Feminine form...

[Technocrat]

As an intellectual exercise, I've been doodling this...



Aaaand a lower-res one, for in case I decide to make a lower-res game.



And while I'm fairly satisfied with how the head has turned out thus far, it's made me realise how uncertain I am vis-a-vis shading when it comes to lack of clothes - after all, clothes have things like creases. Any comments would be welcome!

[Ryan Timothy B]

Hmm that pure black cat tail doesn't seem to suit the character.  Perhaps a black outline with dark gray fill?
Also the tail or the hand, is in a bad location.  As it is, the tail looks to be coming from the hand itself.

[Mr Flibble]

Use fewer colours for the shading. For instance in the hair, apron, and her bum, you've used a lot of smudging and a load of colours, try using one highly contrasting colour and fewer in-betweens, like you did with the breast.

[Technocrat]

I've modified the original drawing, and am now attempting to make a front view out of it, but I'm not sure how I am for female proportions. Something doesn't quite seem...feminine enough about it. Can anyone give any pointers to improve the shape, before I start committing to colouring it in?

[miguel]

the hips are wider on females thus creating fantastic bottoms.

[SpacePirateCaine]

Hi, Technocrat.

Firstly, I'd like to say that the character's coming along nicely - Looks good, though I do have some concerns about the sprite from a practical point of view. Honestly, if you're going to go low-res, I'd suggest trying to even keep her under 100 pixels. It's not all that difficult if you're smart about your pixel and color choices, and far, far easier to animate.

For a character with her level of simplicity (Nude except for an apron), it shouldn't be hard to get the idea across either. For an early project, this is going to do wonders for keeping your work level low, which unless you're working with a number of people, is very useful (I like to take this to heart even if it's for a single sprite that I'm never going to touch again).

Now, for the front-on view, I think that although the distribution isn't bad, your pose is what's really killing you for 'feminine'. Right now you've got her positioned in kind of a 'gunslinger' stance in that outline - you want something a little 'tighter'. I've also referenced an image from an article on body shape from Wikipedia which might help you right here. Have a look, and when you've decided which body type fits your catgirl best, you can start working from that. If you'd like some examples, I may be able to whip something up this weekend.



For a very simple idea of a female form to try to work off of, I threw together a few silhouettes of varying levels of voluptuity for you to look at. The dimensions are far from perfect, I just put them together like that to give you an idea of what I'm talking about: I've characterized them based off of the distribution of size on the top and bottom which creates the individual shapes listed on the above link. S for Smaller, L for Larger, the top letter indicates bust, the bottom indicates hips. The rest is essentially the same.

Obviously the first is the most realistic, and the 4th is Lara Croft.

Edit: I actually noticed that I've made the waists a lot more constricted then necessary in places as well. This can easily be rectified by lowering the grade of the curves between her bust and hips and taking the center point out a pixel or two as necessary

[Technocrat]

Wow, very helpful advice!

I suppose something similar to your first silhouette is what I'm going for. This character's not supposed to be particularly old, so isn't quite done developing yet. I've given the front outline a bit of a tweaking, and come up with this as a result...



I may consider modifying it to be under 100 pixels too, since it's not too much to alter at this stage. It would be a bit more irksome to do so if I'd already started animating! I've also started on doing the face for the front view, but I can't decide if the wider or thinner faces looks better. Plus, she looks stern and grumpy, but it doesn't feel like I have enough room to make a smile without it taking up too much of the face.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Pay attention to Caine's example:  hips extend out farther than the shoulders. 

[Lad]

 I´m not very active member, but I often come here to see other works in critic or the competitions.

Because I really liked your character I redrew it.  ProgZmax would definitely do better then I, but I just so liked it.
Here is mine!




I didn´t fix everything . As the hand should be bigger, and legs maybe a bit longer.  I tried to give her more feminine look by giving her a bigger boobs. I understand if you don´t fancy my dithering(animating would be harder then also) and the that you can see the lineart(that can be lost if you do AA, but it is hard).
I also used more contrast. 21 colors with black and white.
I tried to use as many of Your colors as possible. Although I would change her fur color to pinker or something like that.
Oh, one more thing the lineart should be correctly done.
Here is a tutorial what will help!
http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=221


Hope I could be of help and you like it! 

[Ponch]

Did someone say "Feminine Form"?!?

Like Lad, I never post in topics like this. But I can't resists a thread like this.

My two cents on your little cat girl is to emphasize the "cattiness" of her. Between the narrow face and the wide, I'd go for the wide. Wider faces work better (IMO) for younger, expressive characters. I'd also recommend lengthening the legs a bit, as anime characters are usually overlong in the leg. Plus, she's a cat, so slightly longer legs would help sell the feline-ness of her.

Also, even though she's young, she's still female. And the female form doesn't look as good seen in pure profile or straight on as it does with a bit of a 3/4 profile twist to it.

Below is my quick take on a cat girl.



It's just a doodle on the back of my gas bill, but I think the pose helps sell a notion of cute and sexy. Very common cat-girl qualities, I think. Granted, my figures tend towards the elongated and overly curvy, but I think the pose is a decent one for a playful catgirl to strike. If all you have to wear is an apron and a smile, then you have to flirt a lot I suspect. It's not like you can carry a lot of items, is it?

If your character is not supposed to be quite as sexy as my sexed up kitty, then you could go for a more playful, flirt-y pose. But if this is going to be a character the player sees a lot, then the pose(s) she strikes could be crucial to selling her character. Cute idle animations could add a lot too.

Anyhoo, just my two cents. Plus it gave me an excuse to doodle a cat girl while I wait for my girlfriend to finish getting ready so we can finally go already!!1!

- Ponch

[Technocrat]

Hm, interesting take on it, Lad. That tutorial was helpful too. Lineart *is* among one of my many weaknesses!

I can agree that she ought to have a "sexier" pose. I'm not going for downright nymphomaniac, more just naive, and not quite realising you're not supposed to go outdoors without any clothes on. Lots of potential for idle animations, though! I've made a start at an attempt at sexier pose, but it's not the sort of thing that becomes the standing part of a walkcycle easily

Latest effort:




Also, I've now settled on the wider head, and stuck ears on the front view. Plus, added a little to the mouth on the front to make her seem jollier.

EDIT: Now with 10% more apron!

[lo_res_man]

The form still feels very childlike to me, which is several kinds of creepy considering she is only wearing an apron. Also, I think the outline colour is a bit too low contrast with the inner colour. Not too much higher, or it will look too harsh.

Heres a quick paintover I did.

[De-Communizer]

The form still feels very childlike to me, which is several kinds of creepy considering she is only wearing an apron. Also, I think the outline colour is a bit too low contrast with the inner colour. Not too much higher, or it will look too harsh.

(Picture)

Heres a quick paintover I did.

Looks like someone's not been feeding that cat! As creepy as the juvenile appearance might be, I think that some kind of compromise between that and the original would make a nice balance, like Ponch's. Or maybe redesign the head for the more anorexic model

[Lad]

Did another one for the pose! This had only minor changes. Took a lot less time as most of it was only lineart.
Remade the face as I did in the sideview!




Made her hips few pixel wider, shoulders tighter and breasts more noticeable.  And now she has a neck.