Altered Beast - a cluster study

[ptoing]

Adam, that face looks totally like Chuck Norris. Uncanny!

[Geti]

@rikfuzz: nice  though the thighs are a bit undefined for their size compared to the arms, especially the front one which comes off as quite fatty up top, intentional? Using the pink as a buffer in there is a very good move I think.

[Facet]

I wasn't familiar with the game so I followed the link and poked around a bit: Roman solider resurrected by Greek god-sire to rescue god of war & strategy...by turning into a wolfman. got it .

I tried to stick to simply clarifying what was shapeless/odd but ended up changing quite a bit by increment. I gather he powers up via extra beef so I thought he ought to be given space for contrast in that sense. Major changes: more of a face in the jaw-heavy circus strongman mould, far limb placement.

I'll have a proper look round later (we need a line-up!) but just browsing other contributions: a couple things I noticed most people kept was the further arm shape & position. I thought the upper arm looked pretty small, but I regret moving it down into a sort of defensive stance; it looked more engaged as was, similarly turning the head round I think lost vitality. Really interesting to see a variety of, and more elegant, solutions for things. 

[ilkke]

OK here's some real quick lunchbreak-action from me.
Here's a list of what I did, as I found the whole thing more interesting than I anticipated:

• increased the shoulders and bulked up the neck and thorax in general
• moved the head forward to beefen up the body language
• rotated the torso somewhat so I can make the chest nicer. now that I look at it I don't think I made it that much nicer at all
• spread the legs, added a crotch and shortened that foot
• added one colour (darkest) cause I felt the sprite could benefit from stronger shadows. by doing this I failed to keep the sprite at 8 col (7+transparency)
• moved the knees up to compensate for those thighs
• resisted the urge to oil the guy up
• afraid I didn't have the time to pay attention to all the clusters, but at least when I there were conflicts (as there always are with pixel art), I opted to go for the nicer cluster rather than nicer something else

Now I can finally take a look at what Helm did

[Helm]

That's a pretty great left arm. Very very good sculpting. But the right now seems tiny in comparison.

I love the aggresive roid rage head forward thing, it makes the tip-toeing right leg make more sense. But on the other hand something is lost from the poise of the original, which was completely non-threathening. Remember, body builders. He's not fighting. He's posing. All his attacks and stances are poses, check a full sprite sheet out sometime. Nothing forceful or threatening about him.

Also whereas it makes sense to give him a crotch, on another level it makes sense that he *doesn't* have a crotch.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on mine as well!

[Dr D]

My contribution to the thread:



Limited anatomical knowledge probably weaken this quite a bit, I also feel like that critique you (Helm) just gave on ilkke's can apply a bit to mine too. (About the pose/arm)

Just wanted to give it a try though. 

[big brother]

Must resist... overworking.

He reminds me of the idealized Soviet worker seen in statuary. Same number of colors, although I adjusted the original shades to give him more contrast.

[rikfuzz]

Must resist... overworking.

He reminds me of the idealized Soviet worker seen in statuary. Same number of colors, although I adjusted the original shades to give him more contrast.

Wow, this is my favourite by far - I had trouble with the hands, you've totally nailed it.  Not 100% convinced about his nose, but over all looking great.   

@rikfuzz: nice  though the thighs are a bit undefined for their size compared to the arms, especially the front one which comes off as quite fatty up top, intentional? Using the pink as a buffer in there is a very good move I think.

Oh thanks!  Legs aren't intentional really, I'm a little ignorant with muscles' anatomy (especially legs), probably should have used a reference!

[Helm]

I'm very happy with the thread's turnout. Do you think we should move on to a new sprite in the same vein, expand or alter the parameters of the edit or what?

[Dex]

Had a lot of fun doing this, good break from doing work on finals.