sci-fi portraits

[Belial]

hello

i'm working on a sci-fi jump'n run. and now i'm stuck a little at the portraits for the textboxes. i made a couple of male and alien heads and i'm very happy with them. except the female one looks kinda boring. it's missing some gadged or attachment i think. but everything i tried destroyed the femaleness... any ideas?

thanks a lot.

[NaCl]

Cool portraits! I played around with the female, tried to add some interest and make it pop a bit more. I don't think each one necessarily needs a gizmo, they just need something to give them some personality. I tried to give her a a little smug look. Also, breaking up the symmetry will add interest.



Keep up the good work

Edit: modified the neck. I reduced it by 2 pixels initially, another two here, plus shortened it. I think with the new colors it stood out more, and it's size was less noticeable in the original.

[Medevenx]

Cool portraits! I played around with the female, tried to add some interest and make it pop a bit more. I don't think each one necessarily needs a gizmo, they just need something to give them some personality. I tried to give her a a little smug look. Also, breaking up the symmetry will add interest.



Keep up the good work

Now she has a giant manly neck.

[Tourist]

The main problems I see are that the eyes are too close together, and using gray as the lightest color makes the skin look rather dead.  A light yellow make a better highlight color.

An edit.  White 255 is too strong for the eyes.  Some of the skin tones were too close together, for my tastes, and I softened the skin colors overall.  Oh, and added eyebrows.  Real eyebrows would be less than 1 pixel height but since we're so used to seeing them it makes the face look more like a face.



The hair is still rather incomplete, I need to practice hair more.  Cheeks are a bit chubby, I was trying for a heart shaped face while trying to avoid banding.  Mixed success.

To your original request of making her more sci-fi, you could try giving her a weird hairstyle (80s cyberpunk mohawk), or facepaint.  Or maybe replace one eye with a camera lens.  Or put the face behind a space helmet that has a large clear face (so you can still see the portrait).

Hope this helps,
Tourist

[Belial]

finally found a little time to work a little bit on my problem child. 

NaCl and Tourist, thanks a lot for your thoughts!

NaCl, i like the charakter of your version. i'ts just a little to mangalike. the symmetrybreak was a very good hint.
Tourist, your edit is extremly impressive! i think your right, with the eyes. the white was to bright. but i couldn't move the eyes further apart without breaking the existing style.
i would to change the skin color a little darker, but with the dark hair i've made now...



what you think about the facepaint? hairstile looks still not real. never learnd hairdresser. 


greetings

[Tourist]

I don't quite get what you mean when you say you can't move the eyes apart.  The eyes might end up in a different spot than the other images?  Or because you would have to move the side of the head too? 

If you keep the dark hair, it could use some shiny highlights.  Or you could make it dark brown rather than black.  Sci-fi women often have unusual hairstyles (Star Wars, for instance) so I think you can get away with almost anything.

The gadget on the side of her head is good.  It's subtle, and suggests the presence of technology without it being overwhelming.

The last image in the row has banding along the jawline.  The thinner neck is better, but it could widen out a bit at the collar to suggest a curve rather than purely a straight line.

I don't think the skin tones need to be darker.  The darkest orange/brown used to outline the jaw and neck is a bit saturated compared to the other skin colors.  The red hair hides it, but the dark hair exposes it.  My suggestion is to reduce the saturation of that color (some) and add a little yellow to the lightest skin tone.

I think facepaint as a vision of the future was more a cheesy 80s thing.  Not usually black (goth/KISS/juggalo), but generally a solid color.  Often just a line or two along the cheekbone.  I was looking at some old cyberpunk art that day.

Some images for inspiration, if you wanted to stick with the cyberpunkish theme:
http://sharetv.org/images/stargate_infinity/cast/large/stacey_bonner.jpg
From the Stargate Infinity cartoon circa 2002, but the character design is so very 80s.  Pink hair, partially shaved head and an asymmetric hairstyle.  Blue lips, and random paint (the bullseye on the side of her head). 

http://shineanthology.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cyberpunk-fantasia.jpg
Some of these trends stick around in 2009, with the addition of piercings (ouch).

Also:
http://www.wiredreflexes.com/sr/gfx/gallery/john_zeleznik/dna_doa.jpg
Note the facepaint on the woman in the middle of picture.

http://www.wiredreflexes.com/sr/gfx/gallery/srtcg/contacts_media_chick.jpg
Something a bit more modern and less fantastic.  Has a slightly unusual hairstyle and a headset phone.

Hope this helps,
Tourist

[Belial]

so. after a long time, i'm working again on the female portrait.

I don't quite get what you mean when you say you can't move the eyes apart.

sorry, bad english... i meant to increase the distance between the eyes.

i tried a new hairstile. also more reflection in the hair. for now i'm lucky with it. but maybe someone have some important improvement advices?
thanks again!


and here are two screenshots of my game. you can see, how the portraits ar used. maybe you know the font. 


cu

[Helm]

two frame edit, first frame just removes the banding. Second is more involved, hope it helps.

[Belial]

helm, i think your hopes will be fulfilled. 
i've examined your shadows and highlights. especially on the hair. very impressing and helpfully!
so i tried to merge your and my technics. i hope the result is satisfying.


thank you so mutch!

[zez]

The new one looks wayyyy better, but the collar bone is kind of messing with me. Its too high, first off, and WAY to pronounced. Honestly, I think it would look better if you just flat out lost it. You also have some banding on her right cheek. That being said, the highlights are awesome, and the fae is way better defined now. The eyes also dont look so ridiculously close together with the extreme dark outline.

... also, what font is that? can I steal it? Iv been looking for a good font for my game for ages.