AuthorTopic: Side-view character; having trouble with shading  (Read 7020 times)

Offline SilverBrick

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Side-view character; having trouble with shading

on: November 13, 2019, 04:37:23 am
Hey all, gonna keep this short since it's 4:30am where I am now. I'm having trouble with shading this character I made - the arms and hands especially.



Thanks in advance!

Offline SilverBrick

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #1 on: November 15, 2019, 03:34:45 am
Changed up the shading and tried a stretching pose:

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #2 on: November 16, 2019, 12:10:04 am
your drawing kinda suffers from a lack of structure. As is, it's basically an HD stick figure.

I highly reccomend starting this design over with more of a structured approach, the poses are a good start so try and recreate that with one of these bad boys:

PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline Mistajaye

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #3 on: November 16, 2019, 12:38:19 am
I disagree,

Your structure is spot on IMO. Here is something I'd try, dunno if it's your style but I thought I'd give it a stab. Overall the Work is Solid and style speaks for itself. He has Character. I added 3 shades, my approach was to add real-time lighting and visible range around the right leg and arm to give it distance from the viewer and/or audience. I know I say this to pretty much everything I reply to, but I cannot wait to see the final product yo! No doubt. GL and HF and I hope this helps. I understand if it doesn't match the style you were going for~ Basically I just wanted to see what I could do. No more no less.

« Last Edit: November 16, 2019, 04:48:22 am by Mistajaye »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #4 on: November 17, 2019, 02:49:56 am
I... 100% disagree with that assessment, mistajaye. This sounds a lot more harsh than I intend, but this current iteration is a step removed from a stick figure. Here's a blue-line go-over with some notes on what I'm seeing wrong.



It's clear they're going for a specific art style, but the lack of structure on display is holding it down a lot.



Heres a very quick VERY rough re-ssketch I did, I tried to keep in mind the goals of the piece as I perceive them doing this. My linework isn't exactly the best when i'm freehanding it, but you can see how I've reworked the pose and tried to make areas like the legs flow a bit better
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline SilverBrick

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #5 on: November 17, 2019, 06:12:17 am
I... 100% disagree with that assessment, mistajaye. This sounds a lot more harsh than I intend, but this current iteration is a step removed from a stick figure. Here's a blue-line go-over with some notes on what I'm seeing wrong.



It's clear they're going for a specific art style, but the lack of structure on display is holding it down a lot.



Heres a very quick VERY rough re-ssketch I did, I tried to keep in mind the goals of the piece as I perceive them doing this. My linework isn't exactly the best when i'm freehanding it, but you can see how I've reworked the pose and tried to make areas like the legs flow a bit better

It doesn’t just sound harsh, it sounds like you’ve completely missed the point of the design. This isn’t supposed to be an anatomically correct human, it’s supposed to be a cartoonish depiction of one, à la Gravity Falls or Steven Universe.

I get that you’re trying to help, but the things you labelled as wrong are exactly what I was going for. Except the thigh thing, which I’m like 90% sure is entirely fabricated. And I’m not all that enamored with your sketch either, tbh.

I disagree,

Your structure is spot on IMO. Here is something I'd try, dunno if it's your style but I thought I'd give it a stab. Overall the Work is Solid and style speaks for itself. He has Character. I added 3 shades, my approach was to add real-time lighting and visible range around the right leg and arm to give it distance from the viewer and/or audience. I know I say this to pretty much everything I reply to, but I cannot wait to see the final product yo! No doubt. GL and HF and I hope this helps. I understand if it doesn't match the style you were going for~ Basically I just wanted to see what I could do. No more no less.



Thanks for the kind words :)

You’re right that the style doesn’t quite match (especially since I’m trying to stick to 8 colors), but I actually hadn’t considered dithering for the fabricky bits, and the use of the hair color as an extra shade for the skin is something I toyed with before but discarded - clearly too early.

Here’s what I came up with after some tinkering... I’ll probably tweak it some later:

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #6 on: November 17, 2019, 12:10:37 pm
I'm not going to deny my sketch is pretty bad, but as a cartoonist i take massive issue with the idea you don't have to understand anatomy to do it.

I'm not gonna beat my head against yours till you submit, but you're only going to hurt your art in the long run taking shortcuts like that.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline SilverBrick

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #7 on: November 17, 2019, 04:05:03 pm
I'm not going to deny my sketch is pretty bad, but as a cartoonist i take massive issue with the idea you don't have to understand anatomy to do it.

I'm not gonna beat my head against yours till you submit, but you're only going to hurt your art in the long run taking shortcuts like that.

As a non-cartoonist, I take issue with the idea that you _have_ to understand anatomy to do it. I’d like to see the waist of the average (human) Adventure Time character, or the well-structured face of a Rick and Morty character, for example.

Anyway, here’s a sketch of a front-on view, along with the sprites sketched over for comparison. Since the sprites are side-on and the character doesn’t have a cylinder for a torso, I’d say they’re pretty consistent.

Offline Mistajaye

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #8 on: November 17, 2019, 07:47:34 pm
Silverbrick, I Love your new tweaked version. I don't think there's much more you can do. It looks perfect IMO.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Side-view character; having trouble with shading

Reply #9 on: November 17, 2019, 09:25:52 pm
Actually, Finn the Human is a great example of what I mean! While not necessarily "anatomically accurate," he does have some very firmly established design notes that you can spot watching the series. A lot of what makes Adventure Time look good despite its very loose noodly art style is the design documents that swarm around how every character looks and moves!





As you can see, a LOT of thought is put into how the characters move and how their body does/does not contort. Later seasons even give Finn a bit more of a pot belly, to break up his pill body-shape some,
This is them essentially "designing their anatomy," it doesn't necessarily conform to realistic anatomy most times but is still informed by/based around similar rulesets. They have SPECIFIC ways of moving to keep things looking nice.

Essentially, they "built" a very simple skeleton for finn's design that they work from to maintain design consistency.



You can also see this in many other cartoons.


I feel like I made my point here very poorly, the problem isn't that yours isn't anatomically correct (as you ARE going for a cartoon art style) but that you don't seem to have "designed their anatomy" enough for every line to feel intentional, hence me saying it feels like an excuse. I came off far more hostile/elitist than I intended here, and for that I apologize.


PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |