Berk's Forumvine

In one of the games recently, hictooth pointed out that there isn't an emoticon for Dagur. So...I made one!

...I did my best, anyway. I also tried to match the style of the preexisting characters. I'm perfectly open to changing/improving it if that's what you guys think I should do. It was a lot of fun to draw, though, so I'm also leaving this topic here in case anyone has any suggestions for new emoticons- I'll try my hand at those, too!

Here it is:

Edit from hictooth:
It didn't show up as an image in this post originally, but I've changed it so it does

I like it! It's better than I would do!

That's really good, I love it!

I'll ask IcelandicEel to add it to the clickable emoticons, but he is really busy right now, so I'm not sure how long it will take.

Really well done, DragonbackVoyager!

Looks great, Dragonback Voyager!
Nice detail.

Think you can do Heather?

This is awesome! Definitely do some more if you have time for it!

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate it. And I'm glad you like it!

mypartnerHiccup

11 May 2016, 19:30

Think you can do Heather?

But I don't really like Heather. Nah, I'm kidding. I'll see to it ASAP!

Heather!
Her hair was pretty difficult to "build." Quite a few layers, lots of volume, all portrayed in just a few pixels. Hope everyone enjoys!

Thanks Dragonback Voyager.
You are the best!

mypartnerHiccup

If you're willing and wouldn't mind I'd actually be interested in reading more about your process. Like what program/s you use and if there's anything specific you might do. If you're curious or want it, my reason is I enjoy pixel art. I especially enjoy seeing 3D art recreated in pixel form. I'm terrible at it myself but I still enjoy reading up on it though.

mypartnerHiccup

30 May 2016, 21:39

Thanks Dragonback Voyager.
You are the best!

mypartnerHiccup

Aw, I doubt that. But thank you!

Demonwolf002

31 May 2016, 23:15

If you're willing and wouldn't mind I'd actually be interested in reading more about your process. Like what program/s you use and if there's anything specific you might do. If you're curious or want it, my reason is I enjoy pixel art. I especially enjoy seeing 3D art recreated in pixel form. I'm terrible at it myself but I still enjoy reading up on it though.

Sure thing! I'm pretty new to pixel art, but I think I was able to figure out the "how" because I draw/paint/etc. a lot along with doing graphic design.
I'm not sure if there's an official "way" to make pixel art, but I've been using Photoshop. When you create a new project in the program, you get to designate how large the image will be in either the metric system, the imperial system, OR pixels (emphasis on "pixels"). I made the image size really small- 35 x 35 pixels- determined by approximating the number of pixels (width x height) in the existing emoticons you see to your left when you post to the forums! From there, I just kind of drew and edited until I was happy with the picture. I always kept a window open of image search results for the character to use as references, and I used the pencil tool set to size "1" (for one pixel) because the brush tools, even set to the smallest size, still apply a slight spread of color when you click and aren't exact.
In the program, you can enlarge an image until you see a grid where each box represents one pixel. I usually kept the images that large on screen so I could see exactly where I was applying color and could make exact shapes. I've also gotten carried away both times and have added more detail than you could ever see at 35 x 35 pixels on a standard computer screen. Oh, well...

To sum that spiel up:
Program: Photoshop (created the project in "pixels" and made it really, really small)
Main tools used: Pencil, Color Picker (...and the "Color" tab despite that not being a tool per se)
Exported as: PNG (you can't tell that the image is square because the background is transparent, which you can't do with other typical image formats like JPEGs)