GR#182 Daryl - Sprite Process

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Long time ago I promise to a friend that I will create sprite of Daryl from WD series. That day is now. I still have troubles with clothing. I want to finish this soon so every comment is very appreciated.

[Manupix]

Looks good =)
Needs some bright highlights everywhere; his left forearm and hand are invisible / unreadable (the crossbow should probably cast a shadow on them); and I have no idea what the 3 brown hanging things are or what they hang from.

[Sidereal]

I have no idea what the 3 brown hanging things are or what they hang from.

Rabits? Rats? xD?

Edit: BIRDS? :O

[HarveyDentMustDie]

@Manupix
Those are supposed to be dead squirrels that are hanged around his shoulder by some rope, as can be seen in Sidereal post. I really have trouble with this.

Here is the new edit.

[Johasu]

Most squirrels are much brighter than this up close.  With a good degree of light frosting on their fur and a bit of orange as well.

If you have never looked at one up close:  http://blogs.ucollege.edu/tour/files/2011/08/squirrel.jpg  This is an eastern gray squirrel but a lot of people where I live call them red squirrels because of that orange.
That is a strong reference. In North America, The Walking Dead setting, we mostly have 2 types of dominant species.  "Reds" and Grays (common names)  Darryl always seems to walk with reds hanging from his side.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

@Johasu You are right. Do you maybe have an idea how to create "light frosting" on low resolution? 

Here is an update, I think that now is much better.

[PixelPiledriver]

Quick thoughts:

[AlucardX60]

Made a quick edit before your Ver.2 and never got around to posting.


Shirt highlights now has less contrast, pants highlights are now lighter though far from perfect. Added ears to the 'rabbits'(?), hard to read though. Crossbow cast a shadow on his left arm. Biggest thing though was I made the hair longer. Not sure what season your basing this off but currently his hair is a lot longer then you have it, plus I didn't like his forehead. Though his head may be too tall altogether.

Also you had a few stray colors. Didn't check your current version so you might want to.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Yeah remember that different materials have different levels of highlight brightness. Cloth like on his shirt would be likely very dull, his hair however, as I imagine he hasnt showered in a while might be greasy and have a sort of strong highlight, but at this resolution that might not work  .

[Manupix]

I've been looking around for some refs, and I found this:



Wish you had posted it earlier! It helped me see some problems:
This action figure's arms seem slightly too short, and the crossbow slightly too small compared to other refs.
Spoiler

These issues also appear in your piece; it's a small matter of a pixel or 2.

Then, the pose of yours is too relaxed compared to the character's general attitude. Even the figure looks more tense, mostly thanks to the head and neck being carried lower into the shoulders.

The face and expression (eyes) aren't look-alike; PPD's is closer so far.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

When I started this I meant it to be a quick piece... silly me.   

Let's start from beginning.

@PixelPiledriver Thank you for your edit, I get a lot useful things from it. I'll think about whether should I cover him in dirt or not, but it's a good idea.

@AlucardX60 & Mr. Fahrenheit You are right about highlight color of his shirt, I fix that.

@AlucardX60 Also thank you for your edit, everyone complained about his hair so I've changed it a bit. This is Daryl from the first season cause I was asked to make him couple years ago.  If I change his hair to long I will have to change his clothes also, cause he is changing it form season to season.

@Manupix I didn't post reference cause I wanted to hear comment on sprite itself, not in compare to reference, but maybe I was wrong. At first I didn't notice problem in proportions, but you were right. I added a few pixels to his legs and arms, also I make crossbow longer and tilted his head a little.

Again thank you for your comments, and here is new version. 
  => 

[rikfuzz]

Messed around with the head a bit, made it a lil bigger to try my best to get him recognisable.  Turned out kinda futile at this size even with a couple of extra pixels, but maybe worth a look. Was fun to try anyway!

Also played with the colours a lil too, though mainly just to compensate for adding a highlight skin-tone (think I ended up with a couple less colours than you though somehow).

[HarveyDentMustDie]

You achieved something interesting here, you've made it more realistic. I like what you did with additional skin highlight, thou it looks very desaturated. I tried to add one more light tone with same intention, but it didn't change a lot, probably because of light and too saturated mid-tone. I need to learn to choose colors better.

Thank you for your efforts.   

[rikfuzz]

Ah - yeah the colour grading in the TV show is so greenish grey, so my colours were a bit less saturated and less warm to try and emulate that a little bit. 

[Chris2balls]

Tried my hand at getting a likeness for the face, hope it helps.

[Decroded]

Tried my hand at getting a likeness for the face, hope it helps.

Definitely needs that kind of likeness in the face.
Feels like that back foot needs to come up or something? I dunno perspective just feels a bit off.
Not that into the skin tones either. Too orange for me.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

@Chris2balls thank you for your edit. Yours definitely looks like him more then mine, but that shading under his eyes is killing me.
@Decroded Couple of people complained about legs. I tweek them a little in this last edit.

Thank you all for your comments and edits, here is the final update. I'm satisfied with current result. I would just like to hear is there any obvious problem with shading? And if there isn't I would call this done. I invested more time then I planned in this piece, but it payed off. I learned some cool new tricks.

[Manupix]

Something might have gone wrong when you rotated and aligned the feet, it looks less natural than the previous pose although I can't explain exactly how. Other than that, looks good.

[Decroded]

Cool idea for background.
Dunno about the other comments but I thought the feet needed a bit more perspective, not less.