In the image, you can see a pixelated character that I made on a 180-pixel by 180-pixel canvas. The last time that I had created pixel art was for my Space Invaders project, which I had done by using the rectangular marquee to replicate the pixelated effect as the canvas size was large enough that Photoshops pencil tool was showing incorrectly, so limiting myself to a smaller canvas size was a challenge for me to overcome.
INSPIRATION
One of the areas that I drew inspiration from was observing characters who used ponchos and capes as a part of their outfit, such as the character Ghost from the game Call of Duty Modern Warfare and the character of Snow from the Netflix show Love, Death & Robots, who both have hoods and cloak elements to their outfit. I feel that the character wearing cloaks and hoods gives them an element of mystery and intrigue due to the ability for them to hide and obscure their face from the viewer
Some characters, such as Taskmaster from the movie Black Widow and the character Ghost from Call of Duty Modern Warfare have visible face coverings in the images seen below. These characters are presented as having an element of mystery and intrigue, but also have an additional element of danger to them through their masks. Ghost has a white skull painted on the mask whilst Taskmaster has a skull effectively built into the mask design, which both stand out to the viewer for varying reasons. The colouring of Ghost’s mask creates a stark contrast between the white paint of the skull and the surrounding darker shadows whilst Taskmaster’s mask draws attention through its design and material.
(Pironet, 2016)
EXPLANATION
As mentioned above, the last pixel art that I created was the sprites that I used for the Space Invaders project, which was on a canvas size that was too large for Photoshop’s pencil tool to really show up. For this project, I wanted to keep to a canvas size that would work well for the pencil tool and for the idea I had, which led me to follow Brandon James Greer’s YouTube video titled “What Size is Pixel Art? (Intro to Sprite and Canvas Size)” (Greer, 2019), which discussed the different canvas sizes that you can use for pixel art.
From following that tutorial, I decided to use a canvas size of 180 pixels by 180 pixels, as I felt that it gave me enough room to experiment with the design of the character and include any other additional features that may be large without becoming incredibly restricted. At this point during the project, I did not particularly have an idea as to what I wanted to create. I had some loose ideas that I did not feel inspired to create, which led to me recreating my scavenger concept art that I featured in my Initial Character concepts post.
I created a rough framework of a humanoid that would allow me to build the character over the top – I knew that I wanted to incorporate the poncho/cape elements that I had seen in other characters and include a mask/helmet to create a character that appears to be a mercenary.
The cloak that is seen in the pixel art was a good challenge for me, as I wanted to show how the cloak would fall and fold in relation to the character’s stature and other items of clothing, such as whether the chest piece would affect the cloak. I added shading to the cloak around the folds by creating a gradient, transitioning from a dark hue to progressively lighter hues which gives the impression that the light is diffusing across the material. I also replicated this technique when adding a metallic shine to the shoulder guard and the knee guards, utilising white pixels to act as the points of hard light and then diffusing it across the surrounding surfaces through the gradient.
I wanted to add a number of features to the character, such as giving them weaponry and a backpack but opted to keep the character relatively simplified to allow for the character to not be obscured and lost among the props. If the character was made on a larger canvas, such as setting the dimensions of it to be 320 by 240 pixels which can be seen in the Sega Genesis games, more detailing could have been added.
OUTCOME
I’m relatively happy with this piece, as pixel art is something that I don’t have prior experience with and I am often found working with larger canvas sizes, such as 5000 x 5000 pixels with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. This project challenged me to keep to a smaller canvas size whilst working with a new style of art that I rarely work with, which was a challenge at first yet I feel that I have overcome it.
If I were to make improvements to the piece, I would have added a background to the image that the player could have been interacting with, such as a dark street alley or an abandoned street based on the character resembling a mercenary. I did briefly experiment with incorporating a background layer and objects into the piece, but I struggled with determining an overarching theme due to the varying elements of the character’s outfit and decided to keep the background a solid colour.
Referenced Material:
Boidin, D., Bérelle, L., Kozyra, R., Asher, N., Gelatt, P., Miller, T., Franzén, P., Hanrot, Z. and Lawson, A. (2021) Snow in the Desert. IMDb. Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14536160/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2021].
Greer, B. (2019) What Size is Pixel Art? (Intro to Sprite and Canvas Size). YouTube. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-3dn2qUUs.
Contreras, R. (2016) Comic Art Reference – Poncho Movement. Comic Book Graphic Design. Available online: https://comicbookgraphicdesign.com/comic-art-reference-poncho-movement/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2021].
Glover, S. (2020) Ghost joins the Coalition Operators of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®. blog.activision.com. Available online: https://blog.activision.com/call-of-duty/2020-02/Ghost-joins-the-Coalition-Operators-of-Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare [Accessed 30 Nov. 2021].
Guttmann, G. (2021) Black Widow Posters Reveal Detailed Looks At Taskmaster & Red Guardian Costumes. ScreenRant. Available online: https://screenrant.com/black-widow-movie-posters-costumes-taskmaster-red-guardian/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2021].
Pironet, G. (2016) Character Concept – Desert Wizard. Artstation. Available online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PmaeDy.