Pixel Art Settings (Photoshop)

mountains

Hi Amazing Polcount !

My problem.

I working on Short film. I was thinking of making 3d in the first place. but this so hard for only one people. (Many complex mechanic models, animations, textures, effects)

that's why … I want to do it in pixel art style.

I interesting screen... cinematic format 1920x800.

and I want to be this like.. the level of detail. (1920x800)

http://www.indiegamemag.com/media/swordsorcery.jpg

anyone with knowledge of photoshop cs6 settings ? tips ?

Thank you very much !

Obscura

Hi. Nothing special, just use a pencil instead of a brush. The second thing is that you dont need to paint on that resolution.A lower resolution is good and you just stretch it to the res that you want. This is how you get the big pixels.

glynnsmith

What Obscura said.

Work on a canvas size of 192 x 80 and, when ready, scale it up x10. Use Nearest Neighbour when resizing to maintain your sharp edges.

Deadly Nightshade

-Work with the pencil instead of the brush tool
-Toggle "Pencil" mode on the Eraser tool
-Toggle off anti-aliasing on all selection tools
-Toggle off anti-aliasing on the type tool
-When working on a tileset, use the Slice tool and create a slice for each tile. Then use the "Save for web" -feature in order to batch save all the tiles in one go. Be sure to click the top right tiny icon to access the settings, and turn off the save to directory -option.
-Make gradients low-res by applying a posterize adjustment layer to them or by using a mosaic filter
-When transforming things, make sure to use the "Nearest neighbor" -algoritm
-Download the plugin GuideGuide. It's by far the most convenient and flexible way of working with guides in photoshop.
-You can work modular by the use of smart objects. Smart objects can be pointers/links to other photoshop workfiles. There's a plugin for making these SO's (smart objects) as close to being "instanced" as possible - but I've forgot the name on it. Google it.
-Do not work in double (or larger) resolutions. There is no point.
-Use the Others > Offset.. -filter for making seamless patterns/textures.
-Remember to set "Spread" to 0 pixels when adding outer or inner shadow effects to a layer, else you get a blurred/AA'd edge
-Download Visitor TT2 - it's a nice font that can be used for pixel art. Turn off the AA and set the font size to 12 and voila - you have a pixel font.
-Download the Select Layer -scripts by XSHOCK, bind them to F2 and F3 and combine that with "layer > arrange > bring forward and bring backward" to F1 and F4 and you have some really neat keyboard shortcuts for quickly working with your layers.
-Use the Single column/row selection -tools

I'm sure I have a few other hints as well but these will do for now. I'll continue updating if I remember more stuff

mountains

Wow thank you very much

Ok

Till axemple :

Character walks towards the screen(or zoom). in this case, should increase the character's details? What do you think of this issue? details must be the same?

Obscura

Keeping the detail at the same resolution is fine. If you look at the pic that you have linked, you can see that the character have the same resolution. Of course, the moon doesnt. This stands out to me a bit and I would do differently, but actually everything is your choice. So if you want bigger res for the characters, then do it

mountains

ok

Is it closer to the character needs to increase the level of detail? for example, you need to see face more clearly? Nose, eyes or everything is my choice ? The character of the screen near, we can see detailed outfit or face ? or this waste of time ?

Thank you very much

Obscura

mountains wrote: »

ok

Is it closer to the character needs to increase the level of detail? for example, you need to see face more clearly? Nose, eyes or everything is my choice ? The character of the screen near, we can see detailed outfit or face ? or this waste of time ?

Thank you very much

Yes. But I wouldnt overthinking this. Lets say we talking about a sidescroller game/cinematic or whatever. You see everything from the same distance. You just give headache to yourself if you want "zooming" or things like this in this pixel art thing. The easy way if you want closer/further views, you can use a further paint, and a closer paint.And you can use a "sudden" transition.

mountains

Thank you, thank you

and last one this things new to me...

I have prepared a file in another animation. How else can throw a scene?

Obscura

Sorry, but this time I dont really understand, what you want to say with this. If you could try to explain it else, maybe I could understand it better, and I could say something You mean how to merge the frames together? Or what?

mountains

Obscura wrote: »

Sorry, but this time I dont really understand, what you want to say with this. If you could try to explain it else, maybe I could understand it better, and I could say something You mean how to merge the frames together? Or what?

Mr Whippy

If you were making this as mainly just a few stills I'd say stick with PS, but since you are wanting to do a fairly lengthy animation? It seems maybe something like After Effects might be a bit nicer to work with.

The PS animation tool is quite clunky and if you start getting fairly complex scenes it'll be tough to manage things vs the AE timeline workflow.

For the type of painting you are doing the AE tools are also more than capable.


Obviously you'll need AE, so if you haven't then PS is your only choice.


I think to copy A to B, just drag the layers in the frame of the animation you want to copy from the layer swatch into the B scene.

I don't think you can copy the animation contents across.

Dave

Mr Whippy

If you were making this as mainly just a few stills I'd say stick with PS, but since you are wanting to do a fairly lengthy animation? It seems maybe something like After Effects might be a bit nicer to work with.

The PS animation tool is quite clunky and if you start getting fairly complex scenes it'll be tough to manage things vs the AE timeline workflow.

For the type of painting you are doing the AE tools are also more than capable.


Obviously you'll need AE, so if you haven't then PS is your only choice.


I think to copy A to B, just drag the layers in the frame of the animation you want to copy from the layer swatch into the B scene.

I don't think you can copy the animation contents across.

Dave