AuthorTopic: Female Character  (Read 12651 times)

Offline yyboyyy96

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Female Character

on: August 22, 2020, 07:19:01 am
My attemp to a female character


this is what my imagination limits me to do.. so how would you guys try shaping and making this character to look more polished?

Offline ZerotuL

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Re: Female Character

Reply #1 on: August 22, 2020, 03:59:44 pm
Her right leg is weirdly rotated. Define light source and shade her top and face. Also her right hand isn't clearly distinguishable. You may also make her skirt longer.

Offline Kenthecaptain

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Re: Female Character

Reply #2 on: August 22, 2020, 06:42:06 pm
Hey there, you've done a pretty good attempt so far. One of the things to remember with doing really low res pixel character like this is that you have to rely heavily on the implications for proportions rather than trying to create them directly. This requires looking at the impression of what you've created (by zooming out and looking at your character). Changing even 1 pixel at this resolution will undoubtedly change the entire proportion or orientation of what you were working on. Here is an example I made in the past that seems close to what your style looks like:



If you notice her wrist for example is only 1 pixel wide, any wider and it would have been way too thick. Sometimes you just have to experiment with the pixels, because you can always undo and try again. As far as the coloring of the character, try to add a little more contrast overall by making your darks a little darker, and your lights a little lighter. When figuring out how to approach lighting, similar to what ZerotuL mentioned, choose your light source ahead of time in your head and then go from there. Aside from any artificial light, typically humans see the light from a top down perspective (or top left for a more dynamic look). So just imagine that the sun is above your character, and draw your shading and light with that in mind. Pay close attention to the forms of your character. Just by adding light and shadow, you can determine the shape of an object, without having to redraw the object. Above all, use reference if needed, even for something as small as this! This is pixel art, but it still needs to follow general instruction as far as proportions, lighting, and form over all. Last thing is reverse her right leg (your left), as it is more or less backwards proportionate to the rest of her pose.

Overall, I really like your choice of colors, and she has a pretty good pose overall! See if you can hit a second attempt with the above guidelines in mind, there's nothing wrong with reworking your art in an attempt to improve. Good job!

Offline yyboyyy96

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Re: Female Character

Reply #3 on: August 24, 2020, 04:23:08 pm


So I left out the shading a little bit and I tried giving her arms and legs shape.

But still it doesnt look right for some reason :S

Offline blop

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Re: Female Character

Reply #4 on: August 28, 2020, 08:28:56 am

I think it looks better with less colors, but you can have even fewer like this. I also tried changing her proportions to be more realistic, since hips are about halfway down the body.

Offline yyboyyy96

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Re: Female Character

Reply #5 on: August 28, 2020, 05:32:42 pm
Very Nice! Really like the way it turned out to be!

Offline dpixel

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Re: Female Character

Reply #6 on: August 30, 2020, 02:16:12 am
Another idea..a bit more interesting pose?  idk.  lol

I used an outline here.  Seems to help to define things better, and it'll work on any background.

Offline Kenthecaptain

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Re: Female Character

Reply #7 on: September 04, 2020, 07:59:03 pm
Hey that's a HUGE improvement from before. Great pose! I also love outlines on sprites. Just check your proportions, the neck is a little long. Other than that, you did a great job! :)

Offline bengo

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Re: Female Character

Reply #8 on: September 06, 2020, 12:27:51 pm

Edited Dpixel's edit (good job, by the way!)  of OP's. Like Ken has said it's all about implication of things rather than being direct; pixel art is usually so small it's practically impossible to make it true to life and the smaller you get the more it has to be about the "implied" instead of what would be closer to what it is in reality.

Now onto my thoughts on this edit of an edit- I feel she's at such a small resolution that, while adding a fully black outline does help her pop out, it comes with the burden of not only flattening the sprite but even more worrisome is it can hurt readability in some regards. When it's this small having to outline the entire figure can imply and make certain limbs look too long or short, it can change the description of the form, etc. I think this is where selective outlining comes in handy as well as simply breaking the line altogether, this way there will be an outline but since it gets lighter and sometimes breaks it implies the outline is getting "thinner". We have to opt for that since we can't go smaller than a 1px size. The only way to avoid this would be going larger but even fighting game characters, which can be fairly large, tend to use selout. I've also changed the silhouette and have done my best to give the indication of a nice top down lighting. I threw out the eyebrows and went for a more traditional (: .) face since I feel it reads better at this size (her eyebrow could be mistaken as a brow shadow, meaning her face would be much more masculine, fine if you wanna go for a masculine woman but I assume we wanted a feminine woman). I ensured the hips were wider. I didn't try to follow any perspective (it'd be very hard to indicate with the amount of pixels you have available anyway) because, like said previously, it's more about the implication/essence of the thing especially at this size.

Offline yyboyyy96

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Re: Female Character

Reply #9 on: September 06, 2020, 02:38:24 pm
Another idea..a bit more interesting pose?  idk.  lol

I used an outline here.  Seems to help to define things better, and it'll work on any background.

Looks Amazing!!


Edited Dpixel's edit (good job, by the way!)  of OP's. Like Ken has said it's all about implication of things rather than being direct; pixel art is usually so small it's practically impossible to make it true to life and the smaller you get the more it has to be about the "implied" instead of what would be closer to what it is in reality.

Now onto my thoughts on this edit of an edit- I feel she's at such a small resolution that, while adding a fully black outline does help her pop out, it comes with the burden of not only flattening the sprite but even more worrisome is it can hurt readability in some regards. When it's this small having to outline the entire figure can imply and make certain limbs look too long or short, it can change the description of the form, etc. I think this is where selective outlining comes in handy as well as simply breaking the line altogether, this way there will be an outline but since it gets lighter and sometimes breaks it implies the outline is getting "thinner". We have to opt for that since we can't go smaller than a 1px size. The only way to avoid this would be going larger but even fighting game characters, which can be fairly large, tend to use selout. I've also changed the silhouette and have done my best to give the indication of a nice top down lighting. I threw out the eyebrows and went for a more traditional (: .) face since I feel it reads better at this size (her eyebrow could be mistaken as a brow shadow, meaning her face would be much more masculine, fine if you wanna go for a masculine woman but I assume we wanted a feminine woman). I ensured the hips were wider. I didn't try to follow any perspective (it'd be very hard to indicate with the amount of pixels you have available anyway) because, like said previously, it's more about the implication/essence of the thing especially at this size.

I think you are right! I usually dont draw this small but when I do I always get stuck because the proportions dont look right because of the outlines.. Shading the outline on the other part makes it some cases very nice looking but that depends on how small it is..