Creatures

[Blick]

Alex Marsh created the lineart, but then took it down and I accidentally saved over it. Cleaning of the lines and coloring by me, of course.

The original lines were actually a mockup sort of scene for what looked to be a fighting game, or an RPG of some sort, so I may add more to this like stat bars and a background etc. I'm not too satisfied with some of the colors (especially on the half-skull creature's body) and the form of the end projectile irks me. Critique is always good to see. And comments are nice too.

Shit. It's midnight.

[BlackEye]

the water/attack thingie looks really perfect to me. excellent shading and highlights.
it's somehow the eyecatcher of the image and because of this the whole dithering on the creatures looks off. especially the dithered blue color on the pig doesn't fit - i guess  it will without dithering...
the skull creature looks to flat shaded. it needs some more depth
i think if you shade everything like the attack effect, it will be perfect

[Chris]

I rarely have time nowadays with lawschool and all....but today browsing i found this, and it deserved some praise.

Awsome job little ones, im saving this one.

-Krut

[Alex]

and you said a collab would be boring....i love the colours, thanks for doing my lines boy. <3

[Darion]

This is so fucking hard. I want to see TONS of these. Get going, you too!

Beautiful job.

[Alex]

This is so fucking hard. I want to see TONS of these. Get going, you too!

Beautiful job.

I KNOW RIGHT!!!



original lines if people were interested.

[Lick]

suggestion: make the blue light come from the water instead? Perhaps cool, perhaps not.

[Matriax]

i like the image, and like very much the effect of the water(and good colors)

i think removing the dithering and with more detail the quality of the image can increase... but well i think is your style 

[sonic_reaper]

The color choices are excellent and the pig creature itself is well crafted.  However, the other creature does not work at all -- it looks disjointed.  The leaves just seem to however on its back not really connected any which way and the water more or less sprays out of nowhere (same applies to the skull and the backpack -- none of this stuff fits together believably).  It's nice and pretty and all, but the composition on the Rhino creature makes no sense.

[neverest]

I'm inclined to kind of disagree, while the leaf wings could blend into the body to make it a little less disjointed, I really love the look of the creature to the right and I think in its case not too much depth/contrast works.
I think the problem is that it doesnt slot easily into the composition as a whole, mainly because the missile trail has a much higher contrast than anything else.
I think its just a case of despite everything looking lovely individually, something has to change for all the elements to cohere.

[sonic_reaper]

I'm inclined to kind of disagree, while the leaf wings could blend into the body to make it a little less disjointed, I really love the look of the creature to the right and I think in its case not too much depth/contrast works.
I think the problem is that it doesnt slot easily into the composition as a whole, mainly because the missile trail has a much higher contrast than anything else.
I think its just a case of despite everything looking lovely individually, something has to change for all the elements to cohere.

The contrast seems to be part of it, yes.  If you look at the Skull/head, it looks like an entirely separate being on another plane w/ regards to the body.  Same thing applies to the wings.  Because the body is so dark, everything sticks out, as if they were pasted onto the body forcefully.

[Faktablad]

I tried an edit of the skull creature.  I'd like to see less dithering, it gives unneeded textures.  In the edit, I added another color to the body pallette; A dark blue-purple to make it more 3D and cement it to the canvas a bit.

[Alex]

skull creature is actually called toothfairy, and the pig thing is called ratfuck.

[Blick]

I knew the disconnected leaves was a weak choice when I started doing it. I just couldn't think of any other way to do it. Leaves don't really connect into anything without using a stem and I definitely don't want a stem, so I thought about putting a bud in the middle and having the leaves wrap under it, but the whole bud shooting water might look strange especially because the longer I work on it the less luck I have.

As for the dithering, I just wanted to conserve colors and wanted a smooth transition in places, especially on the skull. The blue on the pig was an afterthought that can easily be changed, but the creature on the right is just not coming out how I'd like.

I rarely have time nowadays with lawschool and al

Holy crap, Krut is going to be The Man.

Anyway, I'll try making another version sometime hopefully addressing the leaves and dithering which a lot of people are noticing.

[Blick]

Progress or setback?

[Ryumaru]

i definitaly think it blends much better.

[Kennethfejer]

really cool!
character design, colors, shading, everything looks great.

i think i like the black outline version better though.

yea like Darion mentioned, lets see some more of these!

[Miguel]

Thats awesome, i really love those fucking colors you used on your palette, freaking awesome guys.
Top notch stuff alex, very nice lineart, it might take an spin if you 2 let me do it, of course

Now I wonder if you ever will finish our collab, now that you find them boring.. its been like.. hmm 5 months?

[Alex]

Thats awesome, i really love those fucking colors you used on your palette, freaking awesome guys.
Top notch stuff alex, very nice lineart, it might take an spin if you 2 let me do it, of course

Now I wonder if you ever will finish our collab, now that you find them boring.. its been like.. hmm 5 months?

thanks for the compliment. sure you can take a stab at the lines if you want, David is already toying with them a little too.

[Darion]

I think the removal of the outline took the enthusiasm away from the beam shooting from his back. It also makes the pig look of a completly different origin (its cool that way, but i'm sure it wasn't intentional). I like the last one better.

[SplatPixel]

damn, those look really good. is that a lil pink backpack? make me feel like drawin up a lil creature of my own. thats looks like it would be a tight fighting game. great work man.

[Blick]

i think i like the black outline version better though.

I think the removal of the outline took the enthusiasm away from the beam shooting from his back.

Yeah, a lot of people had a problem with the black outline and I really don't know why, I'm considering putting it back. It's just finding the motivation to backtrack. I also miss the pig's blue ambience. Mainly because I don't like that huge shadow and I don't want to extend the midtone into it anymore than it already is.

[God Slayer]

A cool competition: Monster fights. Design your own monster, explain its moves and stuff, and pixel it. Extra points for attack animations!

[Alex]

A cool competition: Monster fights. Design your own monster, explain its moves and stuff, and pixel it. Extra points for attack animations!

nah.

[Xion]

Yes, outlines were better.
I'm lovin' these designs. For the big emptiness on the pigbeing, maybe you could add some wrinkles of fat or something. Some kind of large detail so as not to make it look blank nor cluttered.

I'd love to see these with a background/mockup.

[Alex]

the pigbeing is called "ratfuck!" yes, with the exclamation mark.

[Xion]

Sorry, I don't cuss, even in proper nouns.

[Blick]

Background so far. That tree is going to be a bitch to make. Right now it's just a place filler while I figure out how to make a tree.


And if you're curious, this is how the creatures look on it:

[sonic_reaper]

Hm, they blend well enough.  Masterful color choice once again. The shadows are going to need to be much larger.  Also, the trunk to leaf ratio on the tree is a bit off.  Add more leaves, make it larger and flufflier.  Also, I noticed the tree is casting a shadow on the ground.  Play with that.  Add a silhouette in the shape of the leaves.  I feel this would add a lot of great atmosphere to the piece.

[joshastorian]

That's unreal, man. The rendering and the colors are fantastic.

I normally only reply to an artist's post if they exceed my expectations with flying colors. With this, I believe you have.

The background is coming along nicely. The colors of the sprites mix well with it.

[Blick]

I'm almost done with the foreground grass. I've been trying to work on it from as short as a couple seconds to ten minutes at a time so I won't get burnt out on it. So far it's working.

Wow, nearly every artist I've ever looked up to has replied in here =X I appreciate it, guys.

[Naso]

Very nice, love the background, but it looks a little weird to be because the lighting for the monsters is coming at a South West angle, but the background shading is coming at a south east angle, but other then that, its super good

[Blick]

I've had to explain the background shading being contradictory to the foreground shading to so many people that I'm just going to quote what I said in the other places.

I'm treating this like a real game. The creatures light sources actually oppose each others. Top and in front for the characters, just like in real fighting games (from what I've seen). I'm not going for an actual scene here, I'm going for something that looks like a commercial project, and with that I have to sacrifice some realism.

Oh god I still have to do the rocks, individual leaves and then tweak whatever there is to tweak. You had better buy me a hooker or something for this, Alex.