[CC] Sci-fi character in a armor suit.

[Dnilb]

I want to create animations for this character so I would appreciate some feedback on his first idle frame.
Does the pose make sense?

This is how he looks if I add another shade to other parts:

Is it too noisy like this?


@Update

[SeinRuhe]

Hey Dnilb,

I'll C&C the update since it's a step up on the previous iterations but could use some more work in the following aspects:

- Establish a light source direction, this one needs to be crystal clear in your mind since it's what determines how the drawing is shaded.

- Think a bit more in 3D, some forms feel a little disconnected, using a black outline on every part of the character adds to said disconnection.

- For the shading, having the lightsource in mind, render the parts that face the light with the lightest value and the parts facing away from the light with the darkest value. You could check Marco Bucci's videos on YouTube, he's great at explaining this. Have in mind that traditional and digital painting information on this topic is thousands of times more valuable than Pixel Art specific information.

- If possible get rid of the folds on the clothes, folds are great when having big fabrics or really loose clothes, in this case adds a bit too much noise.

- This is merely personal taste but the character feels quite futuristic yet the pose feels a little monkey-ish, maybe you could work something cooler?

Here's a quick implementation of what I just told you (Far from perfect so be careful when referencing it, you may end up referencing the errors lol), hope it helps at least a bit!

[Dnilb]

Hi,thanks for all the points you made.
I tried to make some adjustments based on them.



It was hard not to get some inspiration from your reference.
Checking these videos might be a good idea, I am purely self-taught so I just go by a feeling on how something should look.

@Edit

I am also thinking on doing smaller version:


2. Has upper body moved a bit to the right, I thought 1. might look 'stiff'.
What do you think?

Also I played a bit with color ranges for fun:

[SeinRuhe]

Hmm,

Not sure if I have too much else to add at this point, the edit you did on the big version is definitely an improvement.

The small version could use some clean-up here and there. The color range exercise is a good one, personally I like things with high contrast.

Being self taught is hard, you need to be able to judge yourself as hard as you can and as accurate as you can. I'm self taught too, and from my experience, the key for improving is to absorb as much information as you can from people who is further on the learning curve and practice right away. I do really recommend watching Marco Bucci, Modern Day James, Proko or similar channels on YouTube (Again, I can't stress this enough, the more you learn things not related to pixel art the fastest your progress at pixel art will be. The improvement is 10 times faster than if you learn with only pixel art).

I think a topic you may find useful for improving is Value, color often masks our mistakes, so working only in black and white (AKA Value Only) at least for a bit should make it easier for you to spot what you can improve. If it reads good in black and white, color is just a pinch of salt on top.

Here's a work I did a couple weeks ago as an example, that although not great, things have a good readability both on color and on black and white (Value Only)



Here's the last edit you did with the same treatment. Shapes loose a bit of readability don't you think? For example, the leg and arm on the far side look closer than the leg and arm on the closest side.



A last piece of advice to close is squint your eyes as much and as often as you can when drawing, If things are readable doing this, they will be crystal clear when not doing it.

Hope this helps a bit!