Trying out bigger sprite sizes...

[Damien]

Here:


I need some help regarding his right hand. C&C is very welcome.

Sorry for the non-transparent gif.

[x_traveler_x]

Other than the arms being different lengths, it looks really good.  I like the style you're going for.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

You did a fantastic job with the shading and general pose.  There are a few things in your image to consider:

1.  His left arm is raised, but his shoulder is not raised with it relative to his right shoulder, which appears relaxed.

2.  His trigger finger is large, but the fingers on his other hand do not match that size.

3.  The shading for the right hand is good, but it comes off looking plastic, almost like a prosthetic hand (partly due to the unnatural pose of the fingers).

I made a quick edit that hopefully will show you what I mean and give you an idea of how to approach hands in general.

Things I fixed:

1.  His left arm appeared too thin to me in relation to the right, so I widened it by one pixel in both dimensions.

2.  I raised his left shoulder (added a cuff to match the right) and lowered his right.

3.  I widened the left hand and redrew the right to match the finger sizes of the left hand.

4.  Reduced the skin shading of the left hand.

Something you might want to do is work on the handle of the gun a bit.  Guns tend to have a more natural angle to the handle so they fit comfortably in the palm.  The handles are also rather wide, so if you want to work with that I think you'll have an excellent hi-res sprite (not that it isn't already good).

[[Cameron]]

"Seriously did you see that guys sideburns!" 

[lo_res_man]

I think the hand should be clenched. The guys face, attitude, and posture, all say some kind of anger, so his loose hand is out of place. If you were holding a gun. and feeling as pissed as he looks, would you hold your hand THAT loosley? It dosn't even have that gunslinger, tence but ready some fingers folded, kin of look. i cant edit it for you. but i hope you can see what i mean.

[loominous]

Sketchy mod:



I) There's quite a lack of contrast, particularly in the face which makes it very flat.

II) I'd try avoiding a common shading technique where you simply darken the edges of objects. This does provide some depth but distorts the object's shape and never really looks any good.

In order to place the shadows in a way which makes the object feel believeable you need to know the basic shapes of the object you're dealing with. I'd suggest holding up an actionfigure, manikin or something under a lightsource in a darker room and just noting where the light tend to hit and try connecting it to how the body is constructed, not in detail but the larger shapes. Anatomical knowledge is nice, but the important thing is to get an idea of the larger masses of the body, which will enable you to render light hitting it from different angles.

The face was shaded in a manner which suggested that the lightsource is somewhere above centre. The body however was shaded as if lit from front centre/right. A lightsource in front usually gives a boring result and doesn't feel appropriate since the position is rare in real life, so I'd stick to the above centre lighting of the face.

Anyway, once you know where the main lightsource hits, you know where the shadows are. How dark these should be depends mainly on the presence of other lightsources. If you're making a character in a pitchdark room with a single lightsource, the shadow areas should be pretty much black since nothing but bouncelight is hitting them. However, if the character is in an enviroment with much surrounding light of more or less equal strength, most shadows will be faint.

It's import to make a clear distinction valuewise between areas in shadow and lit areas or the lighting will look unconvincing. That doesn't mean there can't be a vast amount of shades/tones within these areas, but there should still be a clear distinction (unless the object is lit up by multiple lightsources of equal strength).

Once you start shading, I'd suggest starting with a two shades, representing the lit up parts and the parts in shadow. The contrast between them (how much brighter/darker the tones should be in relation to eachother) depends on the lightsources as stated earlier. Once you got these shades down in a manner which makes the _main_ shape of the object pop out, you can then start with smaller features, like folds and facial features.

[Damien]

Thanks a lot guys.

ProgZmax- great job on the hands, that's something I'm no good at. Guess I'm going to try to draw them in simmilar way.

Loominous-  Wow! Less collors, more effect. I'll try to make use of your suggestions in the next version.