[WIP][C&C] General pixel-art

[AshCrimson]

Left one side free of muscles so i could show the changes i made (thanks Night for pointing some of them out!) and still working on in regards to the bones:



I've probably got the muscles all wrong, alot of them seem to blend in together, but i did try to to get their general shape down.

[Night]

Still a few problems with the structure of the skeleton, which would be pretty good if you fixed, but let's focus on the muscles for now.
I think that marking each muscle in a different colour is more trouble than it's worth, try going for a solid red colour for all muscles along with several shades to mark indentations and shadows.

Here are a few more sketches I've made of some muscles, mainly added the torso ones (going to add a few more later). Also fixed some problems with the muscle insertions (chest and traps) where I was wrong.
Hopefully this is of some help to you and not just out there to bolster my ego (all in all though it does help me too, can't say that I'm a master at anatomy, not just yet anyway) 

[AshCrimson]

Thanks for the sketches man, it's not ego stroking at all. To be honest, im jealous of how well you can depict them! Hopefully i can begin to approach the level of detail you put into your sketches, let alone work.

The main reason for making them different colours is because when they're all red, it's sometimes difficult to tell them appart from other muscles.

I did a quick attempt at trying to put skin on the muscles:



I've sinced edited some of the muscles so it's sort of obsolete.

[Night]

Hah, thanks! I'm glad it can help.

Yeah I understand the reasoning behind why you choose to make them in different colours, but I feel like it's not that useful. The lines that are created by the muscle folds and shadows are very important when it comes to art as it gives you that 3 dimensional feel; with different colours, and without shadows/different shades too, it removes this 3D feel and makes it harder on you to remember.

I still urge you to go for an écorché approach with the figure rather than with skin.
Even with the skin on though you should make some differences in regards to anatomy and shading (don't be afraid to add shading, it will just add to your understanding of anatomy here).

[AshCrimson]

Will definitely try what you said!

Just want to clarify something; im not wanting to be a slave to anatomical correctness as much as i want to be able to to make characters that look "right" if that makes sense?

[Night]

Cool!

Sure, but without the knowledge of anatomy there's no basis to the "right" look. Basically, if you know anatomy well you can translate it into characters that aren't supposed to be realistic, even cartoonish in a reasonable way.

[AshCrimson]

Took a break from anatomy because it's pretty tiring sometimes and focused on smaller animations, mainly trying to get used to moving limbs and possibly even gesture:



Trying to get this swaying stance thing down, but it probably looks too jerky.



Some idle stuff with a dude with a spear.

[AshCrimson]

Sorry for the lack of updates for the last month or so.

Been mainly concentrating on smaller pieces like the below:



Or practicing animating:

[AlcopopStar]

Amazing thread btw, glad this popped up I hadn't seen it before.

Good start on your animation, but I feel that it comes across as a bit robotic and zombieish. Robotic in the sense that his torso seems to slide back and forth while the rest of him stays in place. and zombieish in that the lack of movement in the other arm makes it look broken or dead. Both of these stem from the same problem; a lack of movement in the figure. I feel like the motion needs a twist in the chest, a shifting of the feat or a bowing of the head. However you treat the motion you need to do something to get the rest of the body in play.

I get that this is just practice of course, but hopefully those thoughts are still useful. I quite like all your static sprites, looking forward to seeing more.

[AshCrimson]

Amazing thread btw, glad this popped up I hadn't seen it before.

Good start on your animation, but I feel that it comes across as a bit robotic and zombieish. Robotic in the sense that his torso seems to slide back and forth while the rest of him stays in place. and zombieish in that the lack of movement in the other arm makes it look broken or dead. Both of these stem from the same problem; a lack of movement in the figure. I feel like the motion needs a twist in the chest, a shifting of the feat or a bowing of the head. However you treat the motion you need to do something to get the rest of the body in play.

I get that this is just practice of course, but hopefully those thoughts are still useful. I quite like all your static sprites, looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it! I thought there was something up with the animation.

Here's a quick update with some of your words in mind:



I apologise pre-emptively for how awful it looks, i wasn't sure what to do with his spare hand, so i added a shield and tried to make it look like he was counter-balancing but i think i messed up. I also tried to make him move as well, in the hopes of it looking less robotic.