AuthorTopic: Anatomy help... again (and tiles)  (Read 13780 times)

Offline Tarenken

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Re: Anatomy help... again

Reply #20 on: June 18, 2008, 07:21:03 pm
But if i draw difficult stuff it won't come out looking good.  :-[
Also, I'm using a tablet. D:

Offline Atnas

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Re: Anatomy help... again

Reply #21 on: June 18, 2008, 07:28:47 pm
But if i draw difficult stuff it won't come out looking good.  :-[

 :huh: You don't have to show anyone the bad ones. And everyone started out drawing things that weren't very good. It's practice and insight that lead to improvement.

Whatever you draw, we've seen worse. And it doesn't hurt to get critiqued either. :)

I'm sure at least five people will provide you with examples of how to improve your anatomy if you post a sketch. It's probably one of the easiest ways to learn.

Offline Helm

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Re: Anatomy help... again

Reply #22 on: June 18, 2008, 07:45:41 pm
'showing people the bad ones' is what we do here  ::)

Don't worry. We don't bite.  :)

Also, an anatomy non-pixel-art thread will be made soon in the general forum for all your such needs for critique. We do a lot of anatomy sniping in this forum, it's a good idea to have a central thread too.

Offline VisMaior

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Re: Anatomy help... again

Reply #23 on: June 18, 2008, 08:31:52 pm
What I find helpful is drawing stick figures first. When Im happy with the pose and the proportions, I add mass to the sticks. Just be aware that a stick figure should have a triangle for a pelvis and an extra line for shoulders.
Let me give you an example:

Lets say I want a gladiator. He is in the middle of the fight, in a stable position, his knees bent, holding a small shield and a gladius.
A quick doodle resulted in this:


His arms are too long, his shoulders too wide. a quick edit later I have this:


Ok he is leaning a bit too far forward, he seems like falling over:


Ok thats just wrong. It looks like his back is broken. I need to move his feet forward a bit. In this step I added a little volume to be able to gague the mass better.


His legs are too short, and his upper body too long. His arms are too short again.


This looks quiet good, so lets clear him up a bit, so we can see where he is still lacking:


This is still far from really good, but its a start. We can go back a step and continue from there, or we can try fixing the outline.

There are a few points I wanted to show. Firstly, and this is very important, find a pose. The pose of your char is not very realistic. His left arm bends outward, wich is a very awkward position to hold a lance. Also, the angle of the lance seems off. Dont draw things there ust because there is more space, that will result in such poses. Secondly, you can do the doodles with multiple lines. The advantage is that if the correct line is in the bunch of lines somewhere, the brain filters it out. Thirdly, dont be afraid to use the tools you got. If you need longer legs, stretch them with the stretch tool. If your char bends forard, use the rotation tool to get him lean back a bit. With practice, you will be able to do these transformations  by hand, but for  learning and doodling, they do the job.

Offline Tarenken

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Re: Anatomy help... again (and tiles)

Reply #24 on: June 19, 2008, 01:51:05 am
I really appreciate your help, guys. It's been a while since I've had a thread this long anywhere.  ^-^
In any case... I haven't done any work on the new version of the pixelart since I haven't gotten any feedback, but while I've been waiting I've made these tiles for a game I'm making with a friend.

They're supposed to be a somewhat simple style, thought still good-looking. Any advice? The cobblestone tiles are bothering me somewhat.

Offline Ethan

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Re: Anatomy help... again (and tiles)

Reply #25 on: June 23, 2008, 02:04:10 am
They look great, especially when you put them together- it could be a little more seamless, though, but that's probably a difficult thing to do.

Offline Tarenken

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Re: Anatomy help... again (and tiles)

Reply #26 on: June 23, 2008, 02:10:06 am
Thanks Ethan, I'll keep working on the tiles.
Now, the tiles aren't the only thing I'm working... I'm taking a little break from them for now to work on this:

the limbs are bothering me, and the color choices could be a little better (though I still want the red and white in there). Crit would be appreciated.    :hehe:
« Last Edit: June 23, 2008, 04:06:52 am by Tarenken »

Offline PypeBros

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Re: Anatomy help... again (and tiles)

Reply #27 on: June 23, 2008, 06:35:57 am
it's somehow surprising to use golden colors for cobblestone, which may explain why they look so odd. I'd also suggest to use less contrast in your dirt tiles.

Offline vierbit

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Re: Anatomy help... again (and tiles)

Reply #28 on: June 23, 2008, 02:52:29 pm
If you use 16x16 tilesize they are not very efficient for now, the grid is also higly visible.
Also the dithering on the stones is a little cheap. You should also avoid working on a white background, if thats the case.
I made a little example for the tiles.

As you can see i used the dirt tiles as the base with the grass is growing on it.
For a proper dirt/grass transition you basically need at least 12 tiles.
4 corners for the "outside"
4 corners for the "inside"
4 edges
Plus one grass and dirt tile of course.
There can be more for each type(corners, edges) to eliminate repetivness.

The same technic can be also used on any other kind of transitions, like water or sand.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2010, 08:30:23 pm by vierbit »