AuthorTopic: GR#022 - Spectra Bird - Sprite Process  (Read 11774 times)

Offline Indigo

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GR#022 - Spectra Bird - Sprite Process

on: May 14, 2008, 05:44:59 pm
Last night I came across an old piece of mine and decided to finish it.  It was made as a palette study.  The goal was to use a full spectrum of highly saturated colors and make it work with the help of a grey.

Latest:


Older:


some areas have yet to be touched (such as the front-most hand, chain, and front foot), and other areas still need more refining (such as the muscle structure in the forearms).  Note: thanks to kon for some critique.  This originally was going to be a collab between me and him, though that fell through.

Its been a blast to work on so far :)
« Last Edit: April 29, 2010, 05:08:48 am by Indigo »

Offline vierbit

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #1 on: May 14, 2008, 08:15:20 pm
Finish it!
Really nice concept, for some odd reason i like esp. the cage.
Only the super saturated red hurt a little.

Offline Willows

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #2 on: May 14, 2008, 11:59:46 pm
Man-legs and man-pecs and man-arms on a bird? C'mon Indigo, we all know you're a talented enough artist to do better than that :)

Explained a lil more clearly:

It seems like a chimera of fighter sprites all mushed and mashed together in an almost beautiful image with lurking structural flaws. The arms,chest and legs are extremely toned muscleman, but they're separated by a giant bird gut that doesn't actually connect the two pieces. The man-legs and bird-waist/gut connect believably, and the man-chest and bird-head connect believably as well, but I can't see a believable connection between the pecs and gut (ribcage area in general, really).

Cool, I think I repeated myself enough there. Let's try say it with pixels.



But yeh. I still think it'd be a good idea to branch off into something other than rubbing in the fact that you kick ass at muscle structure (as seen before in half your pieces on pixeljoint ;) ) and attempting something a bit more bird-based, but it's your piece and I  betcha I already crushed a few of your intentional elements in yon edit, so I'll leave it at that.

Glad you posted your WIP, it's given me something pretty to look at :)
« Last Edit: May 15, 2008, 12:03:08 am by Willows »

Offline Indigo

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #3 on: May 15, 2008, 12:23:55 am
Vierbit:
thanks man :)  I'll be refining the palette along as I progress. 

Willows:
Thanks for the edit man

I've reread your message a few times now only to take a different feeling from it each time.  oh how I love bitter-sweet critiques ;)

about the concept in general:  In retrospect I probably would have chosen a different route if I were to start over (maybe something less human anatomy based) - however this is a very old piece, and at this point it's too far along to make those sort of choices.

as for the separation between the pectoral and gut, I think you're right.   I want to keep the gut since that was a main intent when creating this piece (to steer away from similarities to my other pieces), but I'll try to think of ways to make it flow a bit more naturally.

I'll post an update tonight.  Thanks guys
« Last Edit: May 15, 2008, 02:14:20 am by Indigo »

Offline Faceless

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #4 on: May 15, 2008, 01:40:36 am
One way to make it work would be to do away with the antromorphism altogether, by giving that gut some overall straps and making that head a mask/helmet.

Offline Indigo

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #5 on: June 04, 2008, 07:01:48 pm
small update...

I liked faceless' idea to have it be more of a suit than an actual creature... though I dont think this route solves any of the problems that the idea was intended to do :P



I'll finish this soon I hope

Offline Indigo

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #6 on: April 29, 2010, 05:06:30 am
so i decided to finish this sucker...

I ended up adding one more color for more contrast, and turning it into a hoodie-suit type thing.



thoughts?
« Last Edit: April 29, 2010, 05:12:33 am by Indigo »

Offline The B.O.B.

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #7 on: April 29, 2010, 07:18:06 am
   I think it's fine as is. This next bit of personal critique is more for your future works, than this one(which pretty much summarizes my whole critique here, if you wish to skip the non-sense): Please, please, please try to stray away from the aloof big muscle guy pose! You have a wonderful way of choosing colors, but the only thing that holds most of your pieces back is the muscle-guy anatomy. This character could have done well without the muscley arms, and that static pose.(in fact, I think it would work better with skinny arms, provided the character and possible funny message.)

Just as a refresher, these are the pieces that stick out in my mind, from your gallery in Pixeljoint, that seem to have this very same issue and haven't let go of it since!:

1. Stout: good piece, small but readable...unfortunately, the start of a safe pose...maybe too safe.

2. Grunt: Massive improvement over the original(though I'd wish you'd left the original in the gallery somewhere for others to see how much better this has gotten)...but noticing the pose is still in this safe, static pose...maybe the next will change.

3.Gluggernaut: Starting to see a problem here...it's not so much the technique, but moreso the fear of branching away from what's comfortable...Digging the drowned out colors, to set the mood for the scary character.

4. Tsu-Moe: the Pros? Great technique, per the norm with you. The Cons? A near replica-pose of your previous Grunt and Gluggernaut character. Mainly, it's still lacking in Dynamic-ism(is that even a word?), pose-wise. 

   I know you do pixel professionally, I just wish you'd show us more variety in some of your monsters/humanoid characters. For most first timers, seeing something like this is impressive, and SHOULD impress them. But for me, I've seen your art for a while and maybe that's a fair reason as to why I feel this way, but the tired pose detracts so much from how much better this could be.
   Also, I'm not trying to be a dick. I've seen your portolio, and it's great. But this big guy pose thing seems to be bleeding into your other mediums as well.From one growing pixel artist(err...artist in general, I suppose) to another, I just think it's good for us now-growing-old fogies to tell each other the truth, for the better and never for the worse. At any rate, and silly rants aside, I still think this is a fantastic piece!
my back hurts...

Offline Trub

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #8 on: April 29, 2010, 07:18:24 am
I preferred the chicken since it was like, you can't cage me. But anyway, now the man is fat while being ripped?

Offline Indigo

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Re: Spectra-Bird

Reply #9 on: April 29, 2010, 07:31:52 am
BOB:
I most certainly agree with you on every front.  It was one of the main reasons I hadn't touched this piece in so long. (mind you this piece is nearly 3 years old now)  I just didn't want to do another one of the same old dudes - but it was really bugging me today how unfinished it was.  I have a lot of unfinished art that could flesh out my portfolio if only I spent a bit more time on it, so i thought i'd quickly seal the deal on this one.  In the future, I'll truly try to branch out more.  thanks man :)