AuthorTopic: GR#013 - Xochiquetzal (Nudity) - Human Anatomy  (Read 17578 times)

Offline Ultimaodin

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #10 on: December 19, 2009, 08:14:47 am
Okay I've used posemaniacs a lot myself to learn because book stores here have stuff all. First off try not to follow each and every muscle lines. Be selective and let some blend togeather to allow it to become smoother and less shinny looking. I personally don't find skin on a human (and many other skinned creatures) to absorb much blues I actually believe your contrast is too much. Then again I'm newish to pixel art so I could be wrong.

I honestly don't see any issue with the feather usage, after all the general pose is more of an enigmatic look rather than a sexy look.
What I do have a gripe with is the fact that her left (our right) thumb is on the right side of the hand.
As far as lighting goes, stand near a light source and see how the light hits your arms and skin. Vary rarely does the light become thin slithers. I think this may also be what's contributing to the appearance of the thumb looking to be on the opposite side.

Also not to sound perverted but I like the look o the boobs in the last one. How I mean is with the colour range and shading style.  You do not need to add mega detail to everything. And this is comming from someone who over dithers he shot out of everything.

Offline Jeremy

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #11 on: December 19, 2009, 10:42:50 am
@TheOne: The head's changed from the ref, it's not as up. I can't really see any features outta perspective  :ouch: My love of Ricky Gervais aside, have you seen depictions of the Aztec Gods? Pretty terrifying :) Those feathers are by no means final placing-wise either btw ;)

@Ultimaodin: The over rendered, sloppier stuff (Like that hand. Oops.) is gonna be completely overhauled to the style of that more refined section (Right arm, torso and abdomen). As for the skin colours and everything I'm going for a made-out-of-living-gold type thing :)

I think I'll probably make the head feathers longer. Looking a little buzz-cut. Update possibly coming soonish :P

Offline Jeremy

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #12 on: December 20, 2009, 10:42:28 am
Small update...


Pretty sure the far arm's proportionate. The speculars don't look pillowy do they? :yell:

Offline 32

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #13 on: December 20, 2009, 11:45:15 am
The breasts are really messed up, too high up for being so large, they should hang more, and the topside should be much flatter. Just look at some references.
The face isn't very feminine, I think you mostly need to soften the features, particularly the jaw and brow.
Last thing is pretty big and probably a bitch to fix but her spine curves like in the reference for the bottom half then goes straight up, in fact it looks kind of like two pictures spliced together right at the point I'm talking about, the abruptness of the hips aren't helping.

The rendering is very pretty, looking forward to seeing how you manage the feathers.

Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #14 on: December 20, 2009, 12:45:06 pm
Very very quick paint-over of the chest area:



What you have at the moment, is very peculiar looking.

Also the face could be a bit more fem, at the moment looks like the scary man from Blade Runner. Though the hair will help this a lot, so maybe leave tweaking the face till later.

Are you intentionally going for the three fingers thing?  It looks quite strange on a more 'realistic' piece.

Keep up the good work!  Look forward to seeing this piece get fleshed out, so to speak  : )

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #15 on: December 21, 2009, 12:22:12 am
Ah, sweet updates!

Nice edit rikfuzz, though with her left breast slightly lower than her right seems out of sync with the orientation of her arms (raised arm should shift the pectoral and pull the breast up?)

But by all means yes, the breasts look more in perspective with an under-side!

Issues I recognise:



The main thing is the plumb line from the top of the head. Compare various landmarks of the legs against it, and you can see what I mean about the figure appearing off-balance. Its like the entire legs and pelvis need to the grabbed and rotated clockwise.

Regarding the neck, I hope it's obvious what I'm trying to say. The silhouette is basically correct, but the rendering has introduced all manner of strange impressions. Break the area down into planes.

With the head, you can draw lines from the corners of the brows to eachother, and to the ears, and you get a rough "box" of the head, which lets you measure the implied perspective/orientation of the skull. You seem to have almost done an oblique projection, with the face dominated by horizontal and vertical lines, and then the other parts of the head extruding back from it. Jawline should angle up from the chin, and curve upwards in line with a horizontal at the mouth. Let me word it another way: jaw curves up where the mouth is. Yours seems to almost be flat, and then curves up near the vertical of the brow.

Last thing is just something that could be a concern; different stages of rendering across the piece. I recommend working iteratively; at any point you should be able to say "if I stop now, the piece would function". Work in progressive refinement of detail. Begin with basic blocks of light and shadow, and refine the planes in finer detail until you're satisfied its complete. This isn't the only way to work (I don't follow this so vehemently, but hold it as the ideal), of course, I just see a potential problem with how you're proceeding currently. Seems like you're beginning from a shadow silhouette and adding increasingly brighter shades until you reach the speculars. Can creep into pillow-shadiness.

Pretty sure the far arm's proportionate. The speculars don't look pillowy do they? :yell:

Forearm appears too short. I'd say speculars on their own, cannot look pillowy. It's the combination of all the shades and how they are arranged that decides pillowness (oh god, I used that as a noun?!). The speculars actually beg the question "wheres the lightsource?" because the speculars on the upper torso imply up and to the left towards us, but the shading on the head implies slightly up, slightly to the right and slightly towards us.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 12:29:51 am by EyeCraft »

Offline Joel

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #16 on: December 21, 2009, 12:41:42 am
Very very quick paint-over of the chest area:



What you have at the moment, is very peculiar looking.

Also the face could be a bit more fem, at the moment looks like the scary man from Blade Runner. Though the hair will help this a lot, so maybe leave tweaking the face till later.

Are you intentionally going for the three fingers thing?  It looks quite strange on a more 'realistic' piece.

Keep up the good work!  Look forward to seeing this piece get fleshed out, so to speak  : )

This is what I was going to point out, great edit. The breasts looked like flabby separated pectoral muscles. You really need to get that illusion of roundness and globe-likeness on the underside of the breast, it really eradicates flatness or the silicone look. Nipple position is also very important.

Offline TheOne

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #17 on: December 21, 2009, 10:40:48 am
eyecraft did u use books or figure that technique out yourself?

hey for you and jeremy, if u change the hand so it has a dagger, aren't you messing with the curves in the beginning stage of that tute. find a poser ref where it looks like she could be holding a dagger.

if u are just copying the ref u could edit the actual ref with feathers/background as a proof of concept. i kept the original pose and made her holding a heart (jeremy post link to scary aztec gods to help)

Offline Jeremy

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #18 on: December 21, 2009, 11:40:45 am
I'm not sure I follow you... Are you suggesting that I pixel over / colour reduce the reference?  :-\

@EyeCraft: Truly informative, THANK YOU  :D
I've make amendments to nearly all your points (I assume that the four states of rendering wasn't a good thing :P ). Kept the shape of breasts I think, just changed nipple position and under-shading. (Thanks to rik too :) ) That weird neck anatomy was my joining of the #2 tendon thingy and and under-highlight. Also removed some of those feathers that were obscuring neck. It's not as enlongated as the ref, which I'm pretty sure justifies differed head angle (Head is almost leaning back) ??? Blocked out vague legs' positions, lengthened arm.

Vaguely brainstorming a bigger crest of feathers which, though not very macaw, sort of resembles types of Amazonian birds. I prefer it, anyway :)

Thanks to all for your help so far  ;D

Offline TheOne

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Re: Xochiquetzal (NUDITY)

Reply #19 on: December 21, 2009, 12:22:31 pm
no as u would not learn anatomy which is the point. but have you thought about what the finished piece would look like. will you just have a lady looking at dagger with feathers on transparent background ( bit boring ) or will you have a scene of some sort? if u r going for the scene then do a rough version (the rip is there only to save u time)