[WIP] Improving my character & scenery-piece

[Lakelezz]

Dear community!
I am currently working on this piece which contains a character and a scenery/background.
It will be animated in the future therefore I am really trying to make it really good one - at least for my level.

I created two versions:

This is the original one with the character having a colored outline:


However I was unsure if the character "drowns" in the scenery. So I tried to focus it via a black outline:


Feel free to ignore the white background behind the glass. It will be fully removed in the end.
Also the right windows is freshly made. I am gonna add a shadow of it onto the wall, too.
For now, the white is just representing the outer part of the building.


The whole piece will get a dark frame in the end, too:


Though the frame is just secondary and might be changed to black.

I would appreciate help of you to get this piece better. Because I still feel that it is not "working".

Thanks for reading!

with best regards
Lakelezz 

[32]

Many of the individual pieces of this are quite good, especially the bar and the wall. Overall the main issue is the fact that everything is screaming for attention. You really want to choose a focal point to the piece and direct all of the attention there. With all the straight lines pointing in every direction it's hard to give the eye a rest and every part of the image has the same value range and very garish, overly saturated colours. The glass in particular draws far more attention than it should. And the character is almost lost in there, you need a wider range of contrast on the character (larger areas of highlights, more shadows) to bring them to the front.

I think the big thing you need to consider is that lighter colours tend to pop out and darker colours tend to recede. The window for example is brighter than the wall so it almost looks like it's closer than the wall, the shadow cast by the left one does not help with this illusion. The perspective is a bit off but I think you could mostly forgive all that if not for the floor pattern, it does not look like it exists within the scene at all. The character needs some serious anatomy work, her(?) legs and arms look far too short on that torso. Choose a light source and stick with it, the character is pillow shaded and lacks volume. I would also suggest getting rid of all the single pixel dots, they just look like noise.

Maybe post the character on it's own if you want particular advice on that. Otherwise keep working on it, it's looking good 

[Lakelezz]

Originally I wanted to add a lot of details but I guess it did not work out that good.
That the character is almost "lost" is pretty understandable and I really tried already to solve this problem. However my palette is restricted to 37 colors and not containing bright & strong colors due lack of usage in the whole piece.
How would you encounter this?

Changing colors could and probably would lead to a total destruction of the piece but I could also add more colors, which is rather feeling wrong because 37 colors are pretty much already.
I do not understand the part about the garish & overly saturated colors. The most saturation is about 40~50. As mentioned above, should I really rework my complete palette?

Hm, yeah. The window is a tough point for me. On the one hand, the lighter parts are making it more detailed and adding depth. On the other hand, they are really drawing the attention.
I am going to remove the little pixel dots on them and since I cannot change their bright highlights to a color with less luminosity, I can only remove it.

The character (it is a girl) was never meant to be pillow shaded but I probably failed. For example the hair is according to the light source from her left (those rays).
Her left leg is also hit by the light rays and then goes darker. The right one's upper surface would also get light from the source, so I decided to highlight it.
The points on her skin (not the face), were meant to be dirt and the even darker dots were shades. There was an older version, being more dirty and wasted. However I removed almost all those dirt in order to improve readability. Also her face got cleaned up.
I just removed the rest now, thanks.

Her chest is hit by the lighting to grant her more volume and some light. I failed again, I guess.
Additionally I removed her highlights on the hair now. I tried to create bigger highlights but then the color's saturations are too different.
I should adjust my palette but that will be really hard.

About the pattern on the ground. What do you think is making them feeling so unreal? They were meant to be cursive. However I could set them normally.

Here is she without background:




Thank you a lot for your help! Hopefully you can answer my questions

If everyone else want to give out his ideas, then of course feel free to do so!

[32]

It is a bit of a pain but yes reworking the palette would be the first thing to do. I would say the majority of colours in there have a saturation of 80+, regardless it's not the numbers that count but the impression and my impression is it burns haha. It's particularly the purples and the blues that need to get toned down. Don't be afraid to use any colour correction tools your program has, manually adjusting 37 colours will be a bit of a headache. Though you should consider whether you need all of those, I also don't think I see any greys in the image, greys are good cause they fit into any colour ramp and they'll help tone down the image as a whole

I can see the shading on the body now but you're fighting it with the colours on the dress which flattens out the whole torso. The lack of contrast in general is also making any shading you have done mostly imperceptible. Try studying the hair on sprites you like and see how they detail it. Generally hair is shiny so you really need a good deal of contrast to make it work.

The ground pattern is just out of perspective. Assuming it's on a layer of it's own grab it all and try compressing it to 50% of it's height. Though I would recommend ditching the pattern entirely and going with a plain coloured floor with some texture here and there like on the wall.

[Lakelezz]

So, I tried to turn the saturation down. I am not sure if it is looking "better" but I feel like the attention of many entities strongly lowered.

I am really struggling with the character. Looking at tutorials is even more confusing for me right now. I feel so limited due this color palette even after adding some new tones.
If somebody would have the time, it would be great to have an edit on her! I really want to learn more about the coloring (taking "risk" for new colors, changing colors or even the way of building a good lighting). For me it just feels like a pointless "dotting around" right now.
Specially the hair. I tried some little stuff but I poorly failed. At least I could manage to bring more lighting structure in it but this is rather an idea than well made.
The idea is just a part for me. Learning how to understand the basic lighting and adding volume could work. However I probably picked the wrong colors for this. Specially for the highlighting.
In an attempt before the latest and current one, I even tried to go with the yellow of her eyes/light rays. I was unsure again.
So if someone could make an edit of the character, I would be really thankfully. If there is something which just looks not right (except the ground pattern, I am gonna rework them later) and looks hard to explain, feel free to edit it, too.

Back to the ground pattern. Honestly, I was overwhelmed with trying to get the character done, so she became my priority. I am not quite sure how to change the ground. But as 32 already mentioned, I am probably going for a monotone color with some little scratches and so on here and there.


So, this is the current version:

I am probably also removing the bright green on the right side (on the door).

[32]

It's better in some respects but the problem now is everything is desaturated and it's still monotone. You want a big range of colours from all over the spectrum: light, dark, saturated and desaturated. The key is deciding what you want to draw peoples eyes to. Colour is a huge subject though and something I don't think I could explain, try reading about it and keep practicing outside this piece and eventually it will start to make sense.

If you describe what the scene is meant to be for I could give more specific advice but right now I don't have enough information, what is it for? what is the animation? what is the story? what is the mood?

I'd be happy to edit the character but again some context would be nice. Why did you choose the chibi/anime style? If you think that's important then I can show you how I would make her look in that style but maybe a more realistic style would be preferable. I don't just want to send you off in MY direction 

[Lakelezz]

Okay, I guess it is important to get the theme clear.
Of course it is a post-apocalypse. She is ran into this bar, after some monsters/zombies saw her, to kill them after and after.
The animation will be:
1. Idling, nothing happens
2. Door opens
3. Zombie enters
4. Zombie get shot
5. The zombie despawns / door gets closed (automatically).


To get the rough feeling of this scene, I played a little bit with effects.
Originally it was just meant for someone else and me.
They wont appear in the final version I guess, the would make the piece a NPA one.



No need to mention the logical mistakes there. It was just made from scratch.

Hm, the reason why I went for this style was mainly an inspiration of another piece. It probably simply does not fit.
Do you have an idea what I could use else as stylistic theme for the girl? You mentioned something more realistic, do you have any examples for this way?

Thank you so much for your help, 32!

[32]

Okay yeah I gathered that basically from the image so far so that's good. That NPA edit is a massive step in the right direction, If you can replicate a lighting scheme along those lines it would be much nicer. I can imagine now the door popping open which will throw light on the other side of the room and the zombie, and then a couple of flashes of light from the gun.

Can you show the piece you were inspired by? Just to see what you're aiming for. There's nothing wrong with the style necessarily but there are certain connotations with the giant head chibi style so I'd personally only go for it if I wanted people to think about all those pixel mmo's and what have you. Of course if you like it then go for it but if it was just on a whim then maybe consider other options if you're having to rework the character anyway.

When I talk realism and style it's mostly in reference to proportions, your character is ~3 heads where a normal person is ~8.

[Lakelezz]

I "killed" the inspiration. It was just the idea of creating a rather big head to display many emotions. I never aimed for "chibi" or "anime" style.
What automatically means that I am not aiming for my original inspiration anymore. It is a totally different style but I struggled at creating a valid and logical body so I tried to orientate myself on this a little bit.

However I guess, you might be right. Changing/Reworking her could be a good step. Though I am totally unsure how to create her this time.
Of course I do not want to copy a style but without any "guide-lines" I will probably create something really random. Because that is how I tried to create her in the first place.
I disliked it so much that I rejected it.

About the NPA piece. A lighting scheme along those lines? Do you mean the border between of shadow and lighting? It would create way too many colors if I create a dark and bright tone of every color, I guess.

[32]

Maybe not exactly the way you've done it but the single light source and pool of light and the darkened half of the bar.

You're definitely too caught up on the colour count. While I am a strong believer in palette management, it requires a better understanding of colour than you currently possess for a piece this size; don't worry about adding a few colours if it's for the overall betterment of the picture. The main thing to remember is that the same colour can be used in many different colour ramps (search the forum), you should be primarily considering the perceived brightness of a colour rather than the hue. You've done a bit of this with the purple on the tables but think about taking it further. Another thing to consider is whether the objects in complete darkness necessarily need 4 or 5 shades or will they only need 1 or 2?

I would suggest maybe even using an existing palette (Dawnbringers 32 colour palette is quite nice), this will give you a solid set of colours to use and teach you a lot about colour mixing. Though it is bit of a complicated task to switch a palette like this so maybe just keep it in mind for your next piece.

As far as the character goes just have a think about what character designs you like and how they're put together, the options are truly endless so I can't really give you much direction there. I'd say to fit with the style of the rest of the piece relatively cartoonish is the way to go, 4 or 5 heads at the most. I'll try doing a bit of an edit in the morning, hopefully you can post another update before then if you've been working on it.