AuthorTopic: Pogopuschel  (Read 2687 times)

Offline wzl

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Pogopuschel

on: November 20, 2015, 03:50:45 am
I'm currently doing some fan art for Secret of Mana.



There are some struggles i have i cannot currently figure out on my own.
Mainly i'm happy with the trees, but i think they could be improved still. I think they're lit a bit too uniformly, the front ones anyways.

I'm not sure how to tackle grass. I tried an attempt with individual grass blades before but that was just not the look i was going for. And to be honest i'm not sure what look i'm going for at this point.


Thirdly i'm having trouble with the fur. For a big furry thing like that, i'm not sure how to convey it without texturing the whole thing which would probably end up in a noisy mess. The attempt i have so far seems alright, but i was wondering if someone knows some techniques that would help.

Thanks  :-*


Offline eishiya

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Re: Pogopuschel

Reply #1 on: November 20, 2015, 03:24:38 pm
The tree texture's looking great, but all the trees seem to be blending into each other. Try having one "main" tree that has all the detail, and having the rest of the trees with less detail (mostly, just do fewer/no highlights). Depending on what you wanr your light source to be, you could also set them apart by having one side of each trunk lit, and the rest in shadow.

Grass: Having some grass blades overlap the character and tree roots should help. That can make even a solid green look like grass. Then, maybe add a few highlights here and there, not too much, just enough for it to read as "the green is grass." The grass isn't the focus, so you don't need to make every single grass blade visible.

Fur: The fur right now looks more like it's melting. Don't worry so much about showing strands of fur! You don't need to shade and highlight a bunch of strands or locks of it to make it look like fur. Instead, break up your shadow boundaries with locks and hairs ("dither" with hair shapes). On the bottom edge of the creature, have some hair hanging off (remember that there's the ground there, so it would probably be lying on it). Just as with grass, you don't need to have every fur strand visible for it to read as fur.
Here's an edit showing two different fur lengths done with the method I described, short in the front, long in the back:

At first I did the two lengths just as a demonstration so you could see how it works in multiple situations, but then I remembered that most animals have shorter hair on their face (so it doesn't get in the way of their eyes, nose, and mouth), and longer hair elsewhere (for warmth/protection), so it worked out well xP
Your colours were a pleasure to work with! Definitely a step up from the brighter version.

The creature's mouth seems asymetrical. Based on where the teeth are, I think the back part needs to go in a little bit more.

Offline wzl

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Re: Pogopuschel

Reply #2 on: November 21, 2015, 01:43:18 am
Thanks eishiya, good calls!
i toned down the direct neighbouring tree and it does help distinguish them individually a bit more.

The hint on the fur was pretty good. I was able to get it done pretty nicely on the ear so far. I need to experiment with the main body some more. i want to have longer strands there, have to see how to make it not look too segmented.

And you're right on the mouth symmetry. Not sure if its entirely correct but it looks sort of better now.
Hope i'll have more time for this tomorrow \o



Edit:



I'm still not too happy with the main body fur. But i'm not sure how to fix it. I'll call this one done unless i can figure out a wayto make it less...banding?
« Last Edit: November 21, 2015, 08:56:04 pm by wzl »

Offline eishiya

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Re: Pogopuschel

Reply #3 on: November 21, 2015, 09:38:33 pm
All of your fur-locks are approximately the same size and shape. Add variation to them and it should help a lot. You should also add some variation to the widths and shapes of the colour bands, since fur has clumps, etc.

Offline wzl

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Re: Pogopuschel

Reply #4 on: November 23, 2015, 04:20:34 am
Thanks again eishiya. I varied it up with length, width, and it turned out far better.


Finally calling this done for good  :yay: