AuthorTopic: Young woman sprite  (Read 19894 times)

Offline thebombsauce

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Young woman sprite

on: March 17, 2014, 08:18:14 am
I made this sprite of a young woman with white hair wearing a red jacket, I would like general advice of course but also advice on making it look more feminine and perhaps less old

Offline Kosvid

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #1 on: March 17, 2014, 08:55:48 am
Umm.. May be you shold try with something a bit less complex than drawing peolpe? That is to say, you make new and new pictures (even with animation) without refining the previous ones well. Try to choose one idea you`d like to draw, and draw it without any haste. I`ve been doing my avatar for 21 days so far (not every day, though, but nevertheless) and my first work I started in January is only ~20% completed.
So. Start with something simple, make it accurately, do your best and don`t rush to ask for a help until you feel you`ve run out of your skills. Your problem is that you are trying everything at once and don`t take it serious.

Offline Nmb910

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #2 on: March 17, 2014, 01:30:02 pm
I tried out an edit.


The major issue here is trying to put too much detail into your sprite.

The truth is, at this low resolution, you can't put much detail down at all, and the perspective makes it hard to suggest depth without using some kind of hacky solution.

I tried to simplify your sprite down to the essentials, bringing it so that all of the major elements support each other.
(Except the pants, but ehhh...)

I tried to add an exaggerated chest to make it obvious that she was a girl, but anything I did add looked garish and out of place, so I decided to go with a more subtle choice of changing the character to more easily show core traits.

She's now dressed in a more typical girly shirt (not jacket, sorry), and has her hair grown long (as many girls do), as well as a rather standard hairdo.

The choice of white hair at the resolution lets your eyes assume more fitting traits for the character (since the resolution is too small for little details like wrinkles and accessories), making the character seem more like an old woman than a young girl.

I'm out of time to talk about it though, so I hope I helped!
« Last Edit: March 17, 2014, 01:33:49 pm by Nmb910 »

Offline Neirda

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #3 on: March 17, 2014, 01:55:42 pm


Here my little contribution, I think your character is a little bit too square, in minimalistic pixel art, every pixel is really important for define curves & personality you want to show, this edit is also closer to the rules 1/7 heads in the body, kinda more realistic in proportions...  ( and 2 dots for eyes are not recommanded )
« Last Edit: March 17, 2014, 01:58:53 pm by Neirda »

Offline Imagician

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #4 on: March 17, 2014, 07:30:27 pm
thebombsauce, I think your sprite is a good start.

To be honest, I don't feel any of the edits go into the right direction, in my opinion. Simplification isn't necessarily the key here; moreover Nmb910's edit misses some contrast here between hair and face, which was there before and which was good. Also, it's just the same clumsy stature (i.e. not any more feminine), just with more skin showing

For my taste I think both of you took it quite far away from what was (I think)  attempted to be portrayed, too. Not some skin-revealing sex bomb with a massive cleavage and a almots breaking wasp waist, but something like a woman in a somewhat cold weather clothing. I think one can make a feminine sprite without showing more skin or turning her body into a barbie doll ;)

But of course I could be wrong about thebombsauce's intention, and that's the point here, since for all we know thebombsauce could look just for what you did in the edits. Thing is, one needs to think about which direction it should go in terms of style (of pixeling), size, subject (sexy woman? sporty woman? hiking woman?...), style (of clothing), setting... Is the strong restraining in style intentional? the rigid pose, the (almost) lacking shading...

So, here are some edits of mine that keep her clothing, and add detail and more expression to her pose, and change her body proportions successively.



Not too happy with the legs though, I have to admit... :D

I think it would help if thebombsauce could try and tell us more detailed, where he wants to go with this.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2014, 08:48:37 pm by Imagician »

Offline cels

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #5 on: March 17, 2014, 09:42:28 pm
I agree with Imagician 100%. I was going to say the same stuff and make an edit when I had time, but he beat me to it.

Not every girl needs to look like Barbie, even at this size.

I also like the changes Imagician made to the head. But I agree that the legs are the weakest part of that edit. I also agree with Neirda that you may want to explore other ways of drawing the eyes.

I tried to make some changes to the legs here. I think the shoes had too much noise before, and they were too big for a normal woman. I also made the bottom of her knees brighter, which may seem dumb because you'd expect there to be shadow there, but it makes the broken line softer against the background, so the 90 degree angles at her knee don't seem so sharp.


« Last Edit: March 17, 2014, 09:45:19 pm by cels »

Offline thebombsauce

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #6 on: March 18, 2014, 04:56:33 am
Alright so I studied what you guys did and while I don't really love the stylized way they look now (would look great in one of those old adventure games though) I like some of the different features and shading so I spent about 2 hours making some changes and making a guy version of it so I'd like to know what you guys think of it now and once again thank you very much for all the help


« Last Edit: March 18, 2014, 05:21:42 am by thebombsauce »

Offline Imagician

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #7 on: March 19, 2014, 11:15:29 am
i like your edits. nice touch you put her hair over her shoulder. legs look good,  too (on this background color). i think her (and his) eyes look a bit like a visor Geordi LaForge had, maybe you should split that dark line in the middle. as for him, i think he could use a little bit more elaborate shading on his upper body. is his hairstyle meant to be a short mohawk or something similar? looks the part to me.

nice work, good progress  :y:

Offline thebombsauce

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #8 on: March 19, 2014, 12:14:57 pm
Yeah its mean't to be a small mohawk so I'm happy that its conveyed as such, can you elaborate on what you mean by splitting the dark line in the middle though?

Offline Imagician

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Re: Young woman sprite

Reply #9 on: March 19, 2014, 12:44:36 pm
I simply meant dividing the line that's supposed to be their eyes into:



I only changed 1px in each of them ;)

Maybe you want to give the man's eyes less contrast (i.e. make them less dark), so they look less obtrusive as in the girl, and less like prawn eyes ;)
« Last Edit: March 19, 2014, 12:47:56 pm by Imagician »