AuthorTopic: Need help with character  (Read 6594 times)

Offline TheForgottenOne

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Need help with character

on: January 16, 2017, 03:44:25 am
Hello!
I'm working on this character, and I'm having problems with his scarf I'm not satisfied with the result
So any advise would help me
Also if you see something wrong I would like you to point it out



Thanks!

Offline TEETH

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #1 on: January 16, 2017, 06:23:03 am
What do you not like about it ? you could make the scarf bigger to give it a more "character" feel to it. or even have it like touch the ground and trail after the character,

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #2 on: January 16, 2017, 08:37:21 am
Immediately I notice that it seems to be at a different angle from the rest of him. Try to tweak the trailing edge of it to better match the perspective of the character, parallel or near-parallel to the ground should do it!
EDIT: Figured I might as well just do an edit, lol

I didn't change much here, just the aforementioned trailing-edge-angle. Smaller stuff I did is to change the shadow on the neck bit of the scarf to better divide that from the rest of it and change the curve slightly to make it come out of that part a bit better!
« Last Edit: January 16, 2017, 08:43:25 am by MysteryMeat »
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline TheForgottenOne

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #3 on: January 18, 2017, 04:04:41 am
Thanks for all the help!

i do some changes, color edit and i use the MisteryMeat edit!

Offline Jim16

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #4 on: January 18, 2017, 04:50:23 pm
So I absolutely love the concept of this character. A magic jar for a head, scarf and all, ready for an adventure. Makes me wish I'd thought of it first!  :hehe:


Anyway, I want highlight a few things here, because even though you wanted to fix the scarf, I think there is room for improvement all over. Some of it being technical improvements such as managing colours, overall value(contrast), and cleaner lines. And then some of its just understanding your concept and getting it to be more believable within your constraints.

I'll talk only about the latter as I thinks is the biggest issue here and the rest of it you can read about in tutorials over on these forums or over at Pixel Joints.

So the first time I looked at this I instantly understood what I was looking at, but found it hard to read each object on the character. I think the reason for this is simply because the objects, jar, scarf and other bits of clothing haven't been rendered to emulate their real counterparts properly. Obviously you aren't going for hyper realism, so the constraint is the limited palette and size. So keeping the Jar part in reference, here's what I do.
-
-Firstly find a good reference. Using references isn't cheating and can it be anything, such as real life objects, pictures, concept art and even pixel art if you're really struggling. I just searched 'potion concept art' and found loads of good examples of jars with liquids in them. Like this one for example:
https://melodiaproject.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/melodia-potion.jpg
- There's transparency, loads of highlights on the glass and even a hard contrast on the edges. Try to simplify what you see in your head and apply them to your object, taking into account the direction of light as well and how much you want to simplify things. Easier said than done, I know.

But that's just one part of the whole. You need to try and understand the other important things like how the jar actually stays attached to the rest of the body and how you make it look normal. And then make it work. The scarf goes a long way in making this look feasible because it blocks whats going on at the neck. Pretty cool :)

The issue comes in simplify things I think. And you seem to be struggling with this the most. I see it on the Jumper and on the jar, where you don't seem to understand how you're going to add detail to things, so you add a highlight and add it to the edges of the jar or add folds in the jumper, but what it actually ends up looking like is a blob of noise here and there. Also, neither make sense when thinking about light theory.
My advice, keep things simpler. Use large areas of colour for light and then try to think about where shadows would be cast, like under the chin or arm pits or a small and I mean very small amount under scarfs and other pieces of clothing. Rationalize the amount of shadow that would be cast in these areas. If you add detail and it doesn't look right, don't be afraid to remove it.

Last thing I want to touch on is outlining. Please don't out line everything. The metal on your boots has its own outline, so does the scarf, arms, gloves etc. Just don't.

Anyway, rant over. I made an edit to illustrate my points. That last point about outlines, please have a closer look at my edit in comparison to yours. Also, the changes I made in colour and proportion are purely by preference. Be careful with your colour choices btw, they're very dark and a lot of them are near identical. Also, I'm no pro, things could be better.



I hope that makes sense and helps  :crazy:
« Last Edit: January 18, 2017, 04:58:28 pm by Jim16 »

Offline NowvaB

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #5 on: January 18, 2017, 11:19:43 pm
hey, here's another edit.


I noticed you were using thirty-something colors for this sprite which is an issue considering how similar they are. For this edit I focused on reducing the color count and changed the scarf.

-reducing the colors made the sprite look very unsaturated so if I was using my own colors I would go back and fix that.

-assuming this isn't a sprite for a game, I made the scarf flow more making it more interesting and giving it a better silhouette in my opinion.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #6 on: January 19, 2017, 01:51:27 am
Hm, not so sure about those color tweaks honestly! Feels like it's lost some of the charm, it can certainly use some condensation but I'd play around with that a bit more.
I also feel like the extra swoop in the scarf gives him too much of a whimsical appearance, the more cape-like scarf we have at the start gives him a more adventurous/serious look and doesn't complicate the design too much for easy animation.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline Durrahan

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #7 on: January 21, 2017, 04:59:17 am
hey, here's another edit.


I noticed you were using thirty-something colors for this sprite which is an issue considering how similar they are. For this edit I focused on reducing the color count and changed the scarf.

-reducing the colors made the sprite look very unsaturated so if I was using my own colors I would go back and fix that.

-assuming this isn't a sprite for a game, I made the scarf flow more making it more interesting and giving it a better silhouette in my opinion.

I really liked your edit and tried to do it justice. I made some very small additions to it.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #8 on: January 21, 2017, 05:46:40 am
Same crit I just posted, the extra bend in the scarf kinda messes with the simplicity of the design for me
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline NowvaB

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Re: Need help with character

Reply #9 on: January 21, 2017, 10:21:18 am
whoa, I like the additions, Durrahan. I'd like to see more of your stuff here on the forums. :)


*simplified scarf for more serious look.