Graphics what to do when you're bad at drawing

[graviax]

Drawing weapon sprite is easy, explosion and effect too but, I can't draw characters and such.
Any advice?

 

[SnoutUp]

Since I'm using vector tools, my advice would be downloading Inkscape & experimenting with putting basic shapes together. Go to Google Images or sprite sheet sites & look for other game characters to use as a reference.
Also check out: http://www.2dgameartguru.com/

 

[Xer0botXer0]

Practice, I've improved because I got help from forums like pixelation.org, I post a WIP then get advice.

 

[graviax]

Well tell me how can I improve these guys :

 

[aamatniekss]

Practice is everything. that's the problem with people mostly, expecting to learn stuff quickly by just watching a tutorial or downloading photoshop and not practicing at all. You wont be able to draw super good no matter what you do if those are your first drawings, you just have to live with it. Redraw stuff later when you get more experience, or get an artist to draw for you meanwhile.
Here's how I improved in 2 years by actually practicing a bit.

 

[Ian]

As everyone has said, practice BUT your question about improving your guys to make them look better is a question we cannot answer for you because we do not know your art style of the game. There are MANY different kind of pixel art styles and that decision is up to you to make, based on the 'feel' of the game.

I like the blocky style of pixel art (not too blocky) and its the only art i see fitting my action platformer:
Before:

After: (Still alpha)

If you have ever played super time force you can see this pixel style is inspired by them:

A really good practice (which you should kinda be doing) is using an artist with similar style as a reference and create your own practices for it then after awhile you will be able to make suitable characters in your game.

Example of certain pixel art style to fit your game is Risk of Rain:

Look how low res it is and it doesnt even matter because its fitting and all he used was MS Paint which is all u need but i like graphics gale

Look up NOT A HERO; its a game that i think will be closest to you certain style and easy to produce to low res.

 

[RangerX]

Practice is everything. that's the problem with people mostly, expecting to learn stuff quickly by just watching a tutorial or downloading photoshop and not practicing at all. You wont be able to draw super good no matter what you do if those are your first drawings, you just have to live with it. Redraw stuff later when you get more experience, or get an artist to draw for you meanwhile.
Here's how I improved in 2 years by actually practicing a bit.

What?? This looks like an Owl boy screenshot!

 

[Michael]

Well tell me how can I improve these guys :

In my opinion this basically is a wrong access approach, because there is no measure for the quality of artwork. I even doubt, that it matters,whether the audience is attracted, as many pieces of artwork, which are highly regarded these days, at first were rejected; the catholics dignitaries were horrified because of nudities in Michelangelos cover paintings in the Sistine Chapel, the abstract paintings were classified as evil products of ill minds, and Andy Warhol and Professor Beuys with tteir Pop Art and Performance Art were named as doing rubbish and nothing related to art at all. So the only acceptable criteria for me is: does the creator of an artwork likes it and stands by it ? If so, it does not need improvement or change.

As there is no measure from the point of view of the artworks creator, there is no binding measure for the consumer, beholder, listener - whatever- of an artwork either.
What one likes, can another with the same authorization hate.

This said, I would interprete your question in two ways:
1) Can I change my artwork in a way, that statistically spoken as much as possible consumers are expected to be attracted ?
(But again: This has nothing to do with an "improvement". Well, It may even lead to a deterioration, if the artist betrays himself to achieve this effect).
2) Can I achieve my creation better with other tools ?

To 1) I think the contemporary audience mostly would like gradients and smooth (not jagged) lines ( except for friends of retro styles...), as this is what people are used those from GUI styles and from advertising graphics.
To 2) Like post #2 above I personally prefer vector tools because of their many advantages aganst pixel manipulating tools; the pros and cons of vector tools versus pixel editing tools were topic of many discussions around the web so I don't want to repat this here again. The tool of my choice by the way is Serif Draw Plus X8.

So starting from the image you posted, some conversion under aspects I listed under 1) could be done like:
1) Your template : 2) With vector shapes above: 3) With gradients:

 

[Treecase86]

Practice is everything. that's the problem with people mostly, expecting to learn stuff quickly by just watching a tutorial or downloading photoshop and not practicing at all. You wont be able to draw super good no matter what you do if those are your first drawings, you just have to live with it. Redraw stuff later when you get more experience, or get an artist to draw for you meanwhile.
Here's how I improved in 2 years by actually practicing a bit

I agree completely with this post; I was using a sprite that doesn't look good at all in my opinion, then after about a year, I tried again, and the sprite looked WAY better. First image is the original, second is current.

 

[hippyman]

It may be that I'm not a great artist, but these are honestly pretty good.

Well tell me how can I improve these guys

 

[Treecase86]

It may be that I'm not a great artist, but these are honestly pretty good.

I agree, they do look good.

 

[RangerX]

All about practice and to accept to make graphics "of your level". I mean, I sure would love to pixel art like this:

However this would take me forever. So I find satisfaction in making simpler pixel art that, I hope can also be pleasing...

I say, embrace your limits and do something enjoyable within those. Over time everybody improves anyways.

 

[graviax]

Thanks for all the advice guys !

 

[KriLL]

There is a new cheap Illustrator program out which I highly recommend. Its in beta at the moment but will be around £50 ish when its released. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/windows/

I use vector graphics for my game. GMS handles them really well. They can scale to any resolution and look great when you apply anti aliasing.

One way to improve your graphics is iterate. i.e. create a version. Improve a small bit. Rinse and repeat.

Even the large studios like Blizzard do it. Here is a great example of character design for the new game Overwatch. You can see how they started with an idea and slowly improved on it.

http://media-overpwn.cursecdn.com/attachments/0/647/2015-11-07_01-08-00.jpg

 

[Yal]

Well tell me how can I improve these guys :

One thing that strikes me is that you don't really use contrast well... the left guy has 6 colors used for his skin alone, and one of them is only used for two pixels. We don't really need to worry about palette limitations for technical reasons anymore, but there's still reasons to try to keep your palette limited... it's easier to balance the colors against each other to maximize readability, for instance. Your sprites also have huge blocks of a single color... it's generally not that appealing IMO, I'd try to at least add some highlights with the extra colors you use elsewhere, and maybe use the darker shades to outline a bit.. I'm a huge fan of outlining in the same color (but darker) as the shape. Finally, their hair looks really flat since it's a single color, I'd add a second color and use that to shade either side of the hair (front or back) and maybe add some texture to it.

 

[graviax]

One thing that strikes me is that you don't really use contrast well... the left guy has 6 colors used for his skin alone, and one of them is only used for two pixels. We don't really need to worry about palette limitations for technical reasons anymore, but there's still reasons to try to keep your palette limited... it's easier to balance the colors against each other to maximize readability, for instance. Your sprites also have huge blocks of a single color... it's generally not that appealing IMO, I'd try to at least add some highlights with the extra colors you use elsewhere, and maybe use the darker shades to outline a bit.. I'm a huge fan of outlining in the same color (but darker) as the shape. Finally, their hair looks really flat since it's a single color, I'd add a second color and use that to shade either side of the hair (front or back) and maybe add some texture to it.

problem is I don't think it will fit with the style of the game (like this door)


EDIT : the two pixels were supposed to be his nose

 

[Kris Hyre]

problem is I don't think it will fit with the style of the game (like this door)

View attachment 883
EDIT : the two pixels were supposed to be his nose

I saw a nose

 

[Niels]

Thb I think your characters look pretty good as they are

 

[Cloaked Games]

I am also not very good at art. The first thing I've found is what everyone else has said: practice helps even the most hopeless cases.

The thing I really wanted to bring up was that you definitely shouldn't let the art get in the way of actually programming the game. If you're stuck on a sprite, make the sprite a blank square and just program for a while. You can come back to the art any time (in most cases). Sometimes just taking a break for a while can make a big difference. Sometimes you'll find you've come up with some new ideas in the back of your mind while doing other things.

 

[Lon-ami]

I have the same problems! Add to it that I want everything to be kinda perfect (programmer life) so I keep correcting things a lot, which is a pain for 2D. Correcting vectors or even 3D can be less painful if you don't have a lot of experience with drawing and sprites. You won't break the animations either.

 

[FredFredrickson]

I think your sprites look pretty good, and if you're interested in graphics, then I say go for it.

Sometimes though, it's best to admit that your passion lies in just one or two aspects of game design, and not the whole thing - and then it's best to focus your efforts on the stuff you're interested in, and find others to help do the rest.

For example, I'm a graphics guy myself, and my programming is serviceable... but I can't play music, and I don't have much interest in recording/creating sound effects. I could probably record and master my own sound effects, and I could probably learn how to make somewhat decent music... but it would take me a long time, and would almost always turn out better if I just buy some royalty free sound effects/music, or hire someone to help - so that's what I do instead, so I can focus on the aspects of game creation that I enjoy most.

 

[HammerOn]

Practice is the standard advice but be aware that knowledge, method, practice and work are different things.
Repeat the wrong thing 1000 times and you learn something. Repeat the right thing 100 times and you learn a lot. Practice is inefficient or useless without knowledge and good methods. We use it primarily to create muscular memory from things you learn - not the opposite. With good methods you improve faster.
If you are practicing - draw realist. If you are working (personal or professional) - draw in the style you want. Style is the distortion of reality. If you don't understand reality, you will be unable to distort as you please. There is no actual difference between 3D, 2D, pixel-art, painting, drawing, sculpting, anime, cartoon, minimalist, high detailed... The concept is the same: simulate or distort reality to convey something visually. People specialize in tools or media - concepts (shape, volume, composition, color, shading, etc) are always the same. If you are sharp at concepts; you can learn tools, media or change styles with less difficult.
Ultimately, the main thing is not practice. It's your mindset.

 

[dweedes]

If your goal is to be great at drawing, then take everyone above's advice and practice and commit to improving your drawing, and don't read the rest of this post.

If your goal is to make a great game, then focus on making a great game.
That doesn't mean you have to be able to draw.
Work with someone who specialises in art.

You can try to do everything yourself (which was how I approached my work for the past 5 years) and be proud that you did everything OK, or you can focus on one thing and do it very very well.
See phrase 'jack of all trades, master of none'.
You don't want to be a jack and put out mediocre work, you want to be a master and be good at what you do.
So for all the other things you can't do, music, art, whatever, get together with other 'masters' and make a in great game.

That being said I don't know you, I don't know how old you are or how serious you are about making games...
If you're in school and you're making games for fun, work with your friends and have fun.
If you're looking to make money, work with people who specialise in their craft, and PAY them, and have fun.

 

[method72]

Just wanted to share this link,
https://www.udemy.com/create2dartforgames/?couponCode=HALFOFF
Since I created a 7.5 hour training for Serif DrawPlus (it is based on X6) but all the same tools/concepts are the same in X8.
attached are a few of the items we build in the course. I really love working in DrawPlus, it is my go to application for all my 2d game assets.

The thing is, I really could not find any good tutorials on it.. so I decided to make my own.. it took around 40+ hours to create (not counting all the time it takes to render the videos and upload them etc) But hopefully other can learn to use this tool and make awesome cool 2d art for their games, you dont need to be an artist at all..

I am happy to offer the link above with a 50% discount!
in case you are not aware, Udemy pricing forces me to offer my course at a minimum of 20$... but I can generate a coupon to offer a discount on top of that, in this case 50% off their required price, and i am glad to share that with this community. I am a long time member here, but this is my first post on this new account/forum.

 

[Fodderbot]

I think your sprites look pretty good, and if you're interested in graphics, then I say go for it.

Sometimes though, it's best to admit that your passion lies in just one or two aspects of game design, and not the whole thing - and then it's best to focus your efforts on the stuff you're interested in, and find others to help do the rest.

For example, I'm a graphics guy myself, and my programming is serviceable... but I can't play music, and I don't have much interest in recording/creating sound effects. I could probably record and master my own sound effects, and I could probably learn how to make somewhat decent music... but it would take me a long time, and would almost always turn out better if I just buy some royalty free sound effects/music, or hire someone to help - so that's what I do instead, so I can focus on the aspects of game creation that I enjoy most.

Yea I'm gonna bump that. Don't rely on yourself for everything. Develop with what we in the industry call "Programmer assets" and then fill them in with quality ones later on. This also helps you develop an understanding of what assets you really need before handing them off to an artist or art department. Its also great to work with one or two other people that vary in what they can do, if you get down or frustrated talking with them can often times re-motivate you. Sometimes, even for us hard core introverts , its nice to have someone around that you can have some common ground with.

I agree with Fred, work to your strengths and focus on your passions, you can figure solutions for the other stuff as it comes up, but don't stress over it.

 

[Fodderbot]

BTW, you can also check out jazza on you tube. he has a number of great instructional drawing videos.

 

[silentworks]

Drawing weapon sprite is easy, explosion and effect too but, I can't draw characters and such.
Any advice?

Why people believe they can’t draw - and how to prove they can | Graham Shaw | TEDxHull

A short but effective video!

 

[Adrien Dittrick]

Draw some characters.
Just do it.
Eventually you'll become good at drawing them.

Use various tools and softwares.
Also maybe learn about anatomy, it helps a lot!