AuthorTopic: Monster with an Axe  (Read 6409 times)

Offline Soundlust

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Monster with an Axe

on: March 05, 2013, 06:51:09 pm
Still trying to find my way with pixel art, I've been just making stuff and moving on. I'm going to
try to work on this one till it's "done".


Tried to get rid of the black outlines

Offline Opacus

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #1 on: March 06, 2013, 05:34:23 pm
Looks pretty good man. I like the design, especially the helmet. But you still have a
few problems.

Think you should wait just a bit with all the detailing until you get the shadows right.
Some of the forms are still lacking in definition. Mostly the arms, that get a bit obscured
by harsh lines. Try to look a bit more at real, basic forms and try to emulate the shadows
on those. Like a cylinder for the legs and arms or a sphere for the head. It'll dumb down
the forms and make it a little easier.

His pose also seems a little awkward to me. Mostly because his direction is a little
confusing to me. His front foot is in a bit of a weird angle, it's pretty much facing the exact
opposite of the other foot, which makes him look wonky, and confuses whether he's
standing facing to the front or down at a slight angle. It also gives off the impression that
he's bent sideways, instead of bent slightly forward, which knocks him out of balance
with the axe.

Finally, I'd like to suggest a bit more creative use of colour. Most of your shadow colours
are now simply darker shades of the original colour, which isn't bad, but it's kinda boring.
Try mixing it up a little, adding shades of orange or purple to the red or maybe a yellow-ish
tone for the highlights on his armor. Just suggestions though, play with it a bit.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2013, 05:36:45 pm by Opacus »

Offline Soundlust

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #2 on: March 06, 2013, 05:37:48 pm


Another update of fiddling. Tried to get some more detail in, and fix how a few areas were reading.

Edit: Oops, post was made while I was posting. Yeah I agree with you Opacus, there is some issues with the arms, I tried tweaking it
with this iteration but I'm not sure if it solved the problem. I think I fixed the foot? I'm not sure. And yeah, the palette isn't working out the best
I'll make some changes to that as well.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2013, 05:41:46 pm by Soundlust »

Offline Opacus

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #3 on: March 07, 2013, 06:48:54 am


Another update of fiddling. Tried to get some more detail in, and fix how a few areas were reading.

Edit: Oops, post was made while I was posting. Yeah I agree with you Opacus, there is some issues with the arms, I tried tweaking it
with this iteration but I'm not sure if it solved the problem. I think I fixed the foot? I'm not sure. And yeah, the palette isn't working out the best
I'll make some changes to that as well.

No worries  :).

The foot looks a lot better already. The shading and colour problems persist, though.
I'll try to make a little edit today if I find the time.

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #4 on: March 07, 2013, 09:54:16 am
Imho, there's something wrong with the positions of the arms and the axe itself.
--
- the blade and the stick produce a curious angle. 90° would be much better.
- the blade is huge, and the "stick" looks much too slim to carry it and sustain the stress when striking.
- carrying something heavy that far away from your torso put strains on your arm muscles. A warrior would prevent that at all cost, and likely bring the stick very close to his torso.
- the stick will definitly continue past the hands position. This is mandatory for weapon balance, and weapon balance is mandatory to make it move quickly in the direction the warrior decides.

Beside that, leg, torso and head position look great to me, so you have a strong basis to work with. There may be too much "dark art lines", esp. around the blade itself and on the horns of the helmet.

Offline pistachio

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #5 on: March 07, 2013, 01:35:51 pm
Again, character design is looking good. :y: Unfortunately, it hasn't been used to its full potential. Could use some tweaking, a few things I'm thinking would help that would be exaggeration/scaling up of horns, details, etc. and adding new ones. As it is, its silhouette is pretty close to a generic template armor, and reads as just a guy with a couple of horns and an axe.

Could also afford to be more detailed (not as detailed as the edit you see below, which is a bit too much for, say, animation) but the details are not as important as the exaggeration.

Take a look again at the shoulders, head tilt, pelvic tilt. These are all pretty much horizontal. This looks to be contributing to the flatness and lack of weight of the sprite's pose. Adding more angles could make it more dynamic...

Hopefully you see those things in action in this rough edit...




No time to work on the axe yet and the edit still has construction problems, will update later.

Also attempted to remedy the bland palette, mostly by hue-blending and adding more value (stronger shadows, and speculars).
« Last Edit: March 08, 2013, 10:21:57 pm by pistachio »

Offline Soundlust

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #6 on: March 08, 2013, 06:21:56 am
I agree with what you were saying about the hand position Pypebros. And that on top of it reading pretty flat
as pistachio said I tried to shift the pose a bit. I got rid of a red and added something that was a little more purple...
Looking at it now, it still reads as just a red.


And daaaamn! That edit is pretty hot pistachio, you've been bang on pointing out some of my issues. Much appreciated.
Honestly I didn't think you could be that "messy" and still read so well with pixelart, everything I've been using as inspriation/reference
has been so clean-cut.

A palette question, I've been trying to work with pretty low counts. But do you guys create a palette for a piece and 100% stick with it
or treat it like a painting till its done and then start reducing the excess? Probably a question of individual process, but meh I'm curious anyway.

Offline Opacus

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Re: Monster with an Axe

Reply #7 on: March 09, 2013, 10:17:31 am
I agree with what you were saying about the hand position Pypebros. And that on top of it reading pretty flat
as pistachio said I tried to shift the pose a bit. I got rid of a red and added something that was a little more purple...
Looking at it now, it still reads as just a red.


And daaaamn! That edit is pretty hot pistachio, you've been bang on pointing out some of my issues. Much appreciated.
Honestly I didn't think you could be that "messy" and still read so well with pixelart, everything I've been using as inspriation/reference
has been so clean-cut.

A palette question, I've been trying to work with pretty low counts. But do you guys create a palette for a piece and 100% stick with it
or treat it like a painting till its done and then start reducing the excess? Probably a question of individual process, but meh I'm curious anyway.

Good edit indeed, and nice progress (:

Think you should look at the legs of pistachio's edit a bit more. The way the front leg is now
bent forward is a bit too much, I think. He'd look more imposing and threatening with his knee
bent a bit. Colours are also getting a lot better, though right now they feel a little fragmented,
but I can see it's still rather rough.

About the low colour counts: I personally make a colour palette gradually, while working on a
piece. Making it all upfront doesn't allow for much dynamics in the colours and it confines you
in your process quite a bit. However, sometimes this can be a fun challenge, as seen often
with C64 palette's, or Arne's popular 16 colour palette. In the end it's just what you feel like,
really, or what you think fits the piece best.

Either way, it's always a challenge to use little colours and it's usually best to keep tweaking
it throughout the painting, whenever you feel the need.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2013, 10:21:41 am by Opacus »