AuthorTopic: Some new stuff  (Read 13546 times)

Offline Pawige

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 293
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • The Noisy Sanctum

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #20 on: May 14, 2010, 03:39:35 am
//// Absolutely NOT! I'm 27, not 24. Sarcasm aside, one of the things I was worried about was the view. Thanks for that, and the other tiips.

Pretty sure he was talking about himself, not you...

Anyways, the important thing for you to notice about the change of lighting is not so much the direction as the way he gave it shape. You've shaded your girl the way you typically seem to shade things, with what appears to be absolutely no understanding of form. Think hard about this and ask yourself, what kind of light source would light up one leg and not the other as you have it? It's pretty much impossible, barring some sort of bizarre angle and shadow combination. Then look at Reo's edit and think about how the lighting is working there, see, the light is from above, so the upper legs, which are facing more towards the light, are brighter, and the upper legs, which are facing away from the light, are darker. Same situation with the top of her breasts and shoulders, they are lighter because they face the light source, the undersides of her breasts and abdomen are darker because they are facing away from the light. Rather than seeing your characters as just a collection of flat shapes that get lighter as they get closer to the light source, you need to imagine them as actual 3D objects and shade accordingly. The surfaces that are pointing most directly at the light source are the brightest, and the surfaces pointing away are the darkest.

Offline 7321551

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • a.k.a. Jarrad
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #21 on: May 14, 2010, 06:43:05 am
(if it's not too much to ask, for further discussion can we keep the names/slang names of a womans upper torso use to a bare minimum? thanks)
I hope you're not living in some kind of draconian theocracy?

Anyway, all of the attention to mammaries it misplaced - they're influence at this scale is pretty negligible.

Larger things such as stance, hip/shoulder ratio, & hip/waist ratio are more important. At most, all you need is to allude to breasts with a bit of shadow like Reo did.

It's a myth that simply practicing something will make you better.
Yes!! This is very good to know.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2010, 06:44:46 am by 7321551 »

Offline xhunterko

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 365
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #22 on: May 15, 2010, 07:10:44 pm
@7321551: Where did you find those! Now if I can only find some as a 3d model so I can play with the pose and the lighting and draw from there. How did you get them to that scale?

While I have been futily trying to look for a free/opensource 3d poser (looking at make human btw but not sure). Cause, I think, that if I can get it into 3d and play around with the lighting, I could actually see what changes are made and apply those to the actual pixel art. So, here's what I've been working on.



Not much changed but I tried to get some of the crits in. The left sprite is just for fun.

Offline Stab

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 34
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • I'M WILLOWS!
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #23 on: May 15, 2010, 10:37:17 pm
 - Real live people are the best 3d models ever, and they're rather hard NOT to find. Real lights, too, are easy to find and easy to position.

 - Try not to feel awkward about "having to" look at nude men and women. There is nothing sexual about it, and that's not a joke.

 - What's most important is whether or not YOU like your work. Critique is a great tool, as it typically offers a different perspective/approach to the work you're doing, and very likely to see things you may have missed. There is no critique that is absolute; At the end of the day, it is YOU who judges whether or not your work is adequate, and whether or not a certain aspect is in need of repairs.

 - Be conscious of your own attempts to take shortcuts in your path to great artisthooddom. (Example : a 3d model that strikes the pose and defines the shadows for you, allowing you to copy without comprehension) Decide whether or not they are truly wise steps toward whatever end goal you hope to acheive (such as "I WANT TO BE BETTER THAN EVERYONE!" or "I WANT TO BE COMPETENT ENOUGH TO MAKE A GAME THAT DOESN'T MAKE THE LADIES SCREAM IN TERROR")

 - Keep friggin' tryin'! I've been watching from the shadows, and I for one am happy to see that you're still improving! Keep it up!

Offline 7321551

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • a.k.a. Jarrad
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #24 on: May 16, 2010, 03:01:26 am
Where did you find those! [...] How did you get them to that scale?

Stock photos & Photoshop.  ;)

This new version is a step in the right direction.

Offline onek

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #25 on: May 19, 2010, 08:28:47 pm
heres another example for a girlish look.....

Offline Tourist

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 376
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #26 on: May 23, 2010, 01:04:29 am
An edit of the original.  Basic head shape shamelessly ripped off from the main character of Legend of Kyrandia 2.  character designed more for a run and jump adventure (long legs and giant hands).



It's always interesting to see the different styles people use.

Tourist

Offline zez

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 97
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #27 on: May 23, 2010, 04:57:16 am
Your latest one is a VAST improvement :y: :y: :y:.  (Thats right, I have three thumbs,  I dont make fun of your birth defects, so leave mine out of this.)
I really like the tiny one, its dead on. Both manage to look feminine without moving over into the sleazy department.
My critiques on the second are pretty basic, and shouldnt be to hard to fix.
1. The face could really do with some more shading, or a more muted skintone. I would honestly go with both, maybe shift the color a little bit further towards yellow and gray, and add some highlights (mind you, dont make it yellow and gray, just move in that direction a smidge from the color you have.)
2. The pose is a little bit awkward. I feel like maybe if you moved her stomach a little to the left it would do wonders on it, and Im kind of unclear if she is facing towards me, or to the right. The line between her right arm (well, my right, her left I guess) and the torso suggests she is facing to the right, along with her foot, but the rest of her pose and the proportions are dead on looking right at me. You could probably fix that a little with some well placed shadows, but really you want to work on the overall form, and make the furthest away points scaled down a tiny bit.
3. Her pony tail defies gravity. Im assuming that is a pony tail, although Im not 100% sure. If its hair flapping in the wind, it should be a little more exaggerated, and going up higher, otherwise, it needs some gravity applied to it. Right now, it looks kind of like she jelled it straight back, and thats a little confusing.
Otherwise, this is awesome. You have come really a long way on this in not a very long time, so my fourth thumb goes up to you  :y:(dont ask.)

Offline xhunterko

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 365
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Some new stuff

Reply #28 on: May 28, 2010, 05:43:21 am
Oh wow, I had no idea this was still being given crits! My bad!

@onek: Nicely done! I love the color reduction. I'm tempted to steal that palette. The reason I chose the non-discript flag was precisley that reason. I like what you did with it though. I honestly didn't think of it as a flag. I was going to turn it into a weapon or something actually.

@Tourist: Never heard of that game. I love what you both did with the hair. I always try not to let the hair get in the way. That is always one of my worst areas of shading.

@zez: Thanks for the crit and encouragement! Yeah, about that ponytail. I actually didn't want to go for the classic red head double pony tail look. I thought it was cliche' and didn't like it. I wanted to have her in a relaxed pose sort of that a fencer does after having a match or practice round. Sort of the inverse of an old guy leaning on a cane. I was going for simple on the face as well. I wasn't trying to do anything much with it and trying to keep it plane. I had seen that some other games had done that as well, so I thought it'd work for me. (tiny one is a cave story 'Curly Brace' recolour I hope you know, that's why it's just for fun. Unless, you were joking of course. But then again, not everyone I think knows what cave story is. Oh well.)

Hopefully I can come back and work on this mockup a little bit later. But now that Flixel is in a stable state, I have been working on an open source project for a while and I'll be concentrating on that. For now, I'll be content with what's here and let this slip under the second page or so. (everyone can draw a box though, right? So I thought, why not use a box for characters in the project? Note to self, stop thinking)