AuthorTopic: GR#035 - Sea Monsters from Outer Space - Sprite Process  (Read 24897 times)

Offline bonehead11

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #10 on: August 26, 2010, 02:56:09 pm
You could make monster out of this bizzare and almot not known creature.

And you can never make a bad design with clam.

Offline Cure

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #11 on: August 26, 2010, 04:13:49 pm
@PypeBros: Dunno exactly what the question is, so I'll ramble about colors and hope I say something useful. Working on the medium grey bg I've got helps with using darker and less saturated colors, on a lighter background they start to look like dark masses. I had a good monitor when I started, newish lcd running 64bit vista, so it may just be that I thought the colors looked more vibrant while making them (contrast looks off on other computers I've been on, like they're washed out and the black comes off too strong). As far as my treatment of the colors goes, I've tended to disregard the whole "warm highlights, cool shadows" bit and pushed the lighter colors towards blue, gives it a murky underwater look that fits the nature of the creatures. I work in warmer colors through reddish purples and yellowish greens.
Sorry If I didn't answer your question, here are some WIP stages that might be more insightful:


@Demon11777: Good idea, they had some neat designs in that film.

@FRAWG: Only the first 4 are anywhere close to finished, I'm just roughing them out first since that's more fun.

@bonehead: Yeah I was thinking of making a clam creature with a hand on the inside.

Offline buddy90

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #12 on: August 26, 2010, 06:54:27 pm
The one thing I notice is that they all, except for the salamander, seem to have cool colors (greens, blues, violets) and not alot of warm colors (reds,oranges,yellows). That doesn't necessarily mean anything, although having some creatures with warmer colors might help make them pop out more. Or if some features on them were warmer, like eyes, faces, lips, mouths, etc.

Offline Mathias

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #13 on: August 27, 2010, 12:07:22 am
What's the rock with seaweed growin' out of it?

You need a hammerhead shark guy!

Offline PypeBros

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #14 on: August 27, 2010, 09:14:51 am
Sorry If I didn't answer your question, here are some WIP stages that might be more insightful:
It sort of answers, and extend beyond. I see from your WIPs that you use alot of black in the initial steps, which keeps contrast high enough. One of the reason why I'm asking is that I usually find it hard to see what I'm doing when working on less-vibrant background things and am considering a "palette swap" feature for my sprite editor software in order to switch between "high-contrast working mode" and "low-contrast rendering mode".

Offline Cure

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #15 on: October 16, 2010, 04:55:07 am
So anyway, back to this



Mainly just cleaning up a few of 'em. Alligator needs a complete overhaul (may just get rid of him). So just ignore that guy, I guess.

@Mathias: Seaweed dude is just that. He's, like, this imp or river spirit or something that sleeps on riverbeds and looks like inconspicuous rocks.

also, bog monster and lips-slug are still WIP, jellyfish-guy and seaweed-guy are both heavy WIP, lanternfish and mantarilla just need some a little detailing.

edit: update:


- - -
also, if anyone knows how to select and move stuff around in grafx2 (can't seem to find the selection tool, brush grab is the closest I know of), that'd be great.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2010, 11:30:52 pm by Cure »

Offline Cure

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #16 on: October 22, 2010, 06:26:11 am

crits on color choices (within a sprite, or if a sprite seems not to fit with the rest) are especially welcome. the two new ones on the bottom are WIP, the sharkamander in particular.

more WIP stages:

Offline SwapBrain

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #17 on: October 22, 2010, 08:03:39 am
I am really enjoying watching this develop.

Quote
crits on color choices (within a sprite, or if a sprite seems not to fit with the rest) are especially welcome.

An excessively nit-picky crit re: the sharkamander and the fellow above him is that the red highlight tends to make them seem more infernal than abysmal (so to speak).

In general, if I may say so, there is something less developed and refined about some of the more recent ones vs the first 3 especially. For instance, with top-lefty, you make some surprising color choices that are perhaps somewhat risky, but they pay off. I am talking here about the iridescent eyes and the dark green > light blue > yellow transition on his chest. The surface texture and volumes seem somewhat more varied on those first two especially as well. Lastly I think that some of the more recent ones could use more color variation, colored fringe on gills, creepy soft white underbellies, mottled flesh, that sort of thing. Refs would be more helpful here than I could be.

Also, I could just be full of bananas.

Finally I'd like to vote for a lamprey, goblin shark or a horseshoe crab. Those things are just creepy.

Offline what

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #18 on: October 23, 2010, 02:58:48 am
I agree with SwapBrain. i really like where this is goin, but I think the third creature from the left (top row) doesn't look much like a sea-creature.
I'd also like 2 see something with a lot of tentacles  :D

Offline Cure

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Re: sea monsters from outer space

Reply #19 on: October 23, 2010, 05:53:34 am
yeah I'd say SwapBrain is dead-on. Happened last time I tried to make a matching set, the first was great then the clones were all mediocre. Anyway, tried to implement all that, still got plenty more fiddlin' to do.
also the final one on that row is going to be an eel creature, possibly with a tadpole tale and a fin mane. dunno yet if I'll stop there or do 3-4 more.

update: