Pixel Day and Goals for 2017 (woop wop)

Just submitted one of my largest pieces evER for Pixel Day! I've been working on it off and on since December. Looking at it now, there are a couple of things that I could have done better, but I'm proud of myself for following through with it. Check it out here: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/moawling/dinos-vs-ufos

If you haven't noticed by now, I've been approaching pixel art a bit (ha) differently this year! I've been sticking with the same palette and have been uploading less frequently in order to make more substantial work. Last year was my first year approaching pixel art seriously: I did a lot of experimentation and short term pieces (you can see them here: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/moawling/pixel-comp-2016). There were tons of crazy palettes and different styles. I learned so much from running wild with it, but this year I'm trying to approach this year with more rigidity and discipline. I want to make a cohesive style and hone my craft. I'm working towards a lot of things this year, so just wanted to dump some thoughts here so you know where I am with things.

Try to stick with one palette and build onto it over the course of one or two months
Make more pieces with backgrounds! Compose characters in a way that's not just standing there in a dark, blank space :')
Draw more fanart of other's OC's instead of just junk from Big Fandoms. Hopefully develop a better sense of community this way and connect with other artists
Collaborate with other creators! Make games, movies, art, whatever however that I can
MAKE A GAME actually try to get enough resources to finish the visual novel that I started way back in August
Sell more stuff: make merch and tilesets/sprite sheets (still working on making free assets for people don't worry, just wanna dip my beak a bit)
- Also try to participate in my first game jam! (if anyone's interested btw hmu)
Learn to animate, like, actually animate things :')

Dunno how much of this that I'll be able to accomplish or commit to, but going to keep this in mind over the next couple of months!

I've been getting more involved with games the past couple of months. I can't share too much of the work that I've been doing, but I'll be sure to post about it when I can! One thing I'm excited to announce is that I'm making some pixel art for @phantomarcade3000 's upcoming Resident Evil cartoon! It's nothing too major, buT definitely check it out when it comes out!

Thanks as always for all of your support! <3

My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/moawling
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/moawko

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ninjamuffin99 2017-01-22 00:18:23

Super Newgrounds Hyper Fighter II: Turbo Visual Novel Edition

Also gamejams are a great way to make get into game dev. My first finished game was a gamejam game and I learned a lot from it!

moawling 2017-01-22 00:18:23

you get to date Tom after you beat him up a little bit

Woah! If you have any tips you wanna share, I'd love to hear more about your experiences!!!

MyamotoMusashi 2017-01-22 08:22:29

While I think you do have a style already I wish you luck with your goals and I hope these challenges serve to make you stronger.
Your fans will be cheering you on.

moawling 2017-01-22 08:22:29

Thank you so much! I say this all of the time, but your input means a lot to me.
I guess my work is getting to the point where it's distinctive (which I'm pretty happy about). I'm having trouble specifically identifying what makes my work "mine", so my big thing this year is to try to discover and hone those traits.

ninjamuffin99 2017-01-23 23:08:27

One of the things I tried to always keep in mind when making my jam game was to try to make the simplest game and then add some good stuff in it afterwards. During the jam I was in a Discord server where we shared progress and whatnot, and there was a bunch of people who couldn't make it because their game was a bit too ambitious for the jam's 2 week timeframe. It's so much better to have 4 simple games that have been "finished" than an unfinished overambitious game is another way to put it.

Enuf of my rambling nonsense, the Youtube channel Extra Credits has lots of game design and development videos. Even if you're uninterested in development, the videos are still really interesting. Good luck on all your projects, I'll be looking forward to them!

maruki 2017-02-11 18:30:30

Oh, your goals are very similar to mine! I hope you accomplish THEM ALL!

Guidodinho 2017-02-15 22:00:07

Looks like some pretty good goals to set. I should take an example on some of those (haven't really thought much about goals to set lately). Especially the first one seems good, setting up some limitations first, and cutting the crap for some focus.
Also, think I feel ya on the backgrounds. Hardly ever liked making that stuff. Often feels like a total drag to work on, when the initial goal is just to make something nice (with just a character you wanna do in mind), then the background feels like triple the work, for something you didn't really want to do in the first place. If you manage to get in a good groove though, it's not too bad. Maybe if there's a way to devellop a kind of Bob Ross mindset for that, it might actually be pleasant to do. XD

Also, got any ideas on what medium/software to use on animating? Cause learning to animate itself is easypeasy if you ask me, just gotta figure out how things move (or how you want things to move) and tinker around with your pictures until they move smooth or just convincingly at the least. Learning animation software though, that's a massive pain in the bumhole.
I started messing around in ms-paint and moviemaker. Just putting together picture by picture, mashing it all together, resulting in video, I didn't have to learn nuthin for that shit, both programs were easy enough to use right off the batt. But when I wanted to make my shit look somewhat good (or at least not be an insane amount of work to look half decent) I had to use something better than paint and started with flash. And for at least the fist year using flash, it felt like a big complicated mess to use.
So i'd recommend finding a way to learn it derping around (the classic flipbook probably a good start to play with) before committing to any fancypancy software that takes a whole lot of time and frustiation to get the hang of.