AuthorTopic: RPG character [WIP]  (Read 20552 times)

Offline inarma

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

RPG character [WIP]

on: January 19, 2008, 08:14:05 pm
 Ok, I'm new here and I'm here because I wanna get better at pixeling, because I really wanna make good sprites. So anyway I'm trying to make a character for my game, and the game is isometric, so just keep that in mind. Anyway I'm working on the main characters portrait so far, and I have no clue how to shade or whatever. I'm pretty happy with how his eyes turned out though  :) So here he is please help me make this guy get better, if you could like post a good pallete for his hair or skin and kinda tell me how to use it that would be great. So here is the portrait:

FIRST: -->OLD:-->NEW:
« Last Edit: February 20, 2008, 11:37:21 pm by inarma »

Offline ndchristie

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 2426
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • View Profile

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #1 on: January 20, 2008, 03:49:58 pm
Let's take a look at some faces from popular franchises as a way of seeing what people who are good at what they are doing do:



Now, none of these represent particularly impressive art, but they are very well suited to the task at hand - appealing to RPG gamers/anime watchers AND being fundamentally grounded (in design).

this to look at :

Contrast - they all have it by the pound.  Even disgaea, which stays away from the dark range, hits you (BAM!) with highly saturated colors that jump without really needing black.  It's also about local contrast - most of these go from their brightest to darkest quickly at the places they want you to look - eyes mostly.  The quickest transition from light to dark is always the outline, and yours has it in the hair, which is not where most people want the attention drawn.

Consistency - if one tihng is lit from one angle, so is everything else, pure and simple.  each line is handled in a similar fashion, or if not, the change is for a reason (FFT has a strong face line and a soft hair line because, well, hair is soft).  Suikoden avoids lines in the hair almost entirely for the same reason, using fine strokes where necessary.  The colors are almost always from the same palette.

More to follow....
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Schu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 89
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • The front is a lemon avenue flying straightly
    • View Profile
    • Eyegore-net

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #2 on: January 20, 2008, 04:57:11 pm
I'd suggest sketching out your portrait first, scanning it in and working from that. If you don't have a scanner and photoshop, then it still doesn't hurt to plan on paper and colour in with whatever you've got on hand (markers, pencil crayons, etc) since I'm assuming you don't have a wacom pen. Usually I'd sketch out my characters, and only start pixeling them when I'm happy with their design. I would also throw some colours on quickly over my sketch to work out the character's own colour scheme prior to any pixeling (whether it be a portrait or the sprite). It's always best to map out and plan things beforehand then just jumping in and wondering what's a good palette to use. Also keep in mind that your sprite may (should technically) have a colour limitation of like 16 colours (15+transparency). While your colour splashing sketches don't need to be those 15 colours only, it's good to keep in mind to use those colours as bases so you'll have some consistency between sprite and portrait.

Offline inarma

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #3 on: January 22, 2008, 02:35:28 am
 Yes I guess you are right Schu, planning out my portrait would help, but I'm a terrible drawer...it would take me a really long time to sketch out my portrait, also whats a wacom pen? I'm like 13, I don't have good art tools. Oh yea that reminds me I pretty much only use paint.NET.

@Adarias
 I think having some consistency would help my portrait a lot, and how would I add contrast to my art? Is it like uh making your colors more dark/light than the base color? Uh, I think thats what contrast means....

Ok, well I edited my sprite kinda adjusted my face so it looked a little better, and I'm trying to figure out how I would color the hair still, I just don't know where to begin or how you can make it look like the character has strands of hair. Anyway here is the image, I kinda blacked out his neck in purple cuz I'm gonna work on that last.

« Last Edit: January 23, 2008, 10:56:04 pm by inarma »

yosh64

  • Guest

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #4 on: January 26, 2008, 05:03:27 am
hey

I done a bit of an edit to try help.


Basically I tried to better define the light source, and try change the tone of the skin. I usually like to try shift the hue from a yellow to redish/purple color as it gets darker for skin. BTW, my edit can probably be improved a great deal more, and it might not be the best example either, but it's something.

You could probably reduce the colors a bit also, well I think I might have added a few or something, not sure exactly.

edit
One thing I forgot to mention, is that I don't think it's the best idea to pixel on a pure white (really bright), or pure black (really dark) background. I think it makes it hard to keep the colors and such balanced or something.

cyas
« Last Edit: January 27, 2008, 03:38:24 am by yosh64 »

Offline Helm

  • Moderator
  • 0110
  • *
  • Posts: 5159
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Asides-Bsides

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #5 on: January 26, 2008, 03:49:22 pm


On this image, where does the neck connect to the head? If you were to draw a profile of the same character where would it go? Show us the underlying structure. Why does he have a gray streak on top of his nose? Is the mouth properly placed on the lower right part of the face? You are drawing symbolically and not realistically. It would pay to look more at real people and reference them.

Offline inarma

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #6 on: January 28, 2008, 03:16:08 am
@yosh64, thanks for the help that sprite really helped...and nice crits.

@helm, lots of questions uh, well as I mentioned before I'm not really working on the underpart of his body I said I just sorta like "blacked" it out to show I wasn't working on it, when I start working on the neck and sholders I'll answer your question. And what do you meen by underlying structure. Uh the gray streak is because I have no idea how to color and I though it sorta showed like a highlight, I know its dumb but I;m terrible at shading and I barely know what I'm doing. And yea I don't get whatcha mean by drawing symbolically....but well I'll take your advice on the looking at a human to refrence for my drawing. Your crits should help me see what I'm doing wrong at least ;)

<-Not very different, lol....

Also just a question how do you make that strand effect like the characters above in Adarias's picks. See FF sprites.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2008, 03:27:39 am by inarma »

Offline Sherman Gill

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 995
  • Karma: +0/-1
    • View Profile

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #7 on: January 28, 2008, 07:06:30 am
Whoa whoa, man, hold up a sec.
The point of an edit isn't for you to just take it and work on that, the point is so that you can look at it, see what they did and more importantly why. If you just take it like some random gift you aren't going to actually learn anything. Ask yourself: Why did he use that color? Why'd he put highlights and shadows where he did?
Oh yes naked women are beautiful
But I like shrimps more haha ;)

yosh64

  • Guest

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #8 on: January 28, 2008, 11:04:56 am
hey

Yep, and I think you should also listen to helm. If I interpreted correctly, then I think he is saying for example that a mouth is more than a line under the nose, you must think about the form/structure, and the function of the mouth.

One thing I strongest advise you to think about, is the way light hits an object.

Anyhows I think you need to eventually figure your own way of things, as the way I have done things is certainly not the only way. If a hand full of artists each done their own edit, then I think each would be vastly different ;). Hmm, although I think this becomes harder after looking at someones elses edit :\.

cyas

Offline inarma

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: RPG character [WIP]

Reply #9 on: January 28, 2008, 11:40:00 pm
 I see whatcha guys are saying, but I didn't want to continue to hair because....well I wanted the hair to look more uh stringy, and uh I took ur sprite because I liked how you made the under body part type thing, and the face looked cool but I edited that up a little bit, I see what you guys are saying, but I was happy with the way the face was shaded, and as I said before I really didn't wanna start working on the body unti the upper parts were complete, so I still have the question I had before: How do you make that strand effect like the characters above in Adarias's picks. (See FF sprites) So yea, I'm kinda waiting on that question to be answered, and yea I thing my lineart is kinda weird for what I'm asking, but it'll make sense later  ;)