2D Wolfikins' Pixels

[Wolfikins]

Just a wee showcase of pixel arts I've done. Lots of projects on paper, but alas, time and energy mean none of them have gotten very far.

Going from old to new, let's see!

A GBA style/resolution bad end picture.



(Without text)



A Cowgirl (Zell23 is definitely an inspiration, although I try other styles as well)



For example, an attempt at subpixel animated breathing.



Or an attempt at an isometric style (these continue to elude me, annoyingly)



Small pixels are a preference, because holy heck, 128px+ is a pain in the rear end... Which is why the vast majority of the examples are such...



Sometimes to ridiculuous-ish degrees. Yes, you can make lewdness with 16x16 pixel characters! Sorta! (8 just looks godawful. I tried. Believe me, I tried.)



Some rapid thumbnailing of animations... And complex feelings arise over cuboids...



Some of which end up getting animated.



And finally, a selection of others...











...Oh hey, an isometric I was actually somewhat happy with! Which is also a Pandemonium Classic fanart!



Crit welcomed, advice for other pixel artists freely given, art less so due to the aforementioned time/energy constraints.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Awesome!

It's clear its something you are definitely passionate about, I was surprised to see you even mention and explored sub pixel animation. It was also cool to see how you blocked out animations. x16 pixel character animation looks the simplest but I know takes skill to get it to work.

While I have dabbled with some pixel art, characters and tilesets, I find that I'm not truly into making it true 'pixel art' due to the level of detail I want, and often because the character art style I like is not something that converts well to pixel art, so I end up making things to be rendered at 1:1, however I preferer 4:1 pixel art at 8fps max when I truly want to appreciate the pixel art aesthetic.

Spoiler: Hiding my stuff so as to not to dominate OP's thread

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So I'm in the same boat, several experiments and projects that were only started, because pixel art is cool and projects are fun, but no project that I wanted to invest all my limited time and energy into completing.

I find one of the major reasons not to invest time and energy into a project is because, these are the sort of things that take enough time that you end up contemplating and worrying about the big picture, making you question if the project is really worth it or if the amount of work you are able to complete is not significant. 8 directional character art walking animation takes a lot of time, and it only enables the very simple feature of animated movement, something so basic that it is taken for granted by non-game dev players.

Because projects can loose meaning if they are too slow to develop (at best I get anywhere between 8 hours of work done a week, to 8 hours of work done a month), I often think about how to bring a world to life with the least amount of effort, but still feed my artistic desires. Ideas like, point and click maps to avoid animated characters, trying to use paid assets when possible, trying to avoid cool ideas and keep the scope tiny, trying to keep the writing dumb and simple so as to use as little character art as possible. trying to balance out the amount of work needed vs still having a cool enough idea to keep me interested.

its been almost 10 years, and I still haven't figured it out, so I've just been helping with other people's projects... but right now my work life is starting to dominate my existence, I don't have time to think about these sorts of things too often.

 

[Wolfikins]

Awesome!

It's clear its something you are definitely passionate about, I was surprised to see you even mention and explored sub pixel animation. It was also cool to see how you blocked out animations. x16 pixel character animation looks the simplest but I know takes skill to get it to work.

Thank you! And yes, low res is much harder than it looks, precisely because you're working harder to make animations look natural. Especially with sex, where... Hrm, might be a fun little challenge to make tiny pink lady fuck. But I grew up in the era of subpixels and tiny sprites, so I've always had a fascination. Even if, looking back, some sprites in old games are horrible. Not in the sense that they don't fit in their respective games, but in the sense of "Oh my fucking god, how did they even?"

Example: Shadowlands. Look at this damn thing, and weep. On the one hand, 16x32, good job developers!

On the other, I have tried to emulate this, and cried.



Not entirely happy with the result either...

I find one of the major reasons not to invest time and energy into a project is because, these are the sort of things that take enough time that you end up contemplating and worrying about the big picture, making you question if the project is really worth it or if the amount of work you are able to complete is not significant. 8 directional character art walking animation takes a lot of time, and it only enables the very simple feature of animated movement, something so basic that it is taken for granted by non-game dev players.

Because projects can loose meaning if they are too slow to develop (at best I get anywhere between 8 hours of work done a week, to 8 hours of work done a month), I often think about how to bring a world to life with the least amount of effort, but still feed my artistic desires. Ideas like, point and click maps to avoid animated characters, trying to use paid assets when possible, trying to avoid cool ideas and keep the scope tiny, trying to keep the writing dumb and simple so as to use as little character art as possible. trying to balance out the amount of work needed vs still having a cool enough idea to keep me interested.

its been almost 10 years, and I still haven't figured it out, so I've just been helping with other people's projects... but right now my work life is starting to dominate my existence, I don't have time to think about these sorts of things too often.

All of those things are good practice, it's true, and it's equally true that you can still lose enthusiasm, especially when things get finicky. There are, thankfully, shortcuts, like sprite flipping (also, interestingly, saving time on your top three, because the basic silhouette is already there) or code libraries (which I really have to rebuild, and I keep telling myself this. Why rewrite basic platformer movement when I can take the script(s) from one game and splash them into another?)

Helping with other peoples' projects definitely helps keep your hand in, so I wish you the best in trying to stay creative despite work taking over your work-life balance.

 

[Wolfikins]

Whoops, been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, yes, it's time for more pixels, and this time, we're doing two posts: One for something born out of frustration. And the next something that just... Seems to have been coming together.

Frustration first. Maaaan, Witch Island was such a disappointment, wasn't it? I mean, Alibi+, noted makers of "good concept, painful execution", but still...

...So I thought how that would go, and made a bunch of animations and a few characters.



The obligatory knight... I did two male counterparts, but apparently I didn't export them (lol)



A worldmap pic (Again, forgot to export the walk cycle, but look, they're already so cute I wanna squish their angy cheeks!)




Villagers (Why they go into dungeons, nobody knows. Nobody cares, they just wanna see them get Bad Ended)

And then... Animating. I'll post the villager first, because her sole animation is unfinished. Lacking the detailing.



Ah, we do love a plantgirl's pod extracting nutrients. Speaking of, the Knight has more!



Yeah, this is the sort of detail being aimed for. But lewdness doesn't just happen in the plantgirl's demesne in Witch Island, it also happens in the inn itself. Arousal...



And being attacked by a ghost. Mmm, mmm, mmm!



So yes, those are pixels based on the thought of "I'd like to make Witch Island, but, uhhh... Not shit and disappointing. Also gayer."

 

[Wolfikins]

This second post, however, is one of those times where shit just... Comes together.

Did I intend to make several areas of a Htroidvania? No.

Did playing with tilesets in Aseprite and making more monstergirls end up with starting to do that?

Why yes, it did!

A castle, filled with monstergirls!



Some of whom are beeg! (Although maybe they could be bigger. Engulfing whole is a good thing, I feel...)



An underground area of said castle, filled with petrified ex-adventurers, strange altars...



And at least one gargoyle and her table. Nice legs there, dear!



A sewer, with tentaclefolk and podding? Why yes!



By the way, tilting hiragana, or any sort of japanese text, is an absolute fuck to do in pixel form. Just so you know.

And... Although the most unfinished of the lot... A library. Complete with a shitty shortstack ojou-sama brat. Who needs to be bent over the gargoyle's table and treated as an onahole... KOHON, YES, LIBRARY... 'scuseme...



It's not a classical library without chiaroscuro. Gotta have some renaissance style art, yo.

So this has been your update. Enjoy!

 

[Wolfikins]

Oh, wait, I forgot three... Who likes status conditions? I sure do... So... First, the obvious one you'd see, Sudden Clothing Loss.



Next, a standby for all, petrification.



And one you don't see often, and maybe should see more of... Insta-orgasm.



So yes, now we're up to date!