Character sprites - shading - Updated with side view...

ThreeOhFour · Tue 01/05/2007 17:14:32

Hey everyone,

I've been mucking around with my new favourite program - GraphicsGale - and seeing if I could get some cool characters happening.

I've got two versions - shaded and unshaded - I would like to know how good these look and what I need to improve on.

Unshaded

Shaded

Any comments would be appreciated.

Cheers.

zabnat · Tue 01/05/2007 18:10:17

I feel you could use more contrast on the colors. Especially on the orange guy. You could also use larger areas of shading to make round stuff look more round.

Also orange guys crotch area looks wierd, almost like there is a round hole. I think you nailed human anatomy much better on the green guy, so I think you should use some features from him to make the orange guy look better. Mainly orange guy hands seem lumpy from the wrong places and his abdomen looks a bit wierd. On those things you have succeeded on the green guy (I bet you made the orange guy first

).

The female character seems to have breasts a bit high and a very long torso. To come to think of it seems that other characters have the same problem, but it is most noticable on the female character. Usually crotch line is in the middle point of characters height. Otherwise it looks good, even the face is cute

Little guy looks good, actually I don't think there is anything wrong with him.

Alien character looks nice and friendly. His right shoulder seems bigger than his left and shading makes it look a bit flat. Also his left ankle looks a extremely thin compared to the right one. Maybe add some pixels to the thinner one or make the other one thinner?

cobra79 · Tue 01/05/2007 19:47:06

These are top sprites. In addition to zabnat's points you should also look at the middle wing on the aliens right side. While all the other wings seem to come out of its back, this one originates from his arm pit. The right arm would be unable to move backward. Just move it up or down 1 pixel.

ThreeOhFour · Wed 02/05/2007 06:19:51

Thanks for the comments guys - I've edited the following:

-Character 1 - Breasts lowered, torso shortened
-Character 3 - Crotch adjusted, hands adjusted, hair and suit outline colours darkened to give more contrast
-Character 5 - Wing adjusted, shoulder adjusted, ankle adjusted

Let me know what you think.

cobra79 · Wed 02/05/2007 09:46:06

The alien is definitively better.

About the female..her boobs still don't look right. They are way too big. Breasts almost never cross the silhouette of a womans back in the front view. If however for "artistic reasons"

you want them to be big, they should hang more.

ThreeOhFour · Wed 02/05/2007 10:06:43

Ok, I adjusted the breasts.

My "artistic reasons" were a tad too shallow....

cobra79 · Wed 02/05/2007 16:32:58

OK I gave it a try, but you should probably stay with your version.

ThreeOhFour · Thu 03/05/2007 06:18:23

I see what you're getting at with the shading - I've adjusted it a bit to look a bit more rounded and hopefully I won't have to fiddle with her breasts anymore (

)

Also, one more character.

Let me know what you think.

Khris · Thu 03/05/2007 09:32:35

The shading is still way too subtle. Try out shading them with their outline colors.

ThreeOhFour · Thu 03/05/2007 11:11:35

I must admit I was a bit nervous about increasing the contrast of the shading. But I've given it a shot, and I must admit, I am rather pleased with the result.

Hopefully this is a bit better.

cobra79 · Thu 03/05/2007 19:07:35

Imho the shading looks better now.
About the new char. It looks a bit thin in the middle and the blue batch seems out of place. It is to low to go around its chest. Maybe you could also replace the crown, so that it cant just fall off. But I love the face.

gASK · Thu 03/05/2007 19:54:50

I believe it is not a crown, but some sort of horns or similar thingies.

And he does not look that thin - he is a lizard and those are skinny

Now to the picture - it looks great. The monster, lizard, small guy and the girl all look more than good. I do not like the look of those guys though. They look too thin for someone so muscular (especially the green one).

Pesty · Fri 04/05/2007 03:02:47

Because the sprites are so little, you need to up the contrast between your shades. Otherwise the colors just blend into each other. I'd do an edit, but I'm leaving for work soon and also I'm lazy. Also, on the two big tough guy sprites, I'd suggest getting rid of all the chest lines and letting your shading do the work in that respect. As it is now, they look shirtless and wrinkly. I'd also say something about pillow shading, but again, because I can't do an edit, I'll let someone else go into that.

Also, I love the sprite second from the right.

ThreeOhFour · Fri 04/05/2007 06:16:30

Cobra - gASK is right - they are horn appendage thingos, not a crown. I intended him to be skinny, again, as gASK said, he's meant to be skinny.

gASK- I tried doing the big dudes a bit wider in the middle after reading your comment, but it made them look flat and kinda 2d. I got the idea from those comic book characters with massive chests and tiny abdomens - I thought I'd give it a shot. But I can't get them to look right when they're wider.

Pesty - I thought I'd avoided pillow shading! Please tell me I haven't!!! I don't really know how to make the two fellas look tough without all the lines - the muscles don't stand out when I get rid of the lines and they look like star trek characters or something. I am going for the superhero look. And *MORE* contrast? *sigh*

Here is a new character I coloured just now with LOTS more contrast even than the others. Can I get some feedback on whether this is better than the others and whether I should redo the other ones in this style? I'm a bit worried that the contrast might be too high...

cobra79 · Fri 04/05/2007 06:41:34

Sorry Ben, I thought it was a crocodile king.

The blonde is gorgeous. For me the best of your sprites.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Fri 04/05/2007 07:19:35

Did a fairly quick paintover of the first female to give you some ideas about better proportions and shading. 'Pillow' shading as Pesty mentioned is when you either shade inward from dark-light as in your image or the reverse. While I don't particularly mind this in most cartoony sprites some people are put off by the lack of attention to any real light source. With that in mind I made an edit with a generic pseudo-overhead lightsource that's somewhat in front of the sprite so I can light it in a more visually pleasing way.

1. Reshaded with higher contrast and less saturated colors.

2. Adjusted leg/arm/torso length to be more anatomically pleasing.

The additional details I added aren't really important, just pay attention to how the colors in each area stand out from each other and help to create shapes like the knees and cheeks. You've got some interesting characters here so hopefully this will help them to look even better.

ThreeOhFour · Fri 04/05/2007 12:55:58

Cobra - Glad you like the new one - I've redone the old ones in the style of the new one, because I think I like this colouring a bit better.

ProgZmax - Thankyou for this great example! I see what you mean by the lighting. I shall be giving this sort of lighting a shot - I hope I can make it work. Just a quick question - I noticed you've not used outlines as much on this image. Are there set rules on the sort of outlining to use when doing a sprite - I am kind of new to the whole pixel thing, but if I'm not mistaken I think I can see you using selective outlining on your example. Should I stick with outlines or get rid of them completely?

I must admit, I am learning a lot doing this. I never thought that redoing my characters would be helpful, but I think I am getting better. These are probably my best sprites to date, and I'm looking forward to improving the lighting and shading on them. Thanks a heap everyone - you've really kept me encouraged and inspired!

[EDIT]: I've had a shot at doing the first character with proper lighting - which I relied very heavily on Progz's example for reference, and this is what I've come up with so far. I'm gonna tackle the next few - I hope this is looking better.

I admit it might need some work. Perhaps I'll see it better tomorrow... after some sleep.

[EDIT2]: And another one....

Not completely satisfied with it, but not sure where to go from here.

[EDIT3]: Meh... one more can't hurt...

Medical Waste · Fri 04/05/2007 21:30:56

Have you noticed the green dudes head is wayy off to the right?

cobra79 · Fri 04/05/2007 21:40:36

I really enjoy to see your progress Ben. They are getting better and better.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Fri 04/05/2007 22:08:54

The way I typically handle outlines is where the light hits the brightest I use the lightest shades and then gradually work down towards the darkest:

At the top of the shoulder for example is where I wanted direct light to hit, so the top is shaded with the lightest color. Part of the bicep and forearm stick out a bit so some light hits there as well, and I darken the area between the bicep and forearm to show the arm bent inward a bit and create some definition to the arm. I darken the underside of the arm (the right side) because it is close to the body and away from the light source and highlight the top of the hand and the lower forearm. In this way it makes it as though her forearm and hand are bending up a bit to catch the light rather than hanging by her sides. There really aren't any outlines left, just areas where not a lot or no light is hitting to help emphasize the shape of the image and get it to stand out on different backgrounds.