AuthorTopic: Blam Blam (Updated 09/26/08)  (Read 6339 times)

Offline Helm

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Re: Blam Blam (Updated 09/26/08)

Reply #10 on: September 27, 2008, 06:56:18 am
The squat version is cuter, but I appreciate your reasoning for doing this more human-like. I did an edit for you, here it is:



First of all the colors: I don't see Hellboy's skin becoming less saturated as he goes towards darker shades. He comes from... hell, and all. Of course it pays to not overdo it perhaps but anyway.
About the alphabetized points:

A : grip. You're missing a chunk of hand, I don't know its real name, but you can guess from the edit.
B : the whole arm, oh man, this is something that'll send you doing anatomy practise because it's a biggie. You are doing alright with marvelized anatomy in idle positions (the other arm for example is great) but when the arm is raised and generally the muscles need to be utilized, your form goes to hell. This ties in with C as well. The pec will rise to support the hugearm in the extended position, the bicep will bulge for such supermuscle type of arms, the armpit will be the place where the skin is thinnest on the body, and in turn in the back of the form (not shown) the back muscles will stress to support the weight. The actual shoulder will curl in, etc. This is something that you need to deal without outside of pixel art I think. Right now you've got this unfortunate effect going which I dub '3d model anatomy' which means that the anatomy is drawn to support an 'idle' pose and when the model has to do anything not idle, some muscles at trigger points contort in an ugly way whereas other points that you'd expect changing position remain stationary (like the chest muscles). I didn't finish this part, just drew the major groups for reference.
D : Just glare from the gun on the face
E : glare on the stoneabs by the gun, perhaps these are overdone for such a small lightsource but eh, you'll be the judge
F : Here's an example of taking away the black outlines and letting light and darkness and strategically placed lighted contours dictate the shape? Better? Worse?
G : don't forget those muscles! Also give the dude some clavicle bones!
H : dude needs knees! Especially Hellboy!
I : This whole leg was pretty strangely done, tell me if you think the form I suggest works better?
J : I added a bit of dithering just on the fabric to separate it from the smooth skin rendering


Also I added a lot more shine on the rock arm, perhaps this was a mistake thinking how the rocky texture isn't as oily as the body and therefore wouldn't get as much shine, but it looks cool? So it's an issue of priorities here. Also I straightened out the trajectory of the bullet inside the flamepuff.

Hope I helped.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2008, 06:58:56 am by Helm »

Offline Ryona

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Re: Blam Blam (Updated 09/26/08)

Reply #11 on: September 27, 2008, 07:37:18 am
That's a great Hellboy!

My only crit on it is that his feet are too small. They look so dainty for a big burly man.

Offline Tremulant

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Re: Blam Blam (Updated 09/26/08)

Reply #12 on: September 27, 2008, 08:48:04 pm
Wow, Helm, that was... in-depth. Thank you.

It's only (very) recently that I've started to look at my understanding of anatomy a little more seriously. I have a basic grasp of how it all lays out; good enough that it's usually passable in idle poses, and in deformed, stylized characters, but poor enough that it all falls apart when I actually try to put it to work (as you can tell by the totally phoned in gun arm ,etc.), which I took as all the more reason to steer clear of over-deformation. I've been trying to avoid of pixelling in the interim, but my attention span is pretty deplorable.

I like mostly everything you did in this edit, and it'll most definitely be helpful to say the least. That said, I might neglect this piece for a bit and go back to working on the basics.

You're absolutely right, Ryona, his feet are tiny. I've been trying to strike a balance between balance between the super long hooves of, say, the animated version, and something a little more human (though at the moment, I think I'm a far cry from either). It is something I've been thinking about, though.