01-23-2015, 02:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-23-2015, 02:34 PM by Thor.
Edit Reason: ninja'd sort of
)
Edit: Damn, Shade beat me to linking the dictionary. Oh well! \o/
Pillowshading is, essentially, shading an object or entity from all sides so the lightest parts are dead-center to the viewer. It adds an overly soft look to your sprite (hence the "pillow" part of the term) and, because of the lack of a clearly defined singular lightsource, it looks rather unattractive. A fair amount of SNES games (Super Mario World is, in particular, a well-known offender) have graphics that use pillowshading. Using pillowshading is a fairly common mistake new spriters make, so it's nothing to be horribly ashamed of! However, continued practice of pillowshading is STRONGLY discouraged, as it inhibits your understanding of lighting and also usually shows laziness.
On your sprite, for example, Mario's hat and face have some very noticeable pillowshading. On the face, this is mostly caused by an overly broad shaded portion with far too many shades that don't have enough contrast between them. Contrast is, to quote the Spriting Dictionary, is
Your sprite in particular leans more toward the "low contrast" example, especially on Mario's pants. The shades seem to blend together, which isn't necessarily something you want when you're spriting, as it hurts readability, tends to lead into pillowshading, and as a result, makes your sprite unattractive. However, steer clear of the high contrast example, as that hurts the eyes of the viewer. Like the Spriting Dictionary (which can be read by clicking the link I provided just before the quote) says, balance between the colours is crucial to spriting! \o/
(01-23-2015, 02:15 PM)Super Smash Spriter Wrote: "pillow" shaded? what is that?
Pillowshading is, essentially, shading an object or entity from all sides so the lightest parts are dead-center to the viewer. It adds an overly soft look to your sprite (hence the "pillow" part of the term) and, because of the lack of a clearly defined singular lightsource, it looks rather unattractive. A fair amount of SNES games (Super Mario World is, in particular, a well-known offender) have graphics that use pillowshading. Using pillowshading is a fairly common mistake new spriters make, so it's nothing to be horribly ashamed of! However, continued practice of pillowshading is STRONGLY discouraged, as it inhibits your understanding of lighting and also usually shows laziness.
On your sprite, for example, Mario's hat and face have some very noticeable pillowshading. On the face, this is mostly caused by an overly broad shaded portion with far too many shades that don't have enough contrast between them. Contrast is, to quote the Spriting Dictionary, is
Quote:...'more difference between the colors'. The higher the contrast, the more visible the shades will be, and vice-versa. palettes with low amounts of contrast usually end being dull, while ones with high amounts of contrast end being extremely harsh. balance between the colors is the key.
![[Image: 9hZDn2y.png]](http://i.imgur.com/9hZDn2y.png)
Your sprite in particular leans more toward the "low contrast" example, especially on Mario's pants. The shades seem to blend together, which isn't necessarily something you want when you're spriting, as it hurts readability, tends to lead into pillowshading, and as a result, makes your sprite unattractive. However, steer clear of the high contrast example, as that hurts the eyes of the viewer. Like the Spriting Dictionary (which can be read by clicking the link I provided just before the quote) says, balance between the colours is crucial to spriting! \o/