[CC] Character for future game

[Hoogo]

Hello people!
To be quite straight forward, I'm new to this forum and still a newbie at pixel art, so I apologise if after reading the rules I still end up messing something up about my post.

Here is one character I've been working on "Tiberius Defender of Troy".
I have been struggling on this one for several reasons:

• First colours, I had a hard time picking a skin colour which was zombie-ish
• Second, I also struggled with the helmet shading, that is avoiding the same shading as skin, so that it looks metallic
• Finally, the only feedback I had received was that my piece was too noisy so I'll include the image how it was before
  I worked on that, at the end of the post, so that you can get an idea

Any criticism and commentary is very welcome, and I thank you in advance if you do comment!

Here is my piece as it is now:
https://imgur.com/b6rX1fX

And here it is before I worked on the noise (this is a backup file so pardon me if the background isn't see-through):
https://imgur.com/d6jdF1F


EDIT: The img tag doesn't seem to work for me, my apologies, hence the imgur links..
"Image Host guide" is down, imgur doesn't seem compatible, what do you guys use as image host?

[MysteryMeat]

Teeny legs, overlong torso, no volume to torso, muddy textures, arms kinda gimped... work on yer anatomy here!

Try to reduce your color cpunt too.

[M-66]

should be:
https://imgur.com/b6rX1fX.png
not:
https://imgur.com/b6rX1fX

(Missing .png at the end of the url.  If you use the copy-link function from imgur you will have to add the extension yourself.  If you right click the image and select Copy Image Location then it will probably already have the extension added)


No need to post the enlarged preview window version / this forum enlarges images for readers when they click then.

[Hoogo]

Teeny legs, overlong torso, no volume to torso, muddy textures, arms kinda gimped... work on yer anatomy here!

Try to reduce your color cpunt too.

Thank you for your feedback.

The body proportions are actually intentional. What do you mean by muddy textures and gimped arms?

Also thanks, I'll work on my colours.

[Hoogo]

should be:
https://imgur.com/b6rX1fX.png
not:
https://imgur.com/b6rX1fX

(Missing .png at the end of the url.  If you use the copy-link function from imgur you will have to add the extension yourself.  If you right click the image and select Copy Image Location then it will probably already have the extension added)


No need to post the enlarged preview window version / this forum enlarges images for readers when they click then.

Got it, thanks for the info!

[legiaoru]

 I liked it overall. Still, you could change the colors on the helmet to make it more metallic. Maybe colors with more saturation could help you.

[Hoogo]

I liked it overall. Still, you could change the colors on the helmet to make it more metallic. Maybe colors with more saturation could help you.

Thank you, I'll look into the colours!

[M-66]

Hope you don't mind I took a crack at an edit (it's fun editing somebody else's sprites for practice since one can allow oneself to be a bit detached from the design and approach it with less bias than one's own work hahah). 

Reduced to 15 colors +1 xparent.
Attempted to clarify the shading clusters
Adjusted contrast of helmet to make it look a bit more metallic
Slightly adjusted the hip location while keeping the idea of a stylized proportion in mind.  These longer legs will probably make it easier to animate locomotion and attacks when the time comes so that might be a thing to consider?
The trapezius muscles in the original are huge so I tried to define the volume of the detoids a bit more to match.
Clarified the status of the missing arm (in a perhaps unnecessarily gory way haha).
Messed a bit with the penetrating sword's posing.  Not sure that was totally successful.

Edit:
Exported wrong version with missing arm oop.

[Hoogo]

Hope you don't mind I took a crack at an edit (it's fun editing somebody else's sprites for practice since one can allow oneself to be a bit detached from the design and approach it with less bias than one's own work hahah). 

Reduced to 15 colors +1 xparent.
Attempted to clarify the shading clusters
Adjusted contrast of helmet to make it look a bit more metallic
Slightly adjusted the hip location while keeping the idea of a stylized proportion in mind.  These longer legs will probably make it easier to animate locomotion and attacks when the time comes so that might be a thing to consider?
The trapezius muscles in the original are huge so I tried to define the volume of the detoids a bit more to match.
Clarified the status of the missing arm (in a perhaps unnecessarily gory way haha).
Messed a bit with the penetrating sword's posing.  Not sure that was totally successful.

Edit:
Exported wrong version with missing arm oop.

Of course I don't mind! In fact it's very interesting to have someone else's approach on your own work and see how you for instance would make it better. 

I think what you managed to do with the colours Is more or less what I was trying to achieve, especially with the helmet. I think
I'm going to work in that direction.
About the helmet: I love what you did with the red crest, it looks a LOT better, I hadn't considered shading it like you did,
for some reasons, and it makes it look more real.
Proportions: I will indeed consider buffing his deltoid muscle since as you mentioned I gave him huge trapezuis. As for the hips and
legs I'm not sure I'm going to keep this for the final version in my game (no offense I like what you did, don't get me wrong 
).
A friend who reviewed the piece I did for the last character I did before this one, told me I should maybe try more extreme poses with different proportions and asymmetry (hence the wooden leg and the cut-off arm and half crippled torso/back).
I think your version of the sword is a lot better too actually, after seeing it, I can tell that mine was too linear (perpendicular to the ground) and didn't look very plausible, and the state of the right hand/forearm in the front view makes more sense since the sword is visible. The guard and handle are a lot more visible which I like.

Haha I see you pitied him so much you gave him half an arm back! Again I might not keep this but it's a nice touch and I like the gore actually haha. I think I still have to explore ways to draw scars for his shoulder so that it looks like an ancient wound, and/or maybe have a bone or part of the rib cage poke out/show.


Anyway, thank you so much for your review and edit, your time is very much appreciated!



Also if anyone has sources on metals and scars (if there are such things) I would gladly take it! 0/