Zero Suit Samus

[Dhaos]

*harsh celout (due to pixeltendos very dark forum bg =P)

This was for a 'nintendo' duel at pixeltendo, I'm trying to win by sheer sex appeal XD. There is a rediculous color count, I just didn't have time to go back and tweak that. Several hair tones could be blended together with the face tones, and some of the darker blue could combine with some of the purples probably.

C&C if you wish.

[Ryumaru]

mhmmm... sex apeal. lol

it looks like her right foot bends inward, when i think it should bend outwards, unless shes like in the movement of turning around to face the viewer.

[Dhaos]

Yeah, she is kinda turning, but there is probably a problem with the feet, they're tricky to get right 0.o

Btw thanks for the vote ^.^

[Ryumaru]

i have no idea why, but now that i look like it, with her hair in that motion, it looks like the intro of a james bond movie where he turns and shoots at the screen.

[AdamAtomic]

the positioning of the right arm bothers me, it looks like you couldn't come up with a pose and so just drew it behind her body.  i could be wrong, but it doesn't look that natural and seems like kind of a cop-out.

aside from that, rawr   zero suit is the best suit in my opinion...

[ndchristie]

my only concern at this point is that the back hair hair is going in the wrong direction for her turn (though the bangs are correct), but this can be dismissed as there being wind

There is a rediculous color count, I just didn't have time to go back and tweak that.

im not sure i understand how you got yourself into that bind, typically colors are gained in refinement, not lost.  if you dont need a color, why add it?  the best way to work to conserve colors is to do each segment with as many of the already existing colors as you can use, and then if you cannot get the proper color from mixing those, add another color, and try to work that new color into the rest of the sprite as well.  that at least is how i work and i like to think that im pretty good in terms of conservation, though sometimes i err on the side of too few colors (especially in shadows)

[Helm]

mainly anatomy stuff, some different lighting ideas, biggest thing in my opinion is the arm you're underusing (good for balance.) minor neck shadow edit, eye edit, back and fore leg replacement, a good idea is the pelvis bone sharp highlight edge.

[Dhaos]

Seems I got some extra time so I'm going back over and fixing the stuff mentioned here. Initially I left her right arm relaxed because I thought it gave a gentler look to the piece, but people keep bringing up that it looks cheap, so its time to change it ^^U.

@AdamAtomic: =\ Wasn't really sure what to do with that arm, I thought about putting it out more early one, but it seemed to tense/rigid. So I just had it lay there...lifeless and boring >_<

@Adrias: Yeah the hair is blowing that way from wind, not the turn, I'm not exactly sure how to improve it. Perhaps make it turn away from the viewer abit? As for the coloring, I started the piece as a pure gray scale image, as an experiment. I knew I'd need a minimum 8 tones, but I wanted the shines to be smoother, so I added 10 instead. I pixeled the entire image in grayscale, then started to go over it with color (graphics gale has a color replace tool to speed that up). I did it that way since I have a hard time determining exactly how many colors I will need to keep things as smooth as possible. I have a hard time figuring out how to balance high color counts. Thats one reason why I gave up that huge portrait I was working on awhile back. This gray scale thing is a bit easier for me as it helps me figure out where all the pixels need to be before I apply the color.

@Helm: Hmm you got some points there, her right shoulder should come down... legs closer together, I'll see what I can do. Thanks for brining those points up.

[ndchristie]

@Adrias: Yeah the hair is blowing that way from wind, not the turn, I'm not exactly sure how to improve it. Perhaps make it turn away from the viewer abit? As for the coloring, I started the piece as a pure gray scale image, as an experiment. I knew I'd need a minimum 8 tones, but I wanted the shines to be smoother, so I added 10 instead. I pixeled the entire image in grayscale, then started to go over it with color (graphics gale has a color replace tool to speed that up). I did it that way since I have a hard time determining exactly how many colors I will need to keep things as smooth as possible. I have a hard time figuring out how to balance high color counts. Thats one reason why I gave up that huge portrait I was working on awhile back. This gray scale thing is a bit easier for me as it helps me figure out where all the pixels need to be before I apply the color.

IF there is wind, then the hair is a non-issue.  just as long as its supposed to be like that

i think the easiest way to find out how many colors youll need to make something smooth is just to work with very few colors and then add until it looks good. this way ive found you seldom reach more than 14.  personally i think the grayscale method is great for making sure a piece is well-rendered, but breeds the most horrendous color practices.  41 colors for this is obscene IMO, you could do it in 16 without real sacrifice.  the most important things is to have the same colors in different ramps; this both conserves colors and unifies the piece.  if every ramp consists of completely unique colors, they almost never mesh well, and this piece in particular is really desperate for unification.

[Wayuki]

I thought the pose was a bit awkward looking, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. When I tried to act it out in front of a mirror, though, I realized that your sprite is very contorted. There's no way the chest can be turned towards the viewer like that when the hips are turned away.

Here's an edit of the pose. I used Helm's arm edit, because I'm lazy like that. 



Sorry if I messed up the shading and sellout a bit in the process, just ignore that.