[WIP] Jungy

[Rargh!]

Well, I guess I didn't register with Pixellation to just comment on other people's awesomeness. I came here to learn. So, here it is. This is a character I've been working on for the last two nights. It's of a TV presenter I know in Australia, from the ABC's gaming show, Good Game (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/). The guy's name is Jungy (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/about/junglist.htm) and I've done him up as a character that fits the parameters of the DS game Drawn To Life (www.drawntolife.com.au).



Here's a showing of my desktop which includes the reference photo and zoomed up version with DTL grid and restricted palette.



Okay, things to point out:

• his left arm looks a little funny, because in the game that swings around to the front of the body and is used to hold weapons. (Check out the gameplay video in the url above to see what I mean)
• yep, his knuckles aren't great, but I think with the next edit I can fix those
• the logo on his body is really flat and needs volume. need help here on how to do that.
• with the limited palette, I had huge amounts of trouble with his hair. would love perhaps a whole perspective shift on this
• looking at it now, I think his lips might be better done with a pink, rather than the red...?
• maybe the left eye is a pixel too wide? and a bit to the left? it doesn't quite capture the squint.
• would love to see how radically different someone else would have tackled this, given the awesome entries to the IGN comp that was in this thread: http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=4661.0

Now some background...

This is my fourth attempt at pixel art ever (well aside from playing through Drawn to Life) since deciding I'd really like to learn how to push pixels a week or so ago. Here are my other three (in order).



The first was just a fun attempt at doing a Lego Stormtrooper within the template. The second was an attempt to recreate a little robot toy that sits on my desk (unfortunately it is  squat and the template is much more "human" shaped). While the third was a more serious attempt at a homage to one of my favourite artists, UK illustrator Jon Burgerman (www.jonburgerman.com, restricting myself to the Drawn To Life standard palette while capturing Burgerman's style.

Well, would love to learn how to take "Jungy" to an even better place...

Cheers,


 

[sharprm]

The host looks very good. I did a quick edit. If you flip a drawing horizontally you will often want to change it. Although human faces are asymetrical, I thought your piece was too asymetrical.

I thought using the pink was a bad idea around hands because it looked like nails.

edit: I used Pixen to edit it and it sometimes automatically screws with the pallete.

[Rargh!]

Nice edit. There's a lot more contrast in the head now, and the purple-ish colour works really well as a shadow on the hair, though I'd still like to keep some of the redishness. Agree with you on the pinks on the hand, and the clean-up on the right hand certainly adds depth. Nice use of the black to add more definition to the face. When the kids are asleep tonight I'll definitely sit down tonight and look even more closely at what you did.

Was there anything that could be done about the logo? I'm thinking of trying to lighten the left edge of the first G and darken the right edge of the second.

Thanks again for the edit. Any explanatory comments would be great. I'm still noticing things (such as the neck).

Have to run for now, though...

[sharprm]

The dark blue just seemed to look better than the dark red in your pallete. Even though no one has blue in their hair, read Sherman Gil's topic in general discussion since theres
a good explanation why could fade to blue.

There are highlights on face and shadows on neck. Make sure when you edit it yourself to make sure wherever light source is its consistent for pants and face (unlike my edit).

There was some messy stuff (like brown on outside, black lines not joined) i cleaned up.

I didn't follow the reference religiously since at small scale not all details are appropriate.

I thought the way you did the eyes was really good btw.

[Rargh!]

Okay...

Thanks for all the tips Sharp...

So, here they are:

Original: > > > Sharprm edit: > > > new edit:

Things changed:

• logo on chest now has volume (pretty happy with that!)
• consistent light source (well, best I can given that the arms swing to new positions) which means highlights and shadows on face, neck, body, legs, etc.
• reshaped and fixed hands
• reshaped t-shirt to make it look like its hanging a little more (again, on the left arm, its done knowing that it will swing down)
• new lip colour
• wider chin to match reference photo
• ...

I'm pretty happy with the result. Still open to more c/c though...