Reptilian arm

[Turbo]

Doing some tests for applying a reptilian scaly texture on an arm.



The physics behind this is: yellow lightsource, the scales are pink/purpleish, and the ambient lighting is colored a swampy dark green.
Have at you, kind sirs.

[helloimpoor]

maybe make the gaps between scales less defined otherwise it looks like bricks.

[majestic1]

looks like metal/armor
pretty good so far

[Tremulant]

I agree that it looks more blike bricks than scales. The major thing, I think, is that the contrast is too high, the dividing lines too dark. Because of that, if it were to cover a whole piece, it might get a bit distracting (details in the face, say, might get obscured/overshadowed by the texture). Also, scales tend to overlap one another and form (if any geometric pattern) more of a diamond shape than a straight rectangle.

That said though, this is a pretty cool texture in its own right, and is (along with the lighting) really well executed here. I'd be interested to see where you could take this.

Pixel forth and conquer, good sir.

[Turbo]

Thanks for your comments, very helpful.
I tweaked the contrast on the lines so that they reacted better to the light, and increased readability by simplifying a bit the clusters of scales. Also, altered their shape to resemble more clearly the diamond shape (which initially i tried to indicate, using subtle shading, but i guess it was too subtle ).



The version on the left is one i further rendered from the one on the right - in which i altered only the contrast on the lines - with the new scale shape and even less contrast on the light area.

[Ryumaru]

i think making the highlight more yellow improves it dramatically.

[Darion]

Looks more like an arm made of bricks ... but I lke that idea a whole lot better. Seen too many reptilian arms.

[Turbo]

Ryumaru: i think you made the highlights green, not yellow. Given that i wanted a yellowish lightsource, i don't think it's adequate.

Darion: still getting the bricks feeling?... I'll try to give it another rework when i have time, further lowering the contrast of the spaces between the scales.

Thanks for the comments

[Ryumaru]

but your last highlights where white???

[Razz]

They were a soft yellow. Plus, adding green to white doesn't make it more yellow.

[Gil]

Huh? Razz, I don't see any green, except on Ryu's edit? Your comment seems random...

As for the piece, it looks better now, but drop the contrast on the highlights... The pallette doesn't remind me of reptilian skin

[Turbo]

Better, yes? No more bricks, yes?



Ryumaru: from where i'm looking at, it's as Razz says, the highlights are pale yellow.

Gil: i wanted to do a reptile look while moving away from the colors we're used to seeing, hence the purple colors. Given that there aren't any purple lizards that i know of, i'm improvising a bit on this one (while using references for the skin, i can't reference the colors literally).
Hopefully the full piece will convey the reptilian aspect, regardless of palette.

[Shred]

I think the brick feeling is still there, but it is much better now. Im far from being an expert, but perhaps try lightly shading the seperate scales? 

[Lick]

I'd say, try to enlarge the scrubs. It will allow you to bring more detail and even let the viewer more easily know what it is.

[Turbo]

I'd say, try to enlarge the scrubs. It will allow you to bring more detail and even let the viewer more easily know what it is.

The thing is, it's supposed to be a giant reptile, dragon-sized. I wanted to keep the scales (i suppose that's what you mean by "scrubs", my wiktionary isn't helping here) small to indicate the creature's large size.

[Faktablad]

Your latest edit is a big step in the right direction IMO, but I would even take it a step further.  Here's a quick edit where you can see the general idea I have of the shading/texturing style I think you should use.  Granted, the scales don't look perfect but you can easily tweak that while retaining the style:

<mine>...<yours>


I think you're still focusing a bit too much on keeping that nice scaly texture while not paying attention to the form of the arm.  Remember that you can still convey a texture very well by merely using strategically placed colors, it's one of the nice things about pixel art.  You can always hint at a certain texture without going "outline outline outline" and trying to draw each individual scale like this: [][][].  Remember your pallette is trying to suggest form as well as texture.  In order to convey form well, keep colors generally where they're supposed to be; Don't bring the darker green very far at all into the purple, for example.  But to convey the scaly texture well, you should bring some colors where they're not supposed to be, albeit in very specific, deliberate places.  I don't really know of a good example of what I mean, so I'm going to be somewhat vain and use a simple example from my own portfolio:



Now, this is more simple (only 5 colors) than you want your reptile to be, but hopefully it illustrates that texture can be easily produced by doing little more than hinting at it using colors.

[Turbo]

I see what you mean with the edit and the stuff about hinting at texture, using it only in small, more controlled places than all over. That's something i had somewhat present from the start, but wasn't applying it enough (holding back a bit there) to really make it count.
The edit is great, very effective and i prefer it over mine. Somewhere along the tweaking (or right from the start) i've lost sense of the volumes, and your advice is very helpful in moving towards that again.

Thank you for taking all the time to do the edit and comment.

[Faktablad]

Thanks, glad I helped!

[ndchristie]

i feel that in this piece, it seems that texture was so much the focus that the anatomy and volume of this pece were lost in the process.  If you are going to texture a piece, i suggest that you first render the underlying anatomy almost completely before adding textures.  highlighting comes last and should be based both on the textures and the anatomy, not just on where a scale has an edge.  heres a quick idea of how id suggest doing things:



that being said, this piece is still quite nice and each person has their own methods.  nate out

[Gil]

Adarias: your anatomy is a little wonky though. The upper arm seems to lack a bone, the muscles seem to be the only volume between the shoulder and the elbow, I have no idea where a bone would go, making the arm look thin...

[Turbo]

Yeah, i did that, Adarias. Here's the progress so far:


As you can see, I initially rendered the muscles with a certain degree of definition, but as i started adding the texture, i just went with the most significant volumes, ignoring the smaller muscles. This was because by looking at my references on lizard skin, i could see that it doesn't stick to the muscle in the same way as human skin does: it's thicker, there are a few ruffles (like extra skin) and there's frequently a layer of fat that makes it rounder around the muscle. I wanted to have a trim, muscular look, while not making it look too "human skin with scales on top".

Your interpretation looks great though, i'll pay special attention to the scaly version, the highlights give a nice shine to it (though the scales are too big for what i'm after, but it's still helpful).

Thanks!

[ndchristie]

ok cool, as long as its intentional

and yeah gil like i said its a quick process (about 15 minutes while watching survivor) ment purely to show a way to keep the anatomy clear despite texturing, not correct anatomy (i didnt really pay much attention to what i was doing to be honest)