Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Luzeke on January 25, 2007, 05:01:24 pm
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This boss was supposed to be a fusion between a hippo and a dragon. The boss would have a lack of self-confidence since he was bullied for not being a real dragon, though he claims to be a fullblood dragon. His catchphrase "I am TOO a dragon!"
The sketch:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/boss_sketch.gif)
Lines for the sprite version:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hippodrakus.gif)
The head looks more crocodile-ish than I intended. But that's allright :P
It's all done by mouse.
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The sketch one is pretty cool. I'd work on progressing that over the sprite version (unless there's a size restriction or something) as it's not thaaat much bigger, and came out a lot cooler so far. :y:
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He seems to have lost some of his chub in the sprite version - it looks almost like he got stretched a little bit horizontally when you shrank him to sprite size. What I miss most, though, is some of the nice shapes that you had in the head in the sketch version. The right ear sticking up, the strong jawline, the horn on the end of the nose, they're all absent from the sprite. His head looks more cowlike and less rhino-like in the sprite. The right arm in the sprite also looks a little wonky, but looks fine in the sketch.
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The tail looks way too stiff. If you're gonna animate him I think you should either shorten the tail to a stub, or cut it all together. It will only lead to further problems.
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I'd personally loose the tail and wings, or with the wings have em in an inactive position aposed to fully extended, as if this guy could take flight anyway.
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as if this guy could take flight anyway.
I think technically his wingspan would have to be about 4 - 6 times his body width. I'd suggest ditching the wings too.
I like the tail though. It needs to thin gradually, it looks the same width right up until the end.
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THe wings should stay but I think they should be a lot smaller. He looks to dragonish for a dragon that is supposed to be riduculed for not being a reall dragon. As for the tail, I agree with Sherman. You might want to shorten it or cut off all together; I say cut it of. But ofcourse, it your work and only my opinion - others like it and I do too.
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A talking hippo/dragon doesn't really need to confine itself to the laws of physics. I say let 'im fly. If anything, make the wings smaller so it's more comical.
But I do agree that the fully extended tail is a bit much.
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Thanks for all your comments so far! ;D
I've started adding some test colors. I also changed the head, fixed his tail (I wanted it to be kindah long, but it got a little too long i guess ^^). With colors, what I was going for with his tail might be a little clearer. It has a fin... thing.
I'll see what I can do with the wings, I'll scrap the current ones and add smaller more cartoony wings instead. Added blood on his fangs, no particular reason. I just messed around a little.
He won't be able to fly, but in true video-game manner they help him to jump higher ;)
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/HippoDrakusCollah.gif)
EDIT// I was meaning to do show this as well.
Although the two versions are similar in size I felt that this was a little to big a difference.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/comparisson.gif)
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Thanks for all your comments so far! ;D
I've started adding some test colors. I also changed the head, fixed his tail (I wanted it to be kindah long, but it got a little too long i guess ^^). With colors, what I was going for with his tail might be a little clearer. It has a fin... thing.
I'll see what I can do with the wings, I'll scrap the current ones and add smaller more cartoony wings instead. Added blood on his fangs, no particular reason. I just messed around a little.
He won't be able to fly, but in true video-game manner they help him to jump higher ;)
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/HippoDrakusCollah.gif)
EDIT// I was meaning to do show this as well.
Although the two versions are similar in size I felt that this was a little to big a difference.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/comparisson.gif)
hmmm his tail seems..upside down..I would expect the greenish area to be the "bottom" of the tail..
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I see what you mean, and when I look at it that way it looks really weird.
Not the effect I was going for. :huh:
EDIT// Quickfix!
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/HippoDrakusCollahhopefullybetter.gif)
or does it still look like the tail is upside down?
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yes. technically that green side of the tail should be on the bottom, and it connects to the lighter parts of the stomach area. (which should be a consistent color.)
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The green "thingy" is supposed to be a variant of a fin (therefore the color isn't that of the chest area). I'll try one more time to get this to look right, if it still looks wrong I'll scrap the whole tail and make a new one.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/ITS_A_FIN.gif)
To further illustrate the point I added the chest area colors to the tails underside.
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on a crocodile the underside goes from the bottom of the jaw, down the neck, down the chest and stomach area, then between the legs and down to the bottom of the tail, but it's all on the underside of the creature.
here's an example:
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b177/stwelin/belly_example.gif)
You have to think of it this way: where on his body would the ground touch if he were laying on his stomach?
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I think I understand you are trying have a fin like trail down his tail...if it goes up his back maybe it would help to make the fin more pronounced that way it would be easier to tell it was a fin and not look like an underside
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:huh:...
OH! i get it now. the green part on the tail is like the fin on a stegosaurus! in that case, the tail is reaaaalllly thin. I think it would clear up some of the confusion if you made the tail a little thicker and then seperated the fin extension so it doesn't look like webbing, it looks too much like the segmented underside of a croc.
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Thank you Cryssy. Tore of his wings and messed around a little, adding fins on his back. I made the fins "stems" thicker.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/HippoDrakusWithoutWings.gif)
Reference pic from the Draconomicon (love that book) on my original idea about the fins.
Here the tail is thicker than the fin though. I sorta went the other way
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/LOOK_FINS.jpg)
:)
I'll probably redo the tail anyways. But that'll have to wait for tomorrow, I'm sleepy.
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I think what you need to do to convey the fins being fins more is to have the 'skin' between the fins sag/curve more right now they're straight as can be which leads our mind to see
them as the outline of the tail rather then where the blue ends
furthermore, the angle at which the tail currently is would mean that it's almost at a 90 degree angle to the body which is near impossible
have it go straight out then curve lazily to the side.
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It looks flat.
Add more contrast.
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I added another shade on blue. Now there's 5 shades of blue in the pic. But since he primarily consists of blue I don't think it's a big issue.
I'll fiddle around with the contrast a bit, thought I haven't in this pic (except the added shade).
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/HipDra.gif)
I'd like some thoughts about the arms, more precisely the wrists. There's a lack of detail around there which I don't like, but I am seemingly unable to add stuff there without it getting clogged instead of detailed.
A friend also commented on the arms looking a little bubbly, like the muscles are to short. She thinks the placement looks good, but they look too short. What do you guys think?
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I agree I would elongate the muscles by 1 or 2 pixels
As for the emptiness on the arms why not like shackles, that would make him a little more imposing that he broke out of his constraints
bah I am no good for ideas sorry
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hey
I think the shading/lighting looks very pillowy, and lacks depth. Hmm, to me the light source looks to be directly from the front, which I think is a bad idea. I think it will add alot more depth and such if you make the light source from above.
edit
(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2921/hipdrayosh64pm6.gif)
Well I kinda done a quick edit, still in very early stages. Regarding my edit, the lines need alot of work, so to alot of the shading/lighting, and I changed his left arm, it looked very odd how it was to me. I'm not sure if I will complete the edit or not.
Ohh, and I think you should concerntrate more on lighting/shading, and less on detail. I think that you should maybe even erase some of your detail, as so you can more clearly see the core shape for the lighting. Hmm, I think you shouldn't even start, nor think about adding detail without first understanding the lighting. I dunno, just a thought.
cya
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Awesome design! I love it.
My suggestion in edit:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/HipDra.gif)(http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/4299/hipdraeditjo5.gif)
Your -> mine.
A bit more contrast and more aa for soften look. I added one green colour and remove one red. I edited only his head and torso, because I'm lazy. ;)
Sorry for my english. I hope you understand this post.
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to be honest, i sort of think it looks better without the tail, looks more like the sketch now ::)
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imo as well I think no tail or wings would suit just fine but since I have a tail fetish I couldn't help myself and I played around
(http://imagehost.ensellitis.com/imagesv2/7355198722play.gif)
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What're you all talking about? Of course he needs his wings! I like tails as well, but I wouldn't mind ditching that. Because, without the tail and with the wings, it reminds me a LOT of Wonderboy III (The Dragon's Trap). That game had some really good, really ugly semi-dragon monsters. I'd just make the wings stretch out a lot less and make them much smaller. Like, disproportionally small, so he'd never even think about using them to attempt flight, but they're still there to make him look all scary.
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The wings were supposed to be there from the start, I just messed up with the sketch and saved over the big one that was 'finished', so the wings stay. :)
I've messed around futher with the colors/contrast, added new wings and a new tail. I've ditched the fin idea. The coloring will probably be redone later on to be more from the above (read Skullkrakens tutorial about it a few days ago). Also added sweatbands on his wrist, just to test it.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/Hippodra__.gif)
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If you want the bands around the arms make them spiked so he looks like a real badass. I like the linework for this piece, i think that tail doesnt quite look right and that the colour is a bit off in places i will hopefully find time to make an edit, but this is definately looking good.
***edit***
This is the way i would have gone about colouring the Hippodrakus, I redid all the brown areas, and added to the green parts. Ignoring the colouring being brown (thats a palette i had at hand) I think this edit can give some insight into how you could rework the colours. Personally im not a fan of the colouring style seen in your mockup. The left (our right) arm was altered as it is a tad too long. The points behind the colouring i was hoping to bring up are that it can appear a lot cleaner with better colour choice and restriction of colour, this uses 12 colours plus transperancy. Also if you want you can fit in a lot more detail into your piece, as can be seen with the face,etc.
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3937/hipodrakussa6.gif)
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Personally i would have kept the tail long, and had the fin rise up his back, splitting into two at the top. I think it would be more original and less "oh, it's another monster with tiny wings". Tbh i don't think that idea fits with the game mockups i've seen so far. He needs less lines showing muscle and form, and more shadows and highlights, check out yosh's edit.
Nice work though. :y:
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hey
more edits, two new edits, and reduced colors
(http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/659/hipdrayosh645gx3.gif) (http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/1608/hipdrayosh645dq6.gif) (http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/69/hipdrayosh6452gr0.gif)
Well I decided to further do my edit, as my original didn't seem to be enough to get my point across. Again, I think it really lacks lighting and depth. Although I think it did lack some contrast, this isn't the problem. I advise you to use a light source from above, and to try and vision how the light reflects off him, and not worry about the tail or whatever else until you fix the lighting :).
I also found that your lines were quite jagged, and needed some cleaning up. I must say that I think he is well designed, and the lines are quite well placed. I think it's is very important to clean your lines up before you start to add any AA and such. Ohh, I also thought the perspective of the top of his right leg was a bit off.
Finally, I don't seem to like the wrist bands. Hmm, they seem to me more like a way to hide his odd left wrist or whatever, I dunno :\.
Anyhows, I hope this helps.
cyas