ID:194747
 
A little something I whipped up last night for a project.
Photobucket
Reminds me of Diablo II's orbs, not bad but more could be added.
Try cleaning up the jaggy lines.
In response to Jordan11
I still have to Anti-Alias, but this is the finished product other than that.
In response to UPD4T3
I tried adding more, but it eventually just got looking way too cluttered.
In response to F0lak
F0lak wrote:
I tried adding more, but it eventually just got looking way too cluttered.

You want people to notice the orb more than the sword; HP is probably one of the more important factors of a game.
I'd add more contrast for that as well as lowering the noise, smooth out the sword a bit more.
In response to UPD4T3
Here's the finished product, with anti-aliasing, some shading under the bubble, and a bit more colour in the bubble.
Before/After
PhotobucketPhotobucket
In response to F0lak
F0lak wrote:
Here's the finished product, with anti-aliasing, some shading under the bubble, and a bit more colour in the bubble.
Before/After
PhotobucketPhotobucket

The orb looks really messy..
In response to UPD4T3
It's supposed to. I was going for an old stone kind of look.
In response to F0lak
I'm no professional pixel artist but let me share a few things I have learned. Yeah, you posted in the showroom, but I'm critiquing you anyway. First, don't pixel on a white background, it bothers your perception of other colors. I tend to use some desaturated grey-brown color. Another interesting point is that you should never use black, it's boring, and other colors generally convey the message much better. This also lends to your AA, if you must use dark outlines don't AA on the outside of the figure, you won't always have the same background behind it.

<font size="1">(see what I mean?)</font>

You introduced some nasty banding in the life orb in your update...

I would like to touch on jaggies too, but I'm split on whether you left a lot of it in because this was stone.

Your current approach seems to be putting too much emphasis on the grainy texture of stone and not enough on the facets and blocky nature of carved stone. Look up some reference images.
Here are some ancient Korean swords
The second to last image on this page, while grainy, is centered on some awesome evil looking stone chopping weapon.

I've done an edit addressing some of what I've mentioned:
Yours | Mine


Most of my attention went to the blade and crossguard, I thought about doing some fun stuff with the stone around the health orb and handle but I got sorta bored.
In response to Vermolius
Vermolius wrote:
I'm no professional pixel artist but let me share a few things I have learned. Yeah, you posted in the showroom, but I'm critiquing you anyway. First, don't pixel on a white background, it bothers your perception of other colors. I tend to use some desaturated grey-brown color. Another interesting point is that you should never use black, it's boring, and other colors generally convey the message much better. This also lends to your AA, if you must use dark outlines don't AA on the outside of the figure, you won't always have the same background behind it.

<font size="1">(see what I mean?)</font>

You introduced some nasty banding in the life orb in your update...

I would like to touch on jaggies too, but I'm split on whether you left a lot of it in because this was stone.

Your current approach seems to be putting too much emphasis on the grainy texture of stone and not enough on the facets and blocky nature of carved stone. Look up some reference images.
Here are some ancient Korean swords
The second to last image on this page, while grainy, is centered on some awesome evil looking stone chopping weapon.

I've done an edit addressing some of what I've mentioned:
Yours | Mine


Most of my attention went to the blade and crossguard, I thought about doing some fun stuff with the stone around the health orb and handle but I got sorta bored.


It still looks boring; there are WAY too many shades and there needs to be more contrast between the shades.
In response to UPD4T3
UPD4T3 wrote:
It still looks boring; there are WAY too many shades and there needs to be more contrast between the shades.

Indeed, it is still quite boring. I didn't bother changing his colors around either--I think maybe one. Even still, I don't really agree on the number of colors so much as I do the lack of contrast. I worked on the things I mentioned in my post.
In response to Vermolius
Probably should've quoted F0lack, but yeah. Work on contrast, kill some unneeded shades, and we'll see from there.