StylePixelStudios Art Blog!

Some rednerings...of the car variety!

2009-12-06T01:16:00.000-08:00

Whoah! Update!

Lately I really haven't been pixelling a whole lot. I have been working on some projects which be shown just yet, and I haven't gotten clearance for the stuff we won't use. Plus I'll need to render some of it digitally and that, obviously, takes time!

Anyway, so I've been getting into some industrial design. I tried out a faucet design stream, and that is going OK, but I got me a bunch of neutral 'gray' COPIC markers (1, 3-5, and 8...for now) and did a quick car sketch (quickish anyway :P).

Then lined it in photoshop (whilst at the same time changing it slightly) and printed off a whole bunch. 1 pencil rendering and a couple of COPIC renderings (the one in full detail anyway). To finish off this series of practice; a colour pencil rendering and a digital rendering! Hurrah!

Outside of this, I'm still working on that large isometric scene. The apartments are coming along REALLY well:
...but now I'll have to fill in all the rooms. And make them all slightly different to each other. This will be interesting :)

I'm also thinking of doing a Sim-City scale-esque iso scene. Just something on the side which is pure fun and no thinking is involved. Also in the pipeline: Bus design, and I want to do a Smart car design-type of car. Fun times!!

Oceanside view

2009-11-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

I have completed something!!

Yes indeedy!

Some may remember the post below with my moustached robot in a scene. This is what it turned into. I turned my back on that lovable robot, and decided to tryout a non-isometric pixel art piece.

The last week or so has been filled with development work, mostly. There are some things which I am quietly completing on the side which I hope to be able to reveal sooner rather than later.

An update from afar!

2009-11-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

So I've been somewhat busier-than-usual these past couple of days. I've also been sketching a lot, stuff that may not be polite to upload and share with the electronic world. All this of course has lead to a reduction in updates in this here blog. Booo!

Towards the end of last week I completed another PixelJoint weekly challenge. Last week the challenge was Movember, in that we had to create an original character sporting a Mo, with max canvas size being 100 x 100. You can see my entry here

I ran ouot of time to finish it completely, so I decided to go about my own business and complete it more fully afterwards. This is what I'm up to:

Yeah, a bit messy considering it's a rough plan. Why is a moustachafied robot travelling down a path? No one knows. How many robots do you know with moustaches? Not many I'm guessing! Bam.

Currently I'm doign sketched for enemy craft for that Shoot-em-up project, as well as a logo design for Mew Robotics Group from Imperial College London, and continual robot character development for Robogals Inc. I will ask around to see what I can and cannot upload, because I would really like to share some of it!

Shmup animation: Work in Progress!

2009-11-02T23:27:00.001-08:00

Man I have been a busy bee lately. But I knuckled down and finished a draft of a future quick Shoot-em-up animation.It's so big because it is supposed to accommodate for other things in the final.

Anyway, the main idea wad to have the ship take off from a runway (done but not added, obviously), shoot a bit, bank left, shoot a bit, bank right, shoot a bit, then travel off screen. Simple right? NO! The rate of movement was the hardest, making sure the movement per frame looked good enough to be convincing. A lot of tweaking! Argh.

The final version will have the runway and full take off sequence, reflections from the engine and guns on the craft, actually gun projectiles, and a smooth transition from start to finish.

For the meantime, here is the sprite sheet for this animation:
I believe all of these were used in the animation, except for the duplicate at the bottom. So that equals to 17 all up. Yum.

Cityscape update: Apartments.

2009-10-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

Working on apartments:
Is a lot of friggin' work!!

A work in progress, obviously. A simple apartment complex turns into a geometrical nightmare. I love isometric pixel art. *Grumble grumble*.

Pixel Joint weekly challenge: Greed: Blood Money

2009-10-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Pixel Joint is a website dedicated to pixel art. I have just started getting some work on there in order to immerse myself into it all, so I don't have much to show there yet. *eep*

Pixel Joint usually do weekly challenges with a theme, restriction(s) or both. This week, which I entered, asked artists to represent one of the seven sins, but were restricting in using the base Windows 7 colour pallete. To see what that is exactly:

I was originally going to do envy, but had a good idea on greed to do an RPG mock-up style thing involving a greedy business person who's hell bent on getting richer and richer. Enter Greed: Blood Money.

My main objective was to ge the character design correct, anatomically, proportionally, everythingally. I've always wanted to do a character like this, so I'm glad I got it done! I mthink the piece lacks in the isometric scene though. My excuse? The pallete! :P

In addition, Pixel Joint restricts previews of pieces to 100 x 100 pixels. But this offers an opportunity to do another piece of work. Enter title screen:

Ohhhh yeeaaah. The Press Start message is italicised and everything, just like in the money-hungry 80's! For factual sake, the image at the back is of Wall street in a three tone setting.

Robot sketches

2009-10-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do a design of a cute, perhaps approachable (read: no laser eyes or chainsaw hands) robot for illustrative purposes.
My illustration skills have certainly improved since the last time I tried sketching ideas (not the craft, we're talking WAY in the past). Which one do you thing is the radingest robot of them all?

I've completed a pixel piece I want to put up, but I'm waiting until tomorrow to finalise before I put it up. I'm also going to be working on my time management skills. More efficient! Yay!

'Shmup project' development series - sketches

2009-10-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of days back I showed you some basic shoot-em-up player craft. These were only a start...of the project. Nieeheeee!

Below, some sketches/design sheets for ideas. The idea was to go more futuristic, less conventional, more out there. these are only 2 of what I've come up with (and I haven't only done 2 pages!!)I will be doing some other design stuff in parallel to this over the coming week (well, that is the plan). Hopefully have some animations and delicious sprites up as well!

2009-10-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

With this entry, I create the longest blog I have had! A huzzuh is in order.

Oh yes, the artwork:

I have a bigger idea in mind, and this was just a test to see if I could get a styled take-off sequence working. needless to say, I think I did! It's not 100%; the movement of the aircraft isn't precise and there isn't any lighting on the plane from the obviously bright firey fire.

This animation uses 20+ frames, of which 90% are frames for moving the plane up and back. total colours: 19 all up.

Some still frames:

I wanted to give the impression that the aircraft was really gunning it, but I also wanted it to be an anime-esque take off: Engines to full, and BAM! You'e off fighting space monkeys or mutated alien humans on Mars (note lack of anime watching-ness).

Now to design more craft. I hope to post up some more designy stuff soon once I get permission from the powers that be and are.

Current projects and work things

2009-10-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick, look at one of the things I'm working on at the moment:

Cityscape is its name. Original dimensions: 2000 x 2000 pixels all up, consisting of 4 1000 x 1000 pixel images. Why did I decide to hurt myself so readily? I've always been enthused by the 'landscape', a made up (or perhaps real) world the viewer can explore and interact with. I was first inspired by the amazing cityscape at lovepixel (the cityscape in question has been taken down to be redone, but images can be found over the net), and I loved searching for the activities people are doing and the infrastructure and city planning design and whatnot, so I decided to do my own.

The image above is indeed a remake of an image that was never fully made (oddly enough), but to continue with the old one (it had glaring stupidities!) would have been silly. Quite silly.

Along with this, I am also doing some game work:

Player craft designs for a shoot-em-up game. While design is still in the early stages, each craft (except the curvy one at the bottom) uses 7-8 colours. Wowza!

Pixel Art is pretty rad and so are you!

2009-10-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

My name is Adam Falconer and welcome to this art blog, one of many which you have probably already seen.

Is this one different? Is this one special, captivitating, life changing? Art is subjective to us all, so it is entirely possible any or all of these three things may be felt by you, but this is not the objective of this blog. This blog is a simple corner, MY simple corner of the internet to demonstrate, explain, and explore my works in Digital Art, Pixel Art and Digital Design.

I hope to, with this blog, reveal more than a simple image could, as well as giving some inside knowledge through the use of WIP screenshots and general descriptions of methods and whatnot.

All in all, I hope you enjoy browsing everything here. It's sure to be a hoot! Probably!