AuthorTopic: Some more practise.  (Read 5214 times)

Offline madmenyo

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Some more practise.

on: July 22, 2011, 08:48:18 pm
This one took me a couple of hours (lol), but i'm pretty satisfied. I did use some reference of a sprite of the same size. I'm looking for some critique so i can go on with the other sides.


This is the ref i used, i hope it's not too similar. It is from RPG maker, i don't know the exact artist, sorry.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2011, 09:25:05 pm by madmenyo »

Offline Olothontor

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #1 on: July 22, 2011, 08:59:46 pm
Everything seems a little visually busy. This may in part be due to the fact that your colors are poorly chosen to a certain extent. The thing that strikes me the most at the moment is that had I not zoomed in, I wouldn't have known that the blue parts were supposed to be armor decoration rather than shadows. Try a deeper, more saturated blue to separate it from the desturated grays of the armor.

Also, try to avoid using flat gray; infuse it with color! Even the tiniest splash of another color can give lots of life to a previously gray sprite. I realize that armor is generally gray, but that's usually handled by fading to blue or purple, rather than using a flat grayscale (I apologize for overusing the term 'flat,' there).

If you're still confused, I'd be happy to try an edit, although being only a mediocre pixel artist I'm not sure I can do my advice justice.  :yell:
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane." - Akira Kurosawa

Offline madmenyo

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #2 on: July 22, 2011, 09:16:51 pm
Well you have a unique style with that avatar, seen your threat of it and i really dig your tileset, doing my own based on that actually :D.

Anyway I went in and did a quick edit, better?


-edit-
Toned down the deco a little and pushed the greys some more towards teal.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2011, 09:34:54 pm by madmenyo »

Offline Olothontor

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #3 on: July 22, 2011, 09:33:17 pm
That's a bit better, yeah. Your grays still need a little color (I'm sorry if you added some in the last update; if you did, I can't tell).

Also, step 2 (something I got critiqued on and will now pass on to you  ::) ): Make sure that the light source is coming from an obvious direction. Different pieces of your character there look like they're being lit from different directions. Uniformity is key!

Something else to note that just occurred to me: metal is highlighted in extremes, and goes from dark-light very quickly. Your shading and somewhat gently faded colors seem to imply more of a cloth feeling.

Thanks for the props on my stuff, it's all very WIP and I'm only happy with a few things here and there.  :blind:
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane." - Akira Kurosawa

Offline madmenyo

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #4 on: July 22, 2011, 09:59:47 pm
Having a lot of difficulty with the light source and the metal advice. I feel i haven't enough pixels to get a bright line between darks and still have the edges get darker. Am i using to much colors for it?

Offline madmenyo

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #5 on: July 22, 2011, 10:00:26 pm
Having a lot of difficulty with the light source and the metal advice. I feel i haven't enough pixels to get a bright line between darks and still have the edges get darker. Am i using to much colors for it?



-edit-
just did torso and shoulder pads.

Offline Olothontor

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #6 on: July 22, 2011, 11:14:58 pm
I guess with the metal edit I meant more that the shading should not always fade from one color to the next, but rather you'll sometimes have your highlight and your shadow colors right next to eachother. I did a quick edit to fix a couple of things.



*1: I did my best to give him a little more perspective. I find it odd that his feet looked like you were seeing them head-on, while his body was angled slightly more, and his head was starting straight at you (again, head-on). I angled his eyes farther down and made his legs appear slightly more angled with the body (mostly made the actual leg shorter and angled the foot itself. Also notice how I implied that his feet were slightly apart with the shading, even though in terms of shape they're the exact same. Food for thought :y: ). I didn't mess with his hair, because I'm no good at hair and I would only screw it up, but it would probably help the perspective a bit if you adjusted it to be more in tune with the rest of his proportions.

*2: I tried to give an example of the shading I was talking about, and cleaned up your palette of colors a little bit. The hair is still very full of colors, where you only really need 3 or 4 (I also took away that bare midriff of his, since it makes no sense to go into battle with your stomach exposed like that, but that's just a personal tick and has nothing to do with your spriting).

It's not the best edit ever, but I hope it helps you out.

EDIT: I just realized why he looks so dumb; I inadvertently removed the absolutely ridiculous amount of shadow under his hair. Feel free to keep that in your version, it helps the perspective. But if there's any way you can simplify the amount of colors involved there, go ahead and do so.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2011, 11:25:46 pm by Olothontor »
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane." - Akira Kurosawa

Offline madmenyo

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #7 on: July 23, 2011, 07:04:01 am
Wow thanks, that does help me a lot especially for the perspective point you made. However i can't see the shading technique you used, it's like i did, a mirrored body and no obvious light source. The guy probably needs a hair cut to make him look cooler and a little darker shadows might help too. Thanks a lot for the edit can't wait to work on him again nut i have to move a friend of mine from houses.

Gz

Offline Olothontor

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #8 on: July 23, 2011, 11:17:05 am
Wow thanks, that does help me a lot especially for the perspective point you made. However i can't see the shading technique you used, it's like i did, a mirrored body and no obvious light source. The guy probably needs a hair cut to make him look cooler and a little darker shadows might help too. Thanks a lot for the edit can't wait to work on him again nut i have to move a friend of mine from houses.

Gz

Maybe the "technique" was mostly the colors (I told you I wouldn't do my advice justice  :yell: ). Either way, though, that's your best bet.

Also, for hair I'd suggest 1). looking up a reference image or two in the style that you want (notice the difference between his hair and the hair on the GameMaker sprite), and 2). Reducing the colors to maybe 3 or 4.
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane." - Akira Kurosawa

Offline madmenyo

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Re: Some more practise.

Reply #9 on: July 23, 2011, 07:58:05 pm
notice the difference between his hair and the hair on the GameMaker sprite

I wanted to have him different hair, else it wouldn't be practise :D. I will have another go (or some more) at him but soon i will move on to the back and side view, make a couple of more ground tiles and start on the actual game. Eventually i might buy some art or create a little team if the projects starts to get interesting. I just don't want to start without any custom art :D.