AuthorTopic: Mr. Tortoise  (Read 8359 times)

Offline Johasu

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #10 on: February 06, 2015, 02:12:46 pm

Thanks Decroded.
Cool reference picks.  My original reference had a very strong top down lighting and that is why I've gone with the bright glare on top of its head.  I will take a look at them and consider my lighting approach.

I'm really hoping the eagle likeness is lessened by adding a neck.
Several iterations on it.  First one felt too highlighted and poofy.  Shrank it down and then receded it with darker shading and highlights.
Thoughts?
As far as my palette goes, I'm open to changing it but I'm also kind of enjoying the one I have.
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Offline Decroded

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #11 on: February 06, 2015, 09:49:41 pm
I'm really hoping the eagle likeness is lessened by adding a neck.

Definitely  :y:

Offline Johasu

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #12 on: February 06, 2015, 11:19:39 pm
  color swap to help me look at highlighting/color problems -->
Toyed with the colors some as was suggested.  Minor adjustments to pull the highlight down a bit but also reducing the general contrast between some colors and increasing it between a few others.  Felt like some of my highlights were too saturated and some of them were the opposite case.  Thought maybe the color swap would help me work around the color problems so I tried that out.  Ended up removing the total colors by 3 or 4 shades that had shown up accidentally during the process.
Adjusted the nose positioning and widened it a bit.  I'm still struggling with getting the nose to feel like it's jutting out so sharply from the face like the references.
I need to pull the eyes inward and get the brows to really jut out more.
The highlighting on top of the head has probably inhibited me quite a bit on that front.  I'm thinking about bringing the angle upward on the face so that there is less dome showing.

Took a few minutes to try to alleviate the line across the face between highlighted top/shaded underside.  I've been intentionally avoiding doing a lot of texture and clean up on it but I did spend a minute or two taking out single pixel noise here and there to help the shapes stand out. 

Thoughts on general improvements I can make from here before proceeding?  This project is turning out to be a really strong practice piece for form, shadow, and texture.
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Offline Johasu

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #13 on: February 08, 2015, 06:38:24 pm
  Progression: 

A bit more tweaking to the general shape of the head.  Angled the face and nose upward some more.   Dropped the odd nose colors that just weren't working for me.
Tweaked the colors just a tiny bit more and did a little general detailing and cleanup everywhere.

Plopped a progression animation in to show the changes overall and between each iteration more closely.

I'm getting to a point that I'm not sure what I can do to improve upon it.  My ability to envision improvements is diminishing.  Any input on that front?
« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 06:45:02 pm by Johasu »
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Offline wzl

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #14 on: February 08, 2015, 07:31:40 pm
to me the edge around the head looks like it's been cropped out somewhere. I dunno it just feels out of place.

Nice to see the progression though. well done :D

Offline Johasu

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #15 on: February 08, 2015, 07:47:10 pm
Yes.  I've done some odd anti-aliasing around the outside and top of his head without really realizing it. Probably a habit from working on a background color and not thinking about it when I used a transparency here.  Not really sure why I haven't noticed it.
Thanks for pointing that out.  I will put some attention towards breaking that up and making sure it's not such a uniform edging around his entire head.

(Edit: Made some changes to go with the last comment and cleaned a few things up.  Slight color adjustment to toy with contrast.)
« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 09:17:54 pm by Johasu »
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Offline Joe

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Re: Mr. Tortoise

Reply #16 on: February 10, 2015, 07:16:59 pm
Hey Johasu,
The texturing you've applied appears to have been done in multiple short strokes. This works fine in other mediums but not pixel, because now you have significant banding everywhere.
Further, the texturing itself doesn't conform to the lighting in some areas. These two things are creating a lot of noise in your image.
Amorphous' edit is still valid, I would echo his points and refer to his edit.
I would also add that right now you have a monochrome palette, which is your choice, but it would be more visually interesting if you add some earthy tones and reintroduce that pink on the nose and neck.

My suggestion would be to backtrack, revert to planes only. Then we can work back to textures.