AuthorTopic: GR#143 - Blacksmith - Sprite Process  (Read 24029 times)

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #10 on: November 02, 2013, 01:51:11 pm

Thank you.
Mostly small touchups here.  The lighting on his toe plates, the candle and its flame recolored slightly and adjusted to feel more like a small flame.  Worked on shading the wrist bands a bit better.  The solid splotchy look has been bugging me.

The skin tone highlight was only very slightly higher than the next tone down so I really don't know how I can dim the brightness on it with a softer color. (Aside from another full palette adjustment)  So instead, for this attempt I simply removed the highest level tone.  (It was only in a few small places emphasizing lighting and I am not sure it is even necessary at this point.)

So here it is and I'm really not sure how to improve him further from here without more guidance.  Is there anything else that is off or feels wrong?  Does this new three tone skin setup tone down some of that killer brightness of the highlights?

I feel that the haft of his mallet is a bit askew with both the head and lower portion of the haft. So I will be making an effort soon to correct that.  Any more thoughts or ideas?
I appreciate all the assistance.  Your comment about molding the colors into shape like clay was brilliant. (Eye opening really.  Totally changes the way I think about pixeling.)
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Tidbit

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 80
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #11 on: November 02, 2013, 06:35:25 pm

Here's my take on how you should do the lighting on his body, hands and also his hammer. For my edit I removed the amount of the darkest skin tone you had to just the outline and filled the rest with the second darkest tone. I then added a fourth color which is brighter than the slightly dark skin tone but darker than the highlight and filled in the edges of the highlight with that. I tweaked the flame on the helmet to look a bit more vibrant by adding the brown from the hammer handle to a few spots in the flame and added a few pixels. I also edited the hammer head to look a bit more metallic and reflective. I don't really like how I did the hands but I wasn't sure how to add the fourth color to them but I think what I did looks pretty good. I tried removing the outline for the upper part of the nose and use the midtone color to sort of look like it's protruding from his face but it looks a bit strange and needs a little touching up.
I hope you can understand more clearly what I was saying before with this little edit :). You were one the right track with the colors but instead of removing one you just needed an extra one that was right in the middle, sometimes its the little things that really bring something together.

Offline jahasaja

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 120
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #12 on: November 02, 2013, 08:22:53 pm
I tried to do a version. (The version just above look better though).

I did not have so much time so I focused on the shadows and changing the feets which looked wrong to me. Also tried to give him biceps.



I think the biggest problem is that you made him too big. I am also a beginner and I find that making smaller pictures usually looks better. like maximum 60 pixles high. 

Offline Tidbit

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 80
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #13 on: November 02, 2013, 09:10:49 pm
Made him bigger? I didn't change his height at all, all I did was add that fourth shade of color which was a midtone and filled out the structure of your character better. The height is the exact same as before and if you compare their heights together, they are indeed the same. You need to have another shade of color that's darker than your highlights because the lighting to have needs to be softened to make it look better, like how I did in mine. But I suppose it's all a matter of personal preference.

Offline jahasaja

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 120
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #14 on: November 02, 2013, 09:29:09 pm
Tidbit: I am not Johasu  :). I mean that he made his character too big in the first place since it is easier to make small characters when you are learning (at least I think so).

Your edit was nice, way better than mine.

Offline PixelPiledriver

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 997
  • Karma: +6/-0
  • Yo!
    • View Profile
    • My Blog

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #15 on: November 03, 2013, 01:44:02 am


I didn't change any colors but they could use some tweaking.
As Cyangmou suggested, you could spend more time exploring the character and image.
If you want him to be more cartoony add more variation to the scale of his parts.
You've drawn much of him roughly the same size.

« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 02:16:17 am by PixelPiledriver »
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline YellowLime

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 227
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Sour Pixels

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #16 on: November 03, 2013, 01:21:07 pm
Nice edit! Though I think that the difference between the width of the ribcage and the arm is too big...
If you want him to be more cartoony add more variation to the scale of his parts.
That's right, but instead of exaggerating the cartoon's strength, I feel like the opposite is achieved with those puny arms :lol:

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #17 on: November 03, 2013, 02:02:06 pm
 :o  You guys are great!

I was gone for a day and come back to see so many helpful inputs and ideas.  So very much appreciated.
I haven't had time to do any changes yet, as I am still trying to soak in everything that was said and suggested.

@Tidbit~ Wow that really gives me some good ideas on how to do lighting effects and shading. Not simply the color modification but also the manner in which you went about laying the colors on the curves to emphasize form. Thank you.

@jahasaja~ I can acknowledge that this has been a challenging little guy to work on.  I didn't really think about the size when I began.  I started with the hat and just went from there.  B&W face eventually stretched into a body and I decided to try coloring him.  I felt that he was sort of ideal in size because I had room to learn and also I could make large changes with single pixels at this size. I have learned a lot already though, so I'm not complaining.
   I also think you may be onto something about the placement of his feet.  Yours feels more correct than my newest version to me.  I am going to stare at it for a while and consider.  Biceps definitely show on yours and Tidbit's better than mine ever managed.

@PixelPiledriver~  Woah!  What a radically different vision for this guy.  It's great!  I'm definitely going to spend time looking it over and considering all the strong points.  It's a bit off the track of my goal for the character's shape but wow.  The way you used such simple color range to show so much shape and form.  O_O  Mind boggled.  What would you suggest I change about the palette?  That was one of my big stress points on posting.  I need to find some sort of lessons or method for choosing my colors better. Right now I feel like Im just dragging sliders back and forth searching for darker and lighter versions of colors and trying them to see if they work.  (Not exactly, but it certainly feels that way when I'm doubting my choices.)

Again, you guys are awesome.  Im going to take some time to soak this all up and come back with another edit later.  Thanks for the help! ;D
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Johasu

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 187
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • @johasu232
    • Johasu232
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #18 on: November 03, 2013, 09:31:57 pm


Small changes across the board taking advice and inspiration from all those inputs I received.  I modified the candle flame and the shading of the candle a small bit to give it that sort of flame-like curl that PixelPiledriver showed.  I also pulled inspiration from his method for eyebrows and added some of my own.  I had originally tried placing eyebrows but the bulgy form of my eyes had cause this to look terrible in every attempt.  He showed me a flatter form of eye design that allowed eyebrows to work for me.  I really like his/her example for the way the chest is broadened and it felt much more barrel-like than I portrayed my character to be.  I may work on widening his musculature out and broadening his chest to pull away from some of the uniform blockiness of his shape in the future.
I also enjoyed the way his beard was modified with the solid color and shading so I tried to do a new version of the beard while still maintaining the uneven scraggle I originally went for.  Im not sure how it turned out but changes to his face, mouth, and the shape of the beard were involved.

I really love the way Tidbits lighting adaptation put much more emphasis on the depth of the figure.  So I made an attempt to imitate him by finding another skin tone in the middle range and recoloring the skin everywhere.  I tweaked his nose some to allow the removal of hard lines and worked on that molding trick in places.  I think it turned out better than I imagined it would when I started.  I didn't feel like the changes that were made to the hammer made that much of a difference but I tweaked mine some in line with what you did on yours.

A change to the character's left leg and a bit of a recoloring on his pants followed.  Then a little something different on the boots as well.

I haven't been willing to alter the overall shape of the character yet by changing the shape/size of his hands or the proportions of his musculature and build.  I wanted to see how well I could carry the current structure along before branching away on another variety or "versioning".  I really enjoy the current shape of the helmet but I removed a color and tweaked the lighting a bit to take away some of the splotchy pattern on it as well.

Let me know what you guys think of his current form.  Anything I am still doing blatantly wrong or not very well?  I understand that his anatomy has been a key point of concern and I'm definitely taking that into consideration even though I haven't changed his shape much. Still hoping for some advice on color palette.  I feel like I am particularly struggling on his pants, and I wouldn't mind making an attempt at giving his hat a light copper or brass tone (which is what im trying to do but probably not well.)
Thanks again!
Gallery:  http://johasu.deviantart.com/gallery/
Twitter:  @johasu232

Offline Vermolius

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 35
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: C+C/Assist with advice on palette choices and shading please.

Reply #19 on: November 04, 2013, 12:27:04 am

Tried my hand at an edit. Mostly playing around.
  • Pronounced his muscles.
  • Gave him squinty eyes.
  • Changed the size of his hands
  • Tried to clear up some of the blur on his right hand but failed.
  • Put the handle of the hammer through his hand instead of 'behind' it.
  • Gave him knees.
  • Toyed with the notion of casting a yellow light around but only got so far as to cast it onto the hammer
  • Other things I don't remember...
;D