Art Noob seeking advice and or pointers

Hi everyone,

It was a few months ago that i discovered unity, I am currently working on my first project in unity with a friend of mine, we are both programers and currently one of the things that still bugs me is that we have no one to do the art required for our game, so as I know a small team has to have multiple functions i want to take care the art, but as you might guess I am a total noob when it comes to drawing/designing characters and stuff (both on paper and digital) so I wanted to know if any of you could give me some pointers, suggestions, links for tutorials realted to the topic, etc etc, as we are begginers our art is gonna be 2D i was thinking that maybe something old fashioned like 16-bit i know it needs practice but i have to get started somewhere

I hope you can give me some advice on this guys,

Thanks in advance, regards,
Christian

 

Ha! Ha!
Your old school mega man avatar said it all.

My suggestion would be to start improving and working on your art from today!
Professor Brandystarbrites 1st rule!
He! He!

Before I go any further:
First question,........ What can you draw well in 2D?
eg. Characters? Stones? Rocks? Other?

Could you post a pic of something you have drawn recently?
So I could see your skill level and help you a bit further.

 

Hi Professor Brandystarbrites,

Thank you for your prompt response and willingness to help.

I have attached one of my newwest works as you migth see I am no artist at all.

Regarding your question I dont even draw a decent circle but i tought i might give it a try

Thanks for your help,

Regards

 

Awwwwww!
How cute!

Nice Sword.
You have the sword on spot!

Nice Hero character by the way!
No hands?

Nice to see you have an idea of shadows for objects, like with the Rock/Stone object.
By the way, your rock is decent enough.
Rock is good.

The vase is good.
Note: if the shadow from the vase is hitting a wall it would have a "folded bent look."

The round ball object is nice too.

Decent looking Trident weapon.

Nice Tri Force.

Is that a power ranger helmet or a Pokemon? He! He!

So you have some decent Art skills.
Just keep practicing a bit more.
You're not as bad off or super noobish at all in your Art, as you think you are.
And everyone has to start somewhere.

Very Good!
You have a good grasp of some of the basics.
Just try to improve on it a bit more and you'll see great results.

 

Indeed you're not versed in 2D art right now. What I can suggest is looking up human proportions, color rules, lighting and shadows. Try to see if you can find something related to blocking out silhouette and shapes. For example a head is pretty much an oval, you dividentify it in 3 parts and you can then place, mouth, nose, ears eyes...
you'll have to practice a lot. And that will be for you theost annoying part as you won't see the progress right away. First proportions and silhouette... once you,nail that down. You can move forward and start on practicing details one at a time. Work on the eyes, then practice nose, mouth etc... once you get to the hands and feet and you're done. You can then gather everything in some more detailed drawings.
after that, well you'll have to animate those sprites I guess... so look up some chronophotographies, Wal cycles of several different life forms and check out some cartoon animations rules to help you.
I know I didn't give any links to tutrials but it gives you an idea of what you should look up first, to my opinion.
all the best,

 

First thing, you have the basic feel for it so we don't have to have that talk... check how pro animators make their characters out of circles and shapes. You define building blocks for your characters so you can just throw down shapes and then fill in the gaps.

It's the only way to be good at animating.

Think of a snake, how can you draw a snake in ANY position?

You don't have to.

Can you draw a cylinder from any angle? Make your snake up out of cylinders, then trace around them for the skin.

Once you master this technique, you'll go further than you ever thought.

 

http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.com.au/

 

Thank you for your answer guys it really helps a lot and it seem that i also have a lot of work and research to do

So answering professor brandystarbrite hero doesnt have hando 'cause i suck at drawing them lol, and regarding the helmet it started out as a simple helmet but at the end it turned out to be a power ranger helmet, so i you have any ideas of how to improve aside from the other guys that already helped that would be great.

When i was working on those sketches i stumbled across something, lack of creativity or imagination of what to draw, do you guys have advice regarding this?

Thanks again for taking your time to help and give me advice

regards

 

@CptDustmite

See!? This is why i check out random forum posts! Great link. Thank you.

 

I agree with you that is a great resource.

 

What you could also do is draw your objects, characters, etc about 2 times or so bigger than the proportion you want it to be and then colour/ outline them in Photoshop or even just ink it on your own. Then scan it into Photoshop or a Photoshop-like program then scale it down to the size that you want, and that'll give you lots of detail for your 2D art.

By the way you don't have to draw too much detail on your 2D art if you plan on scaling it down.

So far you have some really good drawings. I agree with Dr. Starbrite, keep practicing your amazing artistic talents. :3

 

thank you @CyVirus for the good advice and the encouragement

 

Wooah!
I have to agree with the other guy's.
That is one Cool site!

 

Yeah!
Don't worry alot of artists suck at drawing hands.
Some have a fear of drawing character faces, because they are afraid they'll mess the face up. And spoil their precious drawing.
I go through that sometimes. He! He! Lol!

My advice would be to start off, finding a simple pic of a weapon, helmet, simple character that you really, really like, and "try to draw it as best as you could."
Even down to some of the shading, details and shadow too.

If you want, Try drawing one of these two simple pics:
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130407175258/someordinarygamers/images/5/5c/Kirby.png

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081130210503/kirby/en/images/d/d7/Kirbyball.jpg

Take your time too.

Post your results here if you want. I'll be back!

 

Even the so called best artist goes through this.
From personal experience, I have realised that the better you are at Drawing/making your own original characters, the more frustrating it is when you you have run out of ideas.

Or,..............you suffer from artist mental block. Where you can't come up with any ideas.
Which is frustrating sometimes.
This mental block can last for days in some cases.

Or, for some strange reason.
You're trying to create an original super hero character, and every minute, Power rangers, X men, or some other character comes popping up in your head.
Destroying your creative process. Lol!

That is why, when I'm trying my best to try and draw an original character or other etc.
I tend to stay away from the internet or TV shows, or anything anime for long periods of time, before I start drawing my characters.

That's the best advice I can give you for now I guess.
Since the individual person and his/her mind are very complex mechanisms.
And difficult to explain.

As for the lack of creativity or imagination phase, it's something all artists go through.
And many things can cause this effect.
Some of the above things I mentioned are some of the many causes of it.

Demotivation, or lack of motivation, is another one.
And it's one of the worst things to happen, especially if you are a good artist!

 

i always thought 3d modelling would be very difficult, but i found it to be incredibly easy... however, i have alot of experience making maps for games like call of duty, morrowind(working in a 3d environment, and plotting points)

i tried making 2d art, but it wasnt so great.. and, well i guess my intention for a game was pretty complex, but i found, having to draw and animate 8 directions of movement for a 2d character to be a PAIN
.. 3d you animate once and have all angles.. but it is quite a bit of work too.. but at least i dont have to like, trrryyy to visualize character from other angles hehe..
hehe, and sometimes you can, basically, straight up trace photos or drawings for, at least the basic shape

suppose a side scrolling character would be real easy though..

if you consider 3d; i use blender, "scifi animator" on youtube helped me insanely much to learn it..
..
suppose im more art oriented person though too, but im certainly not pro hehe..
just my 2 cents i guess.

 

i wanna introduce you guys kerby, kirby's brother from another father you can see that 'cause he is not fully round, that comes from the father side, let me know what you think and the aspects where i can start improving

 

You need a very deep, wide pool of inspiration to pull from. There's only one way to get this wealth of inspiration. You have to expose yourself to as much creative energy from as many different people as possible. Watch cartoons you never would have otherwise watched, find youtube videos of animators with weird styles, and force yourself to try to like stuff (especially stuff you currently hate) because you will either learn why you hate it and how to avoid what you hate, or learn to like it and gain more power for your creative style. Basically, you need to just become a sponge that absorbs everything. Randomly things will jump out at you that you like and you won't know why. Just keep chasing the things that you like, chase them down to "that part" of youtube. Go to comic book stores, etc. Just constantly try new stuff... make it your job to see something new or try drawing something new every day. Especially stuff you don't want to draw or stuff that you suck at... ESPECIALLY that stuff.

 

I've been there myself. I am a programmer, but i always loved to draw and do some pixel art. Here is an example of some pixel art ive created and transformed into a 3D voxel level:



I think its OK.
But i just know that so many people are so much more talented in that regard so i never get satisfied.
Thats why in the end i found out that i could use my time better getting some money from programming jobs and then buy the art i need from those. And for prototypes i just live with boxes and asset store stuff.

I still draw and do some game art when i feel for it, but i never 'force' it upon myself for projects.
Its a bit different take on it, but nice to consider as a programmer.

 

Wow!
Nice.
Very good!
You did a great job on that Kirby or "Kerby," character!
"Kerby?" Well that's a new one! Heh! Heh!
And you even tried some minor shading too.
Nice!


Try this.
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100425081150/metroid/images/b/b3/Morphball1.jpg
Try to draw Samus' morph ball as best as you could.
You don't have to draw this too detailed though.

 

Just keep doodling, you will need to learn how to make things straighter/rounded from muscle memory and experience. No shortcuts on that one.

 

Yep.
I agree with that!