AuthorTopic: [WIP] Things That Are Not Lizard People  (Read 25449 times)

Offline pistachio

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #40 on: February 17, 2012, 05:52:00 pm
What also barely helps is saying "there are anatomical issues" or "fix the anatomy" without elaborating.

Right then...

Mostly messing around with light levels here however. Parts of the sprite further away being darker than nearer parts would give it depth. Also gave the arm/pitchfork more speculars, got rid of distracting speculars on the neck and belly. Anatomy was squashed in/simplified, mostly the legs, so I tried to describe more of that through silhouette/lighting. It wasn't clear what you were going for with the arm (muscles/no muscles?), either way the lighting there didn't make sense. You might want to rotate the head towards us more, as it is it's looking a bit like a cyclops IMO. The pose is pretty static compared to the other two, feels like he should be leaning forward ready to strike.



If you're going for the golden axe style, and it kinda seems that way with the yellow lizard, you should ditch the outlines, except on the shadowed side, and add more colors. Avoid the pillow shading though.

Other than that these are pretty cool, keep up the good work!
« Last Edit: February 18, 2012, 07:53:46 am by pistachio »

Offline slym

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #41 on: February 19, 2012, 07:53:01 pm
I just don't like how boring the colors are in the new one. It's not necessarily that they aren't saturated enough, it's more that the character only really has 2 color ramps. He's boring to look at as apposed to the earlier version that had much more going on with the greens and blues. It's just my opinion though.

Offline 9_6

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #42 on: February 19, 2012, 07:56:23 pm
Alright some progress:

->
And the background:


Peer pressure made me go more into the green spectrum of yellow which made it blend too much into the quite green background though so I went more towards yellow again.
Darkening things a bit further away seems like a good idea. I accidentally did that on her belly before since I saw no other way of shading it.
Moving the left foot forward was a good idea as it also helps with the composition and that tentacle that went over the shoulder got removed.

Also about that comment about the ears looking too mamally, those things did not real as ears at all so I made them bigger.
Does scaling an image blur it?
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Offline Phlakes

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #43 on: February 19, 2012, 08:06:30 pm
One quick thing, if I didn't read the title I would have no idea they're supposed to be lizards. The facial structure and lack of texture makes them look like mice or cats or something.

Offline 9_6

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #44 on: February 19, 2012, 09:55:28 pm
I don't think I can/should work texture into this at that kind of size.
I'm not even sure if that's such a big issue after all but the new one does look a bit much like a mouse.


So, croc face or penishead?
« Last Edit: February 19, 2012, 09:58:45 pm by 9_6 »
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Offline Tourist

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #45 on: February 19, 2012, 10:39:22 pm
Lizard heads are pretty easy, really.



1.  Draw a circle.  It doesn't correspond to any real part of the skull, it's just a place holder for about where the head will be.  As it turns out this one was too small, but that's ok, it's easy to correct later (step 5).

2. Draw a U-shape connected to the circle.  This will be the snout.  You can get a lot of variation based on the general shape.  Long and thin looks a lot different than short and blunt.  If you were making a dragon, you would use more of a duck bill shape.  Don't worry about the shape too much, you will edit this later, but you generally want the lower jaw to be flatter than the upper snout line.

3. Draw the eye ridge.  The eye ridge is the real key to making a lizard head.  It sits on and covers the top of the circle.  You can vary this by making it more curved, or flatter, or sharply angled. 

4. Now add an eye spot and a mouth line.  The eye sits where the snout, ridge, and circle all meet.  The mouth splits the jaw, and the lower jaw is thinner than the upper jaw (because the upper jaw also has the nose).  This should give you an idea of what the head will look like.

5. I adjusted the head by making the circle area larger, and raising the eye ridge a bit, also repositioned the eye.  Mostly trying for the short blunt look in the original.  I could have just made the snout shorter by a pixel, but the head was overall a bit small.  This head is looking a bit dinosaur-ish, but it will do.

6. Moved the head and added the neck.  Lizards tend to have a neck that sprouts from the back of the head rather than underneath.  It's just one of those things that says 'lizard' rather than mammal.  For a lizard-man, it is sufficient to pull the head forward on a long and angled neck.  The weight distribution is balanced by the tail when standing.  Since this fellow is a big heavy, I gave him a huge broad neck rather than a thin serpent neck.

7. Filled in solid colors.  The eye gets a deep socket to suggest the width of the mouth (if it was viewed from the front).

8.  Adjusted the shape again, making the snout stronger.  This looks ok I think.

9.  Added some bits like the ears.  Lizards don't have much for ears, and big round ears look very mammalian. Small ears that look like little wings will preserve the shape of the long low skull and not detract too much, although they look a bit dragon-ish. 

The nose horn is a bit off I think - there's just not enough pixels here to do it well, but I thought I'd add it in.  I didn't add in the top knot because it again distracted from the basic shape of the head.  A fin on the top of the skull would work ok though.  Or if you wanted hair, maybe some sort of fringe or mane.

Oh, I shaded the neck some too to show how that looks.  The highlights, eh, not so good.


To sum up, your blue guy has the head of a pig rather than a lizard.  The large lower jaw, snub nose, rounded ears all say pig rather than lizard.  The good news is that the basic semi-realistic lizard skull is pretty formulaic. 

Hope this helps,
Tourist

Offline 9_6

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #46 on: February 20, 2012, 01:36:12 am
Thanks.

I know it looks mammalian but like I said, I don't think it's such a big issue. I thought the cow ears kind of gave that away?
Square Enix can go and sell those things for "rats" after all and I believe there are enough reptilian cliches left to get the idea of "lizard people" across.
Yeah, there's some pig in the fat one. I thought that to be rather... fitting?

So yeah, realistic facial lizard anatomy? Not my priority here.

Some progress:
->

I tried to incorporate some pointers pistachio gave.
Does scaling an image blur it?
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Offline Phlakes

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #47 on: February 20, 2012, 01:40:47 am
Well, if you want them to look like lizards, not looking like lizards is kind of a big deal, and right now the only thing reptilian about the yellow one is the pointed tail. Otherwise you're on the right track.

Offline 9_6

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #48 on: February 20, 2012, 01:55:02 am
None of the edits I made to the yellow one are even close to reptilian?
What else can I do then?
Does scaling an image blur it?
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Offline Phlakes

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Re: [WIP] Lizard People

Reply #49 on: February 20, 2012, 01:56:30 am
The original wasn't, the third is definitely more recognizable.