[WIP] Molly the Mollusc

[surt]

Still very early no real pixel work as yet.

Molly the Mollusc goes to war...

• Flail to crack the shells
• Escargots fork to remove the flesh

Line:


Preliminary shading:


The somewhat experimental and treacherous technique used so far:

• Roughed sketch the line work at a large size with tablet
• Filled silhouette
• Scaled down to pixel size
• Added alpha blended layers for each light source over top of silhouette

The blending is only a temporary thing, I will be picking proper colours shortly.

[Ryona]

Looking good thus far, surt. Very nice design and interesting character concept. The highlights and shading is already real nice.

I eagerly await to see it complete.

[surt]

Thanks Ryona.

Still far from completion.
Mostly palette refinement (perhaps a little overconsolidated).
Some small amount of pixelling.


2^4 - 2 colours.

[pkmays]

Good
Highlights - Has a nice sheen to it.
Pose - Nice sense of depth, well drawn, looks perfect for an RPG.

Bad
Shadows - Too strong and harsh. Most noticeably the purple on scythe/chain and dark red on flag.
Outlines - Jaggies on scythe's pole and rope dangling from shell are harsh.

Extra colors could be used to have the tentacles on the face blend into another color like an enflamed red or mucus green.

[surt]

pkmays:
Shadows - there has been further blending of the shadows. Are they still too harsh?
Outlines - hopefully there shouldn't be too many jaggies left now.

Base pixelling done. Pending corrections re C&C (please):

2^4 - 1 colours.

The red stripes on its flesh are supposed to be war paint. Not sure if thats clear.

I've still got one palette index to spare, any suggestions where I should put it?

[Lelle]

This turned out really awesome! I especially love the metal and skin colours, reminds me of the game GODS.

Only problem I see is that while the different parts themself are very beautifully shaded and highlighted, there seem to be inconsistencies from where the light comes from. Also the parts themselves does not seem to cast any shadows on eachother, except for the polearm that casts a small shadow on the war banner.

I must say I love this, the design is very cool! :]

Cheers,

Lelle

[Blick]

The top of the flag that gets clipped by the pole is a bit awkward, I think. Perhaps make that rope longer, so the top connection of the flag is visible? And the pole is rather jagged, but looking at your colors, I'd have no idea how I'd smoothen it myself. I really like the shell and how it catches that ambient red on the bottom edges.

[surt]

Lelle:
I'm obviously not understanding you. The only thing that really should be shadowed is the right arm by the head/torso. An edit might help clarify.

Blick:
I shifted the top of the flag up into view.
I can't see how to dejaggify the escargots fork without AAing to the background, which is evil.

Tweaked colours a bit more, mainly desaturated the steel and shell colours. Fixed top banner connector.

[pkmays]

Excellent. This latest update fixes most ofl the issues I had before. The tentacles blur in with the background arm more that the original, which is why I think having them a different color would help.

The shades on the flag are still too dark. It would work fine as long as there aren't any super bright highlights. Either it's a dark coarse material, or a smooth shiny one. The darks and lights are confilicting.

[EyeCraft]

Wow, this is rather superb! The hue shift of the highlights on the flag seem rather flat..I'd be more inclined to hit an orange tint right at the end of the ramp. His/It's left wrist seems weird, is it meant to be wearing a bracelet? If so then I guess thats fine.. Maybe make it's right eye shine like its left. Something about the metal parts is bothering me...maybe the shadow isn't dark enough for them...

[SCiDT]

This is one of the best works I've ever seen!

Great work, I hope to see many more like these, I hope to make some of these!

[Lelle]

Lelle:
I'm obviously not understanding you. The only thing that really should be shadowed is the right arm by the head/torso. An edit might help clarify.

I will try to explain it more clear.

If you look at the chain on the flail itīs easy to see the light is coming from the upper left. Though on the rope for the banner itīs coming from the right, while it seem to come from almost the top on the metal ball hanging from the rope. Then on the spikes on the shell the light is coming from different places on each of the spikes. And what I meant with casting a shadow is that each of the spikes would cast a small shadow onto the shell.
Small things that would make the piece even better :]

Cheers,

Lelle

[hidden killer]

looking great so far
just do a lil AA on the thing and the lineart wont look jagged anymore
also add a lil more blood

[surt]

EyeCraft: The thing on its wrist is meant to be the rescue thong of the flail.

Muted the highlight on the flag.
Tried to consolidate the specular highlight on the metal and shading on the rope into a single more vertical source.
Tried to dejaggify the shaft of the escargots fork.
Used the free colour to add another flesh shade.
Defined edges of tentacles against shadowed area.

[pkmays]

9/10

*claps*

[Gunne]

very very nice!  you make some awesome works!