AuthorTopic: I need help <3  (Read 10874 times)

Offline TheMonsterAtlas

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #10 on: September 01, 2011, 02:47:54 am
I dunno, I kind of like the look of it the way it is. I mean it's a base and looks way cooler with clothes and hair like this.

Offline Seiseki

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #11 on: September 01, 2011, 02:57:19 am
The color palette for the clothes and hair uses a straight ramp, in other words you're just make the colors darker.
In real life colors get more de-saturated the less light that hits them..
In pixel art a lot of people prefer to add in a little blue or purple in the shades because those are cold colors which also gives of a nice contrast.

Your colors also lack a bit in contrast as well.
For the hair you need to make it darker on the sides.
Also, for the shirt you need to break up the [ shape.

And as Jams pointed out, his body looks like it's viewed from the front, which makes it look like his head is bent forawards and he's looking down on the ground..
Either you make him shorter, or wider. It might be that his legs are too long.

Offline TheMonsterAtlas

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #12 on: September 01, 2011, 03:27:28 am
The color palette for the clothes and hair uses a straight ramp, in other words you're just make the colors darker.
In real life colors get more de-saturated the less light that hits them..
In pixel art a lot of people prefer to add in a little blue or purple in the shades because those are cold colors which also gives of a nice contrast.

Your colors also lack a bit in contrast as well.
For the hair you need to make it darker on the sides.
Also, for the shirt you need to break up the [ shape.

And as Jams pointed out, his body looks like it's viewed from the front, which makes it look like his head is bent forawards and he's looking down on the ground..
Either you make him shorter, or wider. It might be that his legs are too long.

I dunno what you mean by using the different colors of the color wheel, I guess I don't have an understanding of what colors go with one another?

I lowered the body and also changed the hair and shirt???

Offline Seiseki

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #13 on: September 01, 2011, 03:53:56 am
Take a look at these two palettes:





Also, you need more contrast, the darker shades need to be darker. You can add a new darker color and use that.
The hair seems to random as well, try a more simple hairstyle that you can handle better.
And I also think he needs to show more forehead and possibly less shoulders because it still looks like he's looking down rather than it being the perspective.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2011, 03:58:11 am by Seiseki »

Offline TheMonsterAtlas

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #14 on: September 01, 2011, 03:56:38 am
Take a look at these two palettes:




Alright, so for green I'm going to want to add more blue the darker I go?

Offline Seiseki

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #15 on: September 01, 2011, 04:00:42 am
Take a look at these two palettes:




Alright, so for green I'm going to want to add more blue the darker I go?

Yes, be careful not to make the colors to strong or it will look strange. It will also look washed out if you do the opposite and drag down the saturation.

Offline TheMonsterAtlas

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #16 on: September 01, 2011, 04:03:33 am
Take a look at these two palettes:




Alright, so for green I'm going to want to add more blue the darker I go?

Yes, be careful not to make the colors to strong or it will look strange. It will also look washed out if you do the opposite and drag down the saturation.

So I should be looking for changes in the R/B/G but also what about the hue and Lum?

Offline jams0988

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #17 on: September 01, 2011, 04:19:07 am
Quote
The color palette for the clothes and hair uses a straight ramp, in other words you're just make the colors darker.
In real life colors get more de-saturated the less light that hits them..
That's actually not true in all cases...if your light sources are white, the straight ramp is the way to go:
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/

It might be a tough read, but it's definitely worth learning. It's very interesting! =D
I need to re-read it soon, too. I'm starting to forget some of it, hahah.

You do have a point that straight ramps are usually pretty boring looking, though. And it's also true that there are usually non-white light sources around in real life, hahah. X3
Anyway, everyone should go check out that link and read all of it. It dispels a lot of myths that have been floating around the art community about color forever. I was surprised to find out that everything I thought I knew about color was completely wrong, lol. "Make the green blue when it gets darker" is over simplifying it, though, and in many cases will lead the artist in the wrong direction. What if the character is inside a yellow pyramid with white construction-site lights as the main light source? There'd be no blue anywhere, and the secondary light source would probably be the yellow reflected light from the room - the green would be sliding towards yellow in the shadows, the complete opposite of blue!
« Last Edit: September 01, 2011, 04:43:37 am by jams0988 »

Offline Cure

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #18 on: September 01, 2011, 07:18:54 am
that palette was created just as a visual tool to illustrate hue-shifting. green needn't necessarily darken toward blue, especially as drastically as in that example. as has already been pointed out, it's all up to lighting conditions.

and 'straight ramp' just means a ramp without hue-shifting. It's primarily about hue, not saturation or luminosity.

Offline jams0988

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Re: I need help <3

Reply #19 on: September 01, 2011, 03:00:08 pm
Quote
and 'straight ramp' just means a ramp without hue-shifting. It's primarily about hue, not saturation or luminosity.
?
I know what a straight ramp is...and under white lighting conditions, your shading would follow a more or less straight ramp. And I've always heard that value is *much* more important than hue shifts - I'm pretty sure I could make a black and white painting, but I think both of us would have a pretty hard time painting anything just using hue shifts, hahah. Now, don't get me wrong, seiseki's advice will get you a decent result 70% of the time, but his advice *is* a huge oversimplification of how color works. When XLR8ED bumps into those 30% of cases where he needs to know how color actually works, and simply hue shifting to a random color is producing bad results, he won't be able to do anything about it.

And that's why I posted that link. I think it's best to understand how color works, instead of just relying on a shortcut that works by luck 70% of the time. You can hue shift to bright purple for a lot of pixel art because the art is so small it simply makes it "pop." But shadows aren't bright purple in real life. What happens when XLR goes to make a large sprite, like a background or something? The larger your piece of art, the more realistic it needs to look - highlighter purple shadows look great stylistically when they're small, but when the piece is larger, they're just going to burn out your eyes. If you went to a painting forum and told people "just hue shift and make the colors darker," you'd get shot down pretty quickly, hahah.

Anyway, sorry Seiseki, didn't mean to jump on your advice; it'll definitely hold true most of the time. It's just that it won't be true *all* the time. My link explains why, and how to pick the correct color for any condition (with math even, hahah!)

Cheers, guys. o/