Metal Is Hard! (WIP)

[jahasaja]

Damn it is hard to get a good metal feeling with pixel art. (for me at least)

This is the best I got so far. Very much inspired by the legendary Arne. I feel that I am on the right track but what do you guys think?



And thanks in advance!




(New version while waiting. only added knee protection,  lower part of armor and  fixed his boots. )

[Johasu]

I have absolutely no experience with dealing with pixeling metal, so I am really not going to be very helpful in completing your mission.
However, I can help the overall piece maybe with pointing out some things that I am struggling with while trying to do an edit of this myself.   

You have very evident banding throughout your character.  Particularly his arm+back, the leg, and the helmet. You have a straight side view which seems to make sense to draw the light division right down the middle like this.  But, that only works when the character comes to sharp angles at his edges, correct?

Another thing is that you seem to have an odd intermingling of color schemes on the armor which is confusing me.  Grey/Blue.  So is a blue light shining in the blue areas?
You have also lined him in a dark color which really sort of forces pillow shading when I try to define his shape.  If the light is coming from up and to the left straight ahead there shouldn't be any darkening along his upper left edges but instead, the highlights should be there correct?

You have clearly attempted to round his midsection with the armor but it doesn't run straight up and down at his sides like his arms seem to be doing. I think the shading on his arms could use some similar highlighting and shading even if they are hanging down at ease.

I would do an edit for you, but I'm currently insufficient in my attempt to produce something better.  Apologies. 

[Rylan]

I can see that a plenty of work went into the metal, however the rest of the soldier (the face is okay) looks a bit under the standard. The arm and the leg look pretty flat, bevel shaded (bevels are the little highlighted and darkened edges, say around his leg, that give it a more 3D feel). Unfortunately, the bevels make stuff look flat, which is good when you want to achieve flatness, but this is not such a time.

My suggestion is to create a small palette by the side with 3-5 colours on it, so that you can easily repick colours from it, if you dont have one already. I usually have a layer with just palettes, something that I can quickly turn off when I need to save a version and something that I can move closer to the area where I draw. Then just paint around, and see what looks good. Remember that you must decide from where all the light comes. Johasu remarked that the armour has a slight blue tone, which may be because it is surrounded by open blue sky. It would not work if this soldier was in a room lit with red alert lights.

The belly, armour, and head, are all pushed forward very much. This amount of weight would make him fall forward unless someone holds him or he has a heavy backpack. You can make a copy of this image and try to draw him without armour just to practice correctly positioning him. Try to imagine where his center of weight is now, and consider that we rest most of our weight on our heels, and we use the rest of the foot to make balance.

Also, it's hard to imagine that the legs are so directly behind each other that you can only see one of them. This is how a soldier could stand when lined up, but not when on guard, on patrol, and so on.

I'm sorry that this is not about the metal, but the metal armour turned out to be one of the best sides of this sprite and you need improvements elsewhere. To improve this sprite further, you'll have to create a more natural posture, or add a heavy backpack if you are lazy or rushed, and you will need to improve shading on the pants and sleeves (and other clothing that comes) up as well.

[jahasaja]

Thanks both for your comments!

Some comments

Johasu:
First, the blue is the reflection of the sky. This where my inspiration from Arne mostly came from (another contributor to this site and 100X better pixel artist then me).
 I agree with all your comments I focused mostly on the metallic feeling of the armor and helmet so the rest is even more WIP.   
“If the light is coming from up and to the left straight ahead” this is the million dollar question. When I look at metal and shines light on it is very hard for to replicate in pixel art. As metal can reflect several light sources at the same time it is very confusing.
For the arm I can only agree with you, it needs more work.

Ryan:
Very good comments on how to get the 3d feel on the arms and legs. I will work on that and get back. 
I will also work on the posture. When I was working on the metal it just became bigger and bigger in order for me to get the metallic feel. And, yeah, now it looks like he is going to fall over.
(He is an outside fighter so that is why the reflections is blue)

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Thanks again both, if I understand your comments correctly: the metal is actually okay and I need to work more on the other stuff?

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Here is a new version. the posture is still not perfect but better i think.

[wolfenoctis]

Your posture and proportions are off, you currently have him with an incredibly rigid spine and overly long upper body, the spine forms a S-curve at the back, also far too many colors. Your sprite has 35 colors, mine has only 13, all those additional color tones are too much and serve no real purpose on a sprite of this size. An edit to illustrate:


Also the pose is straight from the side, you should try turning him at an angle so more of him is visible experiment with a few poses. Even so as you can see I made mine exactly from the side as well but it feels more balanced. Hope it helps 

[jahasaja]

wolfenoctis: Nice edit! It helped a lot!

Here is a new version where I used a lot of your stuff. Still a lot of colors (down to 26). I kept some grey not sure if was for the better though..



Thanks a lot!