BSG78 - Sprites

[Cassiebsg]

I'll keep this thread with a more general tittle, so I can fit in here, all sprites I may wish to get some input.

Basically, this is left standing view for Apollo (may need to adjust his head, so it faces forward though).
Just looking for some input before I start using this one as a basis and "waste" lots of time working with something that still needs improvement.
[imgzoom]http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww258/Cassiebsg/BSG78/A_tracing_test1.gif[/imgzoom]

I've tried several techniques, including hand drawing and tracing pictures with Corel Photo-Paint, but I was still unhappy with the "shaky" lines and lack of detail. Today I decided to load a picture into AutoCad and trace the picture there, as the precision for the lines allows for just as much detailing I need/want. So, now I'm happy with the outline, file imported it afterwards into Corel (after some not so successful importing from the clipboard). Choosing the colors was the easy part, even have a palette just for this purpose now.
And then comes the "ugly" part of shading... :o I took the light source that was in the picture, and ended up with two sources, one from the front and another from the back...

I'm satisfied with the end result, though think that it could be better.... Maybe some of you have some suggestions for improving it?
Thanks.

PS - Seems like Corel doesn't want to save the green as a transparent color...

Edit: Maybe I should have posted the reference picture... sorry

[UnLady]

You're right about the position of the head, he looks dejected right now.
About the light: It looks quite well with two sources of light, more dramatic than with just one. But what bothers me a little is that both sources seem equal in intensity and color. Even if in the scene there are two equal sources of light (which is not recommended, I think), cheating a little and making one of them less intense, or bluer, or something, might help.

About the colors. I like the palette, I just have two comments: the boots are too dark, at least on my screen they dissolve into a dark blob of dark brown, without volume. Adjusting to a lighter brown might make the shadows and lights read better. Also there's a dark area in his hair that looks weird. You might consider making it a bit lighter, so it blends better with the rest.

All I have to say is I'm not an expert on character design (I'm not much of an expert on anything, really *), but I had to chip in, seeing that you actually drew the outlines in AutoCad. That's something I would do! And get weird looks for it. The "you did what!!?" looks. It's unusual, but practical, though.

Cheers, and good drawing!

----

* well, maybe except lasagna. I make a mean lasagna.

[selmiak]

Looking good. Adding to what unlady said the boots look a bit big. Or the hand is too small in relation. And you missed 1 pixel on his left boot
The shading on his left buttcheek looks off too.

[Babar]

A word of warning about the outlines, though...if you used the sprite in in AGS in BGs like the one you posted in the other thread, you'll have to scale the sprite up or down, and it'll end up looking either blurry, or distorted, depending on how you set it.

[Scavenger]

I did a quick paintover:



You don't need that many colours to shade a character, you just need to know where to put the shading. For most things, 2-3 colours is enough. Always keep in mind the texture of the thing you're drawing - bring up references and always refer to them - I assumed he was wearing a leather jacket and khaki pants, so I went and shaded up some appropriate folds. Leather is very shiny in places, so I added some scant highlights. Khaki, on the other hand, is almost completely matte, so it only needs two colours. I didn't touch the boots, but you could apply the same techniques there.

If you're ever stuck on how to shade something, just look up the thing you're shading in a photograph and test it out.

[Cassiebsg]

I just realized that I should have posted a ref. picture, so it's now added to first post. Sorry about that.

@UnLady
You right about the light, think the light coming from the back is stronger.
The boots are actually black, as far as I can see, so I just used some dark grays (with little success)....

but I had to chip in, seeing that you actually drew the outlines in AutoCad. That's something I would do! And get weird looks for it. The "you did what!!?" looks. It's unusual, but practical, though.

Thanks...guess if it works, don't fix it.

@selmiak

boots look a bit big. Or the hand is too small in relation.

They are motorcycling boots, they are big. I've added a picture for reference.

And you missed 1 pixel on his left boot

Noted, will clean it next time I work on it. Thanks

The shading on his left buttcheek looks off too.

Yes, it does... I noticed it, but then I just wanted to go to bed. Besides, most of my shading doesn't look that good. I need practice (cause I'm guessing that once I start adding shading correct, then it~ll get easier and easier).

@Babar
Any suggestions? I've been testing it with the BG from the other thread, and have turned the scaling on... looks weird, specially since he can't "walk" yet. Was planning to do some walkcycles with the outline only (or maybe flat color too), to see how well (or bad) he looks with the BG.
I'm going for a 800x600 resolution, and 16-bit color, and that's how I got to the 300 pixel high. Should I make him more flat for the walkcycle? Or will a "perspective" view work? I may just try both views...

@Scavenger
Wow! That looks awesome!
The jacket is actually suede and not leather (my fault for not posting a ref. picture, sorry). But that's not the point, I do like how you shaded him, even with no reference. Love the hair! Think the hair is the one giving me more headaches, cause not only needs it's shine. but also texture. Great job!

Thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated.

[Babar]

Any suggestions? I've been testing it with the BG from the other thread, and have turned the scaling on... looks weird, specially since he can't "walk" yet. Was planning to do some walkcycles with the outline only (or maybe flat color too), to see how well (or bad) he looks with the BG.
I'm going for a 800x600 resolution, and 16-bit color, and that's how I got to the 300 pixel high. Should I make him more flat for the walkcycle? Or will a "perspective" view work? I may just try both views...

Things that might help:
Changing the sprite to without outlines (just the colours).
Drawing scaled down versions of the sprite by hand or only using specific percentages of scaling that look good to you (50% or maybe 75% or 25%)- would probably feel jerky in hi-res.
Minimising the walking-up and walking-down area in your backgrounds.

[Cassiebsg]

Arghhh .... sorry, but I need to vent a bit!
I'm still not done with shading my sprites, but yesterday I decided to take one of them and do a walk cycle... nothing weird here... I divided my leg in two, and then rotate it... and... arghhh... Corel Photo-Paint sucks at this! There is apparently no way to turn anti-aliasing off when rotating an object!
So now I have two choices... copy the object into a new image, rotate the image with anti-aliasing off, select the object and copy it back to the original document.... or get another program (and learn to use it) that works the way it's suppose!

Either option sounds to me like a pain, just cause the ppl at Corel decided to do anti-aliasing by default and not let ppl have the choice to either use it or not...

Sorry about the rant, but maybe someone else has the same problem and doesn't know how to solve it...

[Gurok]

If rotation works the same way as it does in other Corel image editors, you could try switching to indexed colour before rotating it. I haven't used PhotoPaint for years, but maybe that will help.

[Cassiebsg]

Thanks for the suggestion, I converted it from CMYK to paletted color (using the palete I saved with the colors used), but alas, it's still anti-aliasing the objects, and I still can't find any option to turn it off... I've only ever used Photo-paint for photo editing, as when ever I wanted to do some animated gifs, anti-aliasing always ruined it (I just didn't knew what it was, so I didn't knew I could turn it off... now I do, but not for objects, just images). I never used any other Corel prog (well, I used Draw once for like 15 years ago, but that doesn't count : ).

I've installed Gimp, but trying to learn a new program for the purpose, might be more pain than just copy/pasting and rotate images...