Some characters

[cels]

My bad, fskn. I had a preconception of how people hold their hands on their hips. When I googled it, I noticed people do it differently depending on the flexibility of their shoulders and wrists. And it makes perfect sense when I saw your visual explanation. I'll have a second look, it makes sense that the back of her hand catches more light. 

EDIT: Also... can someone help me make sense of this character? Reference HERE.   

[cels]

Is double posting ok or frowned upon? I don't mean to flout social convention, I just need some help getting these pixels in the right place.

[fskn]

Oops, sorry, I hadn't seen your edit.

I think the helmet looks fine as it is, but you *could* do something like this instead if you would want to put more holes in it:



Nothing fancy, really. And slightly asymmetrical.
Now, I think if you added more it would basically be just read as noise. Not to mention it would be a bitch to animate.

EDIT: And I do prefer pose #2.

---

EDIT 2: Wait, maybe something like this would help sell that crease in the middle:

[cels]

Thanks for the help, fskn!

I'm afraid the single pixel holes trigger my trypophobia. Which is very useful in some contexts but not for this particular piece. However, you're probably right that I need to convey the shape of the helmet better. I'll keep playing around with this. As always, my workflow involves randomly going back and forth between characters over time.

If I can get a yay or nay to the pose and anatomy, or even crits, that would significantly reduce my anxiety. 

[fskn]

A third try, with some... changes.



I wasn't sure what was going on with his sleeve, so I tried to make it follow the shape of the arm a little more.
And I'm still undecided about the torso... But I guess it looks better.
I can't tell you exactly what I did there, as I was experimenting placing pixels here and there, whilst trying to follow some sort of musculature.

Oh yeah, his right arm looked too thin to me, comparing with the left, so it's thicker now.

[SeinRuhe]

I'm drained but I can't resist a good post.

As always I will lick your designs in an erotic manner for a bit, nothing to pay attention to

This guy suffers from what my fairy suffered, the arm thats holding the sword doesn't seem to be making any effort to hold it, also the pose of the hand is a little feminine for this mountain. So close the arm a little bit and make sure to show to the camera the plane of the hand where you put the cocaine in to snort lol. Or just watch the reference I included.

Other minor stuff could be to close the leg on our right a bit, increase the size of the part of the helmet that rest on his shoulders by a bit (Just the part on our right). Adjust a bit the shoulder pad on our left to better convey that it's going around the shoulder and try to compress the color banding that's happening on the armor.

Reflective materials are hard as ****, think of them as mirrors, the plane that mirrors more light from the lightsource to the viewer is where you have to put the speculars, the darkest part of this kind of material is near the center, followed by some reflection in the shadow part, pay special attention to his left leg since is the part only that I tried to render properly.



That's all!

Edit: Look at the following image, as long as you have at least a Form Light, Highlight (Specular), Form Shadow, Core Shadow and Reflected Light you will have a great sense of form on your reflective materials.

http://drawing.wiki/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/all-modeling-factors-1024x576.jpg

The guy in the video down below (Dorian Iten) explains it like a charm, he has a course where he goes a bit more in depth with this theme but I do not recommend to invest on it, is a little too shallow for the price. Mail me if you want me to explain you every modeling factor *wink**wink*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vapw6n6FyU

[cels]

Thanks a million, guys! I've tried to study your posts and find a good way forward.

@fskn: He's supposed to have a short sleeve, exposing his underarm and hand. Thanks for helping me improve the shading. I ended up changing the position of his arm but yours looked much better.

@SeinRuhe: I think it's time to quit working as a chef, it's clearly getting in the way of your pixel art.

- I see what you're saying about the feminine posture. His elbows were a bit tucked while his hands were extended to the side, so he ended up looking a bit like MuuMuu. However, I don't want him to hold the sword quite the way you put it, because I want to show off the shape as a single edged sword (in case Netflix calls)
- I understand that polished metal is essentially a curved mirror, I just haven't put in the hours yet to make my brain capable of simulating it. However, I'm spending more time learning about the fundamentals so I will invest some time today to see that video and practice the concepts. Maybe I'll realize my own mistakes after. Why did I waste so much time not studying art theory when I was younger?

Below is my new edit. I think the issue with the helmet is that I really like the kind of V-shape it has when seen from the front. The reference is not simply a bulbous sphere with holes in, it's actually a medieval helmet that looks really sci-fi in its design. Reminds me of Bubblegum Crisis and Robocop, really. And it's not simply a sphere with a vertical edge either. Maybe it's too difficult to convey in 10x10 pixels.



Anyway, I've tried to study your edits and incorporate as much goodness as I could. I think it's moving along nicely although I still can't wrap my monkey brain around metal reflections and I'm not sure about the sword / sword arm.



EDIT: And now I see that the curvature of his shin is wrong. Fuck.

[SeinRuhe]

This is looking great! Love that you took the time to draw the bag, that's another level of commiting to a pun

I may need to update my PJ, I did quit my job as a chef to be a freelance pixel artist, I'm just a bit exhausted due overworking on some projects, a mild case of insomnia, two active cats and some repair work happening at my place.

I know simulating reflective mats is really hard, no worries, it just take time.

And it's never too late to pay attention to the fundamentals, I started taking really seriously to learn the fundamentals and other media to improve my art in last year's October (29y at that moment), so we may be a bit behind of others but nothing hard work cannot compensate! You do start developing a keen eye for some stuff, now I'm trying to develop my explanations to better understand everything in a rational manner and not just with abstract thinking (You've been the perfect test subject btw)

Keep the great work Cels! You are a joy to the forums

[fskn]

Cels, how do you go about doing pixel art? Do you go straight to the pixels, probably with a mouse, or do you sketch it first on the side?
Because you could most likely get more expressive characters, lines, postures, etc. if you tried drawing it first on pen and paper or with a tablet.

Something I did here to illustrate:



Although I recognize it would stiffen up when translating that to pixel art, but your foundation drawing could help guide you to something with more flow.
Or maybe you do want it to be a very clear representation of this one guy for reference or a model sheet or...

Still, it could help you out with your pixellings.

[cels]

Thanks, guys! 

As of right now, I go straight to the pixels with a mouse. I do have a laptop with a touch screen and a pen but I don't feel like I know enough about anatomy and gestures to really freehand characters without references. However, it's possible that I would learn more and get better results for my characters if I added this extra step combined with references so maybe it's time to try this.

That's a great illustration, fskn. Definitely next level compared to what I'm doing now. Although I also tried to imitate THIS style of illustration in order to keep the task appropriate for my skill level. Not too much foreshortening or dramatic poses.

So far I've just been going by references and trying to translate that directly to sprites in Aseprite.