AuthorTopic: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please  (Read 6861 times)

Offline Cassowary

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From what I've read while scanning through here not a lot of you think highly of adoptables, so I'm probably going to be ripped a new one. Oh well.

Right now I'm looking for crits on this dude:



I'm wondering how to make it (specifically the adult) a bit more realistic and 3D. You can ignore the egg. I'm not really wanting to use AA on him since it wouldn't mesh with the other sprites being used on the site.

Depending on how this goes I may post more of my stuff. Or I may flee in terror and shame :> We'll see.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2011, 03:26:27 am by Cassowary »

Offline pistachio

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #1 on: April 16, 2011, 06:16:49 pm
I'm starting to wonder what those other sprites on the site look like. Is their lighting really as ill-defined as this one? Yeah, sorry for being a bit harsh there. I'm probably among the group of people that aren't very fond of adoptables, probably because the typical adoptable, at least ones I see all the time, are like this one. Not the greatest, but that's not to say all of them are bad.

Sometimes, you have to wonder if it's really worth sacrificing your style to this level, given you're above this. Yes, I did--sort of--steal that from ptoing here. ( :-X !) But you can still say it counts.

As stated before the lighting is pretty ill-defined. I have a feeling that had it not been for the huge amount of noisy texture you piled onto the shading it'd all add up to be banding. Even then the texture doesn't look very convincing, I must admit. More like pixel noise than anything. As for the palette, a considerable note on the side, it looks like you've taken hue-shifting to the next level. It looks strange, to say the least.

It seems here as if you just used that thing they call "selective outlining", basically using a slightly lighter outline for slightly lighter shades, which usually doesn't look very good with so many colors. You also seem to have forgotten about the segments of the worm. Each will stand out a bit, have their own little highlight and a bit of shadow around them. They should be defined, but not that much. Just shading the basic forms won't cut it here, especially if this is a final version.

Perspective seems a bit out of whack. I suppose this is because the tail end of the larger worm trails off to the right too much. You know, that bit to the upper-right where his body bends one last time? Also, the segments of the body surrounding the "collar" seem to curve too abruptly. It makes for a strange and rather uncomfortable position, in my mind. Think of it this way: It looks like an L. The less it looks like an L the better. It would probably be better off looking like some sort of a C.

I understand. That part seems a bit confusing. An edit may be needed.

Offline WM

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #2 on: April 16, 2011, 06:48:29 pm
Quote
It seems here as if you just used that thing they call "selective outlining", basically using a slightly lighter outline for slightly lighter shades, which usually doesn't look very good with so many colors.

That's not selout. http://pixel-zone.rpgdx.net/shtml/tut-selout2.shtml


About the image:

>Dithering is creating way to much noise, try going with a cel shading method instead (which should give the worm it's much-needed slimy/smooth appearance).

>The colors are not necessarily over-shifted: try desaturating them before you decide to bring the hues back towards each other.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2011, 06:50:33 pm by WM »

Offline pistachio

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #3 on: April 16, 2011, 06:52:40 pm
That's not selout. http://pixel-zone.rpgdx.net/shtml/tut-selout2.shtml

...Oh. My mistake, then. I should have looked around a bit more. But I wonder what it is called, then.

Offline Cure

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #4 on: April 16, 2011, 07:04:02 pm
Just shading an outline according to a lightsource, can help give a consistent thickness since contrast between the values of the line and the form it hugs won't vary as much. selout is more like aa applied to an outline.

Worm looks nice, would be nice to see an alternate palette. The color are rather fiery, some cooler earthy pinks or bluish rather than purplish shades might be more fitting for the subject matter.

Then again, the monitor I'm on right now can be really screwy with colors, so this palette may work better than I can tell.

Offline Cassowary

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #5 on: April 25, 2011, 03:25:12 am
Green text on this forum does not work very well. Hurk.

Thanks for the replies. I actually forgot I'd joined here and made edits to the thing without looking at the comments here. I'll see what I can do, but here's what I have now:



pistachio - Heh, it's no problem, I know I'm not very good. (Above this? Hardly.) Yes, the lightsource wasn't chosen very well, I think I ended up with something from straight above. And yes, it would essentially be banding. Should I go for a lightsource more to the left? The colors, I was going for something a little "out there" since it's for a sci-fi adoptables game. Yes, I'll shade the segments too.

Selout... er, you guys seem to be in discussion over that thing, er...

I'd changed the position a bit so I'll see what you say before changing more, but I'll get to the tail in the meanwhile.

I suppose I should have explained a bit more about the sprite so that you guys would know what I was aiming for. Sorry. It's an adoptable for a sci-fi site, and it's somewhat based off the Mongolian Deathworm cryptid. It's not really that slimy, it's dry and rough and more segmented/scuted than an earthworm (which means I really ought to shade the segments).

So I'm not really sure whether cel shading would work, though the dithering doesn't seem to be either. I'll try to tone it down.

And I'll tweak the colors a bit, see if I can bring them together.

I'm a mess, but thanks for the crit, you're all really helpful.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2011, 05:28:00 am by Cassowary »

Offline Cassowary

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #6 on: June 27, 2011, 05:27:42 am


Redone. I didn't end up tweaking the colors though - I like them too much.

Offline piffany

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #7 on: June 28, 2011, 06:40:53 am
For more 3D-ness, consider adding some reflected light onto the worm and egg. To explain what I mean, look at this pencil sketch of two eggs. The darkest parts of the eggs are not directly opposite of the light source, because the table surface is reflecting some light back onto the eggs. You can apply this idea.
--Piffany
Disclaimer: I am still fairly new at pixel art, so please don't be offended by my negative critiques :)

Offline Cassowary

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #8 on: July 02, 2011, 01:24:03 am
Like so?

Offline Decroded

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Re: Cassowary's Creations - Magenta Deathworm C+C please

Reply #9 on: July 02, 2011, 04:54:03 am
You could go a bit stronger u cant really notice that u have done it. If palette restrictions permit, play around with using a different colour for the reflection that simulates whatever surface it is on, or just use blue for sky if it is in mid air.

also I say try losing the dark out lines inside the object on the big worm and just let the shading suggest the forms.
I think that would look better, you may not like it but u should at least try it.