[WIP] Warrior

[saimo]

Saimo, I'm quite sure that the dark side and the light side of the shield are placed right.

I stand corrected. I looked at the piece in a hurry and did not evaluate the lightsource direction. Sorry. What fooled me, I think, is the direction of the lines: they make the shield appear as if is convex rather then concave (with respect to the handle).

saimo

[Kaczor]

No prob Saimo.

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Ok, I shrinked the dark half a bit as TrevoriuS said. Lawrence mentioned about removing the bright vertical line but what should I place istead? It sux without it. I think the shadows are placed better on the shield but still I don't know how to give it more depth. I also made the legs longer (actually only one pixel... still too small?).

Helm, could you edit for me at least a small part, for ex. arm to show me how to color and shade it? I suck at it . I also edited arm musculature but I don't know if that's what you ment.

I changed some other things, for ex. knees. Is it better? C&C please.

[Arachne]

His head looks a bit flat at the moment. Remove some of the brighter shades from the back of his head.

I'd get rid of some of the AA since the shades are so close together, at least the green, which I think looks out of place since it's more saturated than the surrounding shades.

His chest seems really flat. Try to make the vest curve a bit over his torso. The red cloth around his waist should also curve a bit more to show volume.

Just darkening the palette would help, I think. Also try to make the steps from bright to dark in your color ramps more even. I think you should also brighten the outlines around the brightest parts.

His head seems a bit awkwardly placed, so I'd move it back a bit. He also needs longer legs, and the arm holding the shield is too long. Make his elbows line up.

Shadows also curve around shapes, so the shadow cast by the sword should follow the shape of his thigh.

I think his arm should cast a bit of shadow on the shield. The same with the edge of the shield since it looks like he's holding the shield up so that the side is facing the light source.

Hope that'll give you some ideas.

[Helm]

partial edit, look at face mostly.

[Kaczor]

Whoa, thanks guys. Thanks to you Archane, the mistakes seem so obvious .

Helm - yeah, I should get rid of "it"  .

Thanks a lot! I'll try to apply your suggestions soon.

[Jad]

Eh, just one thing, I think the legs look kind of messed up in Arachne's edit O: I like the original better, I'd like to see his foot a bit further forward though, for better balance :]

Great going!

[Kaczor]

Update!

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I tried to fallow your suggestions more or less succesfull. You'll be the judge.

[TrevoriuS]

Very nicely done, you might wish to add some additional effort into the shirt as it is the only piece without splendid cloth foldings.

I also modified the shield a bit more for you to see what I actually ment with changing its shape
After doing so I noticed it'd be prettier to add some lighting too even though the roundness i created is not very natural for wood.

You are doing a good job at this one, be sure to perfectionize it!
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4057/warrioreh3.png

[Rydin]

Very nice progress so far.  However, the face is still very blurry and hard to read--granted, it is better than before--but it still is hard to make out the features.  And actually, the whole piece still has that "washed out" look to it.


Just messed with the color a bit to show what I mean.

[Stefano]

Hey, Kaczor.

As I've promised I edited your sprite. It took me a lot more time than I care to admit ( ), but I think it was completely worth it, since I've learned a lot in the process and hopefully it'll help you improve your own technique. The sprite created a life of it's own and I probably went too far modifying it, but it was fun as hell! Thanks for letting me do this.

I'm far from being an expert on pixel art, mind you, but I do know how to draw quite a bit and that really helps. Anyway here's the final piece:



What I felt needed changing:
1. Anatomy. The shoulders were too low and the limbs too tick and yet too rounded. I know he's supposed to be a warrior, but I think it has a olympic weight-lifter kind of muscular mass volume, although most muscles seemed out of place..
He's also too short IMO! Specially the legs. To fix that, you can either shrink the head or stretch the rest. In my edit, I've only lengthened the legs (check out the seven-heads tall bar on the last frames).
The chest area is projecting a shadow over his stomach area, making it look concave, when in fact that's almost flat if compared to the thorax.

2. Medievalness: By the looks of his garments and hair, he's probably a novice warrior, in a level 1 peasant kind of way. Again, it felt right that such character should not be so strong and so I've made him look less muscular. Well, he could be in the castle building business and be stronger then the average medieval dudes, but I still think you should get some references to check how muscles should look.
Changed the shield... added straps, wooden boards and a thin leathery finish line around it. Your's is currently too tick and pillowed, as if the shield is cushioned or something.

That said, I think you've come a long way since your first post and it's pretty obvious you're improving each day. Keep up the good work.

-Stefano