AuthorTopic: [C+C] Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?  (Read 5249 times)

Offline Endpiece

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[C+C] Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

on: July 01, 2011, 09:01:47 pm
Working on design for an indie game. Aiming for Mega Drive graphics. Currently stumped - reread topic title as to why.



The red/brown suit and orange boots are supposed to 'look' metallic. I'm... not that great at rendering in high-resolution paintings, let alone spriting (unless it's GBC style...), so I ask for your critiques and fixes. I've tried looking at screenshots (Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Rocket Knight Adventures, Ranger X) but their greatness doesn't seem to have rubbed off on me.

Reference for design

Reference for game (at the moment mere technical demos)
« Last Edit: September 15, 2015, 02:19:12 pm by Endpiece »

Offline Decroded

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #1 on: July 02, 2011, 05:02:28 am
I can't edit from here but they look plasticy because u have a large area of mid tone orange with small specular highlights.
I'm no expert but if u look at how a metal sphere renders, it ramps up quite quickly from dark to light with much larger specular area.
So basically I think u need much lighter orange where the mid tone is and go for white on the highlight.

Offline Psiweapon

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #2 on: July 02, 2011, 12:25:41 pm
Adding some hard shadows opposite to the highlights, but not reaching the edge of the piece in question (leave at least one pixel of the base shade or a slightly darker one) could probably help.

Offline Decroded

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #3 on: July 02, 2011, 01:53:14 pm
Adding some hard shadows opposite to the highlights, but not reaching the edge of the piece in question (leave at least one pixel of the base shade or a slightly darker one) could probably help.
Yeah that should give the impression of highly polished metal if it has sharper dark areas which are not necessarily shadows on the metal itself but reflections of shadows of its surroundings.

Offline Endpiece

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #4 on: July 02, 2011, 04:06:16 pm
Thanks for the critique.



Concerned about whether I'm 'doing it wrong' (both stances show different edits/attempts), and also the clarity of the characters. Top row are the new edits, bottom row is some different stuff.



Editing sprites against a plain background has its disadvantages compared to checking them against reference sprites and BGs - mostly clarity and palette spread. The Gunstar/Contra rips aren't mine, obviously.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2015, 02:19:38 pm by Endpiece »

Offline leroy

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #5 on: July 02, 2011, 07:16:55 pm
I don't think dropbox is the best host for imagery. I can't even see it atm.  >:(

Offline Endpiece

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #6 on: July 04, 2011, 01:06:25 am
I don't think dropbox is the best host for imagery. I can't even see it atm.  >:(

Reuploaded the images to Photobucket and edited an earlier post with updated sprites.

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #7 on: July 04, 2011, 11:09:48 am
The first guy (top row) looks much better and metally because of that strong highlight and more smooth, cylindrical look, so good direction you took him in there. The middle top row guy improved as well, but feels like he was shaded a little differently than the first one. The first guy kind of smooths from that highlight into the red with that orange ramp as a buffer zone, where as the one in the middle goes straight from the highlight color to being red. I think the first one achieves a better feel, honestly, so you might consider shading him in a way consistent with the other. The far right one, however, just feels noisy and textured with that dithering.

The boots for the middle one also display a rendering that is conveying well as metal, with that dark shade right up against the highlight - nice and chrome-y feeling, you might see if that shadow-highlight bumping will benefit the red armor parts as well.

And not to derail, because this is on a totally unrelated note toward the piece, but I did want to sing my praise for Dropbox for non-image related things.  I just discovered it and have been using it to keep all 3 of my computers synced with all my client and art work files instead of constantly fearing that the thumbdrive I was using to keep it all accessible wherever needed was going to get lost or broken.  Hooray for dropbox :D.

Offline Endpiece

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Re: Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #8 on: July 06, 2011, 03:18:13 pm


Top row: standard standing sprite, standard leaning sprite, short shadow/light ramp on leaning sprite, standing sprite with more gloss, the two heroes of the story (animation of the suit changes according to whoever's wearing it)

Bottom row: the sub-bosses, alongside a final (left) and beta (right) of the boss
« Last Edit: September 15, 2015, 02:19:51 pm by Endpiece »

Offline Endpiece

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Re: [C+C] Metal Shading, Mega Drive Style?

Reply #9 on: August 23, 2011, 04:33:02 pm


So I've got some portrait sprites for the playable characters in this game, and I'd like for you guys to critique and fix them - where have I gone wrong in terms of colour combination, hues, values, etc? Colours per sprite are limited to 16, but most of the sprites don't have nearly that many.



« Last Edit: September 15, 2015, 02:20:12 pm by Endpiece »