AuthorTopic: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!  (Read 5771 times)

Offline Melodee

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i spend so much time shading this body and it just feels like a waste giving up because i like the creature design so much :/
if anyone would be able to help me, that would be so great </3 the things on his body (the lines) are supposed to be fur.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #1 on: January 22, 2018, 06:26:19 pm

It might be easier to form the body without a symmetrical piece. Defining texture/fur with lines is generally not a great idea. Here is some part of an edit. Hope it helps a tad better than me trying to explain

Offline Zanorin

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #2 on: January 22, 2018, 06:34:38 pm

Real quick edit focusing just on the fur part (not pretty but it will do for what I'm trying to explain). For representing fur, usually drawing the "lines" is not the best way to go, focus more on how light casts shadows on your fur texture. I suggest you read this featured topic that will explain this better than I can.

Also, if I were you I'd avoid working on a perfectly symmetrical object, perfect symmetry looks unnatural and doesn't fit to live creatures, makes them look like dolls.

Edit: hadn't seen yaomon's edit, which is far better than mine ; I hope my small contribution can still be a bit useful  :(
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Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #3 on: January 22, 2018, 07:01:52 pm
Definitely going to second yaomon, break your reliance on symmetry tools. They make some things easier in the short term, but are very much a crutch that will gimp the learning process bad.

Even people's faces are rarely symmetrical, as seen here:


if you look close you can see differences in the wrinkle patterns, his hairline, his dimples... Even his ears are at different heights!

While you normally don't have to worry about that with more abstract artistic mediums like pixelart, it's still a good habit to remember these things and avoid relying on perfect symmetry.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline yaomon17

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #4 on: January 22, 2018, 07:20:50 pm

Real quick edit focusing just on the fur part (not pretty but it will do for what I'm trying to explain). For representing fur, usually drawing the "lines" is not the best way to go, focus more on how light casts shadows on your fur texture. I suggest you read this featured topic that will explain this better than I can.

Also, if I were you I'd avoid working on a perfectly symmetrical object, perfect symmetry looks unnatural and doesn't fit to live creatures, makes them look like dolls.

Edit: hadn't seen yaomon's edit, which is far better than mine ; I hope my small contribution can still be a bit useful  :(

I wouldn't say my edit is better. Your approach of big tuffs and clusters is probably far more practical and easier to achieve better looking fur. My edit does add a lot of noise and extraneous work since I was thinking in the vein of how to depict shorter fur :\

Good insights all around.

Offline Melodee

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #5 on: January 22, 2018, 07:36:45 pm
thank you all!! i finished the image and added the remaining fur. please tell me how i did. also i really loved your edits, both of them!!


about the symmetrical thing, i have been recommended this many times but i just think things can look good even though being symmetrical. i feel kind of bad for not listening and continue with the way i have always done so i am going to try it differently in my next pixel art.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #6 on: January 22, 2018, 07:44:49 pm
Excellent to hear. And it CAN look good, it's just a habit you'll do well to break!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Zanorin

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #7 on: January 22, 2018, 07:57:42 pm
Quote
I wouldn't say my edit is better. Your approach of big tuffs and clusters is probably far more practical and easier to achieve better looking fur. My edit does add a lot of noise and extraneous work since I was thinking in the vein of how to depict shorter fur :\

Good insights all around.
It's nice of you to say that, I felt really bad posting after you and your super-realistic edit  :lol:

Quote
thank you all!! i finished the image and added the remaining fur. please tell me how i did. also i really loved your edits, both of them!!
There's a thing that bothers me in your last version: aside from the two external tuffs of fur, your edit is exactly the same as mine  :( it's not that I don't want my edit to be used or anything, but as it is said, "Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day ; set a man on fire teach a man how to build a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life". If you want to be able to draw fur by yourself and improve, do your own edit, basing yourself on someone else's ! :) (Not to mention my edit was done in 5 minutes to demonstrate a point, so it's far from being finished !)
« Last Edit: January 22, 2018, 08:06:58 pm by Zanorin »
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Offline Melodee

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #8 on: January 22, 2018, 09:23:03 pm
Aaa yes I see!! I was considering to do this, but just thought I wouldn’t manage to make it look as good. I felt kinda bad for not doing it myself but also liked your edit too much to just drop it :( I agree with the other guy tho, his edit might be really realistic and 3D looking, but it doesn’t really fit the image XDD yours really matches with the style I am going for. Anyway, I am going to try. Also, did I do well with the other remaining fur?

Offline Zanorin

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Re: please help me with the shading of the body!! i am clueless!!

Reply #9 on: January 22, 2018, 09:55:05 pm
How about you try, and if you struggle with your fur, you ask for help again on this thread ? That way step by step you'll learn to texture fur :)

I don't really get what the other remaining fur should be, are they like two "flaps" of skin ?
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