellent job. (￣▽￣)ノ
Thank you! :D Love the emoticon x)
Quick note...top 3 entries are announced tomorrow night.
If you make the cut, that's when you want people to vote
Thank you, I was wondering about that :D
No worries.
Thank you for entering the contest.
Fine specimen indeed
Thank you! :D
I hope someone finds the step by step post useful. Maybe even for the next contest. ^_^
To be honest that post of yours adds a lot of weight to your entry
Thank you :D
I always wanted to share my working process, but only gifs don't explain much.
Very cool - nice work :D
Thank you :D
Awww, so chill and dreamy. :)
What inspired you to craft this particular scene?
I'd really appreciate it if you'd check out my drawing when you get a chance:
https://steemit.com/art/@oddnugget/the-artsyfartsy-column-tiffany-and-the-hiver
Thank you :) Checked your post and upvoted. I plan to read Terry Pratchett books. So far I've only read Amazing Maurice, loved it even thought didn't understand a lot of it back them, so plan to reread that one as well.
Here I was actually planning to draw a sunset and had photo reference on Pinterest. But 4 colors is just too little for drawing a sky. And I like drawing nature, so it occurred to me to try to draw a thick forest no sky. This is why thumbnails are perfect for happy accidents :D
Thanks! I've yet to read Amazing Maurice, but I'll get there :). Cheers to thumbnails! haha
Oooo! I love this! great job. Reminds me of when I used to do pixel art. Keep it up!
Thank you :D These contests are great for you to get started again!
Yeah i guess :D
This is beyond amazing. I feel so inspired by this. 😍
Thank you :D Feel free to share link here if you try your own pixel art!
Really great post love when people show their art process.
Thank you :D Will keep posting processes, art tips and tutorials!
This is really cool. I wish I was artistic.
Thank you :) Artistic is just practice. If you enjoy drawing, just keep at it, it just takes time.
I have to say Steemit has made me do things out of the box for once. I actually just ordered a video recorder to start doing videos. I would have never done that on Facebook because I was to self conscious. I feel like I can be more free on this platform. I don't have all the people I see every day judging me.
That's cool :D
I would love to make videos, but I'm too worried about editing. I don't feel comfortable speaking so i would have to add at least music xD
Also with typing I can easily edit and re edit text and posts, otherwise I am not very fluent :)
I know. i hope the camera comes with a VERY easy editing software. I will try and do a blog on my first video and talk about how it was to do it.
I'd like to try pixel art because I really enjoy pixel indies on Steam. Can you recommend me some tutorials on it? This looks great!
Deviantart and Pinterest have a lot. These are some of the better ones I could find right now:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/557813103817334131/
http://vanmall.deviantart.com/gallery/10198081/Pixel-Art-Tutorial-Series
http://gasara.deviantart.com/art/Pixel-Art-Tutorial-Basics-for-Beginners-356743783
There are many styles in pixel art.
I began learning by trying to draw basic items for minecraft- apples, tools like sword, shovels, potions . Start with 8x8, 16x16 or 32x32 to learn faster. Afterward you can adjust size to your own preference. Out of those 3 sizes 16x16 is probably easiest.
After small items you can try bigger ones like trees and stones. Try working with only 1 base color, 1 lighter version of base color for light areas and 1 darker for dark. Try pixel dithering to find your favorite style. If you feel extra motivated enough try making a simple self portrait, like a game character. :D
Also there is a free version of Pyxel Edit, definitely try it (I use the bought one for character animation).
Good luck!
Hi, I just remembered.
This guy makes amazing pixel art tutorials
This is fantastic. It puts my own efforts to shame. Thanks for explaining how you did it. Great Post!
Thank you :)
There is no shame in learning! ^ ^
Looks pretty great. Good luck in the contest.
Thank you! ^-^
Your pencil art is amazing, and the process video.
Followed :D
awesome , ma friend @kristyglas ^^
u've done it simple. but artistic.
hei btw, a big respect if u would visit my page, coz i have some entertaining and informative posts there.
upvoted, resteemed and followed ^^
Thank you!
Your Dread-Pool drawing is awesome, definitely upvoted. Hope you make more ^ ^
Excellent :) Love how simple and efficient is your parallax solution! Color scheme reminds me Brackenwood series :) Good job.
Thank you :D Brackenwood google images looks unusual, will definitely check it out!
Great work with a beautiful result! I found you thanks to @gmuxx and his hidden gems post. You've got yourself a new follower.
Thank you :D
Yeah the post has been helpful ^ ^
Good. It's a good thing that someone is pointing out artists that should be looked at. I'm a huge fan of pixel art so I'm glad I was able to find you through @gmuxx
I am glad there are contests on Steemit, so far found a lot of people to follow that way. Because the new>art>feed gets filled with mostly photography.
Aseprite is a really good program :) really nice post, i also participated in the contest, here is my entry, your art is way cooler though
Thank you and yours is really great! Very unusual but strong choice of colors. You have nice attention to details, that I'm still lacking :)
And the styles are very different not level of coolness :D
Nice :)
Beautiful Journey Part 1
Beautiful Journey Part 2
A Strangers Heart Part 1
I love Leonid Afremov's work, you should definitely post the source and link to his work. And the other artists too.
Awesome. Followed and upvoted. I am an artist also. Check out my oil paintings from Canada.
Thank you :D
I definitely upvoted your painting Parliament from Gatineau. A very lovely landscape.
👍👍👍
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How do you do it? xD☀
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Yay, thank you for you comment. I learned something new :DOmg I love this so much O__O
Thank you! :'D
This post is doing great.
I don't feel so bad now about you not making the top 3. It was a really tough call.
I will definitely try again next week if the theme is good ;)
Very good images, I also did mine and nobody happened to see them :(
Thank you :)
Did you remove the entry? Because I just checked and didn't find it, also for entry to be valid you have to resteem the contest post.