Has anyone even tried to get into contact with Bart lately? I'm sure he's busy, but do we in fact know he's aware of the issue with search and so forth?
That method can work, Orlander, but it's sensitive to many factors, including at least art style, scaling factor, and scaling algorithm. Creating mockups at higher resolution is definitely useful, but I would strongly recommend a vector approach if one is going to do that. With a vector graphic, you can up or downscale to any size to generate as many guides as needed, and on top of that vectors are described by primitives that help conceptualize the structure of the art. Then it's relatively easier to draw or adjust each pixel to get the best implementation of the abstract target concept. One of the links in my last post is related to this.
An experienced raster artist can get quality results out of a big-bitmap-to-smaller-pixel-tile workflow with relatively minor tweaking as long as they follow a series of rules in the process. Among those are keep a constant integer scale factor, avoid blending and gradients, don't introduce an excessive degree of detail. Personally, I see it as more useful for somebody with that particular skill set already (and no comparable talent in vector land).
That's another valid and useful approach. Instead of building up, tear down by seeing how various modifications disturb the intended patterns. Most tiles are decomposable to various degrees, although in the extreme cases you will find areas where literally a single pixel is representing some feature (like an eye).
For some, starting out with pixel art while having no experience with any other type of artistic drawing may be too rough. I've seen people encourage newbies to experiment, which is fine, but in my view it may set people up for failure to just throw them into the deep end of the pool. Great pixel art takes a lot of skill and utilizes multiple artistic techniques simultaneously (some examples being shadowing to demonstrate lighting, color dithering to create an impression of colors not actually in the current palette, and anti-aliasing to smooth or prevent jarring lines).
Complete beginners should probably consider getting their feet wet with vector art first, which can be much simpler to learn. There's a whole blog dedicated to trying to teach programmers how to do vector art at http://www.2dgameartguru.com , with lots of specific examples of how to configure various forms and effects. If or when someone gets good with vector art, it's actually possible to directly translate that skill set to pixel art with only modest adaptations: http://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/vector-to-pixel-building-your-sprites... .
Certain newcomers will insist on a purist approach, of course. For them, it's time to hit the books :
These are not the only resources on the internet to learn from, of course. Further, there's something to be said for having a good art book on hand, especially if it's got lots of examples and straightforward tips in it to study.
The "how" is about optical illusion, color blending, simple perspective, and several other concepts. Entire art books have been written about how to develop and master the techniques that lead to success. You shouldn't expect to understand it in a matter of a few days or weeks. There's also many ways to draw, even with limited color depth and resolution (as in pixel art). If you stare too hard at one example, you won't get anywhere. Have a look around, compare and contrast.
Note that grass patterns can be a really bad place to start learning. They're fuzzy, soft, and partly random, having no definite shape unlike many other objects. Never understood why some tutorials thought it was a good idea to start with that; I guess they feel like they have something to prove.
One other hint is to always keep multiple views open while drawing any pixel art. Different zoom levels are critical, and alternate scaling algorithms couldn't hurt either (though I don't know of any editor off-hand that offers the really good pixel art relevant ones).
If I had the requisite art skill (I don't), I'd consider it at that price point. I think you'll probably be able to find someone as long as you keep looking and are willing to make some concessions and do some negotiating here and there.
However, I can at least give you some broad boundaries.
This sheet shows the NES Metroid enemy set: http://www.spriters-resource.com/nes/metroid/sheet/1776/ . Expect to spend something like $100 to $300 for roughly this quantity and skill level. Adding in all of the other tiles from that game would probably clear $1000.
These are just general estimates. If you're contracting a lot of labor and willing to pay upfront, you may get various discounts. If you merely take an inclusive license to the work, allowing the artist to retain copyright ownership and resell to other interested parties, you may get a discount for that as well. There's also a cross-over threshold at which it is cheaper to have a full-time employee working on your project rather than a freelance contractor. I find it unlikely anyone working with game maker is going to reach that threshold.
Presuming that professional work is too expensive for what sounds like a hobby project, I'd recommend you start scanning through the assets on this site for something you can use or easily adapt. There's a lot here, and it'll take a long time if you want to actually evaluate it all. Make sure you check the declared licenses (and can abide by the terms). Try reading the FAQ and the forums if you have any questions about how CC licenses work.
O_O Wow. All eighteen songs are good, and many are great. This is a spectacular gift to the community, and with such a liberal license I believe it will see substantial use over time.
That can (and often does) create a mess, yes. That's why I recommend taking care of the alpha issue before creating or editing, to prevent the problem from compounding into the future.
As to your question, off-hand I can't think of a plugin or script that does that. There are so many out there that I wouldn't want to say that it doesn't exist, though. Undoubtably, GIMP is capable of it.
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, though, that task may not even warrant writing a script. Try duplicating the working layer, erasing the inner content using select-by-color or fuzzy select (probably with a selection shrink), blurring the residual edges, and then adjusting the layer opacities and blend mode until you get the result you want.
Note that any form of averaging filter, fill mode, or blends pretty much necessarily introduces new colors that didn't exist before. I wouldn't use a technique like this in any graphics that need to obey strict color palettes.
In my view, it would be best to combine those into groups. One set for the tree bark type, one for the "ground" type, one for the tile/slab type, and so on. The only other advice I would give is that it's not necessary to upload absolutely everything you have. Curating for quality and avoiding too-similar submissions will make it less time consuming and more rewarding for people to find most content.
Has anyone even tried to get into contact with Bart lately? I'm sure he's busy, but do we in fact know he's aware of the issue with search and so forth?
That method can work, Orlander, but it's sensitive to many factors, including at least art style, scaling factor, and scaling algorithm. Creating mockups at higher resolution is definitely useful, but I would strongly recommend a vector approach if one is going to do that. With a vector graphic, you can up or downscale to any size to generate as many guides as needed, and on top of that vectors are described by primitives that help conceptualize the structure of the art. Then it's relatively easier to draw or adjust each pixel to get the best implementation of the abstract target concept. One of the links in my last post is related to this.
An experienced raster artist can get quality results out of a big-bitmap-to-smaller-pixel-tile workflow with relatively minor tweaking as long as they follow a series of rules in the process. Among those are keep a constant integer scale factor, avoid blending and gradients, don't introduce an excessive degree of detail. Personally, I see it as more useful for somebody with that particular skill set already (and no comparable talent in vector land).
That's another valid and useful approach. Instead of building up, tear down by seeing how various modifications disturb the intended patterns. Most tiles are decomposable to various degrees, although in the extreme cases you will find areas where literally a single pixel is representing some feature (like an eye).
For some, starting out with pixel art while having no experience with any other type of artistic drawing may be too rough. I've seen people encourage newbies to experiment, which is fine, but in my view it may set people up for failure to just throw them into the deep end of the pool. Great pixel art takes a lot of skill and utilizes multiple artistic techniques simultaneously (some examples being shadowing to demonstrate lighting, color dithering to create an impression of colors not actually in the current palette, and anti-aliasing to smooth or prevent jarring lines).
Complete beginners should probably consider getting their feet wet with vector art first, which can be much simpler to learn. There's a whole blog dedicated to trying to teach programmers how to do vector art at http://www.2dgameartguru.com , with lots of specific examples of how to configure various forms and effects. If or when someone gets good with vector art, it's actually possible to directly translate that skill set to pixel art with only modest adaptations: http://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/vector-to-pixel-building-your-sprites... .
Certain newcomers will insist on a purist approach, of course. For them, it's time to hit the books :
http://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/
http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/
http://www.yarrninja.com/pixeltutorial/index.html
http://www.manningkrull.com/pixel-art/walking.php
These are not the only resources on the internet to learn from, of course. Further, there's something to be said for having a good art book on hand, especially if it's got lots of examples and straightforward tips in it to study.
The "how" is about optical illusion, color blending, simple perspective, and several other concepts. Entire art books have been written about how to develop and master the techniques that lead to success. You shouldn't expect to understand it in a matter of a few days or weeks. There's also many ways to draw, even with limited color depth and resolution (as in pixel art). If you stare too hard at one example, you won't get anywhere. Have a look around, compare and contrast.
Note that grass patterns can be a really bad place to start learning. They're fuzzy, soft, and partly random, having no definite shape unlike many other objects. Never understood why some tutorials thought it was a good idea to start with that; I guess they feel like they have something to prove.
One other hint is to always keep multiple views open while drawing any pixel art. Different zoom levels are critical, and alternate scaling algorithms couldn't hurt either (though I don't know of any editor off-hand that offers the really good pixel art relevant ones).
Please pay attention to post dates. This thread is nearly two years old and user 'jalgames' hasn't shown any activity since then.
If I had the requisite art skill (I don't), I'd consider it at that price point. I think you'll probably be able to find someone as long as you keep looking and are willing to make some concessions and do some negotiating here and there.
That's likely way too vague for anyone to answer.
* How many characters?
* How many independent tile sets ?
* How many tiles per set ?
* What resolution and color depth ?
However, I can at least give you some broad boundaries.
This sheet shows the NES Metroid enemy set: http://www.spriters-resource.com/nes/metroid/sheet/1776/ . Expect to spend something like $100 to $300 for roughly this quantity and skill level. Adding in all of the other tiles from that game would probably clear $1000.
This sheet is from Seiken Densetsu 3, one of the best looking SNES JRPGs : http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/seikendensetsu3secretofmana2/sheet... . Expect to spend several thousand on each moderately-sized tileset at this level.
These are just general estimates. If you're contracting a lot of labor and willing to pay upfront, you may get various discounts. If you merely take an inclusive license to the work, allowing the artist to retain copyright ownership and resell to other interested parties, you may get a discount for that as well. There's also a cross-over threshold at which it is cheaper to have a full-time employee working on your project rather than a freelance contractor. I find it unlikely anyone working with game maker is going to reach that threshold.
Presuming that professional work is too expensive for what sounds like a hobby project, I'd recommend you start scanning through the assets on this site for something you can use or easily adapt. There's a lot here, and it'll take a long time if you want to actually evaluate it all. Make sure you check the declared licenses (and can abide by the terms). Try reading the FAQ and the forums if you have any questions about how CC licenses work.
O_O Wow. All eighteen songs are good, and many are great. This is a spectacular gift to the community, and with such a liberal license I believe it will see substantial use over time.
Thank you very much!
@capbros :
That can (and often does) create a mess, yes. That's why I recommend taking care of the alpha issue before creating or editing, to prevent the problem from compounding into the future.
As to your question, off-hand I can't think of a plugin or script that does that. There are so many out there that I wouldn't want to say that it doesn't exist, though. Undoubtably, GIMP is capable of it.
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, though, that task may not even warrant writing a script. Try duplicating the working layer, erasing the inner content using select-by-color or fuzzy select (probably with a selection shrink), blurring the residual edges, and then adjusting the layer opacities and blend mode until you get the result you want.
Note that any form of averaging filter, fill mode, or blends pretty much necessarily introduces new colors that didn't exist before. I wouldn't use a technique like this in any graphics that need to obey strict color palettes.
EDIT : Some searching a bit later lead me to this thread : http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php?/topic/46314-how-to-get-average-color-... , which may give you some more ideas about how to accomplish certain effects. The sg-mean-fill script is available elsewhere : https://chiselapp.com/user/saulgoode/repository/script-fu/wiki?name=sg-m... . It's probably not exactly what you want, but studying scripts is an excellent way to learn techniques that will gradually get you to a particular goal.
In my view, it would be best to combine those into groups. One set for the tree bark type, one for the "ground" type, one for the tile/slab type, and so on. The only other advice I would give is that it's not necessary to upload absolutely everything you have. Curating for quality and avoiding too-similar submissions will make it less time consuming and more rewarding for people to find most content.
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