31
Unpaid Work / Re: trailofsecrets.com needs partner for finished puzzle RPG
« on: December 31, 2012, 12:33:37 am »
Do you check the info@trailofsecrets.com email account? I've wrote you a message there. 
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32
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: [WIP] Action/Adventure Sprites
« on: December 27, 2012, 11:51:05 pm »
That's a pretty nice walk cycle IMO, but it seems that she's a lot more muscular/heavy than in the front/diagonal frames. Also it seems that her left arm/hand (the one in the shadow) has more swing to it and moves on a more diagonal frame than the other one.
33
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Faceset
« on: December 27, 2012, 11:44:16 pm »
While the height of the features and their positioning height wise would work in a frontal view, the shade of the head suggest a down tilt - therefore throwing it all off.
Heads are tough and I'm still not satisfied with my heads, without getting a good feel for them in the 3d space, it's very hard to get them right - it's even hard to spot errors sometimes
You might want to analyze some 3d head models (http://www.posemaniacs.com/ has one, you might want to google the Asaro head, pictures only though) and check some tutorials about "constructing" the head - you might want to check the books by Andrew Loomis or take a peek at tutorials here:
http://www.proko.com/ I know those are for the realistic approach, but it's necessary for good stylization - also, drawing on paper highly recommended
If you're in a pinch and just need to have the mugshots done, try to make the faces straight on, or a 3/4 view without a downtilt - it will be easier to get it right.
As far as pixel tech goes, you might want to work on the lines - both sides of the chin look very angular. There's also banding on the eyebrows, lower lip' shadow and right side (of the picture) of the nose.
Heads are tough and I'm still not satisfied with my heads, without getting a good feel for them in the 3d space, it's very hard to get them right - it's even hard to spot errors sometimes
You might want to analyze some 3d head models (http://www.posemaniacs.com/ has one, you might want to google the Asaro head, pictures only though) and check some tutorials about "constructing" the head - you might want to check the books by Andrew Loomis or take a peek at tutorials here:
http://www.proko.com/ I know those are for the realistic approach, but it's necessary for good stylization - also, drawing on paper highly recommended
If you're in a pinch and just need to have the mugshots done, try to make the faces straight on, or a 3/4 view without a downtilt - it will be easier to get it right.
As far as pixel tech goes, you might want to work on the lines - both sides of the chin look very angular. There's also banding on the eyebrows, lower lip' shadow and right side (of the picture) of the nose.
34
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] War of the Elements Characters - not sure what to do next...
« on: December 27, 2012, 11:28:32 pm »
Things I've immediately noticed:
1. Outlines vs. no outlines - the Air character has no outlines while the Earth class and weapons used by both have one - I'm not sure if this is just how things "turned out" or a conscious decision to make the Air character feel a bit more "light". With the current looks, it feels like inconsistency to me, I'm sure it would work better with a non-black color for the outlines but I'd still decide on one consistent look - either everything has outlines or there's none.
2. Proportion - both characters have different proportion and it's a great tool for building character of the classes, their difference in looks and therefore their powers/behaviors, but it seems that both they relate differently to the environment which would be the same for both - like they were made with different scale in mind. As a start, I'd try to get their both head in similar/same size and then differ the size of the body. I think the Air character should feel delicate in contrast to the Earth one, and currently, I think the Air class is more imposing.
3. Style clash - the Air class with more cartoony head, and height of ~3,5 heads clashes a bit with the Earth character which feels a lot more serious in proportion and style. The difference in shading is pretty significant, and the shading in the Earth guy gives a lot better sense of the his form, while the Air one is very gradienty. I understand you wanted the give him a more aetheric feel, but I think you should find the middle ground - don't use straight gradients, but don't define the forms as much as you would with a character made out of rock.
4. Weapons looks VERY generic - pretty run of the mill human guns, something that would work in war/soldier game - the idea of a War of the Elements, as you called it, gives GREAT potential - there's plenty of room to let your imagination gone wild. Simplest thing you can do, is to take any of the known, established weapon types like guns, swords etc. and think of creative designs for them - Air class weapons could be made of very light metal, have a lot of curves, a generally "fluid" appearance while Earth's weapons would be crude and angular, made to be used by big, rocky hands
5. Colourwise you could use some hue shifts to escape the "colouring book" approach - the air is cyan, rock is brown etc. - vary the hue of your shades as they go lighter/darker, tint them.
6. You could work on the anatomy a bit, but I'm sure there's somebody out the who can give you a better advice in this matter than I can
I like the idea you have, I think it has some potential, but I recommend you do some more concept artwork (preferably, NOT pixel art) before doing any more actual game art - try to think about the environment and the setting of the game and then put your characters in. The current sprites, seem like both are from a different universe and that's the main problem IMO.
1. Outlines vs. no outlines - the Air character has no outlines while the Earth class and weapons used by both have one - I'm not sure if this is just how things "turned out" or a conscious decision to make the Air character feel a bit more "light". With the current looks, it feels like inconsistency to me, I'm sure it would work better with a non-black color for the outlines but I'd still decide on one consistent look - either everything has outlines or there's none.
2. Proportion - both characters have different proportion and it's a great tool for building character of the classes, their difference in looks and therefore their powers/behaviors, but it seems that both they relate differently to the environment which would be the same for both - like they were made with different scale in mind. As a start, I'd try to get their both head in similar/same size and then differ the size of the body. I think the Air character should feel delicate in contrast to the Earth one, and currently, I think the Air class is more imposing.
3. Style clash - the Air class with more cartoony head, and height of ~3,5 heads clashes a bit with the Earth character which feels a lot more serious in proportion and style. The difference in shading is pretty significant, and the shading in the Earth guy gives a lot better sense of the his form, while the Air one is very gradienty. I understand you wanted the give him a more aetheric feel, but I think you should find the middle ground - don't use straight gradients, but don't define the forms as much as you would with a character made out of rock.
4. Weapons looks VERY generic - pretty run of the mill human guns, something that would work in war/soldier game - the idea of a War of the Elements, as you called it, gives GREAT potential - there's plenty of room to let your imagination gone wild.
Simplest thing you can do, is to take any of the known, established weapon types like guns, swords etc. and think of creative designs for them - Air class weapons could be made of very light metal, have a lot of curves, a generally "fluid" appearance while Earth's weapons would be crude and angular, made to be used by big, rocky hands5. Colourwise you could use some hue shifts to escape the "colouring book" approach - the air is cyan, rock is brown etc. - vary the hue of your shades as they go lighter/darker, tint them.
6. You could work on the anatomy a bit, but I'm sure there's somebody out the who can give you a better advice in this matter than I can
I like the idea you have, I think it has some potential, but I recommend you do some more concept artwork (preferably, NOT pixel art) before doing any more actual game art - try to think about the environment and the setting of the game and then put your characters in. The current sprites, seem like both are from a different universe and that's the main problem IMO.
35
Pixel Art / Re: Bar scene corrections
« on: December 19, 2012, 11:45:03 am »
It's good you've upped the resolution of the piece, I recommend you do so further - not exactly a big picture, but use a bigger scale for your objects - I think that working in larger scale helps learning the principles, since it's harder to get things right by "trial and error" than in a smaller scale.
Stuff I'd like to point out:
1. Everything has black outlines except the bottles in the back and the jug/dispenser thing to the left of the character. (What is it actually? It's not clear) I assume you didn't outline them, because they're supposed to be made of glass, and so, transparent, but it looks weird - it could work if you could see the difference in used material in the shading - shininess, a bit of reflection etc, but it looks the same as other objects. I recommend the video game/cartoon aproach - ditch the outlines in the background completely (or make them very light) and use outlines for objects which can take any action (characters, vehicles etc.) or are in the foreground.
2. The pitcher thing on the counter again - it seems that it's top lid/whatever is shown. This conflicts with the straight-on perspective you've used for everything else - unless this object's top is supposed to be at an angle to the camera/viewer.
3. A bit of a "future" note: in case of any textures, create them after shading your objects. You should work from general to specific.
4. Left part of the bottles shelves/rack behind the bar - is it a shadow (From what? What casts it?) or is it shading used to make the bottle shelf look angular like this:
5. Shading objects - while the highlighted edge "beveled" look works for blocks and flat stuff, it seems you've used it everywhere. Try to give the scene more variety, like making the tables and bottles actually rounded - this will require different shading. Try to look for any cylindrical objects around your house and see how they behave in different lighting conditions (you can use a flashlight or a desk lamp), or look at some photos. For example:
Besides shapes consider the actual materials used - this table for example has some shine to it.
5. If you want to challenge yourself with limited color, try to reduce the amount used in the latest picture - if I'm correct, you've used 20 shades and I'm sure you could safely cut down the amount to 8 for example. You might even end up with better contrast in the process!
6. I wouldn't worry about hue shifts too much for now. Try to focus on contrast and values, and try to pick hues that fit the theme and mood of your scene, try to make them not dull and, at the same time, not over saturated. If you necessarily want to make some hue shifts, I'd try to make the lighter shades/higlights warmer than midtones, and you can try to pick a shadow color, blue or green for example, and make the darker shades in your color ramps gradually shift a bit to those hues before going black (You can try not to use 100% pure black too, but I leave this to you, as your stylistic decision)
Hope this helps, you've already made progress. Good luck!
Stuff I'd like to point out:
1. Everything has black outlines except the bottles in the back and the jug/dispenser thing to the left of the character. (What is it actually? It's not clear) I assume you didn't outline them, because they're supposed to be made of glass, and so, transparent, but it looks weird - it could work if you could see the difference in used material in the shading - shininess, a bit of reflection etc, but it looks the same as other objects. I recommend the video game/cartoon aproach - ditch the outlines in the background completely (or make them very light) and use outlines for objects which can take any action (characters, vehicles etc.) or are in the foreground.
2. The pitcher thing on the counter again - it seems that it's top lid/whatever is shown. This conflicts with the straight-on perspective you've used for everything else - unless this object's top is supposed to be at an angle to the camera/viewer.
3. A bit of a "future" note: in case of any textures, create them after shading your objects. You should work from general to specific.
4. Left part of the bottles shelves/rack behind the bar - is it a shadow (From what? What casts it?) or is it shading used to make the bottle shelf look angular like this:
Code: [Select]
|
\____5. Shading objects - while the highlighted edge "beveled" look works for blocks and flat stuff, it seems you've used it everywhere. Try to give the scene more variety, like making the tables and bottles actually rounded - this will require different shading. Try to look for any cylindrical objects around your house and see how they behave in different lighting conditions (you can use a flashlight or a desk lamp), or look at some photos. For example:
Besides shapes consider the actual materials used - this table for example has some shine to it.
5. If you want to challenge yourself with limited color, try to reduce the amount used in the latest picture - if I'm correct, you've used 20 shades and I'm sure you could safely cut down the amount to 8 for example. You might even end up with better contrast in the process!
6. I wouldn't worry about hue shifts too much for now. Try to focus on contrast and values, and try to pick hues that fit the theme and mood of your scene, try to make them not dull and, at the same time, not over saturated. If you necessarily want to make some hue shifts, I'd try to make the lighter shades/higlights warmer than midtones, and you can try to pick a shadow color, blue or green for example, and make the darker shades in your color ramps gradually shift a bit to those hues before going black (You can try not to use 100% pure black too, but I leave this to you, as your stylistic decision)
Hope this helps, you've already made progress.
Good luck!
36
2D & 3D / Re: Official Anatomy Thread
« on: December 19, 2012, 02:00:42 am »
Okay, guess it's time to post my struggles
I'm trying to get the general idea right for now, not going into details too much.
I'm building upon Loomis' framework, references from posemaniacs or photos
The waist and pelvis areas are most problematic for me I guess, tried to substitute the pelvis discs with just a block and I think it worked better in some of the drawings, but I think I should try to use the discs either way, since their idea is closer to actual skeleton.
Anatomy aside, I still can't get a good feel of 3d forms in general - when drawing simple 3d primitives I still end up with distortion and crooked angles, and any attempts at foreshortening without any reference end up in total failures
Any advice on this?
I'm trying to get the general idea right for now, not going into details too much.
I'm building upon Loomis' framework, references from posemaniacs or photos
The waist and pelvis areas are most problematic for me I guess, tried to substitute the pelvis discs with just a block and I think it worked better in some of the drawings, but I think I should try to use the discs either way, since their idea is closer to actual skeleton.
Anatomy aside, I still can't get a good feel of 3d forms in general - when drawing simple 3d primitives I still end up with distortion and crooked angles, and any attempts at foreshortening without any reference end up in total failures
Any advice on this?
38
Pixel Art / Re: House Chipset
« on: June 17, 2012, 03:55:44 pm »Do you mean that I shouldn't use an outline for anything except for the character or that I should only use a black outline for the character?
I've meant you can choose either, with the decision left to you
Here's a minor, quick and dirty edit how can you make some of the stuff more interesting or more 3d.
39
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: Rock Monster
« on: June 17, 2012, 02:54:46 pm »
I think the main problem here is, that the rocky elements that make up the monster are of simillar overall lightness - we can't the see the planes, the form that makes up the monster, it's looks like a more or less flat group of stones.
The perspective doesnt make things easier too - maybe try to make a few more drawings that would depict him in a straight front, side, top view etc. and then try a more "3d" viewpoint
The perspective doesnt make things easier too - maybe try to make a few more drawings that would depict him in a straight front, side, top view etc. and then try a more "3d" viewpoint
40
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] The dead will walk
« on: June 16, 2012, 09:06:57 pm »
Hello!
I really like the stylish cityscape, especially the "beveled" look of the clouds. The text has a lot of character too, but some characters could be more consistent with eachother - "i" is definitely too fat and the characteristic parts of "w" are a bit too skinny.
The character/skelleton is unfinished(or he seem so, at least) - since the light source is to the top right, the front of the skull and chest should be a lot darker. The side of the skull looks weird too - anatomy wise, and lighting wise too - the dark shadows give me an impression that the skull "curves inwards" a bit too much.
Quick google search for some ref material:
Since it's still wip, comment about a lot of empty space may seem unnecessary - you have a lot of space for more undead!
Hope it helps, I like the gameboy vibe it gives very much!
I really like the stylish cityscape, especially the "beveled" look of the clouds. The text has a lot of character too, but some characters could be more consistent with eachother - "i" is definitely too fat and the characteristic parts of "w" are a bit too skinny.
The character/skelleton is unfinished(or he seem so, at least) - since the light source is to the top right, the front of the skull and chest should be a lot darker. The side of the skull looks weird too - anatomy wise, and lighting wise too - the dark shadows give me an impression that the skull "curves inwards" a bit too much.
Quick google search for some ref material:
Since it's still wip, comment about a lot of empty space may seem unnecessary - you have a lot of space for more undead!
Hope it helps, I like the gameboy vibe it gives very much!