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Messages - fskn
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81
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [C+C]
« on: May 14, 2021, 10:43:48 am »
Although the smallest portrait now stands out from the others on account of hair brightness.  :lala:
Yeah, that has been bothering me. :lol:

When you have time, I'd love to hear more about what you're planning for the game. Unless it's kind of secret and will be revealed in dramatic fashion. Is there a particular type of game you're emulating, like Golden Axe, or is this something different?
It's nothing big or earth-shattering. I intend it to be a simple combat focused side scrolling platformer, kind of like Zelda 2 (just without the overworld stuff), or Castlevania, or Rastan. So you'd go around different places fighting different types of enemies and then bosses. Enemies that would throw/hurl/shoot stuff at you, and some that would fight you on melee, warlocks and maybe evil spirits as well. But I'm not sure on the scope yet. I don't think our barbarian guy will get items that would help him traverse the environment, or any spells, but he may get some power-ups and ranged weapons.

Simple-ish stuff.

82
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [C+C]
« on: May 14, 2021, 12:58:31 am »
What the-- I tried that and wasn't happy, but now you did it and I *am* happy with the result! Haha!

Yeah, stray pixels... I still use them sometimes but they can look completely disconnected from everything else and just seem to be floating there. Good edit, I'll incorporate that. Thanks, cels!

The 32px portrait is actually Seinruhe's, I just added like 5 pixels to it to change the chin from a butt to... a different kind of butt. xD
I still have to work on that hair.

---

EDIT:

Eh, I think this is going to be it for portraits.
I tried a bunch of configurations for his hair, but ultimately I think that having a single dark color works better than adding brighter "strands" or highlights. Though that first one I did looked nice..... Gah, I don't know. I'll leave at that for now.



Do they look like completely different characters? Yes.
Why? Yes.

Sh*t, maybe I need to work more on the 24x24. Damn my OCD!

---

Okay, now we're done. :P


83
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [C+C]
« on: May 13, 2021, 08:37:11 pm »
Phew! OK, so for the 16x16 version, this is what I ended up with. For now, anyways.
Man, doing these small portraits is TOUGH. I had to change the position of the light, otherwise it simply wouldn't work.



Yeah, I know he looks old. But I'm sorta happy it bears a certain Frazetta-ish resemblance.

84
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [C+C]
« on: May 13, 2021, 05:19:46 pm »
Thanks for the edits, guys.

One thing I'm trying to avoid with the hair, especially (and failing so far), is to have things that are too regular. Repetition, basically. So later today (hopefully) I'll rework the hair to see if I can keep the overall silhouette yet make the locks of hair more uneven... Maybe two on one side, and three on the other...

I *think* I'm going to try to keep it dark, though, with just a bit of a sheen as to better match those few pixels on the Player sprite yet still trying to give it some illusion of volume.

On that super sexy and smooth chin butt, I think I could even do the, um, cut shaped like a "T" such as:


Dunno if I'm going to keep it. But it's cool, I'm considering it. I'll let that idea ferment some more.

@cels, I think I could even remove those few reddish-brown pixels on his cheeks... Maybe keep a couple near the eyes... Decisions, decisions.
But that looks cleaner.

Yeah, the ... how am I going to call those? The black shadow lines underneath his cheeks on the 16px version look too deep, and he's looking too old. I'll try to make his face smoother. I did that super frickin' quick as I realized games such as Castlevania 3 use 16px wide (actually 16x24px, just checked) portraits, though there they do serve a very specific purpose there, that I don't have here. Mine so far is just for decoration.

Though I could use the bigger one for the Start screen if not for dialogue... Hmm...

Anyways, thanks again for the edits and words of encouragement!

85
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [C+C]
« on: May 13, 2021, 03:27:44 am »
My pixel goodness Fskn, he looks really dangerous, why would he need a sword if he has that face to scare enemies? I would cross the street and change sidewalks just to avoid passing near him. If that's the idea you nailed it, otherwise maybe tone down a bit some expression lines? Besides personal preferences I would work a bit on the readability of the bangs, he looks kinda bald on the middle of the head.

He has the face of someone that would want to crush his enemies. :lala:

Hmm... I know I pushed on the comic-bookiness of it in the 32px version (in regards to expression lines). But I'm not seeing the baldness right now. I'll have to give another look at him tomorrow.

I might need to make his nose thicker...

---

...yeah, maybe something like this:


86
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [C+C]
« on: May 13, 2021, 12:57:25 am »
Character portrait (WIP)



Not sure yet if it's going to stay at the top of the screen at all times, like:



...or if it's going to be used for dialogues... Maybe it's too big to stay up there and I need to make a 16x16px version...

---

Darker hair...


16px version:


It kinda looks like he has a beard, though.

EDIT: 24px...



Lighter skintone, mebbe?

87
Pixel Art / Re: Some characters
« on: May 11, 2021, 11:17:37 pm »
Thanks for the crits, fskn!
Glad to be of help.

- Your edit of the archer's hand was absolutely Michelangelo's Adam level pixel art. Really amazing and I tried to recreate it without copying it.
Damn, son, that's one hell of a compliment.  :-[
Thanks.

Good point about holding the longbow, I realize that I should have been looking at how archers in real life fire their bows instead of simply looking at that statue. And I do like the look of the partially transparent bow string but I'm not sure it fits with the style. On the other hand, maybe it looks daft to have no string. I'll have to think about this. I also looked at a lot of slow motion video of longbows (and recurve bows) and I didn't see any examples of super dynamic bow strings upon release. I think your version looks good and intuitive but I'm not sure I want to exaggerate that much. Choices, choices. I also updated the bow quiver. Nice detail of having one grounded arrow not totally vertical.
Yeah, maybe the string doesn't work as well as I thought. But it's cool to give it some action. You could try adding a smear there, perhaps. Like, blurring the bow string, maybe the bow itself too... I don't know.

By the way I have to correct myself now that I took a couple seconds more to think about how arrows are shot (recalling when I did that some years ago). In modern days, the arrow goes on the opposite side of the bow, sitting on top of the bone of the hand that comes before (and connects to) the index finger.
In the middle ages that may have been different... There are medieval illustrations that show the arrow going over the thumb. But medieval artists aren't exactly known for accuracy, so...

Anyways, I worked on the buff dude mason some more because of his left arm.

I thought it looked a bit too patchy with the dark/reddish brown at the bottom of the biceps and especially in the lower arm, so I tried to connect the clusters, and ended up rotating his arm a little. I also felt that that soft part of the thumb should receive some highlighting...
The grey you introduced as part of the shading on the skin helped soften some parts, though I may have gone overboard again...



Doing that debuffed him a bit, so I gave him more definition here and there...

(I should be working on my stuff, but working on yours is so damn fun. :P )

---

Hm, maybe that biceps could be a bit thicker like you did before...



Eh. Now I think at least your shoulders look better. :shrugs:

---

Final edit, I promise*


(* for now, anyway.)

88
Pixel Art / Re: Some characters
« on: May 10, 2021, 05:00:12 pm »
Thanks, man. While I was writing (and drawing) that I had the passing thought that I was sounding too pedantic and, I mean, I want to help and learn a bit too as I try to do that.

As for learning anatomy... For me yours seem pretty good already (and I don't claim to be a know-it-all, it's just what I know best), but if you want to dive deeper, I'd say to follow Proko's figure drawing course. The free version has a lot already, but the paid version has some extra stuff which seems useful.
A couple books that have helped me in different ways are Michael Hampton's "Figure Drawing: Design and Invention" and Frederic Delavier's "Strength Training Anatomy." The first one helps you in simplifying the human form to understand the dimensionality of ...everything and how to draw it without a model. The second one is aimed at bodybuilders, but it's a good reference for the anatomy of the muscles and bones. Especially if you like to draw buff dudes. :P
The 3D models will help you where the 2D drawings inside of those books won't.

I would recommend dedicating some time every day or every week to study anatomy, yes. The more you do, the more you'll improve, but it does take time. It *may* be tough in the beginning too, but if you have a good foundation in drawing simple shapes (boxes, balls, cylinders, pyramids, cones), once you learn about landmarks, the overall shapes of the muscles and their origins and insertions it gets much easier. Less guesswork, and things starts making sense. I don't know how much of it is applicable to pixel art, but it does help guide my drawings...

Alright, so, let's see what you brought today, shall we?

First off, you seem to put a lot of time and dedication on it, which is great!

Not sure if I said this before, but just in case I didn't: I like that you're getting references for the poses of your characters, which give them a certain diversity of stances and attitudes. They all seem very distinct from one another.

As for the more specific stuff...
- Girl with the hammer: Nice. Nothing to add.
- On the stonemason guy, the arm that's holding the bucket seems a little bit too thick at the bottom, near the middle. I guess the highlight should be closer to the top of the lower arm, kind of like what you did with the biceps.
- The girl drinking from the leather bag looks great. She's got a bit more in terms of hips now, which isn't neither good nor bad, but she looks more feminine. Which isn't also neither good nor bad. But it looks cool.
I love the way you did her face, by the way. The highlights give her a good amount of volume there, and the straight line from her nose to her chin work incredibly well IMHO. I just think her ankles look too thin, especially in comparison to her wrists. That part between the wrappings on her shin and her foot/shoes... I don't know, it may look different if you paint in some shoes. Still, I changed it a little bit.
Also, I tried simplifying her hair, unifying some patches of color. See if you like it:

or

Oh, and I made some changes to her right arm too, making it a bit thinner, but still trying to keep it toned.
(edit: quick under arm/armpit/chest muscle pixel massage.)

- The thing with the mother is that she looks a bit stockier in comparison with the reference. And her clothes conceal some of her femininity. If you want her to be taller and more feminine (doesn't seem to be the case, but...) you could give her a different set of clothes.
The highlights on her hair are a bit strong and tough to work with... I struggled with them for a bit and don't know if I got something better than what it was before. I brought some of the darker shades of her hair to the front to compensate and try to give it some more form.
The medallion kind of gets lost in her under..shirt? (same dark blue), so I added some black to give it a bit of a separation.



EDIT: Or...



In regards to making people chunkier than what you wanted, it may be part because of the resolution, the medium itself (?) or just style/taste. It's okay, though.

Yeah, the archer with such a helmet is weird. haha!
I'm not telling you to give him a Robin Hood kind of hat, though, buuut... It's something to consider (not that hat specifically, just some other type of head gear). Still, it's cool that you wanted to try a different angle for the helmet.

I like the quiver, but initially (zoomed out) I read that as if it were a sash blowing in the wind. Tilting that and making it look convincing may be tough, but you can try either that or lower it a tad more, so it's over his butt/leg more, and maybe tie it to the bigger belt with a smaller, thinner one. I don't know, just a thought.
I think his hand that holds the longbow looks a little weird. He should (?) be gripping it in a slighly different way, the thumb going in front of the bow. The arrow, IIRC stays rested on top of the back of the thumb before it gets shot. (in modern archery it stays on top of the bow itself, but the bow itself is shaped differently.)
Some people make the bow string with interrupted lines, which I find cool. Not just a straight "<" shape, but broken in some spots, which change as it gets animated. I don't have any references at hand, though, unfortunately.
His posture looks cool, maybe I'd change his right hand too, the one that just released the arrow, making it a bit longer. It looks short in comparison to his other one.
The foot that's resting on top of that block of masonry (or whatever it's called) looks reeeally cool. Don't get too attached to it because you may need to change it, but right now that shape looks super nice. *chef's kiss*

EDIT: Oh, you changed the color of the quiver and added a strap. That definitely helps!
Nice work with the arm reflecting on the shoulder pad.

EDIT 2: The thing with the thumb on the longbow is that you don't try to hold the bow with it, as it's veeeeery heavy.

EDIT 3: Tried to do the thing with the bowstring that I was talking about:


89
Pixel Art / Re: Some characters
« on: May 08, 2021, 11:34:44 pm »
Oh, I was going for the "mother" as a very loose reference. I was following much more your pixel drawing, @cels.

But this is how I see the her body structure:
(Note: take it a big grain of salt... I may have exaggerated her hips. :P)

https://i.imgur.com/KtOxWjy.png

https://i.imgur.com/maGBi1V.png

https://i.imgur.com/E3EnMkY.png


And what would be her musculature (maybe?)

https://i.imgur.com/8CS0PSK.png


https://i.imgur.com/d1fFKFN.gif


Her right foot seems to be pointing to her right based on the position of her leg and what could be an indication of her shin bone. But I'm not sure.

If you want to try and learn more about anatomy, I'd recommend, well, first Proko videos on how to draw the human figure, but also searching for 3D models that you can spin around and see from every angle. Proko has an app for that, but I have never used it. Instead, I've used on iPad the L'ecorché app, and stuff on Sketchfab, like this skeleton and... Well, there's a bunch of stuff there. I usually prefer both body scans and simplified views like this planar model or something simpler if you can find it.

Here's a bunch of anatomy refs from Sketchfab.

@Sein Great technique to find the angle of the shoulders!

---

May 9th edit:
Wow, looking at that with fresh eyes, I did screw up.
I'll fix that in a moment. :P

---

There. Does it look like I know what I'm talking about now?
I don't, but does it look like I know? :P


90
Pixel Art / Re: Swordsman Dancer
« on: May 08, 2021, 01:21:03 pm »
So with that in mind, I am trying to strategize this, to see the most effective way to go about with without taking forever to do.
I think rotoscoping would be the easiest way.
You would film yourself doing the dance (placing your camera at a certain distance to get your whole body with the least lens distortion as possible, standing in front of a neutral background), or somebody else doing the dance, then you follow that as a guide.
There are some tutorials out there, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jvXJs97bPo

If instead you wanna do everything by hand, then you could start with a stick figure. Do the whole animation just with sticks and circles (for the hands and head, maybe joints like the shoulders and the elbows), and then after the animation is done you would start adding flat shapes on top of that to flesh your character out. Forget adding finer details at this point, leave that for last. Work with just the bigger shapes. Head, torso, arms and legs.
You could try and separate the limbs in different layers to more easily follow each of their movements. Paint them each in a different color, ignore your actual colors for now. Just be sure to be able to see each limb and the torso separately.
After that is done, then you would go and add another level of detail on top, painting with your actual palette, refining the shapes of the character. And then you could add the chain and fringes and whatnot. But as Sein said, that's gonna take a lot of work... Not just because it will be hard to draw each frame, but because they would move with a little delay in relation to the body. That's called secondary action.

I'm sure you can find animation tutorials about that too.

Btw, if you right click the imgur picture and copy the URL, you can post it here directly like this:
Alternatively, you can click the "..." button on the top right corner of the image and then "Get share links", then copying the "BBCode (Forums)" link.
(dunno how that works if you're on a phone or tablet.)

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