Thanks for your help so far, everyone. Already this would have turned out completely different without it. I'm sorry I didn't respond before now, it's been a difficult week so far, and I wanted to show some progress first. And here it is.
Then make him yellow, or add yellow. People will instantly understand.
I don't get it. Lightning isn't yellow, it's blue or purple. He's already got a blue aura, I'm not sure how much more of his own light he could have. Letting him have his own glow would make him much harder to program, wouldn't it? Varying the outline did him good anyway. I think most of the problems people have with how he looks will go away once he's animated. I'm going to stop worrying about him. He's now a boss (maybe a mid boss, haven't decided), which is why he's not in the shot anymore. Instead I have his little friend.
Akira: I wondered if someone was going to point out the black outlines. I probably won't take out all of them, but I'm in the process of toning it down.
For top I am mean (sorry for my english) - just some up him
I still don't get it. I'm sorry. And don't apologize for your english, you're trying, and you're much better than I am at any other language besides english. If I didn't fix it in this version, could you point it out in an edit?
The top of the screen with the columns just looks REALLY strange IMO, I haven't actually seen any architecture like it...in a sewer? I don't know what to say about it, but I would just ditch it.
Who said it was a sewer? I was going more for an underground aqueduct look.
Yeah, it's a sewer. I'm sure I've seen something similar to it in movies or something. I'm not sure what else I would do with the top if not the arches. It goes with the architecture of the rest of the building.
The floor tiles desolve into black far too quickly to be of any interest as well.
And here I thought the fade made it more interesting.
Having it tile all the way off the screen looked boring to me, and I faded the large stone so it would work better with the black. As for beneath the water area, having it the lighter color made it really stand out in a bad way. This way it matches the lighting of the rest of the floor. If you have any suggestions on what to do instead, I'd be happy to try them.
The background bricks need some type of texture. Bricks aren't merely some type of plastic looking material- All shiny and perfect- No. Bricks form cracks and break into pieces after many many years giving them character, making them interesting to look at. Try adding some strains to the bricks and various imperfections.
The layout of the bricks is stale as well, it looks very heavily tiled, you need to make it so one cannot tell if it's beginning or ending.
I will be doing more with the bricks in the background. I'm just going to have to be careful about how I rough it up. What I had before was much to busy, and I don't want to make the same mistake again. I'll do a few variations on the lighter brick shapes to make it less obviously tiled. (This thing is going to be so many tiles!)
the BG has too much contrast, and the character not enough. swap value ranges to get insteant better results, then tweek from there
Wow, that really did it! I'm still need to tweak it, but it looks 100% better. Thank you.
Ben2theEdge: I really need to address the lighting issue. I'll try to have it figured out by the next update. I'll keep your advice in mind. You're right, it could make for an interesting place.