AuthorTopic: GR#001 - Red Dragon - Dither  (Read 32845 times)

Offline Dogmeat

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GR#001 - Red Dragon - Dither

on: November 17, 2008, 09:52:19 pm
Original from about a year ago:



Updates in sequencial order:





I started working on this about a year ago and have since not touched it, actually, I worked on it on saturday but one of my HD's crashed and I am not going to be able to retrieve my updates easily so I grabbed this one from  my website and am going to work on it vigorously, hopefully, with some good ol' C&C pixelation style.

In my newer version I had fleshed out the face a lot more, gave the eye a rounded feel and worked on the wing a little bit. I know this needs a lot of work but I want it to be absolutely perfect and polished.

Thanks, and its good to be back.

EDIT: added all the other wips, including the one where I pixeled a little boy with a teddy bear, which won't be in the final :)
« Last Edit: January 19, 2009, 05:41:04 pm by Dogmeat »
Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Souly

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #1 on: November 17, 2008, 10:11:21 pm
Just nit pick edits take em or leave em.

I think you may have over dithered the face but that's just my opinion you may like it dithered up to you.
Cleaned up the chest a bit, made the wings joint bit bigger?

But it's looking good, keep going.

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #2 on: November 18, 2008, 01:09:15 am
Great suggestions Souly, I got rid of a lot of the dithering and worked on the shading on the head and leg a bit. Also changed how the feet look, I think they look more gnarly now :)

New WIP based on Souly's suggestions:

Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #3 on: November 18, 2008, 04:37:40 am
more updates:

Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #4 on: November 18, 2008, 08:49:34 pm


Had to use gimp because I'm at work, so I'm not sure if it exported correctly. Either way, I made some more adjustments, but I'm now getting to the point where I'm having a hard time locating the next thing to flesh out. I also tried to add a knight in front of the dragon to give a size perspective but it really didn't work out.

I could really go for some hardcore C&C on this dragon, I really want to make him as polished as possible while learning some advanced techniques at the same time. Please offer up your suggestions :)

Thanks!
Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Arachne

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #5 on: November 18, 2008, 11:29:15 pm
I like it, but I think it needs a bit of cleaning up to really bring out the details.

When you're working on something this size, I think it's important to make the most out of the little space you have, and use thin outlines if you're going to use any. Another thing that adds to line thickness is the color of the lines. High contrast lines seem thicker, so try to avoid using black where it's not really necessary in order to see the lines.

Dithering should also be used with care, preferably only to blend colors where needed and suggest texture (scales in this case). You also have a bit of banding and some similar colors. I think it's a good idea to keep the increase/decrease in hue/saturation/brightness fairly constant between the colors in the ramps, but also keep in mind that you need fewer colors in ramps that are only going to be used in small areas (like the white) than in the colors for larger areas (like the red). Your palette is also a bit plain at the moment. Try varying the hues a bit more.

The dragon itself seems to lack a clearly defined light source. Try to move the highlights closer to the light and add more shadow in the other end. You can use ambient light to suggest forms in the darkest parts if you feel you lose too much detail by doing that.

The shadow cast by the dragon on the ground could be lighter so it's easy to tell it apart from the dragon itself.



This is a fairly extensive edit, but I wanted to give you some ideas for colors and how to sharpen it up a bit and still keep it AAed and dithered. I thought green would serve as a nice contrast to the red and moved the highlights towards yellow. You're free to find other combinations, of course.

I hope that's useful. :)

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #6 on: November 19, 2008, 12:49:08 am
Thank you Arachne!

I have made some adjustments while trying to learn from your incredible edit, I definitely see the faults in my earlier versions and hopefully I'm on the right track with this next WIP:



Also, I tried to bring the features from the other side of his head out a little bit, let me know what you think. I still have to work on the wings, feet, tail and more adjustments to the legs/body/face, lots to do, just the edit I needed to keep me working for a WHILE!

THANKS!
Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline I Am Uh

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #7 on: November 19, 2008, 01:34:07 am
Did a little edit.

Somethings I think you should work on are contrast and pallet, try something crazy and out of you're comfort zone, that's how you learn.
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Offline Larwick

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #8 on: November 19, 2008, 02:02:59 am
Did a little edit.

Somethings I think you should work on are contrast and pallet, try something crazy and out of you're comfort zone, that's how you learn.
I think you may have some monitor troubles! I see that dark blue as darker than the dark grey. It's very saturated and dark, making it harder to read also.
I actually think the palette is fine as is, it suits the piece fine. It's a cute character dogmeat, keep it up. You'll have to fix the end of the tail as it reads quite confusingly, although you probably are already.

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: [WIP] Red Dragon

Reply #9 on: November 19, 2008, 02:27:52 am
Lar: You got it :)

Ok, so here is what I've done tonight based on what Arachne suggested. The wing was a lot of trouble for me along with the tail tip as well. Rimlights are another thing I haven't used much so placing them on my version while trying to learn from Arachne's edit was challenging as well. I'm wondering about my shadow, I'm trying to get the wing to cast a shadow and I think i've been staring at this for too long so I submit it to you guys:

Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama