Freaky alien characters [WIP]

[EkbatDeSebat]

hey guys!

First post here; I'm pretty vanilla when it comes to pixelating, so I hope I'm doing this right...

Here's a little WIP for some crazy game idea I had this weekend. The game is pretty simple: you play a demon (the green nekkid crocodile lady) that needs to feed humans to her hungry offspring (the flesh colored creatures). I know, they don't look like their mom. Makes you wonder who the daddy is huh? 
Anyway, about the kids, I really wanted them to look messed up. A bit like the creature(s) in 'The Thing'. And I like to keep the color palett as limited as possible. Just for style reasons.
More coming up soon, but in the mean time I'm very curious for your C&C!

Cheers!

[Pizza Tom]

Pretty good for a first post! The crocodile lady's arm is kinda funky, doesn't look like it'd be comfortable to hold it like that. Also, most of the dithering on the creatures doesn't work. It does a good job making the crocodile look scaly, but the other guys look like they'd be more lumpy and smooth, y'know? Anyway, good job so far!

[EkbatDeSebat]

Thanx Regulus!

I tweaked the dither a bit. It looks a lot more organic now, don't you think?

[politopo]

really nice, but put some AA on the wrinkles.

[boojiboy]

The monsters look really great. I think they could use a bit more contrast.

If you wanted to make it more flesh colored, then what you have at the moment is a little too purple.
Like so.


I think the crocodile lady needs an overhaul. She doesn't look very interesting, especially compared to the monsters.

[Reo]

Hello there  and welcome to Pixelation!
what you have so far looks very nice, I did a little edit tho:

What I did

• AA'd.
• Gave the colors more life by adding pink and purple mid tones.
• gave it a bit more depth.
• added a secondary lightsource, not necessary of course but it helps creating depth and also makes the piece a bit more interesting.

Anyway KUTGW your work reminds me of another member here 'Arachne'!

[EkbatDeSebat]

LOL

Hey guys, thanx for your input! Had no idea that it's custom to take the images and have your way with them though.
But that's ok, makes things a lot more clear! Guess I have some work to do 

[Reo]

LOL

Hey guys, thanx for your input! Had no idea that it's custom to take the images and have your way with them though.
But that's ok, makes things a lot more clear! Guess I have some work to do 

sometimes a picture says more then a thousend words 

[EkbatDeSebat]

and don't I know it! 

just one last thing: what.in.the.world does 'KUTGW' mean? English is not my native language so.... 

[Reo]

It stands for ''keep up the good work''
Wich I hope you're gonna do!

Edit:since Atnas also answered the question and this post dosn't contain any Critique I think it should be removed.

[Atnas]

Keep up the good work. (had to look it up)

And yeah, keep up the good work. Great designs. Be careful not to highlight outlines, use outlines to help define the actual shape and form you're trying to convey, but leave more definition to light and shadow. In your later update I can see you got rid of a lot of noisy pixels, which is good. try to pull in more clusters of pixels, it will help with the overall visual appeal (simplify!) and make them more shapely in the end.  

[EkbatDeSebat]

ok, so I'm working on crocodile lady's new look. She did look pretty lame compared to her kids.
In the sketch you can see her shape more clearly, but I think I got her pretty ok in pixelform.

The other creatures are the larval stages of the creatures I posted earlier. They do have more contrast now and a bit more fleshy color. But as I'm restricting my colorpalett, I don't think there's much antialiasing to do, right? Or am I being to much of a masochist with my colors...?

[Reo]

Be careful not to highlight outlines, use outlines to help define the actual shape and form you're trying to convey, but leave more definition to light and shadow. In your later update I can see you got rid of a lot of noisy pixels, which is good. try to pull in more clusters of pixels, it will help with the overall visual appeal (simplify!) and make them more shapely in the end. 

1.is what you have now with the highligth 'hugging' the outlines.
2.is how ligth should flow.

[EkbatDeSebat]

hey guys!

Thought I'd post a 'little' update; I think I'm getting the hang of it 
You can see 'crocodile lady' and her fullgrown offspring, with their larval stage counterparts underneath them. Also I started working on some martian lifeforms that will be flying around in the game.

The highlights look a lot better now with the extra colors. The 'crocodile lady' and the larvae have about 7 colors for the fleshy parts. I kept their colors also somewhat less lively than the larger creatures, which have 9 colors for their outer skin.

Oh, and the martian flying creatures have a limited 6 colorpalett for their skin.

So... what do you think? 

[hsn2555]

these alien creators so remind of me of "Men in black" http://movies.maddcomputer.com/images/Men_in_Black_2.jpg

i like how this is progressing, but those martain thingies look messy and not organized which makes them unreadable.

[EkbatDeSebat]

Well, I spent some more time on the martian creatures; added 1 more color to their palett so I could smouth out the gradient a bit more.

Here's the result:


I'm quite pleased with how the floating-airbag-jellyfish-creature turned out. Check them veins! 
And I think the winged creatures' highlights might be a bit TOO smooth now. Not sure yet. I might have another look at them tomorrow.

So... what do you guys think? 

[boyo1991]

really nice, but put some AA on the wrinkles.

i think AA defetes the name of "pixel art" doesnt it?

anyways, AWESOME! stuff im a true noob so im in awe at a lot of these guys haha!