Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: turbowrites4gve on September 05, 2009, 01:58:09 am

Title: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 05, 2009, 01:58:09 am
Ok, I'm quite new to pixel art, not so new to character design or illustration or anything like that, but this pixel art's gettin to me... i've gotten this far with making girl sprite for my buddy's game... could use any kind of tips, advice, whatever, plz post...

(http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/59/l_dd4769edc5c34e0ca013ed4f9adf3b22.png)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Seele07 on September 05, 2009, 12:51:40 pm
Hello,

the Hair looks like Fire, is that supposed to be like that?  ???

Her left leg (the stretched out one) should be a bit shorter, i think, and her left Foot should be not like an L but only with the Toes on the Ground, but with her lower part of that Foot in the Air.

Where is her right Hand? O_o And her Left Breast looks not as it is a mirrored one of the Right One. The Left One seems to be like it is pushed a bit onto the body and her Right One looks like it hoovers a bit in the air. (bad bad english on my side here, but i hope, you get it :) )

Besides from that, she looks really good :)

Greetings,
Ingo
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 05, 2009, 07:38:08 pm
thx for the tips, always appreciated, and I definitely agree with all that so I'm gonna start workin on it... and the hair, yeah, it's supposed to look like fire... also, lol, as for the hands, haven't gotten to them yet, hands are the most frustrating for me to be honest
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 05, 2009, 07:55:16 pm
any better?

(http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/22/l_cc5ee436fc0a4b268790b6691af8cca0.gif)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: thedaemon on September 05, 2009, 08:02:32 pm
No, it looks like she has motion blur. Don't pillow shade, it's most visible on the legs. Define a light source and stick with it. Remember to shade volume not the shape of the line art.
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Seele07 on September 05, 2009, 08:29:02 pm
any better?

Besides from the Pillow Shading: Yes. It looks now like she is flirting with the Viewer  ;)  ;D .

Greetings,
Ingo

PS: Yes, hands are tough.
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Gil on September 05, 2009, 09:34:41 pm
I see no pillow shading. The term you're looking for is "banding" or "stairstep shading".

(http://www.pixel.schlet.net/img/spelunky4.png)

Instead of shading towards a light source it seems like you're just doing a gradient from left to right.

Read Helm's Knowledge Repository. Especially the part on banding:

http://www.pixel.schlet.net/#C2

Anatomy-wise I see a lack of hands, arms are too short, boobs are far too big (Right now her boobs are about 1/6th of her body height, almost the size of her skull). The right leg (HER left) seems broken.

Color-wise the skin should be fine, but there is a lack of contrast in the hair. Highs are represented, lows are lacking. There's a high saturation of the hair too, which could be fine if she's the godess of fire or similar, but if you're looking for natural redhead, you'll need to tone it down a lot.

There's a lot of potential in the pose and the anatomy is more or less right (cartoony 6 heads high though), so I say, keep working. Try to get rid of the banding first, then fix the shading towards a light source.

Good luck! :)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 05, 2009, 11:17:16 pm
any better?

Besides from the Pillow Shading: Yes. It looks now like she is flirting with the Viewer  ;)  ;D .

Greetings,
Ingo

PS: Yes, hands are tough.

ty for that, that's the look i was going for too =) now on to the shading, and other parts... just wanted to get her shape right first
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 05, 2009, 11:28:34 pm
ok, been workin on the shading... here's what i got so far, hope i'm heading in the right direction...

(http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/50/l_ee5e88fe95fa403bb51ba85870c49ab5.gif)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Seele07 on September 06, 2009, 05:33:36 am
Hey turbowrites4gve :) ,

Now it reads, like the light source is in the upper right corner :) .

Uhm, this may sound like cutting a hair into pieces, but: why are there two lighter pixels above her belly button? (on top of the darker ones)
( I'm a shading-newbie, so don't take my input too serious, okay? ;) )

Greetings,
Ingo
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Ryumaru on September 06, 2009, 06:52:24 am
Hello, I hope you don't mind- I made an edit of your sprite to pass on a few tips:
(http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9813/62436790.png)

The first thing I saw was a general disjointed look to your figure- that can be more easily seen by her shillouette. I corrected some of those issues, and also exaggerated the femininity of her pose. Thinking of this piece as a collection of color shapes as apposed to outlines and colors lets you more easily develop the forms of a figure.
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 07, 2009, 01:46:51 am
first off ty a s**t load Ryu, ur edit opened my eyes up, honestly, I was sitting here thinking (especially when it came to her legs) "how the hell am I supposed to get the shading right with only 4-5 pixels to deal with" right on dude, now if YOU don't mind, I'm gonna be using your edit for further inspiration and development... the girl has to have fiery hair (for this sprite anyway) so I threw that in, also... I had to put her left foot on the ground (can't have it in the air, it just irritates me for some reason)... how bout now?

(http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/44/l_644c4cdf92ea4aabbab6c1b82ea71937.png)

although I'm not too hot about how much shadow there is around the inside of her right elbow, but I'll be working on that... but anyway... this was just to focus on her hair using ur edit as inspiration (Ryumaru)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: turbowrites4gve on September 07, 2009, 01:53:45 am
also, not to be a nazi, but i think u mean 'opposed'

...apposed to outlines...

sorry, I'm a lil anti-incorrect spelling...
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Ryumaru on September 07, 2009, 02:27:28 am
I did mean opposed. I'm horrible without an automatic spell checker. I like the palette you gave her- but instead of taking my final image, why don't you take yours- and go through process that I did? Or even just the 4th image of mine with only 3 colors, and with your palette see how you would develop the figure. Im sure our body type preferences are different( I left the huge boobs because im lonely I guess? Or for a more artistic reason I found them not as unatural as balloons pasted onto her chest) and we being two different artists would surely develop the forms in at least slightly different manners.
I'm certainly not opposed to you using it as it was minimal effort on my part but the general consensus is that literally using an edit like mine, instead of using it as a learning tool to change your own- in such a refined stage is sometimes looked down upon in pixel communities such as this.
Title: Dolly Parton?
Post by: EvilEye on September 07, 2009, 05:51:26 am
Ah, the myth of the perky unsupported E-sized breast. Tis only a dream my friends. I've been to the end of that rainbow and there is no pot of gold :(

If there is one thing the internet is not lacking it would be pictures of naked large-sized breasts. So it's not as if you guys don't have plenty of reference :lol:

Here is something a bit more realistic:

(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w104/chris_6713/edit8684.png)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: thedaemon on September 09, 2009, 01:27:12 am
Since I was mistaken earlier, I felt I owe you a bit more. Your hair while fiery as you intend is 100% saturated. Not visually pleasing at all. Here I just adjusted the colors a bit.
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/thedaemon/l_64girlhair.png)
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Helm on September 09, 2009, 05:00:58 pm
(http://www.locustleaves.com/witch.png)(http://www.locustleaves.com/witch.gif)(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/thedaemon/l_64girlhair.png)

This needs a lot of tightening up.
* First of all, she doesn't have enough leg for her torso.
* Arms are very vague and do not suggest the forms you'd expect for forearms
* Shadows in the lower legs seem to suggest she's bending her knees, and along with the short legs this conveys a pretty uncomfortable position.
* Boobs are kinda gigantic, also have no nipples.
* Face is very ambiguous with the pixel clusters there, needs a lot of cleaning up and more symbolic representation I think
* Latest edit reached a color count that this piece so far really doesn't need.

I attempted to address a lot of the issues and I spent a lot of time making a soft palette that suits this, along with contouring the forms with shadow and light... a bit... fetishistically, so excuse that perhaps. Curves of belly, knees wrapping up, venus mound, the forms of the leg muscles, these things can still be conveyed with some grace at this size. Also clavicles, arm shape, generally, more anatomy.

Another big thing, be careful with such huge hilight areas in such a small piece, you're completely drowning your middle luminance, which is what should be used primarily to convey the flesh. At this size and in most moisture/lighting conditions, highlights should be reaching two pixel or one pixel speculars more than anything. Convey forms with softer palette entries that are subtly lighter than main skin tone, not with HUGE WHITE BLOB OF HIGHLIGHT ON LEG AND BOOB, if you catch my meaning.

Hope I helped.
Title: Re: (WIP) Help with girl sprite
Post by: Arachne on September 09, 2009, 10:15:05 pm
(http://www.locustleaves.com/witch.png)

I approve of these colors. ;D

(http://www.retinaleclipse.com/womanedite.gif)(http://www.retinaleclipse.com/womaneditf.gif)

I wanted to try a slightly different take on it, since I thought the head of your edit would better match someone more ordinary. Then I tried a different style, and I think it made a lot of difference. I don't think the nearest arm quite fits the pose, though.

Of course, I don't know what sort of character she is or what sort of game it's going to be, but I'm assuming it's not going to be terribly realistic. It would be interesting to know, though. :)