It isn't perfect, but <3.

Design is a bit plain, but at least it's easy to recognize. AA could be better...
It has a pretty low contrast.

Colors are great! :3


EDIT: on closer examination the balloon itself has a lot of pixel noise.

You and your compulsive antialiasing MLC. My only irk is the wing at the back doesn't taper towards the rear, making it look a little blocky.

That's how I want it, like the a bit messy style.
The middle of the metal block thing is a bit bland, but ye, didn't really know what to put there :3

Whenever I see your pixel art I get a deep urge to furiously code it to life. I even got a mockup running with the jupitrons.

Eh, I don't really like the messy style. Perhaps it's just personal preference.

As it turns out, the low contrast was a major problem. Your image really dark colors, especially considering that the balloon should be casting a shadow on the ship. Working on a bright background, such as white, makes it harder to tell when you're making mistakes like this! Try to work on an even toned background at all times!
The windows are way too bright in my opinion.
The whole thing doesn't look like it's casting a shadow on itself, and it looks like a toy because of that. Larger objects, even when zoomed out, tend to cast larger shadows.
Some of the AA is messed up.
The balloon didn't look like it was inflated, or at least, it wasn't puffy. (Personal preference)

You want darker sections and lighter sections on your image, so it's easier to discern shapes and forms. If you'll notice, I added in sections of darker metals onto the ship to give it more "readability".



It's actually difficult to tell that I changed many colors on the ship. Well, I did. I made almost every color on the ship one step darker.
That's how much working on a bright/dark backgrounds distorts your view of the colors.

Honestly, I think both of those sprites are equally good, but in different styles. Lizard has a style that looks sharper and dirtier, since his army (as far as I can tell) is steampunk-esque. On the other hand, your style is rounder and cleaner, MLC. Lizard's gives a feel of being more patched together from cloth and metal, and yours looks like something that was produced in a factory somewhere. Really this falls down to a matter of style.

Nevermind the style, Lizard's Airship still has contrast and AA issues.


Here's Lizard's Airship on a medium colored background.

Against your background, it has contrast issues, because he designed it against a white background. I'm not arguing that. What I'm not seeing is anti-aliasing issues - I'm seeing a style that doesn't use nearly as much anti-aliasing as you do, because your shapes are rounder and smoother, whereas his are sharper and dirtier.

MLC, why are your windows made of metal?

Because they're grey, and are in a shadow. :V


TLB, what I argue is that you just can't tell that it has contrast issues when it's on a white background. That doesn't mean they aren't there.




As far as AA, I see it as a way to create subpixels of sorts, to let colors share a pixel by compromising their values. Basically, I see it as a way of artificially increasing your resolution.
While I understand that having lower resolutions can be a style, that doesn't mean that higher resolutions are associated with rounder shapes. Lizard could use AA to make the lines on his ship more continuous, since our goal with pixel art is usually to show shapes and forms rather than the little square boxes we call pixels.

Anti-aliasing is usually smoothing out edge lines of a sprite, so what you're defining as AA is entirely different than what I thought you were talking about. I still stand by what I said, though - the lines across the ship and around the outside of the ship look more angular and less clean (in the most literal sense) because of the way he uses aliasing. Because of that, the ship looks lower-tech, which is something that, as far as I know, he's trying to accomplish.

Yes, it is usually defined that way, and that's because you're letting the outline and the colors around the outline share pixels, and letting them have different percentages of the pixels. The end effect of that is smoother outlines/art.
Smoother lines in a sprite is the effect of AA, and what I'm talking about is the cause.

Basically, I'm saying running is the act of moving your legs quickly, and you're saying running is moving over land at high speeds. We're both right.
Where you're wrong is where you say that I'm not talking about running, but something else entirely.


The thing is, his outlines and the lines on the balloon have banding and bad AA around the top and bottom. (PS: I recommend that everyone reads that whole thread, it's brilliant.)

I'm going to be blunt here, and there is no offense intended, but I wouldn't call bad artistic habits a style.

(Also, why is cleaner technically more modern? If I take a stone and wash it does that make it look modern? If I take my computer and coat it in mud, does that make it seem lower-tech? By your logic, a car is extremely low-tech because it's filled with oils, gases, and greases.)

Great looking balloon ship, and I do like that edit, the light source seems much stronger and the shading on the underside of the balloon is better, it has Metal Slug feel to it now. I believe it could use some weak highlights on certain parts to give them a bit more pop and to emphasize the metal.

I like both. Lizard's style has a lot more texture and has a little bit more character IMO. On the other hand MLC's is very clean and very technical.

Also TLB, If he really wanted to make it seem more steampunk-y (lower tech), he shouldn't make the BALLOON 'dirty', he should make the metal rusty... he even has all of the colors he needs to do it.
Like so:



(In hindsight, I get all riled up when (I feel like) someone says I'm wrong. Maybe I should work on that. :< )