Hi,

is there anything in particular you want help with or opinions on? I could give some feedback on fine detail work, or on use of line and shape, or the overall shape of the car, but you mention that you're early in the process.

So:

Do you want to recreate this car exactly, or make something like it? Are you happy with your lines and outlines, and your overall shape? And is there a specific reason you decided to post it here?

I'd like to help, I just don't want to waste your time and mine.

Sadly, the real world can be a bit more filthy than what you learn in school.

The good news is that if you're in control of the image throughout its creation and delivery, it will be lossless. However, on Twitter you aren't.

Edited to add: I'm posting this at the risk of hammering the nail out of sight, but I feel that there's value in knowing about this.



This was one of my own assets, uploaded as a PNG to Fiverr at greater than 1x1 ratio. I didn't apply any pre-processing. I previewed the image in the browser on the Fiverr site, blew it up to focus in on the sub-pixel artefacts, and took a screenshot.

Once I uploaded the image to Fiverr, I lost control of it. They could be doing anything they want with it. Maybe the preview feature uses a more compressed image than downloads to save on their bandwidth costs?

Twitter and Instagram are notoriously hard to upload to without some kind of distortion as well. Blurry edges for example. (There's a bit of a secret sauce for Twitter that, if you get it right, lets you get a clean image, but if you upload 1x scale pixel art you'll be in a world of pain.)

We tend to use Imgur on this forum because it keeps the PNG intact and lossless. Not all platforms do, by the looks of it. And to be honest, I don't blame them. Reducing bandwidth charges probably saves a great deal of money. Also, pixel art is pretty niche, and other art forms don't tend to suffer quite as much when compressed.

But yeah, if you have a JPG you'll have distortion (and really messy distortion at that), but if you have a PNG you'll most likely have a clean image. But PNGs are not immune.

Good spot on the highlight!

I also noticed that her legs seem narrower in the "up" animation. I prefer the ones in the "down" animation, they seem more in proportion.

Firstly, great work! I love the design and the detail.

Secondly, I'm no great animator. Hopefully, another pair of eyes on it will help you figure out the problems. Don't take me too seriously though.

But yes, I agree with your partner. The "down" animation looks great. It's a purposeful stride with a little sway that helps it feel natural.

The up animation feels like it has lots more sway. Like, loads. My thoughts for the reasons behind this are:

 - The hair moves side to side a LOT. My brain also sees a bum wiggle that creates the feeling of this being a dance move. If I cover up the hair then I can see that the skirt really isn't moving much side-to-side, so I feel like the big hair motion is the cause here.

 - The arms look like they're moving side-to-side in sync, to me. Because I only see one at once, my brain fills in the gaps. What I'm seeing (possibly emphasised by the hair sway) is each arm extending to near full length on each side in turn. I'm imagining her clicking her fingers at each full extension. Again, maybe because of the hair motion leading my eye, the other arm seems to move across the body at the same time. I imagine it at a similar angle to the visible arm, hidden by her body, also doing a finger click. Jazzy! I'm kinda seeing something like this guy, maybe a little like the character after him as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XtLEp0XAII&t=60

I feel like a couple of things might help here. One is toning down that hair sway in the "up" animation. I feel like it's a bit wide and we'd see more of it from the front view if it was that big... And it seems to be at the root of the whole "dancing" issue. It's a shame though, it's a really great sway.

The other is concentrating on showing the backs of the elbows rather than hands in the "up" animation. I feel like we see too much hand, so it makes the arm look almost straight at full extension. Also, if you can keep both arms visible throughout the "up" animation then I wouldn't feel like they were moving sideways across the body.

I'm not sure how easy or effective either of those would be TBH, but I hope there's something in there that helps...