Pixel Vixen's Videos

[Marle]

There won't be an update for a few days one because there isn't enough progress yet, and tomorrow I'll be out having dinner so it might be the end of the week before the next update as I want to get the artwork inked and finished for that one leaving the colouring and final production for the last vid.

But given I am rusty at best at drawing (although I spent years and years doing this until about age 20/21, sadly that's 15 years ago now ) it's going alright!

[Marle]

My latest episode which at least has some Amiga references in, including what I consider to be the best CD32 specific game released for the system, a show report from Play Expo in London this weekend!

If you like other systems, arcades etc. there's plenty of other nostalgia inducing stuff here!

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Hope you enjoy and have a nice day

[Marle]

Coming soon, part 2 of pixel art, how to start drawing characters!

I did some practice runs last night so I won't be showing you how to create Star Ocean characters per se, but important to practice before trying to give advice haha!

[Lord Aga]

Cool
Just keep going at it! It's always fun when I see a new video from you pop up on YouTube.

[Marle]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Cool
Just keep going at it! It's always fun when I see a new video from you pop up on YouTube.

I sure will! I'm just doing it for the fun of doing it! Why else would anyone spend an evening drawing 4 colour grayscale sprites on their 26 year old Commodore Amiga

[Marle]

Should be doing work... instead doing this

[Leffmann]

Originally Posted by Marle

My latest episode which at least has some Amiga references in, including what I consider to be the best CD32 specific game released for the system

Henk Nieborg was definitely one of the best pixel artists on the Amiga. It's interesting to compare his earlier work and see how his graphics went from OK to amazing in just a few years.

[Marle]

Part 2 of Pixel Art is now live!

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Prominently featuring my Amiga 600 for everything, except for my piece to camera and the bits on paper, all the visuals and screens are from the Amiga, using Deluxe Paint III - it almost looks like a VHS to digital transfer as a result haha.

Also a little teenie bit of Blitz BASIC at the end and an EAB shout out

[Marle]

Have created all the footage for a new pixel art video on creating character portraits but may not be able to release it due to capture card issues

Still I managed to finish my creation and hopefully will have the video shortly if I can piece something together!

[dalek]

Your videos are cool - I'm no good at drawing but I am enjoying seeing how it's done

[Marle]

Originally Posted by dalek

Your videos are cool - I'm no good at drawing but I am enjoying seeing how it's done

Aww that's so kind of you to take the time to comment I am glad you are enjoying them and who knows you may even be inspired to give it a go even if you don't currently rate your drawing skills!

I will manage to piece together another episode out of the footage I have got about character design. And also throw in some cool bits about coding too, as I now have a strong idea of how to put together a proof of concept alongside the pixel art tutorials.

So I went a bit mad and made a HAM and Copper Rainbow display in Blitz like this (captured in UAE as I could get a nice clear shot - again top image in the screenshot is not mine - it's converted from a frame from K-ON! from Kyoto Animation so it's their copyright...but I wanted to show what the Amiga can do with HAM mode and then hopefully overlay some animated sprites, but I will be showing how to draw backgrounds too from scratch)

[Marle]

I now have the footage I need for the video as I redrew another character from scratch this time not making a mess of the proportions (due to having to view my Amiga when using my capture card at at 16:9 aspect rather than 4:3!)

It's no bother as I have the four other characters to draw anyway, so getting started on Mio after Yui is no bad deal

The resulting video tutorial should be nice and honest as you will see me struggling with the mouse and skittish emulation! Unfortunately it's the only way I can record the 'Amiga' from the start of a drawing reliably or the proportions will end up all wrong for the aforementioned reason, but I hope I can solve this soon so I can record the whole process end to end on my A600 as I far prefer it (the AlfaData mouse is much nicer to use than via emulation.)

I do know what I am doing but seeing that struggles still have to be overcome will hopefully build your own confidence

Look out for the video soon folks!

[Marle]

Part 3 is now available

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Peace!

[Peter]

I'm really enjoying your videos even though it does just remind me of how bad I am at anything on the Amiga other than Sensible Soccer (and I'm pretty average at that nowadays)

I love messing around in Dpaint - it never ceases to amaze me just what is achievable.
Your idea of creating a JPG on Amiga is very exciting - I love this style of game.

Good luck with future videos - I have subscribed and I'm looking forward to seeing more. My artwork looks very much like Tony Hancock's paintings in the film "The Rebel" but even I may be tempted to give some pixel art a go - I can understand from watching just a couple of episodes how addictive it must be. Thanks for sharing your work.

[Marle]

Originally Posted by Peter

I'm really enjoying your videos ....

Thank you so much Peter and sorry I missed your reply here, I don't get notifications and I forget to check the thread now and then! Don't worry about not being good at something, it's all about making sure you have fun doing whatever it is in life, and if you have that always with you, you will always be motivated to keep playing with things, and that is the best kind of practice to help improve you!

It is very addictive, I can't believe I have not had this part of what I loved doing in my spare time in my life for pretty much 20 years now... I was always messing around in DPaint back in my teens!

Thank you for the subscription, I just hope the videos continue to educate and entertain I know I'm not in the hilarious YouTuber camp, more of your old skool Channel 4 for Schools presenter haha.

[Marle]

I forgot to update this but here we are.

Two new videos:

Part 3 : Drawing Character Portraits:
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Part 4: Mixing Colour Palettes - how to create awesome colours
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I also have the trailer to a documentary I am working on slowly but surely in my own time:
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Et finalement!

I'm going to eventually put an episode out on drawing manga (probably before the CBM UK documentary will be finished) with an Amiga and Deluxe Paint, and possibly Comic Setter but most likely ProVector... (see attachment)

Ciao!
Vicky

[Peter]

Thanks for the update! Enjoyed the colour mixing video, looking forward to the next video but I know they take time - you should do some live Dpaint stuff with Amiga Bill on his Twitch channel but that might be a bit nerve wracking! (or is that nerve-racking?)

[Marle]

Originally Posted by Peter

Thanks for the update! Enjoyed the colour mixing video, looking forward to the next video but I know they take time - you should do some live Dpaint stuff with Amiga Bill on his Twitch channel but that might be a bit nerve wracking! (or is that nerve-racking?)

Haha, yes that would be a challenge but not impossible, as I find the recording myself for YouTube pretty nerve wracking (I think it's with a w ) - but then I have been making a point to leave my screw ups in, I by no means am perfect and I make mistakes all the time but it's learning how to correct them that counts. I refer to it in one of my videos, perhaps the one on drawing character portraits that firstly it can look a bit of a mess because it is, but also there is no harm in correcting things, if anything it shows your powers of observation to improve things are strong.

So if anything, seeing where I start with something is important for anyone who aspires to do some pixel art but doesn't see how on earth they can go from their current level to the many hundreds of speed draws they see online.

For the manga stuff, I'll be showing the whole process (over a number of frames of the manga) warts and all.

And if Amiga Bill has time for me to noodle around in DPaint I'll give it a go but I can't promise it will be great entertainment But I shan't be inviting myself on for sure!

[Marle]

A sneaky peek at the next episode which will be out in a couple of weeks or so, drawing manga pixel art on an Amiga, and creating manga comics itself using ProVector and/or Comic Setter!

[Peter]

Looking forward to the video - what's ProVector? How does it differ from Dpaint?

I might give it a play with - do you use V2.1 that was on all the coverdisks back in the day?