[WIP] Knight

[TPoe]

I'm really having trouble shading it, I'm not good with metalic things, can someone help me a little (also I wanna keep the colors count kinda low)

[Chris2balls]

He seems off-balance, I think you can fix that by pulling his torso back or moving the leg on the right forwards.

[STE 86]

well,

the best way to draw that armour would be to research it by using real photos from google image searches such as

"polished armour" (use UK spelling of armoUr as most of this stuff will be european remember)
"shining armour"
"warwick castle armour"

a quick search of google turned up this:



which shows basic tonal values. you can't go wrong if you draw from real life. my old art teacher always battered this into our minds "never rely on imagination if u can draw it from reality"

other than that all i can say is that highly polished armor is more of tonal contrast between high specular light and deep tonal areas. more "black and white" if u like than u have have it. think "chrome". u will see anyway when u look at real photos.

the comment from the poster above is a good one. to balance the fact that your toon is top heavy, leaning back to support the sword, move HIS LEFT leg outwards a bit to give him more of a balanced "feet planted apart" stance.

good luck

Steve

[TPoe]

other than that all i can say is that highly polished armor is more of tonal contrast between high specular light and deep tonal areas. more "black and white" if u like than u have have it. think "chrome". u will see anyway when u look at real photos.

the comment from the poster above is a good one. to balance the fact that your toon is top heavy, leaning back to support the sword, move HIS LEFT leg outwards a bit to give him more of a balanced "feet planted apart" stance.

good luck

Steve

Is this what you meant sorta?

[STE 86]

yeah thats getting there. depends on the effect you are looking for. for the really highly polished look, say from the movie "Excalibur" then you could ramp the contrast level up even more.



i filled in one of your small ones to quickly illustrate what i meant. obviously u can add much more detail than me

the leg looks alot more "natural" now i see

happy pixeling

Steve

[HughSpectrum]

TPoe's latest version is much better than that edit, no offense.  A ton of banding is apparent, and a lot of reliance on using many shades to make the armor as round and bubbly as possible instead of trying to imitate the actual shape of the armor in the reference.  Legs also look pretty noodly (his left one is about to break in half, even) while TPoe's are at least straightened out and firm.

Contrast adjustment can always be done, but I think the latest version of TPoe's works fine overall, except for pieces of the armor where it doesn't really look like the arms are going inside them.  I would definitely study the reference for how those are done.  Last time I looked at armor on the internet, shoulder plates were attached by a leather strap, so keep that in mind when designing shoulder pieces for armor.  Attention can probably be paid to the knee pieces on the leggings as well, armor pieces are usually bolted on where they rotate and piece together, at least from what I gather from looking at pictures, rather than being one single metal boot.

[TPoe]

TPoe's latest version is much better than that edit, no offense.  A ton of banding is apparent, and a lot of reliance on using many shades to make the armor as round and bubbly as possible instead of trying to imitate the actual shape of the armor in the reference.  Legs also look pretty noodly (his left one is about to break in half, even) while TPoe's are at least straightened out and firm.

Contrast adjustment can always be done, but I think the latest version of TPoe's works fine overall, except for pieces of the armor where it doesn't really look like the arms are going inside them.  I would definitely study the reference for how those are done.  Last time I looked at armor on the internet, shoulder plates were attached by a leather strap, so keep that in mind when designing shoulder pieces for armor.  Attention can probably be paid to the knee pieces on the leggings as well, armor pieces are usually bolted on where they rotate and piece together, at least from what I gather from looking at pictures, rather than being one single metal boot.

Yeah but his was just a quick edit, it actually helped me for a while (even though I kinda scrapped it, to make one more cartoony)

I might continue my older one, thanks to badassbill

The one on the left is my newest one, the one on the right is my old one, that badassbill edited.

[STE 86]

well yes it would tend to look banded wouldnt it?

being as how the one i edited wasnt the big one that TPoe is working on but one of the small ones that he posted in the first post, but blown up so u can see it. (as i said in the post)

it was an example of "how to: shiny metal" not to draw that armour at such a small scale.

anyway, TPoe i actually liked your detail on the initial one. but i thought it just needed a bit of extra "zap" in the shiny department. also u need consider exactly what u are doing this for. if u want to do "real" look then u will as said have to consider how the armour was attached. however if u are going for a highly stylised look then u may take liberties with such details as long as the joints look as tho they could actually move u will be fine.

the one i edited was done in a VERY limited c64 palette, black, white, 3 greys, brown and orange. obviously the higher res u work on may need more "tween" shades of grey to avoid banding at viewing res. also remember that shiny metal has no "colour", it simply reflects the colour of the light hitting it, so grey, blue green hues are all possible just keep them subtle for the "real" look. my personal choice would be to create neutral greys then edge the blue slider up a couple of notches on each of them for a "steel blue" look.

EDIT:
I have taken the version of yours with the detail and added a bit of extra "shininess" to it. i have used "dither" to get an extra bit of tonal range rather than adding colours. you of course can add colour if u wish i just didnt know how strict a palete u were using.

the bits i edited were obviously, the torso and head. i began the shoulder as a "work in progress" and left the arms so u can see the difference the addition of a bit of black makes.



regards,

Steve

[TPoe]

Thanks a lot, : D

I forgot to post the finished one yesterday, but now I think I'm gonna continue on the 'shiny' one, thanks Steve.

[Gil]

well yes it would tend to look banded wouldnt it?

being as how the one i edited wasnt the big one that TPoe is working on but one of the small ones that he posted in the first post, but blown up so u can see it. (as i said in the post)

I think the new bigger edit has even more banding. It might be a good idea to revise your shading knowledge.

TPoe, I really like the linearts btw, I think this piece has a bit of potential still left to use up.