[WIP]Knight

[lachrymose]

Taking some ques from Cyangmou and using this referance for the pose I redid the character, and made it a whole lot smaller.

[Kosvid]

I can`t give you a big piece of advice, just that: avoid pure colours, especially pure white and pure black. Also the torso doesn`t really seem to be turned unlike in the reference picture. Honestly, I`d change the palette completely, as everything about colours in this version seems unnatural to me.

[lachrymose]

Thanks, I altered the palette using Cyan's, and turned the chest a bit more.

[Fizzick]

infinitely better. with such a small sprite i recommend a smaller palette, tho. the new chest also looks more blown-up than pronounced.

[lachrymose]

I see what you mean, thanks. Extra eyes are awesome.

I reduced the size of the chest and also moved it back by a pixel, I also moved in his right arm in a bit closer to tighten thing up.



I hate to ask but any suggestions on the colors for the smaller palette?
I hate to use my mild colorblindness as an excuse because it doesn't effect my day to day life. But it seems that with pixel art I am at a distinct disadvantage. 

[astraldata]

I too am mildly colorblind, so I understand your pain. However, I choose my colors based on science and the vividity in style/color I'm going for in overall look and feel to make up for it.

Regarding your armor, I would suggest allowing the armor to reflect the environment the suit is in more (such as the color of the ground in one of the shadow colors, or the color of the sky/ceiling in one of the highlights) by hueshifting toward that color.

Also, the inside of the shield against the arm should use a darker color such as close to the darkest color you have so that it will show the arm better. It seriously needs some contrast against that arm/hip.

[lachrymose]

Tried to incorporate your suggestion, best color I could find for the inside of the shield was flat black. Now i'm running into a perspective problem with the shield.
Also his whole left side blends to much with the right I think, so I made it lighter, but now it doesn't match the lighting with the rest of the area. Small sprites is hard yo.
His arms are also a bit to long, but I kinda like them.



Overall though I am much happier with it. I'd like to animate it, but I think that is way beyond my skills right now. Maybe I should just commission someone to animate it for me.

[EvilEye]

I was going to suggest something like this for the color.

[Daimoth]

Tried to incorporate your suggestion, best color I could find for the inside of the shield was flat black. Now i'm running into a perspective problem with the shield.
Also his whole left side blends to much with the right I think, so I made it lighter, but now it doesn't match the lighting with the rest of the area. Small sprites is hard yo.
His arms are also a bit to long, but I kinda like them.



Overall though I am much happier with it. I'd like to animate it, but I think that is way beyond my skills right now. Maybe I should just commission someone to animate it for me.

Massive improvement! Well done!

Try to throw in a few more sparse details on the visible face of that shield. I can't figure out what those two red lines are.

[astraldata]

I agree -- great improvement overall.

EvilEye's edit shows how to shade the ridge of the metal. See the v-shaped 'line' in the left down to the center of the chestplate on his edit that's somewhat lighter? That's where the light gathers along creases in the metal, which brightens the sharpest edges the most. His is shaded less like super-shiny metal/aluminum and more like yellow-tinted tinfoil -- though the crease principle still applies to less-shiny materials as it does to super-shiny stuff too -- it just requires more contrast value-wise on the latter.

As for the blending issue you mentioned earlier -- feel free to grab the next to brightest color on the lit side (i.e. just under the white) if you want the darker side to have more 'shine' and 'form' to it, but do use it sparingly -- that is, only use it where you need to define form more starkly in the metal, such as on the knees, toes and shin. The foreground toe should use some of the white too though -- you have to keep in mind your planes even when shading metal with wildly-differing color-contrasts.



@Daimoth:
Those are the straps on the forearm and hand to hold the shield to the arm I would assume.