AuthorTopic: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly  (Read 15897 times)

Offline Ashbad

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #20 on: July 16, 2012, 05:33:50 pm
Some progress lately:



Still seems to be something about the cheek that makes me want to keep revising it... however, I can't seem to figure out what's wrong, and definitely not what to do about it (can't solve a problem when you don't know what it is)  I shaded the hair pretty simply, so that it has an different texture from the skin (plus long dithering ramps weren't working out well at all -- the shorter the dither ramp, the better it looked); However, with the face I increased some dither ramps (and re-did the "glare effect" from the firefly as a lightsource -- still need to play with colors to make it reflect the color, but I think it now at least reflects the light in general in a correct fashion.)  probably going to add some of the darkest green shade on the firefly to the tips of her hair (9_6's edit showed that it seemed to work)  And finally, color changes yet again.

Offline Cupcake

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #21 on: July 17, 2012, 12:25:09 am
Cute! Her head looks a little bit like a flat object with this latest update - maybe something like this?



You've come a long way since your first posts here! Good job. :)

Offline Ashbad

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #22 on: July 17, 2012, 01:56:20 am
Ooh, that gives me ideas on how to make things less flat for sure!  Thanks!  (I was playing around with other ways this morning for 1-2 hours, but it was nothing that worked, yet this solution looks a lot more obvious and effective) :)

As for the improvement... Thanks! :D  I'm extremely motivated to improve my pixeling skills (and art skills in general) and that's been my goal since I started pixeling/art in general ~2 months ago.  The guys here at pixelation are great and helpful so I owe a lot of my newfound skill (which I think is developing well, however has a very far way to go) to everyone here  ;D

Offline Ashbad

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #23 on: July 25, 2012, 12:03:25 am
Meh, still playing with a reflection of the light on the hair, but... Meh.  Essentially done with Twily herself.  The firefly I was gonna change the (hard to see) dark blue surrounding it with the lighter blue on the bright part of her hair -- I tried it out in MS Paint real quick (had no access to Gfx2 earlier) and it works great, but when I try to save/copy the image MSP complete mucks up my colors, so I'll have to do the recolor in grafx2 tomorrow.

After fixing hair and stuff, I'll be onto the background.



(Made horn more pointy by suggestion of MikeBissle)
« Last Edit: July 25, 2012, 12:05:12 am by Ashbad »

Offline Ai

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #24 on: July 25, 2012, 02:43:08 pm
that reminds me.. those grooves.. the way you lit them is impossible. I mocked it up in Blender, and
with a single lightsource, there is always going to be a dark and a light side to the grooves, no matter where it's placed.

In general, the effect of not having that light/dark contrast along the grooves is to make the horn look 2d, like a paper cutout.

here's a rather rough edit that I think gives more 3dness.
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Offline Seiseki

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #25 on: July 25, 2012, 09:16:21 pm
I think that amount of detail might be too much.
Because this piece really benefits from it's simplicity.

And you gotta ask, "do I really want that much attention focused on the horn?"  ::)

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #26 on: July 25, 2012, 09:45:23 pm
Does anyone else think that the horn is in the wrong place? Either that or the hair is messed up. Like it seems like on the side of the head facing us the hair is pressed up against the pony's face but on the other side its like 20 inches away. And it looks like the horn is coming out of the side of the pony's head and not going straight and out of the front of the ponies hair. Also the pony's head is very flat.

Offline Bissle

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #27 on: July 25, 2012, 09:53:03 pm
I know what you mean, but from looking at official art for the character he is depicting (Twilight Sparkle), her horn really does stick out that way. It's a question of whether he wants more "realism" or wants to stick to the original design. I think the latter would be better based on where he's going.

Offline Stab

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #28 on: July 27, 2012, 04:29:36 am


Everything beyond this rendition doesn't look like progress. This reads as a very soft pink pony staring with fascination at a firefly, outside and on a respectably light nighttime sky. Obviously it doesn't read as something real (there's no physical interaction (light and shadow!) between the firefly and the pony) but I don't feel that should. It's a rainbow coloured unicorn staring at a ball of light... fairly safe to say that realism doesn't need to be the goal.

Compositionally, the quoted version also works cleaner than the later renditions. The bands of colour in the hair direct you toward the eye where the visual tension between the firefly and its (her?) eye is set up. The only thing that irks me is the ear standing straight up and right on the edge of the frame. It creates tension that draws your eye to the ear, shows that the ear doesn't have a function in the composition (it points to nothing, says little and leads you nowhere!), and competes with the focal point for eye attention while not... yeah. It breaks things a little bit. I would greatly greatly greatly prefer it if the ear was lying flat back and breaking the edge of the image. If it were doing that, it could "point" to the eye and lead your eye inward from the edge of the scene towards where you're supposed to be looking anyways. It would also emotionally project an image of uneasiness or uncertainty at the strange thing in front of them WHICH feels consistent with the theme, to me.

As for the horn, I'd agree that it looks strange, but honestly a quick google search reveals that it looks strange on the "real thing", too. It only looks strange if you look at it, it isn't visually disruptive, so I'd say it can stay where it is and how it is without the world imploding.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, 04:31:19 am by Stab »

Offline Seiseki

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Re: [WIP] Twily and the Firefly

Reply #29 on: July 27, 2012, 05:46:32 am
I too prefer the less contrasted version since I like the tones more, although some kind of mix between the two might look good.
What I do like from the newer version is the sharp highlight on her nose and forehead and more contrast for the eyes.

I decided to try and play around with the proportions a bit! :D

             

I think she looks more feminine with the hair pushed back.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, 06:12:49 am by Seiseki »