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[Dr. Kylstien]

Left: I reduced and tweaked the colors. You had way too many blues, and I got rid of the darkest red too. In addition to the saturation changes the others suggested I added hue shifting: the brighter colors are greener and the darker ones purpler, which both improved contrast and allowed that darkest red to be removed.

Middle:  I moved the left (his right) arm in even more and moved the right arm out a little bit in an attempt to balance the two. I adjusted the right leg to look a bit more natural. I also tried to break up some banding, (shading closely following the outline) while adjusting the shading to fix what was lost in the color reduction.

Right: I had a little fun with the design, making it more colorful.

[xhunterko]

Hopefully, this doesn't look like just a copy over.



I followed your palette there. I liked the middle one the best, so that's the look I was going for. I thought the right edit looked like some kind of Rpg Mage battle sprite or something. I like the way you both explained things a bit. I tried to use the HSL for the Green type. I was going to use a different color for the secondary but red looked better. What I did to get the greens. Is, I first picked a green color that I thought closely matched the base blue. Which was the hue number.

Then, I picked the blue again, and merely changed the hue number to match the green I picked. For example. The lightest blue color in gale, has the HSL of 197, 71, 53. Then I went back to the Green, which in this case was 120. Then I merely gave the Green the same SL of the blue. In this case, 120, 71, 53. I did that for all the shades to attempt to match the colors. I think I see what you mean by 100% saturated now.

What I would like to know is. Did I learn anything from using your palette concerning the color change? Or am I just copying your edit and not improving at all?

[Dr. Kylstien]

Yes, the middle one is the one I was suggesting. I should have made it more clear that the one on the right isn't meant to be taken seriously. But no, copying my colors isn't going to help you much. In pixel art, it's important that every color count, which is why all your closely-spaced shades were wrong. Try making up your own colors without looking at my numbers, keeping in mind that you generally need at most 3 shades for any one color, and that darker shades are less saturated. Hue-shifting can be a deep subject, but for now just know that you can shift the hue up and down a bit from the base color for more contrast. Generally yellower highlights to bluer/purpler shadows looks good, since it mimics natural lighting.

Edit: Also, I suggest you look closer at the hood shading, you still have banding there and it makes the edge look sharp and geometric rather than natural.

[xhunterko]

Hue-Shifting: Hmmm,  So generally using the natural color opposites for highlight and shading? I'll see if I can't do something with that.

Hope this doesn't sound like a cop-out. But since the guys wearing armor, his "hood" is supposed to be part of it as well. I might change it though. (Ah well, I tried. I'll see what I can do about that banding. If I spot it.)

Anyways, thanks for the tips, hopefully I'll get this darn thing animated sooner or later. And some enemy types as well using this template.

[Dr. Kylstien]

Hope this doesn't sound like a cop-out. But since the guys wearing armor, his "hood" is supposed to be part of it as well. I might change it though. (Ah well, I tried. I'll see what I can do about that banding. If I spot it.)

That's not quite what I meant, sorry for the poor choice of words. What I meant to say is that it looks flat. (I was thinking sharp as in knife.)

[xhunterko]

Ah, kk that's a bit clearer now. (I think.)



Rearranged and tweaked more pixels. I would like to get some advice on general clothing. Since shiny metal armor legs shouldn't work for regular work clothes for a scientist or officer. Oh, and the hair sucks.

I also think I have the, er, hood piece fixed now right? The other thing I'm worried about is the base head. I'm fairly sure that it works with the helmet and all. Or do I need to change it a little?

EDIT: Oh, and I have a hard time handling expressions. Especially a "Surprise"/"OMG" look.

[xhunterko]

I'm trying to correct the "leaning way back" look. I also changed his shoe size a little. I'm not sure which leg positioning to go with still. But I like 3 the best so far. Except the arm. Gonna have to fix that.



As always, CnC please.

[xhunterko]

Just a logo. The middle, main character has been updated to the new style. I don't particularly like the pose I have the arms (for both) for the gun holding stance. But I guess I'll go on it for a bit. I'm going to change the gray to a kind of tan color maybe. The two enemy guards on both sides aren't current yet. I just wanted to throw something together for now.

As always, CnC if your available.

[Gil]

I made you an edit to show off some techniques that could be applied here. Mainly look at shading, color usage and anatomy. I tried to keep the character designs close to what you had.

[xhunterko]

Hey there!

I was thinking of trying something like that for the torso but wasn't sure how. I like the shading on the helmet though. Legs look just a tad, skinny. Anyway, thanks for the edit. I'll have to look at it closer.