AuthorTopic: Black Knight WIP  (Read 13821 times)

Offline wolfenoctis

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #10 on: May 30, 2013, 12:07:03 pm
Gave him more solid dark areas and tried to make the sword less bright:

Thanks for all your effort Cyangmou! You've really contributed much to this thread  :y:

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #11 on: May 30, 2013, 01:00:15 pm
I think you should focus to force him in the right iso perspective first. YOur angles especially for the knees and shoulders are off.
It's a common habit to draw the shoulders with a much more flat angled angle. I think it's because we are more familiar with this kind of view - nonetheless it's wrong if we just keep the constructive part in mind.

Quick and sloppy edit:

"Because the beauty of the human body is that it hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."

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Offline wolfenoctis

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #12 on: May 30, 2013, 02:37:43 pm
Tried putting him in iso perspective:

Did I do it right?

Offline Decroded

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #13 on: May 30, 2013, 02:44:24 pm
Perspective is better.
I like your new horns btw.
Your new shield angle allows for backlighting to bring out its texture.

Started this from your previous version.
I thought the sword should be something a little more along these lines:

Tried to give a curve to the horns.
Started mucking around with the chest try to make it more like the reference but your one kinda looks sharper/better.
Added a crappy version of Cyg's backlighting  :ouch:

Would love to see some environment and more characters ;-)
« Last Edit: May 30, 2013, 02:47:23 pm by Decroded »

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #14 on: May 30, 2013, 04:00:51 pm
@wolfenoctis
much better now perspective wise.

I tried to get rid of senseless details and emphasized some places through simplification.
I also tried to make it easier to grasp the whole concept on first sight, which isn't easy with this pitch-black design because it's hard to read what's going on.

"Because the beauty of the human body is that it hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."

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Offline wolfenoctis

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #15 on: May 31, 2013, 06:42:13 am
Added some light from the back and attempted some AA:


@Cyangmou: Your version is much more readable, although the angle of the sword seems off, if I can't make these dark pixels work I will definitely have a go at simplification  ;D. What do you think of this one?

Offline Decroded

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #16 on: May 31, 2013, 07:53:46 am
Darker background can make ur job harder...

Offline wolfenoctis

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #17 on: May 31, 2013, 09:10:41 am
Tried to simplify a bit and made the background lighter:

this better?

Offline Decroded

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #18 on: May 31, 2013, 09:18:46 am
Its looking so awesome man.
I could be wrong viewing on my phone screen but torso back light line follows too far left and down which makes it look disjointed.
try following curve of his back instead.
The new sword is great but looks too clean for me.
try introducing 1 or 2 shades of dull red to give it that rusty and/or old dried blood appearance >:-)

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Black Knight WIP

Reply #19 on: May 31, 2013, 10:33:08 am
yeah it looks really cool now. I think only some polishing is left to do.



-colored the sword red (decroded was right that it might be a nice detail and the overall palette benefits from it)
-I removed a lot of the AA from the knight against the background. It will cause trouble if the background is really dark.
-I removed some of the banding at the helmet and the breastplate
-I changed the jaggy shield edge near his shoulder to a 2:1 line
-I straightened the strange looking front edge of the shield (I suppose you want to illustrate some nails, but it doesn't work)
-I changed the shinbone armor with that one from an earlier attempt and polished it a bit (this cluster seems to be more effective)
-I toned down the knees - they seemed to be to bright for my taste.
-I removed some dither of the shield (it rather made texture instead of a gradient)
-I removed the 2 pixels in the shadow (they won't work with background)

I dunno were you want to put the knight (bottom-tile wise). Maybe removing the AA of the shadow would make sense from the game-approach.
However I think there is less which can be improved here without changing the general design, all things I listed are only small details.

I also really like the outcome  :y:

P.S.:
to prevent the disjointed look (which decroded pointed out) an steeper angle for the backline might work.

« Last Edit: May 31, 2013, 10:42:59 am by Cyangmou »
"Because the beauty of the human body is that it hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."

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